Besgnulinux is a lightweight, desktop Linux distribution based on Debian's "stable" branch. Using the JWM window manager, it is designed to be fast, lightweight and easy to use, suitable for older and low-specification computers. Besgnulinux comes with the Calamares system installer, the Brave web browser, and over 40 custom-built tools to control the systems settings as well as the desktop's look-and-feel.
To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
Colour scheme:green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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There are already details of this OS version on the Besgnu blogspot; it being a refinement of the previous release and 'ready to use' with a shuffling of some applications. There are a good selection of web browsers in 'Third Party Software' if your favourite isn't pre-installed!
This version looked a bit too bright after previous default setups but I soon warmed to it and have changed nothing of the look and feel from the default settings. The colour schemes are excellent, the images are very sharp and I'm sure that humming birds twitters; a nice change from a twinkle on the xylophone as the system boots!
All seems to work very smoothly as expected except from a few minor oddities.
The window buttons were absent, but it was easy to add a few penguins or something more standard that matched, by courtesy of the colour picker. Incidentally, the games do their own thing on window buttons. The 'Desktop Settings' bashfully hid behind the active window when called, other utilites showed up in front as expected.
I installed this onto two machines. USB writing went fine. The first install failed, but I managed to update grub via another pre-existing distro. and all was well after a few tweaks.
The second install (1GHz CPU 4Mb RAM) took a while to load from USB and leisurely completed the install finding existing OSes in the process. I updated the system, added a firewall, and activated power management for screen control. Not much else was changed from stock.
It is a really neat update to a very pleasing lightweight Debian distro.
This is definitely one of the best Distros using the JWM window manager (Joe's Window Manager) and there aren't many. I personally also like the CROWZ Distro with the JWM Window Manager which is less well known
It's extremely low on CPU usage and memory usage is only around 325mb, so it's incredible fast on low spec hardware, personally I'm using a Dell Latitude 3190 with an Intel N4120 processor 4 core processor at 1.1Ghz. Cosmetically it looks and sounds great with all the package you need like email, office package and PDF viewer.
I don't personally play games but it comes with 19 games so that's an added bonus. This is definitely a Distro to keep a close eye on because Distros that use the JWM window manager aren't usually this well polished
Version: 3-2 Rating: 10 Date: 2026-01-16 Votes: 1
Sigh. Yes, they've done a great job of making JWM menus and windows look good. Nice graphics.
Too bad many of the "plus" apps and settings simply don't work. Take the global audio Equalizer (ALSA based) -- simply doesn't work. (For that matter, the equalizer built in to Audacious didn't seem to work or work well, either -- but I didn't pursue that further.)
The "change background" app doesn't woirk, and is confusing as hell. It might be that I had to manually run my special xrandr command to set up my "portrait" mode monitor that I have above my laptop monitor in its proper rotation and location. When I entered the command, it worked (of course), but the original Besgnulinux background disappeared. The change backgound app's configuration setup is also very strange, and the suggestion to "swipe the right band" is not at all helpful. I did try installing nitrogen to put up a wallpaper, but for some reason, even THAT app won't work!
There's a graphical front end to the JWM startup code block, kinda like the GUI for startup stuff in Xfce. Super, right? Wrong. It doesn't work. I put my aforementioned xrandr command in there, and it doesn't run at startup.