![\"Mascote](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kurumin-v4.webp\")
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In Brazil in the years after 2000, putting Linux on a desktop still meant dealing with partitioning, LILO, and English-language forums. Carlos Eduardo Morimoto da Silva<\/strong> \u2014 the Guia do Hardware guy \u2014 decided to do the opposite: a Portuguese-language live CD with KDE, \u201cmagic icons\u201d that installed everything with one click, and small enough to fit on a pocket mini-CD. He named it Kurumin<\/strong>, from the Tupi-Guarani curumim<\/em>, \u201cboy.\u201d For a few years it was the country's most talked-about distribution. In January 2008 he pulled the plug himself. The legacy remained in books, Hardware.com.br, and an entire generation that installed Linux for the first time without fear.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Morimoto started early and on his own. He programmed in BASIC at seven, repaired PCs at thirteen, and published his first book \u2014 Hardware PC<\/em>, through Book Express \u2014 at seventeen. A systems analysis graduate, he always described himself as self-taught. Linux entered his life in 1998, on a CD of Conectiva 2.0 Marumbi<\/strong>, the Brazilian distribution of the time \u2014 so his first contact was already with a homegrown Linux, not an imported hobby.<\/p>\n In 1999 he founded Guia do Hardware<\/strong> (later Hardware.com.br): articles, a forum, and e-books, all in clear Portuguese. In 2001 he released Entendendo e Dominando o Linux<\/em>, for free online, applying the formula Kurumin would inherit \u2014 accessible text, step by step, without requiring readers to already be systems administrators. In 2005 he opened GDH Press; Hardware, o Guia Definitivo<\/em> sold thousands of copies, and titles such as Redes<\/em>, Servidores Linux<\/em> and Kurumin 7, Guia Pr\u00e1tico<\/em> still circulate at hardware.com.br\/livros<\/a>. Unsurprisingly, BR-Linux named him National Free Software Community Personality for five consecutive years, from 2003 to 2007<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Kurumin was not born with the ambition of becoming \u201cBrazil's distro.\u201d It began in late December 2002 to solve an annoying problem: the Guia do Hardware CD-ROM \u2014 containing books and the offline website \u2014 was useless when a customer's Windows refused to boot. The solution was a small, easy Portuguese-language live CD to consult that content on a broken PC. The first test version came out on 14 January 2003<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Technically, the base was Knoppix<\/strong> \u2014 the source of Klaus Knopper's excellent hardware detection \u2014 with pieces of Kanotix and Debian packages on top, all on the KDE<\/strong> desktop. The \u201cK\u201d in the name serves both: Knoppix and KDE. The rest is curumim. The website announcement attracted people, Morimoto took the project forward, and the result exceeded every expectation: DistroWatch even listed it as Brazil's most popular distribution<\/strong>, the government of Paran\u00e1 adopted it, and a 2010 interview mentions somewhere between one and two million downloads<\/strong> \u2014 a figure from the time, unaudited, but indicative of the scale of the conversation.<\/p>\n Its success was not luck: it was a handful of sound product decisions, almost all years ahead of the rest of the Linux world.<\/p>\n Kurumin 6.0: \u201cTurn off the PC\u201d, \u201cRead the GDHpress books\u201d and the address of Guia do Hardware on the wallpaper itself. Screenshot by JorgePeixoto, Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA 3.0.<\/p>\n The mascot was a Tux wearing a headdress, art by community contributors; the Kurumin 6 wallpaper, above, bears the signature of Luciano Louren\u00e7o. The symbol \u2014 the \u201cK\u201d with the archer silhouette \u2014 became as recognizable as the name. The version 7.0, from 2007<\/strong>, was the peak: mature KDE, a dedicated guidebook, and a kernel still old enough to recognize winmodems. The development cycle was so fast that, as Augusto Campos joked while testing 1.4 beta on BR-Linux in May 2003, CDs sent by mail were already outdated on arrival. Kurumin was not the first Brazilian distribution \u2014 Conectiva came before it \u2014 but it was the one that made a Linux desktop seem possible in the living room, on a cousin's PC, and in a school lab.<\/p>\n In January 2008, Morimoto discontinued the project. The official statement was honest and blunt: successful adoption, but a failure to attract active developers, constant demands for new features, and a kernel too old for machines reaching the market. The ISOs stayed online for old PCs, and the book Kurumin 7<\/em> was repurposed as a general Debian\/KDE guide.<\/p>\n Between March 2008 and January 2009, Kurumin NG<\/strong> appeared \u2014 led by Leandro Soares, creator of Kalango, now on a Kubuntu base \u2014 attempting to succeed the original. A back-and-forth of announcements and reversals followed until Morimoto cut ties. The 7.0r3 page itself recorded the epitaph: \u201cdisastrous attempt at continuation\u201d<\/em>. There was never a Kurumin 8.<\/p>\n Kurumin NG, already on Kubuntu: the \u201cMagic Icons\u201d were still there, now in a single shortcut. Screenshot from Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA 3.0.<\/p>\n On 28 February 2014<\/strong>, Morimoto published \u201cThe end of an era\u201d: the portal's computing content had aged, and the team would move to another project. Contributors respectfully related the rest \u2014 he left public IT life to dedicate himself to the Hare Krishna movement (as Caitanya Chandra Dasa), in Rio Grande do Sul. The books remain on sale, the forum became a historical archive, and there was never a \u201creturn of Kurumin.\u201d The Infomedia interview (Guarulhos, 2010) remains the best portrait of the author discussing his own project:<\/p>\nFrom BASIC to Guia do Hardware<\/h2>\n
14 January 2003: the CD that rescued Windows<\/h2>\n
What Kurumin got right<\/h2>\n
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apt-get<\/code>“.<\/li>\n![\"\u00c1rea](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kurumin-6-0-desktop.webp\")
<\/p>\n2008: the end, and the \u201cdisastrous attempt at continuation\u201d<\/h2>\n
![\"\u00c1rea](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kurumin-ng-desktop.webp\")
<\/p>\n2014: Guia do Hardware closes its chapter<\/h2>\n
![Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA 3.0.<\/p>\n2014: Guia do Hardware closes its chapter<\/h2>\nOn 28 February 2014<\/strong>, Morimoto published \u201cThe end of an era\u201d: the portal's computing content had aged, and the team would move to another project. Contributors respectfully related the rest \u2014 he left public IT life to dedicate himself to the Hare Krishna movement (as Caitanya Chandra Dasa), in Rio Grande do Sul. The books remain on sale, the forum became a historical archive, and there was never a \u201creturn of Kurumin.\u201d The Infomedia interview (Guarulhos, 2010) remains the best portrait of the author discussing his own project:<\/p>\n\n](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Kurumin-ng1.jpg\"){kind=link}