When I started writing for It’s FOSS, I covered a Christian Linux distro. It’s been six years since I did so. Let’s take a quick look and see what has changed for the project in that amount of time.
Changing Names and Priorities
When we first encountered Computers4Christians, they were a Christian group that refurbished old computers by adding Linux and donated them to their local community. They gave away over 1,000 systems. The group created their own version of Linux, based on Lubuntu, named the Computers4Christians Linux Project.
Today, Computers4Christians no longer gives away refurbished computers. Instead, the three developers are focusing on developing the renamed C4C Ubuntu.
When I asked Computers4Christians why they decided to continue the distro, they said:
We seek to lead unbelievers to an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ and to nurture believers in discipleship. Anyone may download, run live and / or install our Christian Linux distribution on most any computer. The C4C Ubuntu user is exposed to God’s Word with several Bible versions, Christian teachings, daily devotionals, Christian videos, games, etc. We pray each C4C Ubuntu ISO downloaded, run live and/or installed will help bring the user(s) to Christ, or closer to God. To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. 1 Corinthians 9:22 (WEB)
What Comes with C4C Ubuntu?
The current version of C4C Ubuntu is based on the latest Ubuntu LTS (20.04.4). They have the Xfce desktop environment installed instead of GNOME. I asked why they decided to use Ubuntu instead of Lubuntu as the base. Developer Eric Bradshaw told me that they switched because Lubuntu’s LXQt desktop environment was buggy and did not run well on older systems.
The following software comes pre-installed:
Major Secular Software Catfish, FileZilla, GIMP, Gnash, GnuCash, Gufw, LibreOffice, OpenJDK Java 11, Pidgin, Pinta, Synaptic, Thunderbird and VLC.
Christian/Biblical Software/Media: 12 Apostles Quiz and Memory Game, Bible, Bible Desktop, 8 Bible Knowledge Games, 10 Bible Verse Maze Quest Games, Diatheke, 117 Flash Bible Games, 24 items in Fun Bible Stuff, Verse, Wide Margin, Xiphos Bible Guide, new believer and discipleship material and Christian Videos.
150 different photographs of God’s creation comprise our collection of backdrops in HD, Standard and Widescreen aspect ratios. We also feature shortcuts/launchers from the Christian sub-menu to 37 online Christian video collections, music video collections and YouTube channels.
Firefox is packed with hundreds of hand-picked and categorized bookmarks; from learning about Linux to learning about the Lord – it’s in there. And the parental control extension FoxFilter helps filter out inappropriate content on the web – users can subscribe if they find it useful.
The C4C Ubuntu team included a snap of GNU Gnash flash player so that users can play the included Flash Bible games.
If you are interested in checking out C4C Ubuntu, you can find download links here. The website has a lot of information about the previous version of their distro. The dev team is working to update the site.
