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Penguin Gallery
About LWN.net
The LWN.net Linux Distribution List
You have found the LWN.net Linux Distributions List. LWN has been tracking Linux distributions since 1999. Early versions of the list consisted of links on the side bars of the weekly Distribution page. By 2001 the list had grown to fill both sidebars of the weekly page, often trailing far below any actual mid-page content. So the list was moved to a flat file and released on October 11, 2001.
The next major release was on February 7, 2002. Additional information was added to each entry, and in the process links were fixed, entries moved to different categories and dead distributions were removed. Minor revisions have been made almost every week since then. A table of contents was added on May 9, 2002. There have been no major releases since then, however new distributions are added when found, dead distributions are removed when found, and link checking remains an ongoing (low-priority) process.
We once hoped that this list would move to a searchable database, however that now seems unlikely to happen. We do hope you will enjoy this celebration of Linux diversity, with over 500 distributions; large and small, specialized and generalized, old and new.
Leading Distributions
Also well-known
Non-technical desktop
Embedded Distributions
Handhelds/PDAs
Secured Distributions
Special Purpose/Mini
Floppy-based
CD-based
Small Disk
Hardware-specific
PA-RISC
Via Epia
DOS/Windows install
Diskless Terminal
Historical (Non-active)
Leading distributions have usually been around for a while and are well-established. They generally support several architectures and are translated into multiple languages. Some come from companies that supply service and support contracts for their products, others are community projects.
http://www.android.com/
Android is Linux without any GNU. Google backs Android, which can be found in the wild in phones, tablets and other devices. These devices usually contain proprietary software, and some of the available apps are proprietary as well. See the Android Open Source Project for the open source parts. Android was first announced November 5, 2007. Android 1.5 (Cupcake) was released April 30, 2009. Android 4.4 (KitKat) was released October 31, 2013. Android 5.1 (Lolipop) was announced March 9, 2015. Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) was released September 2015. Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) was released April 3, 2017. Android 8.1 (Oreo) was released December 5, 2017. Android 9 (Pie) was released August 6, 2018. Android 10 (no more names) was released September 3, 2019.
http://www.debian.org/
The Debian Project is one of the oldest distributions, dating back to 1993, and is currently the largest volunteer-based distribution provider. Debian, the "universal operating system", has been translated into many languages; works on many hardware platforms; has a large repository with a wide variety of packages; includes experimental kernel variants for kfreebsd and the GNU Hurd; and has many derivatives. Debian Stable releases when ready, not on any fixed schedule. Stable releases are supported for about 3 years. The Debian LTS team extends the lifetime of stable releases by providing security updates for a reduced set of packages after the Debian security team ends official support. The Debian testing branch (currently 11.0 "bullseye") is where the next stable release is prepared; packages are more current than stable while (usually) providing a stable desktop. The unstable branch (sid) is more bleeding edge, while the experimental branch contains packages that aren't yet ready for sid. Debian 12 will be named "bookworm". Debian 8.0 "jessie" was released April 25, 2015. The eleventh and final "jessie" point release, version 8.11, was released June 23, 2018. The LTS team will continue to maintain jessie until June 30, 2020. Debian 9.0 "stretch" was released June 17, 2017. The eleventh "stretch" point release, Debian 9.11, was released September 8, 2019. Debian 10.0 "buster" was released July 6, 2019. The second "buster" point release, Debian 10.2, was released November 16, 2019.
http://fedoraproject.org/
The Fedora Project is Red Hat's community distribution. It is intended to be a fast-paced distribution for those that like to stay on the leading edge of technology. It is also a test-bed for Red Hat's Enterprise Linux products. The first Fedora Core release was dated November 5, 2003. Fedora strives for a new release every 6 months and releases will be supported for about 13 months. Fedora Editions include Workstation and Server, with CoreOS and IoT in preview. Workstation comes with the GNOME desktop, while Fedora Spins provide alternate desktops. Fedora Labs target a variety of use cases, such as astronomy, design, scientific computing, and more. A number of architectures are supported.
Still supported: Fedora 30 (released April 30, 2019) and Fedora 31 (released October 29, 2019).
http://opensuse.org/
The openSUSE community distribution is supported by SUSE. openSUSE was opened for community development with the release of SUSE Linux 10.0, dated October 6, 2005. openSUSE used to offer a new release every 8 months with 18 months of support, but now offers two options. Tumbleweed uses a rolling release model that updates to the latest stable software, with frequent snapshots. The more conservative openSUSE Leap is based on core SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) components with more up-to-date applications. Its releases follow SLE service packs, with the initial release (42.1) based on SLE 12 SP1. Leap 42.1 was was released November 4, 2015 and reached eol May 16, 2017. With the following release, openSUSE Leap 15 (with SLE 15 components), version numbers for SLES and Leap were aligned. Leap 15.0 was released May 25, 2018 and reached eol December 3, 2019. Leap 15.1 was released May 22, 2019.
http://www.redhat.com/
Red Hat, Inc. provides one of the the best known Linux distributions in the world. In 2003 the company announced its decision to drop its popular Red Hat Linux in order to concentrate on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux line. The Fedora Project (see above) has replaced the Red Hat Linux line for the home user or small business. Red Hat Linux 9 was the last release in the Red Hat Linux series. It was released April 7, 2003 and was supported until May 1, 2004. Red Hat Enterprise Linux comes with service and support contracts for those Red Hat customers who require a stable, supported system. There are a number of other Red Hat products for cloud environments. Red Hat was acquired by IBM in July 2019, however no changes are planned for RHEL products and services, or for Fedora and CentOS. Supported versions: RHEL 6 was released November 10, 2010; now at update 6.10, released June 10, 2018. RHEL 7 was released June 10, 2014; now at update 7.7, released August 6, 2019. RHEL 8 was released May 7, 2019. RHEL 8.1 was released November 5, 2019.
http://www.slackware.com/
Slackware Documentation Project
The Slackware project is headed by Patrick J. Volkerding, with a cast of volunteers and a loyal following. It is the oldest active Linux distribution with the first release dated July 16, 1993. For a very long time the official Slackware project only supported x86 platforms, however others have made ports to other platforms. In 2009 the x86_64 port and the ARM port were offically accepted into Slackware. Slackware 13.37 was released April 27, 2011. Slackware 14.0 was released September 26, 2012. The ARM port of Slackware 14.0 was released September 28, 2012. Slackware 14.1 was released November 7, 2013. Slackware 14.2 was released July 1, 2016.
SUSE Linux
http://www.suse.com/
Nuremberg based SUSE Linux AG is one of the older Linux distribution providers. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) supports x86, x86-64, IPF (ia64), POWER (32 & 64bit, ppc & ppc64) and Mainframes (32 & 64bit, s390 & s390x). SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) are available for enterprise customers. SLES/SLED 10 became generally available July 17, 2006. Pack 4, released April 12, 2011. SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 10 was released November 27, 2007. SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 (SLES/SLED/JeOS) was released February 28, 2009, generally available March 24, 2009. SLE 11 Service Pack 4 was released July 15, 2015. SLE 12 was released October 27, 2014. SLE 12 SP5 was released December 22, 2019. SLE 15 was released June 25, 2018. SLE 15 SP1 was released June 2, 2019.
http://www.ubuntu.com/
Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, Mythbuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, and Ubuntu Budgie.
Ubuntu is supported by Canonical Ltd. The offical 'flavors' listed above use the Ubuntu repositories and infrastructure, but are supported by the community. Ubuntu takes a snapshot of Debian unstable and then creates a small fork, recompiling and stabilizing the code to get a final stable release. Ubuntu releases happen every 6 months, in April and October. Ubuntu comes with the GNOME desktop, Kubuntu with the KDE Plasma desktop, Xubuntu features XFCE, Edubuntu comes with educational packages, Ubuntu Studio integrates packages for multimedia creation, Mythbuntu incorporates the MythTV packages, Lubuntu comes with the LXQt desktop environment, Ubuntu Kylin has been localized and customized for users in China, Ubuntu MATE features the MATE desktop, and Ubuntu Budgie features the Budgie desktop.
The first Ubuntu release was 4.10 Preview "Warty Warthog", released September 15, 2004. Ubuntu LTS releases are supported for 5 years. Flavors usually have shorter LTS support windows. Non-LTS releases are supported for 9 months. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" is open for development.
Supported versions: 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus", 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver", 19.04 "Disco Dingo", and 19.10 "Eoan Ermine". 16.04.6 LTS was released February 28, 2019. 18.04.3 LTS was released August 8, 2019. 19.04 was released April 18, 2019, eol January 23, 2020. 19.10 was released October 17, 2019.
There is often a fine line between "leading" and "well-known" distributions. Some might consider a few of these to be "leading" distributions.
http://www.archlinux.org/
Arch Linux is a lightweight and flexible distribution that tries to Keep It Simple. It contains the latest stable versions of software. Packages are in .tar.gz format and are tracked by the Pacman package manager, which is designed to allow easy package upgrades. There are few releases in the traditional meaning. A steady stream of package updates are available. New installion media does come out occasionally. The inital version, 0.1, was released March 11, 2002. x86_64 support was added in April 2006. The numbering scheme for Arch installtion media was changed to yyyy.mm format with the August 2009 release. The Arch Linux 2012.10.06 install media boots with systemd. Arch Linux 2017.05.01 is out.
http://www.centos.org/
CentOS, the Community ENTerprise Operating System, is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources. Red Hat is a sponsor of CentOS. CentOS aims to be 100% binary compatible. (CentOS mainly changes packages to remove upstream vendor branding and artwork.) There are also Special Interest Groups (SIGs) extending CentOS in various ways. This project dates back to late 2003. CentOS 6.0 was released July 11, 2011. CentOS 6.10 was released July 3, 2018. CentOS 7.0-1406 was released July 7, 2014. CentOS 7.7-1908 was released September 17, 2019. CentOS 8.0-1911 was released January 15, 2020.
http://www.gentoo.org/
Gentoo Linux is a source-based distribution (users compile everything from source) that can be optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Gentoo offers extreme performance, configurability and a top-notch user and developer community. Users keep their systems up-to-date using Portage, which is based on BSD Ports. Gentoo is a meta-distribution with a large number of packages available and support for many architectures. There are no official releases but there are regular updates.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
German: http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/
http://www.knoppix.net/
This German distribution is the original, Debian-based live CD, spawning dozens (hundreds?) of remasters and customized live CD distributions. Take your KNOPPIX CD/DVD/USB with you when you're on the road and run Linux anywhere. KNOPPIX is a complete GNU/Linux installation which runs from CD/DVD/USB, with automatic hardware detection and configuration for many graphics and sound cards, SCSI devices, and peripherals. KNOPPIX first showed up on May 29, 2002. KNOPPIX 5.0 Live DVD was released for CeBIT 2006. KNOPPIX 6.0 featured the LXDE desktop and the ADRIANE audio desktop. KNOPPIX 6.7.1 with ADRIANE 1.4 was released September 17, 2011. KNOPPIX 7.0.5, the last in the 7.0 series, was released December 22, 2012. KNOPPIX 7.6.0 / ADRIANE 1.7 was released November 24, 2015. KNOPPIX 7.7.1 was released October 28, 2016. KNOPPIX 8.6.1 was released November 24, 2019.
http://linuxmint.com/
Linux Mint aims to produce an elegant, up to date and comfortable GNU/Linux desktop based on Ubuntu. It started out as a customized version of Ubuntu, but the project now develops many of its own tools and provides alternative desktops (MATE and Cinnamon). It is compatible with Ubuntu repositories. Linux Mint 5 "Elyssa" was released June 8, 2008 and was supported until April 25, 2011. The Mint project decided to track only Ubuntu LTS releases, starting with v17 "Qiana". Official releases come with MATE or Cinnamon and are joined by Xfce and KDE community editions.
Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) follows Debian directly, not Ubuntu. Early releases were based on Debian testing, later tracking Debian stable. LMDE 201009 was released September 7, 2010. Debian 9 "stretch"-based LMDE 3 "Cindy" Cinnamon was released August 31, 2018. The codename for Debian 10 "buster"-based LMDE 4 is Debbie.
The Ubuntu 16.04-based Linux Mint 18.x series will be supported until 2021. The series includes 18 "Sarah" (released June 30, 2016), 18.1 "Serena" (released December 16, 2016), 18.2 "Sonya" (released July 2, 2017), and 18.3 "Sylvia" (released November 27, 2017). The Ubuntu 18.04-based Linux Mint 19.x series will be supported until 2023. The series includes 19 "Tara" (released June 29, 2018), 19.1 "Tessa" (released December 19, 2018), 19.2 "Tina" (released August 2, 2019), and 19.3 "Tricia" (released December 18, 2019.)
http://mageia.org/
Mageia is a community fork of Mandriva created by a large group of former Mandriva employees, Cooker contributors and users' communities. The project was first announced September 18, 2010 with plans to set up a not-for-profit organization to be managed by a board of community members. Mageia released its first alpha February 15, 2011. Mageia 1 was released June 1, 2011. Mageia 6.1, released October 5, 2018, reached eol December 2, 2019. Mageia 7 was released July 1, 2019. Mageia 7.1 was released July 16, 2019 to address an issue with the AMD Ryzen 3000 series of CPU's.
http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/linux/overview/
Oracle's Unbreakable Linux campaign was launched in June 2002. It started as a support program for Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Oracle customers. It evolved into an enterprise distribution with source and binary compatibility with its upstream parent. The Oracle "Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel" was launched in September 2010. Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.11 was released September 25, 2014. Oracle Linux 6 was released February 11, 2011. Oracle Linux 6.10 was released June 26, 2018. Oracle Linux 7 was released July 23, 2014. Oracle Linux 7.6 was released November 7, 2018. Oracle Linux 8 was released July 18, 2019. Oracle Linux 8.1 was released November 15, 2019.
http://www.scientificlinux.org/
Scientific Linux is sponsored by Fermilab. The project rebuilds Red Hat Enterprise Linux source and adds a handful of enhancements aimed at physics research. Other scientific laboratories and universities in the United States, Switzerland, and other countries were involved in this project. The first Scientific Linux release was 3.0.1, released May 10, 2004. Scientific Linux was discontinued as of April 22, 2019. Instead, Fermilab will collaborate with CERN and other labs to help make CentOS a better platform for high-energy physics computing. Fermilab will continue to support Scientific Linux 6 and 7 through the remainder of their respective lifecycles. Scientific Linux 6.10 was released July 10, 2018 and 7.7 was released August 26, 2019.
These are designed to be user-friendly, easy to install distributions with plenty of desktop applications.
AIMS Desktop
https://desktop.aims.ac.za/
AIMS Desktop is a Debian derivative offering a collection of software that allows you to do mathematics and science on your computer easily and efficiently. It is maintained by AIMS (The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences) in South Africa. The current version was 2017.1, based on Debian 9.0 "stretch", when this entry was added, June 13, 2017.
AriOS
http://arioslinux.org/
AriOS is based on Ubuntu and includes many extra applications, multimedia codecs, flash and java plugins, many tweaks and a unique look and feel. AriOS is not just Ubuntu+extra packages. It has been carefully designed to help you get productive instantly instead of spending a lot of hours configuring your system. AriOS could be translated into "The Operating System from the Ancient Persia". AriOS 3.0 is based on Ubuntu 11.04 and comes with a customized GNOME 2 desktop. AriOS 3.0 was released July 2, 2011. AriOS 4.0, released October 6, 2012, was based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and GNOME shell.
Bella OS
http://www.bellaos.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bellaos/
Bella OS strives to be beautiful and friendly. It is based on Xubuntu and Debian. Bella OS joined the list with the release of v2.2 on April 9, 2015.
Black Lab Linux
http://www.blacklablinux.org/
http://www.pc-opensystems.com/
Black Lab Linux was known as OS/4 OpenLinux, which was a descendant of the PC/OS project. Black Lab Linux, a product of Black Lab Sofware, is a custom Linux distribution compatible with Ubuntu and Debian Linux. It aims for ease of use and user friendliness. The first version of PC/OS was a remix of Ubuntu 8.04.1 with extra packages. The first OS4 release was v12.5, dated July 10, 2012. The final OS/4 releases were OpenLinux 14.1 and Enterprise Linux 4.1.6, dated November 2, 2013. Black Lab and Black Lab Enterprise Linux 4.1.8 were released November 26, 2013. Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0 SR3 was released January 31, 2015. Black Lab Linux MATE 6.1 was released February 16, 2015. Black Lab Linux 6.5 SR1 was released May 11, 2015. Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 SR4 was released June 1, 2015. Black Lab Linux GNOME 2015.6 was released June 15, 2015 and will be supported until 2020. Black Lab Linux 7.7 was released September 18, 2016 and will be supported until April 2019. Black Lab Linux 8.0 was released November 10, 2016. Black Lab Enterprise Linux 8.0 SP1 was released October 23, 2016. Black Lab Enterprise Linux 11.5 was released November 27, 2017.
Calculate Linux
http://www.calculate-linux.org/
Calculate Linux is an open project, supported by the Calculate Pack company, which promotes using Linux everywhere. The project gives free and easy access to all the opportunities of Gentoo Linux. Calculate Linux was started May 29, 2007. Exactly two years later Calculate Linux Desktop 9.6 KDE was released. Other editions included XFCE Desktop and Directory Server. Calculate Linux From Scratch 9.8 was released August 12, 2009. Calculate Linux 14.16.2 was released June 5, 2015. Calculate Linux 14.16.2 MATE was released July 21, 2015. Calculate Linux 15.17 was released May 20, 2016. Calculate Linux 17.12.2 was released February 22, 2018. Calculate Linux 18 was released October 7, 2018. Calculate Linux Desktop 18 LXQt was released November 29, 2018. Calculate Linux 18.12 was released December 29, 2018. Calculate Linux 20 was released December 27, 2019.
http://chakraos.org/
http://chakra.sourceforge.net/
Chakra aims to be a fast, user-friendly and powerful Live CD and/or small distribution that utilizes KDE applications and the Plasma desktop. A special repository for well known GTK applications is available. Chakra was initially based on Arch Linux, but evolved into an independent effort. Chakra uses what they call a half-rolling release model where new stable versions of packages are updated as soon as possible, on top of a stable core. The distribution provides unique GUI tools and has a small but strong and diverse community. Chakra joined the list on September 30, 2009, with the third alpha release of the Chakra LiveCD. The Chakra Project split from its Arch roots with the development release of Phoix. Chakra 0.3.2 was released January 30, 2011. Chakra 2017.10 "Goedel" was released October 7, 2017. Chakra 2019.03 "Hawking" RC4 was released March 3, 2019.
http://chapeaulinux.org/
Chapeau is a Fedora remix that aims to be a high-performance, cutting-edge operating system for 64bit PCs, that is also easy to use by new and advanced users. Chapeau ships with multimedia codecs, Flash, anti-virus software, data recovery tools, WINE, PlayOnLinux and Steam. In addition, third-party software repositories are enabled by default. Chapeau 21.2.1 was released April 11, 2015. Chapeau 22 "Indurain" was released June 13, 2015. Chapeau 23 "Armstrong" was released December 8, 2015. Chapeau 24 was released September 28, 2016.
http://comfusion.softonic.com/linux
ComFusion (formerly Uberyl) is an Ubuntu-based desktop with Compiz-Fusion. It's aimed at Spanish-speaking users coming from other operating systems. The GNOME, LXDE, and OpenBox desktops are available. ComFusion 3 was released February 16, 2011. ComFusion 4.1 was released December 8, 2012.
Cr OS Linux
http://getchrome.eu/
Cr OS Linux is a free operating system built around the revolutionary Chromium browser. The aim of this project is to provide a lightweight Linux distribution for the best web browsing experience on any x86 PC, notebook or Chromebook. Version 1.7.932 RC (released November 16, 2011) is based on openSUSE with the GNOME desktop and the Google Chrome 17 web browser. It was renamed Cr OS in September 2012. Cr OS Linux 2.4.1290, released December 10, 2012, features the Cinnamon desktop.
Cub Linux
https://cublinux.com/
http://chromixium.org/
Chromixium is a project to recreate the functionality, look and feel of Google's Chrome OS on a conventional desktop. Chromixium is based on a custom 32 bit Ubuntu 14.04 build. It's built around the Chromium web browser, but additional applications may be included from the Ubuntu repositories. Chromixium 1.0 was released April 29, 2015. Chromixium 1.5 was released July 18, 2015. Chromixium changed its name to Cub Linux (Chromium + Ubuntu), announced January 17, 2016. The first Cub Linux release is expected to be released in May 2016.
elementary OS is designed to be a simple, easy-to-use distribution using the best of free/open source software, with only one application per task. The project aims to improve the applications that they use. elementary OS Jupiter was released April 1, 2011. elementary OS Juno 5.0 was released October 16, 2018. elementary OS 5.1 Hera was released December 3, 2019.
ELX, Everyone's Linux
http://www.elxlinux.com/
ELX provides a commericial family of products, including BizDesktop, PowerDesk, Gateway Server, PowerServer, and more. BizDesktop 4.0 was based on kernel 2.4.20 and contained a variety of applications suitable for business and home usage. As of December 19, 2014 available products included PowerDesktop 6 Beta, BizDesktop 5, Gateway Server 3.0, and an unversioned Wifi-Gateway Server.
EndeavourOS
https://endeavouros.com/
EndeavourOS aims to be an easier way to install Arch Linux. It was created by the Antergos community after Antergos was discontinued in May 2019. EndeavourOS launched July 15, 2019. EndeavourOS 2019.12.22 is out.
Endless OS
https://endlessos.com/
Endless is designed to be useful offline as well as online. It comes with many apps and tools that don't require an internet connection, including over 50,000 Wikipedia articles. It is based on Debian and features the GNOME desktop. The current version of Endless OS was 2.6.4 when this entry was added June 15, 2016. Endless OS 3.6.3 was released September 9, 2019.
feren OS
http://ferenos.weebly.com/
Feren OS offers customisation, applications, and much more in one package. It uses a Linux Mint/Cinnamon base. feren OS 2017.0 was released May 1, 2017. feren OS announced a transition to a rolling-release model June 11, 2017. Snapshots are released every 3 months. Feren OS 2019.07 was released July 13, 2019. Feren OS 2019.12 was released December 25, 2019.
GeckoLinux
http://geckolinux.github.io/
GeckoLinux is a Linux spin based on the openSUSE distribution, with a focus on polish and out-of-the-box usability on the desktop. Various editions have been released, including GNOME, Cinnamon, XFCE, Budgie, and BareBones (with the OpenBox window managaer). The inaugual releases were based on openSUSE Leap 42.1 and began with version number 421 followed by a date in yymmdd format. The first BareBones edition was numbered 421.151205.0. Version 421.160614.0 was released with several desktop editions. GeckoLinux Rolling 999.161031.0 became available November 3, 2016. GeckoLinux 150.180607 [static] and 999.180607 [rolling] were released in June 2018.
Granular Linux
http://linux.granularproject.org/
http://www.granularproject.org/
Granular is a Linux operating system that is easy to use, user-friendly and filled with lots of fun. Designed for both newbies and experienced Linux users, Granular is based on PCLinuxOS and features easy switching between the KDE and XFCE desktop environments. Granular 0.90, code-named Esto Vello, was released July 3, 2007. Granular FunWorks 2007 was released October 7, 2007. Granular 1.0 was released January 20, 2009.
Hanthana Linux
http://hanthana.org/
Hanthana is a Fedora remix suitable for desktop and laptop users. It comes as a live CD and may be installed to a hard drive. It comes with additional software including multimedia players and codecs by default. The first release was dated Septmeber 19, 2009. Hanthana joined the list with the release of HL17, September 16, 2012. Hanthana 17 LiveCD with LXDE was released September 30, 2012. The 64bit edition was released October 13, 2012. Hanthana Linux 21 (Sinharaja) was released April 15, 2015.
JULinux
http://www.JustUseLinux.com/
Just Use Linux or JULinux is an Ubuntu based distribution aimed at Windows and Mac users. JULinuXP has an interface similar to Windows 98, 2000, XP, and 7 while JULinOX OS is very similar to Mac OS X. Both versions feature the MATE desktop. JULinux joined the list May 29, 2013. JULinux 10 was released August 4, 2014.
Kannolo
https://sourceforge.net/projects/kannolo/
Kannolo is an installable graphical Fedora Remix without GTK+, based on the KDE Plasma Desktop workspace and the Calamares installer. Kannolo does not include software that requires GTK+ (e.g. Firefox, Anaconda, firewall-config, ABRT). It features KDE or Qt software (e. g. QupZilla, Calamares, UFW-KDE, DrKonqi) instead. SELinux is disabled by default because there is no Qt/KDE troubleshooting application for it. GTK+ and GTK+ applications are available from the upstream distribution's online repositories, enabled by default. Kannolo 25 and Kannolo 24 were released December 23, 2016.
https://www.linuxliteos.com/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxlite
Linux Lite is an Ubuntu based system that aims to be simple for anyone to use. Linux Lite's first release was v1.0.0, dated October 23, 2012. Linux Lite 1.0.8 Final was released January 16, 2014. Linux Lite 2.8 was released January 31, 2016. Linux Lite 3.0 was released May 31, 2016. Linux Lite 3.2 was released October 31, 2016. Linux Lite 3.8 was released January 31, 2018. Linux Lite 4.0 was released May 31, 2018. Linux Lite 4.8 was released January 13, 2020.
Linvo GNU/Linux
http://www.linvo.org/
Linvo is a Slackware derived distribution that aims to be a multi-purpose, flexible and easy-to-use. Packages are available from both the Slackware and the Linvo repositories. The project was started in 2009. Linvo 2010.12, released December 30, 2010, features the GNOME 2.32 desktop. Linvo 2010.12.6, the last planned maintenance release for the 2010.6 series, was released July 14, 2011.
Liquid Lemur Linux
http://liquidlemurlinux.org/
Liquid Lemur Linux is a Debian-based distribution. The original edition features Window Maker, along with custom tools, scripts, applications, and original artwork. They also have a hybrid desktop using Window Maker and Xfce. Liquid Lemer joined the list with the release of v2.0 Alpha 2, dated August 23, 2015. Liquid Lemur Linux 2.0 Alpha 3 was released September 20, 2015.
Luninux OS
http://luninuxos.com/
Luninux OS is an Ubuntu based distribution with GNOME Shell instead of Ubuntu's Unity desktop. Luninux joined the list with the release of 12.0 LTS "Purple Possum", dated July 24, 2012. Luninux 12.10 was released December 10, 2012. Luninux OS 14.00 was released June 22, 2014.
LXLE
http://lxle.net/
LXLE is based on Lubuntu which is an Ubuntu OS using the LXDE desktop enviroment. It is designed to be a drop-in and go OS, primarily for aging computers. Its intention is to be able to install it on any computer and be relatively done after install. LXLE follows the same LTS schedule as Ubuntu. In short, LXLE is an eclectic respin of Lubuntu with its own user support. LXLE 12.04.4 was released February 8, 2014. LXLE 14.04 was released June 13, 2014. LXLE 14.04.2 and 12.04.5 were released April 3, 2015. LXLE LS is aimed at small to micro businesses and includes software to help run a business. The first beta of LXLE LS was released July 7, 2015. LXLE 14.04.4 was released March 24, 2016. LXLE 16.04.3 Eclectica was released November 20, 2017. LXLE 18.04.3 was released September 8, 2019.
Macpup
http://macpup.org/
Macpup is Puppy Linux derivative or puplet. Like other puplets, Macpup uses the woof build system and should run on older hardware. The Macpup 525 release, dated June 11, 2011, was based on Lucid Puppy, which is binary-compatible with the Ubuntu Lucid Lynx release and includes the E17 window manager. Macpup 550 was released August 21, 2013.
Nitrux
https://nxos.org/
Nitrux focuses on portable universal app formats (focused on the AppImage format). It uses the Nomad Desktop, which is built on top of KDE Plasma 5 and Qt. Version 1.0 was based on Ubuntu 17.10 and released June 30, 2017. Nitrux 1.1.2 was released December 29, 2018.
Open webOS
http://www.openwebosproject.org/
Open webOS is the next generation of web-centric platforms built to run on a wide range of form factors. The Open webOS Project is a key part of the ecosystem of HP, along with the webOS cloud services product offerings and the Enyo Open Source Project. Open webOS joined the list with the release of 1.0 on September 28, 2012.
Parsidora
http://sourceforge.net/projects/parsidora/
http://parsidora.ir/en
Parsidora is a Fedora Remix that aims to provide a more pleasant out of the box experience for people not bound by US law. It has multimedia codecs and other extra goodies in it. Its primary focus is on providing an Installation DVD/media instead of a live version to target users who do not have access to high speed internet. Parsidora is NOT a localized distribution, and the main language is English. But it does provide some features suitable for Persian users, which can be easily disabled during the installation. Therefore, it can be considered an international distribution. Parsidora 15, released August 9, 2011, features Jockey for easier hardware driver installation. Parsidora 18 was released June 4, 2013. Parsidora 20 was released July 16, 2014.
http://www.pclinuxos.com/
PCLinuxOS 2K4 started out as a live CD based on Mandriva. In the early days the project produced a KDE-centric desktop distribution, but it later branched out into other editions. PCLinuxOS 2K4 Preview 4 was the current version as of December 17, 2003, when it was added to this list. By 2016 PCLinuxOS had moved to a rolling-release model where packages are updated frequently. Community PCLinuxOS LXDE 64 2016.07 was released July 8, 2016. PCLinuxOS KDE64 2017 Desktop and PCLinuxOS MATE64 2017 Desktop were released in February 2017. PCLinuxOS KDE Plasma 5 2017.03 was released March 2, 2017. PCLinuxOS KDE Full Edition 2019.06 was released June 16, 2019. PCLinuxOS 2019.11 contains updated installation media for PCLinuxOS and a fully updated system as of November 12, 2019.
Peach OSI
http://www.peachosi.com/
Peach OSI is an Xubuntu derivative that aims to be easy to use, flexible, lightweight, full of useful software and multi-functional. The first stable release of Peach OSI, based on Xubuntu 14.04.1, happened in June 2014. Peach OSI "Netbook" was released December 18, 2014.
http://peppermintos.com/
Peppermint is a cloud/web application-centric distribution. It aims to be sleek, user friendly and fast. Peppermint was designed for enhanced mobility, efficiency and ease of use. It's based on Lubuntu and uses some of Linux Mint's configuration files. A first private beta was released April 14, 2010. Peppermint OS One was released May 10, 2010. Peppermint 6 Respin with UEFI Support was released September 6, 2015. Peppermint 7 was released June 24, 2016. Peppermint 7 Respin was released November 29, 2016. Peppermint 8 was released May 28, 2017. Peppermint 8 Respin-2 (Peppermint-8-20180203) was released February 5, 2018. Peppermint 9 was released June 22, 2018. Peppermint 9 Respin-2 was released January 2, 2019. Peppermint 10 was released May 17, 2019. Peppermint 10-20191210 Respin was released December 18, 2019.
PinguyOS
http://pinguyos.com/
PinguyOS is a Ubuntu based distribution that strives to be even easier to use, with applications chosen and pre-installed with that goal in mind. PinguyOS 11.04 was released May 14, 2011, with a classic GNOME 2.32.1 desktop. Ping-Eee OS 11.04 was released July 8, 2011. Pinguy 10.04.3 LTS was released August 4, 2011. Pinguy OS 12.04 LTS was released June 17, 2012. Pinguy OS 13.10 was released December 6, 2013. Pinguy OS 14.04.3 was released September 9, 2015. Pinguy OS 18.04.1 was released August 6, 2018.
Point Linux
http://pointlinux.org/
Point Linux is a Debian-based desktop aimed at experienced users and the business/IT sector. The 3.0 release is based on Debian 8.0 (jessie). Point Linux joined the list with the release of 3.0 beta 1, dated December 31, 2013. Jessie was in testing at that time. Point Linux 3.0 with MATE and Xfce was released July 9, 2015. Point Linux 3.2 (MATE and Xfce) was released June 21, 2016.
Robolinux
http://www.robolinux.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/robolinux/
Robolinux aims to be easy to use, fast, and secure. Based on Debian stable, this distribution allows Windows applications to run in a VM. Robolinux 7.8.1 was released January 22, 2015 in Gnome, lxde, and xfce editions. Robolinux 7.8.1 KDE was released February 12, 2015. Robolinux 7.9.2 LTS (supported until 2018) was released June 19, 2015. Robolinux Xfce Raptor 8.1 LTS 2020 was released September 3, 2015. Robolinux Raptor 8.4 was released March 18, 2016. Robolinux Raptor 8.4 Cinnamon, Mate, Xfce & LXDE were released March 18, 2016. Robolinux 8.5 was released June 17, 2016. Robolinux 9.2 was released May 3, 2018. Robolinux 10.6 was released December 12, 2019.
Salix OS
http://www.salixos.org/
Salix OS is a Linux distribution based on Slackware, that is simple, fast and easy to use. Salix is also fully backwards compatible with Slackware, so Slackware users can benefit from Salix repositories, which they can use as an "extra" quality source of software for their favorite distribution. Salix is using a system of one application per task. It also follows the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. Like a bonsai, Salix is small, light and the product of infinite care. Salix 13.0 was released September 16, 2009. Salix 13.1 was available with KDE, LXDE, Xfce, Fluxbox, and Live editions. Salix 13.37 was available in Xfce, Fluxbox, KDE, LXDE, Ratpoison, and MATE editions. Salix Xfce 14.1 was released March 4, 2014. Salix MATE 14.1 was released June 1, 2014. Salix Openbox 14.1 was released July 27, 2014. Salix Fluxbox 14.1 was released September 22, 2014. Salix Live Xfce 14.2 was released November 13, 2016. Salix Xfce 14.2 was released August 29, 2016.
SemiCode OS
http://www.semicodeos.com/
SemiCode OS is billed as "Linux For Programmers and Web Developers". It comes with many programming languages, compilers, editors, and IDEs out of the box. SemiCode OS 0.1 Beta (based on Ubuntu 14.04) was released December 12, 2016.
Simplicity Linux
http://simplicitylinux.org/
Simplicity Linux is based on Puppy Linux. It comes in different versions, from bare bones to fully featured. The Netbook or mini edition is light-weight and meant for using cloud based applications. The Desktop edition is fully-featured. Simplicity 13.10 was released October 17, 2013. Simplicity Linux 16.07 was released July 31, 2016. Simplicity 19.10 Alpha 1 was released August 23, 2019.
Swift Linux
http://www.swiftlinux.org/
Swift Linux aims to be a lightweight, user-friendly distribution that is fully compatible with Debian software repositories. Swift was originally based on AntiX (a lightweight Mepis derivative). Swift Linux 0.1.2, released August 21, 2011, came in Diet Swift, Regular Swift, Taylor Swift, Minnesota Swift, and Chicago Swift editions. For the 0.2.0 release (April 24, 2012) the base switched to Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) and the Silicon Valley Swift edition was added.
Symphony OS
http://www.symphonyos.com/
Symphony OS was originally based on Debian and KNOPPIX, but later switched to a Ubuntu base. It uses a lightweight window manager, includes its own package mangement system that can install deb packages, source packages and Symphony binary packages, and includes the Orchestra application development environment. Beta 1 Preview 1 was released October 25, 2005. Symphony OS 2007.06 (the first Ubuntu-based release) was released June 6, 2007. SymphonyOS 15.0 was released January 31, 2015.
http://trisquel.info/en/
Trisquel GNU/Linux aims to be a fully free-as-in-speech system that is easy to use, complete, and with good language support. The project was born in 2004 with the sponsorship of the University of Vigo in Galicia Spain. The first version was officially presented in April 2005. The project hosts its own repositories which are derivatives of Ubuntu's main and universe components, but with all proprietary software removed. The differences include the removal of all non-free packages, the substitution of the original Linux kernel with the blob-free version linux-libre, and the addition of several packages. Trisquel joined the list with the release of version 3.0 STS "Dwyn", September 8, 2009. Trisquel 8.0 LTS "Flidas" was released April 18, 2018 and will be supported until April 2021. A development snapshot of Trisquel 9.0 "Etiona" was released December 27, 2019.
Ulteo
http://www.ulteo.com/
Ulteo strives to be the easiest system to use on computers. Ulteo is a new concept of an easy-to-use open-source operating system which could change the way we all use computers. The project was founded by Mandrake/Mandriva founder Gaël Duval, in late 2006. Ulteo currently consists of the Ulteo Online Desktop (Ulteo OD, version 1 - released March 18, 2008) and the Ulteo Application System. Ulteo AS "Sirius" was released July 22, 2008. Ulteo Application System "Polaris" alpha was released October 28, 2008. Open Virtual Desktop (OVD) 2.0 was released November 25, 2009. OVD 4.0.2 was released July 15, 2014.
http://ultimateedition.info/
OZ Unity
https://www.ultimateeditionoz.com/
Ultimate Edition is an Ubuntu based distribution. It joined the list at version 2.0 (released November 11, 2008), based on the Intrepid Ibex daily build. That version came in a 32 bit, 64 Bit & and a Gamers edition (x86 based). There are plenty of themes, wallpapers, icon sets, gdm login screens, and Usplashes. Ultimate Edition 3.6 was released October 24, 2013. The OZ Unity project creates an Ultimate Edition OS aimed at creating a system for new users. OZ Unity aimes to be easy to install, inviting and intuitive to use, and enhanced with applications that the majority of users would require on a day by day basis. Users are invited to post their application list to the OZ Unity forum. Ultimate Edition 3.9 was released April 8, 2014. Ultimate Edition 4.3 was released December 7, 2014. Ultimate Edition 4.6 Gamers was released September 4, 2015. Released December 19, 2015: 4.2.3 Lite, 4.2 armhf, 4.2 armhf lite, and 4.9-x64. Ultimate Edition 5.0 LTS was released June 20, 2016. Ultimate Edition 5.0 Gamers was released January 7, 2017. Ultimate Edition 5.5 was released June 24, 2017.
Uruk GNU/Linux
https://urukproject.org/dist/
Uruk GNU/Linux aims to be lightweight, user-friendly and powerful. It is currently based on the Trisquel GNU/Linux core, with the Linux-libre kernel. It comes ready for home and office use, and programs are easy to find and install. Uruk 1.0 was the current version when this entry was added to the list, July 6, 2016. Uruk 2.0 was released December 5, 2017.
VLOS
http://www.vidalinux.com/
VLOS is a Linux distribution based on Gentoo, but uses the Red Hat Anaconda installer to make it easier for end users to install it. Its default desktop environment is GNOME. The purpose of VLOS is to make the Linux operating system more accessible to home and office users. It combines the power of ebuilds and portage and compiling all software from source (aside from a select few larger ones, which are available in binary) into an easy-to-use package. It comes from Puerto Rico. Vidalinux was still in its first beta edition when added to the list on July 14, 2004. VLOS 1.2, based on Gentoo Linux and Red Hat's anaconda graphical installer, was released August 2, 2005. VLOS 1.3 was released October 18, 2006. VLOS 2.2 was released November 25, 2010.
Xange
http://openxange.org/
Xange, formerly Vixta.org, is a Fedora remix with KDE and open source software. It is a general purpose OS designed for netbooks, laptops, desktops and servers. Vixta joined the list at v094, released October 6, 2007. Open Xange 2010 was released January 9, 2010. Open Xange 2011.08 was released August 15, 2011. OX 2014.02 was released February 12, 2014.
These distributions should be suitable for desktop and server applications. Most should have current versions available.
Absolute Linux
http://absolutelinux.org/
Absolute is a customized Slackware distribution, assembled to make installation and maintenance of Slackware easier. It's built for speed, stability, security, ease of use and development. It is lightweight and should run on older hardware. Absolute joined the list with the release of v12.0, July 16, 2007. Absolute 14.2 (based on Slackware 14.2) was released September 18, 2016. Absolute 15.0 Beta1 was released January 11, 2018.
http://www.altlinux.org/
ALT Linux started out as a Russian localization of Mandrake Linux. The last such release was Linux-Mandrake Russian Edition Spring 2001. After that ALT forked into a unique distribution. It is well-known in Russia. Designed to be a universal distribution, ALT is suitable for servers, user workstations, software development, etc. The heart of ALT Linux is the unstable, development branch Sisyphus. ALT Linux Master 2.2 was released March 7, 2003. ALT Server, Workstation, Education 9.0 was released October 28, 2019.
http://antix.mepis.org/
MEPIS Community
AntiX started out as an Ultra-Lite, community developed MEPIS Derivative. The antiX-12 release was based directly on Debian testing, compatible with Debian testing repositories. Older, less powerful hardware should be well supported. It includes support for multiple languages including Brazilian-Portuguese, Catalan, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Russian, and Turkish. AntiX 6.5 was released July 9, 2007. antiX-M11 'Jayaben Desai' was released May 3, 2011. antiX 15 was released June 30, 2015. antiX-16.1 (Berta Cáceres) (based on Debian 8.5 "jessie", but systemd-free) was released January 17, 2017. antiX 16.2 was released June 16, 2017. antiX 17.4 was released March 6, 2019. antiX 19.1 (based on Debian Buster and systemd-free) was released December 23, 2019.
aptosid
http://aptosid.com/
Aptosid was born from the ashes of sidux. Aptosid is a full featured Debian sid (unstable) based live CD with a special focus on hard disk installations, a clean upgrade path within sid and additional hardware and software support. The ISO is completely based on the free main component of Debian sid, enriched and stabilized with aptosid's own packages and scripts. The project was announced September 11, 2010. aptosid 2012-01 was released December 1, 2012. aptosid 2013-01 was released May 5, 2013.
http://archbang.org/
ArchBang is a simple GNU/Linux distribution which provides you with a lightweight Arch Linux system combined with the Openbox Window Manager. It's suitable for both desktop and portable systems. ArchBang is a rolling release with regularly updated isos. ArchBang appeared on this list with the 2011.02 release, dated February 4, 2011.
ArchLabs Linux
https://archlabslinux.com/
ArchLabs is based on Arch Linux, influenced and inspired by the look and feel of BunsenLabs. It is not a clone of BunsenLabs, but does follow Arch closely and rolls along with regular updates. ArchLabs joined the list with the release of v2017.12 on December 23, 2017. ArchLabs 2018.12 was released December 17, 2018.
https://artixlinux.org/
The Arch-OpenRC and Manjaro-OpenRC projects joined forces to create Artix, an Arch-based distribution that uses the OpenRC init system. It uses a rolling release model with no version numbers. Artix was first announced July 27, 2017. There are three editions: a minimal Base edition, an edition featuring the i3 window manager, and an edition running the LXQt desktop.
AryaLinux
http://aryalinux.org/
AryaLinux is a source-based Linux distribution inspired by LFS/BLFS. Bash scripts are used for building the entire distribution from the ground up. AryaLinux has Mate and XFCE spins as the supported desktop environments but support for other desktops is in progress. AryaLinux joined the list with the release of v2016.04, dated May 9, 2016. AryaLinux 2016.08 was released September 7, 2016. AryaLinux 2017 was released January 13, 2017. AryaLinux 1.0 Aranya, released July 5, 2018, has the GNOME desktop as the default. AryaLinux 2.1 was released January 9, 2020.
Bluestar Linux
http://bluestarlinux.sourceforge.net/
Bluestar Linux is based on Arch Linux and aims to be easier to get started on than standard Arch. It comes with multi-media codecs and a wide variety of applications to create a full development / desktop / multimedia environment. Bluestar comes in 3 editions desktop, deskpro and developer. Bluestar 4.8.4 Desktop Edition was released October 27, 2016. Bluestar 4.8.6 Deskpro Edition was released November 6, 2016. Bluestar Lite Edition was released November 14, 2016. Bluestar 4.8.8 Developer Edition was released November 20, 2016. Bluestar Linux 4.9.6 DeskPro was released February 1, 2017. Bluestar 4.9.6 Developer Edition was released February 7, 2017.
http://bodhilinux.com/
Bloathi
Bodhi is an Ubuntu-based distribution that uses the Enlightenment window manager and libraries. Bodhi only pre-installs a few packages so you can add what you want and not have your system cluttered with unwanted applications. Bodhi 1.0.0 was released March 25, 2011. Bodhi 1.4.0 was released March 22, 2012. Bloathi provides an alternative installation for those who want a more fully featured distribution out of the box. The initial release of Bloathi, v1.3.0, was announced January 15, 2012. Bodhi Linux 2.4.0 was released September 12, 2013. Bodhi Linux 3.0.0 was released February 17, 2015. Bodhi 3.1.0, released August 11, 2015, features the Moksha Desktop (a fork of E17). Bodhi Linux 3.2.0 was released March 30, 2016. Bodhi 4.4.0 was released December 8, 2017. Bodhi 5.0.0 was released August 22, 2018.
BunsenLabs Linux
https://www.bunsenlabs.org/
BunsenLabs Linux is a distribution offering a light-weight and easily customizable Openbox desktop. The project is a community continuation of CrunchBang Linux. The current release was Debian jessie-based Hydrogen when this entry was added to the list, June 13, 2016. A BunsenLabs "Deuterium" point release was made available January 30, 2017. BunsenLabs Helium was released April 30, 2018. An early preview of Debian 10 based BunsenLabs Lithium was released December 10, 2019.
http://www.clearfoundation.com/
Formerly known as ClarkConnect, ClearOS is Red Hat/CentOS based. It is a network and gateway server designed for the small business and distributed environments. ClarkConnect version 1.1 was released July 31, 2002. ClarkConnect 5.0 was based on CentOS 5.3 and was available in Community and Enterprise editions in July 2009. Historically the ClarkConnect Enterprise OS had proprietary bits. The ClearFoundation renamed ClarkConnect to ClearOS, a completely free distribution, announced September 12, 2009 and version 5.1 was released in December. ClearOS 6.7.0 Community and Professional editions were released December 14, 2015. ClearOS 7 was released April 30, 2015. ClearOS 7.6.0 was released April 30, 2019.
ConnochaetOS
http://www.connochaetos.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/connochaetos/
ConnochaetOS was once known as DeLi Linux ("Desktop Light" Linux), a desktop distribution for older computers. It is based on Slackware and Salix. ConnochaetOS aims to be suitable for older computers, but still have modern desktop software. DeLi Linux 0.1 was released November 3, 2002. Development came to standstill after the release of DeLi Linux 0.8.0 dated May 28, 2008 and the distribution was eventually renamed ConnochaetOS with the release of 0.8.9 Beta 1, dated November 13, 2010. Connochaet aims to include only FSF-approved free software. ConnochaetOS 0.9.1 was released February 22, 2012. Developement was discontinued in 2013. The project was revived and version 14.1 was released May 12, 2015. ConnochaetOS 14.2 was released August 26, 2016.
CrunchBang++
https://crunchbangplusplus.org/
CrunchBang (#!) Linux was a Debian based distribution featuring the lightweight Openbox window manager and GTK+ applications. #! joined the list at version 8.10.02, released January 18, 2009. CrunchBang 11 "Waldorf" (stable) was released May 6, 2013. CrunchBang was officially retired on February 6, 2015. But #! is not dead, it is succeeded by #!++. Debian Jessie based #!++ 1.0 was released April 29, 2015.
http://www.crux.nu/
CRUX is a lightweight, i686-optimized Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users. The primary focus of this distribution is "keep it simple", which is reflected in a simple tar.gz-based package system, BSD-style initscripts, and a relatively small collection of trimmed packages. The secondary focus is utilization of new Linux features and recent tools and libraries. Version 1.1 was released March 24, 2003. CRUX 1.3.1 for PowerPC was released February 25, 2004. CRUX 2.8 was released October 24, 2012. CRUX 3.5 was released June 11, 2019.
Cucumber Linux
http://www.cucumberlinux.com/
Cucumber Linux is an independent distribution that aims to provide a minimalistic system that follows the Unix Philosophy. Cucumber Linux favors simplicity and modularity of design over simplicity of use. It does not use systemd. Cucumber Linux 1.0 was released July 10, 2017.
Devuan GNU+Linux OS
https://devuan.org
Devuan is a Debian fork that seeks to eliminate the use of systemd. The project was started in 2014. The first beta release was dated April 29, 2016. Devuan Jessie 1.0.0 was released May 25, 2017. Devuan 2.1 ASCII was released November 21, 2019. Devuan Beowolf is in testing.
Draco GNU/Linux
http://www.dracolinux.org/
Draco is a semi source based GNU/Linux distribution. It has roots in Slackware and uses pkgsrc, a package management system from NetBSD. Draco separates the system from the third-party packages, for a simple and clean distribution to use as you see fit. Draco joined the list at v0.3.0, released April 10, 2008. The current version was 0.4 in January 2014.
FreespireOS
http://www.pc-opensystems.com/p/freespireos.html
LinspireOS
FreespireOS is a Debian/Ubuntu based, 64-bit free and open Linux OS, that is geared towards open source users and developers. It is made by PC/OpenSystems LLC, which also makes LinspireOS. While FreespireOS is all free software, LinspireOS comes with proprietary applications and support options. The company also sells hardware with Linspire pre-installed. Freespire 3.0 and Linspire 7.0 were released January 1, 2018. Freespire 5.0 was released October 15, 2019.
Frugalware Linux
http://frugalware.org/
Frugalware is general purpose Linux distribution, designed for intermediate users. It has a current, a testing and a stable branch. The current branch is updated daily, with packages pushed to testing about every two months, and plans to update the stable branch every 6 months. Frugalware Linux 0.3-i686 was released October 13, 2005. Frugalware 1.0 was released March 22, 2009. Frugalware 2.1 (Derowd) was released September 5, 2016.
Funtoo
http://www.funtoo.org/
Funtoo Linux was launched in 2009 by Daniel Robbins, who previously founded the Gentoo project. The Funtoo project aims to create a supportive environment for people to learn about free software. Like Gentoo, Funtoo is a meta-distribution that builds packages automatically from source code. Funtoo 1.3 was released January 7, 2019. Funtoo 1.4 was released September 11, 2019.
http://www.gnewsense.org/
gNewSense is a GNU/Linux project that aims to remove all the binary blobs out of a rather popular distribution and make it all free. Initially the project produced a set of scripts to create a GNU/Linux Distribution based on Ubuntu. As of version 3.0 the distribution switched to a Debian base. Version 0.91 (beta) was released August 23, 2006. gNewSense 3.1 "Parkes" was released February 9, 2014. gNewSense 4.0 "Ucclia" was released May 2, 2016.
Jeoss Linux
http://www.vercot.com/~jeoss/
Jeoss Linux is a compact install-everywhere Ubuntu based server oriented distribution. It is directly-installable even on legacy, limited resource, and embedded x86 platforms. The install process can be controlled from start to finish by the target local console, a remote serial console, or a remote SSH sesion. Jeoss U 8.04, released June 18, 2011, derives from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. Ubuntu kernels are patched versions of unmodified mainline Linux kernel sources from kernel.org compiled with Debian build system plus Ubuntu specific configuration files. Every group of configuration files creates a unique combination of build-time defined kernel variables. These variables set kernel parameters as target processor, memory capabilities, I/O scheduler strategies, process preemption, etc. Ultimately every configuration blend defines a kernel "flavor" for the i386 architecture targeting a specific scenarios.
http://kaosx.us/
The idea behind KaOS is to create a tightly integrated rolling and transparent distribution for the modern desktop, built from scratch with a specific focus; one DE (KDE), one toolkit (Qt), one architecture (x86_64), etc. All work is geared toward packaging, not developing new tools or applications. The first KaOS release was in April 2013. KaOS 2020.01 was released January 3, 2020.
https://getkiss.org/
KISS is an independent distribution with a focus on simplicity and the concept of "less is more". Some prior knowledge of Linux (or other UNIXY systems) is required for this source based OS. KISS 1.0 was released September 2, 2019.
Kwort Linux
http://kwort.org/
Kwort is a modern and fast Linux distribution that combines powerful and useful applications in order to create a simple system for advanced users who finds a strong and effective desktop. Kwort is based on CRUX, so it's robust, clean and easy to extend. Kwort joined the list with the release of v3.5-rc1, dated November 9, 2012. Kwort 3.5 was released November 19, 2012. Kwort 4.3.4 was released June 16, 2019.
http://librecmc.org/
libreCMC (Concurrent Machine Cluster) is an embedded GNU/Linux-libre distribution with out non-free software or binary blobs. The project's goal is to provide an embedded distribution that respects user freedoms and allows users to control what their hardware does. This entry was added September 10, 2014, when the FSF added libreCMC to their list of free/libre distributions.
Lunar-Linux
http://www.lunar-linux.org/
https://github.com/lunar-linux
Lunar-Linux began as a fork of Sorcerer GNU/Linux. Lunar-Penguin, the development group behind Lunar-Linux, say they plan for this fork to stay close to the bleeding edge. This is a source-based Linux distribution with a unique package management system that builds each software package or module for the machine it is being installed on. Although a complete installation can take some time, it tends to be quite fast once installed. The initial ISO image lunar-20020321.iso.bz2 was released March 21, 2002. Lunar-1.5.0 "Indium Phosphide" was released May 23, 2005. Lunar 1.6.1 installer iso "Moose Drool" was released for i686 and x86_64, February 18, 2007. Lunar Linux 1.6.4 was released for i686 and x86-64, December 27, 2008. Lunar Linux 1.6.5 was released August 22, 2010. Lunar Linux 1.7.0 "Sinus Successus" was released October 11, 2014. While there have been no versioned releases since, packages in Lunar Linx are updated pretty much every day. [True in 2019]
http://manjaro.org/
Manjaro Linux is based on well-tested snapshots of the Arch Linux repositories and is 100% compatible with Arch. The Manjaro repository is managed with its homemade tool called BoxIt, which is designed like git. Manjaro joined the list with the release of v0.8.2, dated November 10, 2012. Manjaro Linux 0.8.13 was released June 14, 2015. Manjaro-i3 o.8.13.1 was released August 4, 2015. Manjaro KDE-Next 2015.08 was released August 16, 2015. Manjaro (Bellatrix) 15.09 was released September 27, 2015. Manjaro Linux 15.12 was released December 23, 2015. Manjaro BspWM Community Edition 15.12 was released December 30, 2015. Manjaro 16.06 "Daniella" was released June 6, 2016. Manjaro 16.10 Fringilla was released October 31, 2016. Manjaro 17.1.0 was released December 31, 2017. Manjaro 18.1.0 was released September 12, 2019.
https://mauilinux.org/
Maui is an Arch Linux based distribution that features the Hawaii desktop and uses Wayland and systemd under the hood. Hawaii 0.2.0 was released December 24, 2013. Netrunner/KDE Neon-based Maui 1.0 "Aurora" was released August 14, 2016. Maui 2 "Blue Tang" was released October 28, 2016. Maui 2.1 was released November 26, 2016. Maui 17.03 "Cuba Libre" was released March 4, 2017.
MostlyLinux
http://mostlylinux.com/
MostlyLinux is a software company based in Jharkhand, India. The company does mostly the same things other Linux companies do including enterprise support and service, corporate training and custom distributions. They also are building a distribution called MostlyLinux. This entry was added August 24, 2004. The distribution is Fedora based with lots of additional software, including multimedia applications, LTSP packages and more. MostlyLinux 3.0 Enterprise/ Desktop was the most current version as of October 16, 2008. MostlyLinux 7.1 was released May 28, 2015.
https://mxlinux.org/
MX Linux is a cooperative venture between the antiX and former MEPIS communities, using the best tools and talents from each. It is a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint. MX-15 was released December 24, 2015. MX-16.1 (Metamorphosis) was released June 8, 2017. MX-17.1 was released March 14, 2018. MX-18.3 Continuum was released May 26, 2019. MX-19 (with updates from Debian 10.1 "buster") was released October 21, 2019.
NethServer
http://www.nethserver.org/
NethServer is CentOS-based distribution aimed at small offices and medium enterprises. NethServer joined the list with the release of v6.6 Beta1, dated January 28, 2015. NethServer 6.6 was released March 25, 2015. NethServer 6.7 was released October 19, 2015. NethServer 6.9 was released May 2, 2017. NethServer 7 was released February 8, 2017. NethServer 7.7 Cockpit Edition was released November 7, 2019.
http://www.netrunner-os.com/
Netrunner is sponsored by Blue-Systems.com. Its core is Ubuntu with an optimized KDE front-end, with a focus on freedom and useability, while not separating KDE and Gnome, but building functional bridges between them. Netrunner 3.2 was released June 30, 2011. Netrunner Desktop 17.06 was released July 1, 2017. Netrunner Rolling 2019.04 was released April 20, 2019. Netrunner 19.08 Indigo was released August 20, 2019. As of October 13, 2019, there will be no more updated installation media for Manjaro-based Netrunner Rolling. Efforts will instead be directed upstream to Manjaro. Netrunner Debian, Core and ARM versions are unaffected.
Obarun
https://web.obarun.org/
The goal of Obarun is to provide an alternative for people looking for more simplicity and transparency in maintaining their systems. It is described as a Build Concept rather than a traditional distribution. The user builds the OS from source. Obarun is not designed with beginners in mind. It is based on Arch Linux, but it uses S6 as a systemd replacement. It includes a collection of system tools, called 66, built around s6 and s6-rc to make the implementation and manipulation of service files on your machine easier. 66 v 0.2 was released August 14, 2019.
http://openmandriva.org/
OpenMandriva is a community fork of the now defunct Mandriva. During 2012 the OpenMandriva Association was formed separating the community from Mandriva SA. Mandriva/Moondrake 2012 alpha 2 was released November 6, 2012. The OpenMandriva Association later decided the community distribution would be called OpenMandriva. ROSA-based OpenMandriva 2013.0 Alpha was released June 18, 2013. OpenMandriva Lx 2013.0 was released November 22, 2013. OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1 was released September 26, 2014. OpenMandriva 2014.2 (Scion) was released June 29, 2015. OpenMandriva Lx 3.03 was released November 21, 2017. OpenMandriva Lx 4.0 was released June 16, 2019. OpenMandriva Lx 4.1 beta was released January 10, 2020.
http://www.paldo.org/
paldo stands for "pure adaptable linux distribution". It is a Upkg driven GNU/Linux distribution and it's a mix of a source and a binary distribution. Even though it builds packages like a source distribution it provides binary packages. paldo joined the list at v1.12, released November 5, 2007. paldo 1.22 was released May 21, 2010. A live CD (hybrid ISO) was released January 10, 2014. This is a rolling release with continuous updates. A stable live image was released June 4, 2019 and an unstable image was released June 16, 2019.
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre
https://parabola.nu/
Parabola aims to provide a fully free as in freedom Archlinux. It's is compatible with Archlinux repositories and maintains its own "libre" repository with replacement packages such as the Linux-libre kernel. Parabola was added to the list February 7, 2012. Parabola is a rolling release with no version numbers.
https://system76.com/pop
Pop!_OS is developed by System76 for use in the computers that the company makes. It can also be downloaded and installed elsewhere. It aims to be an OS for the software developer, maker, and computer science professional who uses their computer as a tool to discover and create. The initial October 27, 2017 release of Pop!_OS was based on Ubuntu 17.10. Pop!_OS 18.04 was released May 1, 2018. Pop!_OS 18.10 was released October 19, 2018. Pop!_OS 19.04 was released April 18, 2019. Pop!_OS 19.10 was released October 21, 2019.
http://q4os.org
Q4OS aims to be fast and powerful, with a focus on security, reliability and conservative integration of verified new features. It features the KDE plasma desktop, with the Trinity desktop (a fork of KDE 3.5) and other desktops available. It should work well on older hardware. Q4OS joined the list with the release of Q4OS 0.5.18, September 8, 2014. Q4OS 1.2.8 was released August 22, 2015. Debian 9.5 'Stretch'-based Q4OS 2.7 was released December 31, 2018. Q4OS 3.8 Centaurus is based on Debian 10 'buster' and will be supported for 5 years; released July 15, 2019. Q4OS 3.9 Centaurus was released January 4, 2020.
Rebellin
http://therebellin.com/
Rebellin is a Debian based distribution that comes in two flavors. Synergy tracks Debian stable while Adrenaline tracks unstable. Rebellin aims to be fast, easy to use, and secure. The distribution is available for a nominal fee and the company provides email support. Rebellin joined the list with the release of version 1.5, dated April 16, 2013. Rebellin Linux 'Synergy 2.0' was released October 15, 2013. Rebellin Linux 2.5 was released February 13, 2015. Rebellin 3.0 was released May 9, 2016. Rebellin Linux 3.5 was released February 21, 2017.
Refracta
http://www.ibiblio.org/refracta/
Refracta is designed for home computer users. It provides a simple and familiar layout that most users will find very comfortable. This Devuan derivative includes special tools - refractainstaller, refractasnapshot and refracta2usb - that allow you to customize your installation and create a live-CD or live-USB of your running system. These tools will work on most Debian/Devuan-based systems. Refracta (beta images based on Devuan Jessie) were available when this entry was added, August 2, 2016. Refracta-9.0, based on Devuan-2.0 (ASCII), was released February 8, 2019.
Revenge OS
https://sourceforge.net/projects/obrevenge/
http://obrevenge.weebly.com/
Revenge OS, formerly OBRevenge OS, aims to be light and fast, with an Arch Linux base. The goal of OBRevenge OS is to provide an easily installed desktop operating system with all of the power and customization of an Arch Linux base. OBRevenge OS is light on system resources, making it perfect for lower spec hardware, older machines, or those who simply want to save precious system resources for the work that they are doing. OBRevenge uses the Calamares installer. OBRevenge joined the list February 27, 2017. The name was changed to Revenge OS in July 2017. Updated 32-bit and 64-bit ISOs are available monthly.
http://www.sabayonlinux.org/
Sabayon is a beginner-friendly Gentoo-based distribution that aims to deliver the best "out of the box" user experience by providing the latest open source technologies. Building on a distribution known as RR4 (32-bit) and RR64 (64-bit) Linux, Sabayon released version 3.3 March 25, 2007. The project moved to a rolling release model and snapshot 16.11 was released October 28, 2016. Sabayon 19.03 was released March 31, 2019.
http://semplice-linux.org/
Semplice aims to be simple, fast, and lightweight. It's based on Debian sid and uses Openbox and other lighter weight applications. Newer versions feature the "vera" desktop which uses GTK3 libraries. It will run on a 486 processor (or better) with at least 384 MB of RAM (to boot the live system). Additional applications can be added from the Debian repository. Semplice 2.0.2 was released April 8, 2012. Semplice 3.0 was released January 2, 2013. Semplice 6 "Stairway to Heaven" was released January 24, 2014. Semplice 7 "Comfortably Numb" was released April 8, 2015. Semplice 7.0.1 was released April 14, 2015. Semplice for Workstations 2015.2 "Jethro Tull" was released September 18, 2015.
SharkLinux
http://sharklinuxos.org/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/sharklinux/
SharkLinux specializes in virtualization and features a custom MATE/XFCE desktop capable of running on a cloud server with little impact on performance. The OS runs KVM as the primary hypervisor and provides a wide range of tools to build and run VM's and containers. Some limited native support exists for DEB and RPM based Linux platforms, NixOS, osX and Windows applications. The distribution was created by a single person using only an Android smartphone. SharkLinux is under heavy development with fresh ISOs built weekly. SharkLinux was added to the list April 4, 2017. This entry was updated August 31, 2018.
Siduction
http://siduction.org
Siduction is a fork of aptosid and is also based on Debian's unstable branch aka sid. Siduction 2011.1 - One Step Beyond - was released December 30, 2011. siduction 2018.2.0 was released March 9, 2018.
SME Server
http://contribs.org/
Once known as e-smith, this server and gateway distribution has gone through several owners, including Mitel Networks (where it became SME server), Lycoris and Resource Strategies, Inc. Mitel released version 5.5 of the SME Server on July 3, 2002. In March 2005 Ruffdogs took possession of Contribs.org and developed a roadmap for the rebuilding of the Contribs.org community. SME Server 7.0 was released July 1, 2006. SME Server then switched to a CentOS base and gained support from the Koozali Foundation. SME Server 8.1 was released February 28, 2014. Koozali SME Server 8.2 was released November 4, 2015. Koozali SME Server 9.2 was released May 2, 2017.
http://sms.it-ccs.com/
SMS stands for Superb Mini Server. This Slackware based distribution is console based and manageable through the Webmin web-based interface. Although described as a mini server, it has all the features of a powerful server such as apache2, sendmail, postfix, spamassassin, clamav, squid, iptables, MailScanner, mysql, cups and lot of other server packages. The SMS project started in 2007. SMS 1.5.6 was released February 20, 2011. SMS 2.0.9 was released October 5, 2016.
Solus Project
https://solus-project.com/
The Solus Project was known as Evolve OS, which was derived from a defunct distribution call SolusOS. Evole OS used the code base from the old Solus distribution, so the Solus Project is an evolving continuation of the old SolusOS distribution. The project changed the name in April 2015. It is built from scratch and uses its own Budgie Desktop and eopkg. Budgie is tightly integrated with the GNOME stack, while eopkg is a fork of the PiSi package manager. The first beta version was released January 26, 2015. Evolve OS Beta 1.1 was released March 16, 2015. Solus 1.0 "Shannon" was released December 27, 2015. Solus 1.2 was released June 20, 2016. In July 2016 the project moved to a rolling release model, with occasional snapshots. Solus 1.2.1 was released October 19, 2016. Solus 3 was released August 15, 2017. Solus 4 Fortitude was released March 17, 2019.
SolydXK
http://solydxk.com/
SolydXK, a Debian derived distribution, creates two variants. SolydX features the Xfce desktop, while SolydK features KDE. SolydX strives to be as light-weight as possible. SolydK is more fully-featured. Both are available in a home edition. There is also a business editon of SolydK. SolydXK 201404 was released May 2, 2014. SolydXK 201801 was released January 16, 2018. SolydXK 9 was released July 16, 2017. SolydXK 201807 was released July 2, 2018. SolydXK 201902 was released March 3, 2019. SolydXK 10, based on Debian 10 buster, was released September 26, 2019.
Source Mage GNU/Linux
http://www.sourcemage.org/
Source Mage GNU/Linux is a source-based GNU/Linux distribution based on a Sorcery metaphor of "casting" and "dispelling" programs, which are referred to as "spells". Sorcery 0.1.3 was released into cvs on March 26, 2002. Source Mage 0.9.6 for PPC and x86 was released March 13, 2006. Source Mage ISO bugfix release 0.10.0-test5-1 was announced January 5, 2009. Stable Sorcery 1.14.3 was released May 26, 2009. Source Mage Cauldron (installer) 0.10.0 was released June 5, 2009. Sorcery 1.15.0 was released September 22, 2011. Stable grimoire v0.62-11 was released October 21, 2017.
http://sparkylinux.org/
SparkyLinux is a lightweight, fast and simple Linux distribution designed for both old and new computers featuring customized desktops (like E19, LXDE, and others). It is built on Debian GNU/Linux testing. Sparky joined the list with the 2.1 "Eris" release, dated March 19, 2013. It was announced April 7, 2018 that future Sparky editions will be limited to one main Openbox based desktop: LXQt (rolling) or LXDE (stable). Debian 9 based SparkyLinux 4.11 "Tyche" was released July 10, 2019. Debian 10 "Buster" is the base for SparkyLinux 5.x "Nibiru". Sparky 5.10 was released January 12, 2020. Sparky "Po Tolo" is a semi-rolling branch, following Debian testing (Bullseye), with regular snapshots. The first Po Tolo release was 2019.08, followed by the Sparky 2019.08 Special Editions. Sparky 2019.12 "Po Tolo" is out. Sparky 2019.11 Special Editions were released November 11, 2019. Sparky Bonsai is a portable edition, meant to run from removable media. The first release of Bonsai was announced December 5, 2019.
Tanglu
http://www.tanglu.org/
Tanglu is based on Debian testing and follows Debian closely. Tanglu aims to be useful to both developers of upstream software and the average Linux user and Linux newbie. It is also meant to be a place to test new versions of upstream packages when Debian testing is frozen. Some Ubuntu packages will be used, such as the kernel and Kubuntu's KDE packages. Tanglu was announced March 14, 2013. Tanglu 1.0 (Aequorea Victoria) was released February 21, 2014. Tanglu 2 (Bartholomea annulata) was released December 12, 2014. Tanglu 3 (Chromodoris willani) was released August 4, 2015. Tanglu 4 (Dasyatis kuhlii) was released June 11, 2017.
Turbolinux
http://www.turbolinux.com/
Turbolinux supports a variety of platforms and Asian languages. They were the Asian arm of UnitedLinux. March 15, 2004 Turbolinux became a wholly owned subsidiary of Livedoor, a large Japanese ISP. Turbolinux 10 Desktop was released October 2, 2003. Turbolinux 10 F, designed for home computer users, was released April 27, 2004. Turbolinux 10 Server (10S) was released October 5, 2004. Turbolinux 10 for AMD64/EM64T preview edition was released February 16, 2005. Turbolinux FUJI Desktop Version 11 was released November 2005. Turbolinux FUJI Version 11 became generally available May 30, 2006. Turbolinux 11 Server was released November 29, 2007. Turbolinux 12 (Client 2008 Net User Package) was released August 29, 2008. Turbolinux Appliance Server 3.0 was released January 11, 2011. Turbolinux 12.5 was released August 29, 2012.
http://unity-linux.org/
Unity Linux is a Mandriva-based distribution that utilizes the MkLiveCD project, which allows developers to create their own distribution on top of a Unity Linux core (or "trunk"). Unity Linux strives to provide a solid, well maintained foundation that developers can use as a starting point to build their own remastered distributions, or branches. The first beta release of Unity Linux (2010 Beta 1) was announced December 9, 2009. Unity Linux 2010.2 was released December 6, 2010. Unity Linux 2012 Alpha1 was released March 3, 2012. With no Mandriva release in sight the project decided to switch to ROSA as a base for Unity.
Univention Corporate Server
http://www.univention.de/en/products/ucs/
Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is a preconfigured Enterprise Linux operating system with an integrated identity and management system. UCS-certified third party solutions are numerous. This entry was added July 12, 2006. UCS 3.0 was released December 12, 2011. An Ubuntu-based desktop product, Univention Corporate Client (UCC), was initially released October 31, 2012. UCS 3.2.4 was released November 12, 2014. UCC 2.0 was released June 11, 2014. UCS 4.0 was released November 20, 2014. UCS 4.2-3 was released November 30, 2017. Debian 9 "stretch" based UCS 4.3-3 was released December 11, 2018. UCS 4.4-3 was released December 4, 2019.
VectorLinux
http://www.vectorlinux.com/
VECTORLINUX is a small, fast, Intel Linux operating system based on one of the original Linux distributions, Slackware. VectorLinux strives to be a bloat free, easy to install, configure and maintain Slackware based system. The average user can have a fully functional Slackware Linux system up in as little as 15 minutes, using VectorLinux. Version 2.5 was released April 2, 2002. VectorLinux 6.0 "Voyager" was released February 21, 2009. Other v6 releases include Light, Light Live, KDE-CLASSIC, KDE-Classic-Live, SOHO, and SOHO Deluxe. VectorLinuxL 7.0 was released November 27, 2011. Other flavors of VL 7.0 include Light, SOHO, and 64-bit. The 64-bit version of VL 7.0 was released July 14, 2012. VL 7.1 was released June 27, 2015. VectorLinux Light 7.1 was released August 17, 2015. Vectorlinux 7.2 beta was released July 3, 2016.
http://www.voidlinux.org/
Void is a volunteer project creating a distribution built from scratch. It follows a rolling release model, install once and update daily from a continuous build system. Its package system allows you to quickly install, update and remove software, which is provided in binary packages or can be built directly from sources with the help of the XBPS source packages collection. Void joined the list March 9, 2015. New images were released November 12, 2018.
Zentyal
http://www.zentyal.com/
Zentyal (formerly eBox Platform) is a Network Gateway, Unified Threat Manager, Office Server, Infrastructure Manager, Unified Communications Server or a combination of them. Version 2.0 (released September 1, 2010) was based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. Zentyal Server 5.1 (based on Ubuntu 16.04.4) was released March 22, 2018. Zentyal Server 6.1 (based on Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS) was released October 30, 2019.
Zorin OS
http://www.zorinos.com/
Zorin OS is a multi-functional operating system designed specifically for Windows users who want to have easy and smooth access to Linux. It is based on Ubuntu and targeted towards small to medium businesses. Zorin OS 5 Business was released July 5, 2011. Zorin OS 5 Lite, Educational Lite and Educational were released during July and August 2011. Zorin OS 12.4 was released August 13, 2018. Zorin OS 15 was released June 5, 2019. Zorin OS 15 Education was released September 25, 2019. Zorin OS 15 Lite was released November 20, 2019. Zorin OS 15.1 was released December 12, 2019.
This is mix of distributions used by educational institutions, and distributions that are designed to be educational to install and use.
AbulEdu
http://www.abuledu.org/
AbulEdu is a Mandrake-based distribution for primary schools. It is currently in French but most of the tools can be translated. An AbulEdu server can handle Mac (netatalk), Windows (samba), GNU/Linux and X terminal (with LTSP) clients. The server acts as a central gateway for Web, mail, and printing, and facilitates the management of classes, pupils, and teachers. Everybody can publish Web pages on an intranet using Apache and all administration tasks are performed using a browser. The result is that a teacher who is not a computer specialist can install and manage a school network. Stable version 1.0.7-II was released May 26, 2003. Version 8.08.0 was released September 4, 2008. AbulEdu 11.08 was released December 22, 2011. AbulEdu 15.08 is available.
Beyond Linux From Scratch (BLFS)
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/
Beyond Linux From Scratch (BLFS) is a project with the aim of assisting LFS users to go beyond the base system. It contains a broad range of instrutions for installing and configuring various packages on top of a base LFS system. If you are wondering why you would want an LFS system or what one is, see the entry for LinuxFromScratch below in this list. BLFS 1.0 was released April 28, 2003 under the original BSD License. A systemd version is available in addition to the original SysV init version. BLFS 9.0 was released September 1, 2019. An initial beta of Basic Packages for Linux From Scratch was released September 21, 2018. The Basic Packages book provides suggested applications that are useful for all LFS users.
CorvOS
https://corvos.io/
CorvOS is an Xubuntu-based system for primary schools (K-12 in the US). It offers ChromeOS simplicity without the privacy issues and Google vendor lock-in. The first stable release is expected in early May 2018.
Debian-Jr.
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianJr
Debian Jr is a Debian Pure Blend that aims to help children and those who care for them to get the most use and enjoyment out of their Debian systems; to help them acquire some of the skills and experiences we have as adults; and to convey to them our values: our love of freedom, our appreciation for software that works well, and our strong sense of community.
Freeduc
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ofset
The Organization for Free Software in Education and Teaching (OFSET) produced Freeduc, a Knoppix/Debian-based Linux system with educational software, all on one bootable CDROM. Version 1.1 of the Freeduc CD-ROM was released November 5, 2002. Freeduc-cd 1.5 was released May 15, 2005. Freeduc 1.7 was the current version in January 2016.
http://www.linuxschools.com
http://www.karoshi.org.uk
Karoshi is a server operating system designed for schools. Karoshi provides a simple graphical interface that allows easy installation, setup and maintenance of your network. Karoshi 5.1.3 was based on PCLinuxOS and released June 11, 2007. Karoshi 6.0 was released June 18, 2009. Karoshi 7.0 was released August 2, 2010. Karoshi 10.1.2 was released March 29, 2015.
Li-f-e: Linux for Education
https://sourceforge.net/projects/cyberorg-home/
Li-f-e (Linux for Education) includes software for students, educators and parents. Originally based on openSUSE, Li-f-e switched to an Ubuntu MATE LTS base in 2016. See openSUSE-Edu Li-f-e. openSUSE-Edu Li-f-e 12.1 was released January 1, 2012. openSUSE-Edu Li-f-e 42.1, released December 21, 2015, was the last release based on openSUSE. Ubuntu based Li-f-e 16.04.3 was released August 6, 2017.
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/
Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a project that provides you with the steps necessary to build your own custom Linux system using the LFS book. The web site also contains links to other resources such as mailing lists, mailing list archives, newsgroups, search engine, faq and more. Released under the original BSD License. Development version 3.2-rc2 was released February 27, 2002. LFS is available with or without systemd. LFS 9.0 was released September 1, 2019.
PicarOS
http://minino.galpon.org/en/
PicarOS is a multipurpouse distribution with a focus on education, to be used at home or schools, suitable for kids from 3 to 12 and teachers. GALPon MiniNo is a related GNU/Linux distribution made for reusing old computers (10-12 years old). PicarOS Diego 2015 was released October 19, 2015.
PrimTux
http://primtux.fr
http://sourceforge.net/projects/primtux/ PrimTux is developed in cooperation with the French ASRI Edu community, for use in French primary schools. PrimTux "Freedom", based on Debian 8.2 "Jessie", was released October 11, 2015. PrimTux Eiffel was released April 6, 2016. PrimTux2 was released October 29, 2016. PrimTux 4 was released October 26, 2018. PrimTux 5, released October 27, 2019, is available as a 64bit Lubuntu 18.04-based edition and a 32bit Debian 9 "stretch"-based edition.
PUIAS/Springdale Linux
http://puias.math.ias.edu/
The PUIAS project's Springdale Linux (SDL) is built by the computing staff of Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, using RHEL sources. Additional repositories are available and may be used with a stock RHEL installation. The Addons repository contains additional packages not included in a stock Red Hat distribution. The Computational repository also includes additional packages specific to scientific computing. The Unsupported repository is a place where one time packages are put, they are unsupported and may change frequently. PUIAS 6.2 (pisa) was released December 15, 2011. Springdale/PUIAS 5.11, 6.7, and 7.2 were supported as of January 2016.
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/
http://www.skolelinux.org/
Skolelinux, aka Debian Edu, is a free software soluion designed for the resources and needs of schools. It started in Norway, but it has become an international community, and is synonymous with the Debian Edu subproject. Skolelinux pr41 was released November 2, 2003. Skolelinux 1.0 (Venus) update 1 was released November 1, 2004. Debian Edu/Skolelinux 6.0.4 "squeeze" was released March 11, 2012. Debian Edu/Skolelinux 7.1 was released September 28, 2013. Debian Edu 8.0 "jessie" was released July 2, 2016. Debian Edu 9.0 "stretch" was released June 18, 2017. Debian Edu 10.0 "buster" was released July 7, 2019.
ubermix
http://ubermix.org/
Ubermix is an all-free, specially built, Linux-based operating system designed from the ground up with the needs of education in mind. Built by educators with an eye towards student and teacher empowerment, ubermix takes all the complexity out of student devices by making them as reliable and easy-to-use as a cell phone, without sacrificing the power and capabilities of a full operating system. With a turn-key, 5 minute installation, 20 second quick recovery mechanism, and more than 60 free applications pre-installed, ubermix turns whatever hardware you have into a powerful device for learning. Ubermix was added to the list March 13, 2013, when the current version was 1.065. The 1.0.x series was based on Ubuntu 12.04 "Precise Pangolin". Ubermix 2.2 (based on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS) was released March 27, 2015.
UberStudent
http://www.uberstudent.org/
UberStudent is an Ubuntu based, user-friendly Linux distribution for learning, doing, and teaching the essential skills of academic success at the higher education and advanced secondary levels. It is supported by a virtual learning environment. UberStudent 1.0 was released July 27, 2010. UberStudent-LXDE was released September 3, 2010. UberStudent 2.0.4.2 Lightweight Edition was released January 18, 2013. UberStudent 3.0 was released June 10, 2013. UberStudent 4.0 (LTS) Socrates was released July 20, 2014. UberStudent 4.3 "Heraclitus", Xfce Enduser Edition was released December 30, 2015.
These may provide support for other languages. Most of the websites listed here will be in the appropriate language for the country of origin.
This covers Saudi Arabia and other countries where Arabic is spoken.
Ojuba Linux
http://www.ojuba.org/
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DerivedDistributions/LiveCDs#Ojuba_Linux
Ojuba Linux is an Arabic Fedora-based distribution with packages translated to Arabic/Islamic languages like hijra and minbar. Many packages have been patched to have better Arabic support. Ojuba Linux comes with some third party packages to have multimedia support for proprietary formats and proprietary drivers. This entry was added on September 10, 2008. Fedora based Ojuba 2 was released February 7, 2009. Ojuba 3 "arrebat" was released September 16, 2009. Ojuba 4 was released August 5, 2010.
http://www.dragora.org/
Dragora is an independent distribution of GNU/linux based on the concepts of simplicity and elegance. It was written by Matías A. Fonzo in Argentina. It aims to be a multipurpose, stable and powerful operating system using only free software. The initial release of Dragora was June 13, 2008. Dragora GNU/Linux 1.1 was released October 8, 2009. Dragora 2.2 was released April 21, 2012. Dragora 3.0 Beta 1 was released October 16, 2019.
Dzongkha Debian Linux
http://dzongkha.sourceforge.net/
The Dzongkha Localization Project has created a live CD based on Debian and localized into Dzongkha, the official language of Bhutan, a small country located between India and China. An entirely localized GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 was released July 19, 2006. An Etch-based version was released August 28, 2007.
Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre
https://www.hyperbola.info/
The Hyperbola Project is a community driven effort to provide a fully free (as in freedom) operating system that is stable, secure, simple, lightweight that tries to Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) under a Long Term Support (LTS) way. Hyperbola is derived from Arch with stability and security from Debian. Hyperbola has been endorsed by the FSF as a Free Software distribution. The current stable release is Milky Way (which was released July 13, 2017 and will be supported until 2020. The development branch is called White Hole. Milky Way 0.3 was released September 23, 2019. The project announced that they will be switching from the Linux-libre kernel to a fork of the OpenBSD kernel in 2020. The Milky Way branch will be supported until 2022.
Linuxfx
http://www.linuxfx.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxfxdevil/
Linuxfx GhostOS has a modern core, an advanced KDE desktop and all plugins, drivers and applications needed for production and entertainment embedded in the system. The interface aims to be intuitive and very modern. It includes full support for biometrics. Linuxfx GhostOS joined the list with the release of v6 on November 7, 2012. Linuxfx ctOS 7.4.2 was released November 22, 2015. Linuxfx OS 8.0 LTS was released June 29, 2017. Linuxfx LTS 9.0 was released May 11, 2018.
StotinkaOS
http://www.stotinkaos.net/
StotinkaOS is CentOS based Linux distribution for Bulgarian users. The project ships with own repository containing many useful desktop and system applications also other third-party software repositories enabled by default, including RPMFusion and Fedora's EPEL repository. StotinkaOS 6.7 Ahinora was released August 13, 2015. StotinkaOS 6.8 Ahinora was released June 7, 2016.
USU Linux
http://learnfree.eu/
http://learnfree.eu/welcome/what-is-usu
USU Linux is an Ubuntu derivative developed by Bulgarians for Bulgarians. It comes in three editions: USU Mini, USU Desktop, and USU Netbook. The mini edition is suitable for home or business use, the desktop edition has a strong focus on educational uses, and the netbook edition is specially created for little mini portable computers. The stable version was 6.0 for all editions, and a development release of USU Mini 7.0 was available when USU joined the list on June 21, 2011.
Linux Deepin
http://deepin.org/
Linux Deepin (formerly known as Hiweed GNU/Linux) is a Chinese Linux distribution, based on Debian GNU/Linux. Its features include preconfigured Chinese applications, such as Chinese input method, Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries, and Chinese true-type fonts. It features the Deepin desktop and other in-house apps. Hiweed joined the list with the Hiweed Desktop v0.3RC1, released June 29, 2004. LinuxDeepin 9.12 (based on Ubuntu 9.10) was released December 30, 2009. Deepin 15.9 (based on Debian unstable) was released January 16, 2019. Deepin 15.10 (based on Debian stable) was released April 28, 2019. Deepin 15.11 was released July 19, 2019.
Magic Linux
http://www.magiclinux.org/
Magic Linux is a Chinese community distribution which uses the RPM package management system and which is optimised for the i686 processor architecture. Magic Linux 2.1 was released December 15, 2008. Magic Linux 3.0.5 was released July 14, 2014. Magic Linux 4.0 was released May 26, 2018.
Keldix
http://keldix.com/
Keldix is a Linux distribution primarily for the Small business Office and Home Office (SOHO) market. Keldix is a live-dvd built on PCLinuxOS. The current release was 20080329 when this entry was added to the list in August 2008. The 20080329 release is based on PCLinuxOS 2007 with some updates. The 20120406 release is based on PCLinuxOS 2012 with some updates.
0Linux
http://0linux.org/
0Linux is a semi-rolling, general purpose distribution for French speakers. Desktop environments include Enlightenment, Fluxbox, KDE, Razor-qt, and XBMC Xfce, with GNOME integration in progress. It uses the Spack package manager and contains other in-house tools. This entry was added September 2, 2014.
ASRI Édu
http://asriedu.sourceforge.net/
ASRI Édu is an edutainment distribution suitable for children 3-12 years of age. It's based on Puppy and Toutou Linux.
Emmabuntüs
http://emmabuntus.sourceforge.net/
Emmabuntüs is a Ubuntu derivative that aims to be simple and easy to use. Some proprietary bits (like Skype) are included to make things easier for people new to GNU/Linux. Several flavors of Emmabuntüs with different desktops are available. This entry was added July 11, 2012. Emmabuntüs2 1.00, released July 14, 2012, is based on Xubuntu 12.04. Emmabuntüs2 1.08 was released June 22, 2014. Emmabuntüs 3, based on Xubuntu 14.04, was released June 9, 2014. Emmabuntüs 3 1.03 was released March 31, 2016. Emmabuntüs Debian 8.9 Edition 1.03 was released August 28, 2017. Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 2 1.06 (based on Debian 9.9 "stretch") was released December 19, 2019. Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 3, based on Debian 10 buster, was released September 16, 2019.
HandyLinux
http://handylinux.org/
HandyLinux is a Debian based distribution and utilizing the XFCE desktop. It's designed to be accessible to children and seniors with tools such as a minimum screen magnifier, virtual keyboard and voice synthesis. HandyLinux 1.2 was the current version as of November 2013. HandyLinux 1.9 was released April 10, 2015. HandyLinux 2.5 was released June 11, 2016. The project announced an end to development January 16, 2017.
NuTyX GNU/Linux
http://www.nutyx.org/
NuTyX GNU/Linux is inspired by Linux From Scratch and Beyond Linux From Scratch. It uses its own package manager called "cards". NyTyX joined the list with the release of v2009, in September 2009. NuTyX 11.3 was released December 20, 2019.
Toutou Linux
http://toutoulinux.free.fr/
Toutou Linux is a Puppy based distribution, designed for older computers and optimized for French speakers. Toutou joined the list with the release of version 5.5, dated November 8, 2013. Toutou Wolx 2014 was released February 1, 2014. Toutou SlaXen 6.0 RCX was released April 14, 2015.
Voyager Live
http://voyagerlive.org/
Voyager Live is an Xubuntu/Debian derivative showcasing the Xfce desktop. Voyager 13.10 was released October 28, 2013. Voyager GE 19.04 was released April 24, 2019. Voyager 10, based on Debian 10 "buster" was released August 10, 2019. Ubuntu based Voyager GE 19.10 was released October 27, 2019.
Balsam Enterprise
http://www.open-slx.de/
Balsam Enterprise is an offering from open-slx aimed at small to medium sized businesses. Balsam Enterprise will maintain binary compatibilty with SUSE Linux Enterprise, available as a free download or bundled with maintenance and support services. The initial version of Balsam Enterprise will be based on SLE 12. Balsam Professional 12.1 was released November 11, 2011.
Neptune OS
https://neptuneos.com/
Neptune is designed for desktops and based on Debian stable with the KDE Plasma desktop. It is also flexible and useful on USB sticks and comes with custom applications to create and manage a live USB stick. Neptune 1.5 was released July 11, 2009. Neptune 5.6 was released November 4, 2018. Neptune 6.0 (based on Debian 10 Buster) was released August 16, 2019.
Simplix
http://simplix.sourceforge.net/
Simplix Linux is an easy to use operating system for desktop home computers. It is a live CD based on Debian GNU/Linux stable and is made for German speaking users. Added to the list on October 24, 2009 when Simplix 2009-10-10 was the current version. Simplix 3.1 was released November 2012.
Toorox
http://toorox.de/
Toorox is a Linux Live-DVD based on Gentoo that starts as a bootable media using KNOPPIX technology. Toorox includes some original tools to make dealing with the Gentoo repository easier. It can be installed to disk or to a USB key. Version 06.2009, released June 27, 2009, included KDE 4.2.4. Toorox is available in German and English. There are four versions available; GNOME, XFCE, LITE and KDE. Toorox 01.2012 "GNOME" was released January 20, 2012. Toorox 03.2012 "KDE" was released March 12, 2012. 08.2012 "XFCE" and "LITE" were released August 3, 2012. Toorox 11.2012 "GNOME" was released December 9, 2012. Toorox 01.2013 "KDE" was released December 30, 2012.
ZevenOS
http://www.zevenos.com/
The ZevenOS project was founded in order to preserve some of the extraordinary features of the BeOS operating system. ZevenOS is a pure Linux system, designed to induce as far as possible the feeling of BeOS and its successor ZETA. ZevenOS aims to be very user friendly and an excellent choice for multimedia performance, even on older hardware. ZevenOS is based on Xubuntu. ZevenOS 2.0 was released November 15, 2009. ZevenOS 6.0 "Goodbye Edition" was released December 31, 2014. It is based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, and will receive 5 years of support, also it is the last ZevenOS release planned for "a long long time".
Slackel
http://www.slackel.gr/
Slackel follows Slackware-current (Slackware's development branch) and is synchronized with Slackware repositories. It features an update notification and one-click updating. Slackel joined the list with the May 5, 2012 release of some installation and LIVE DVD images. Slackel 14.0 was released October 13, 2012. Slackel 6.0 Openbox, based on Slackware and Salix, was released February 18, 2014. Slackel 1.0 Live Fluxbox was released August 9, 2014. Slackel 6.0.7 Live Openbox was released September 16, 2016. Slackel Live KDE 4.14.21 was released October 21, 2016. Slackel 6.0.8 Openbox was released November 19, 2016. Slackel 7.2 Openbox was released July 20, 2019.
blackPanther
http://eu.blackpanther.hu/
blackPanther OS development was started in 2002 by Charles Barcza. It is based on Mandriva. The first public version was 1.0 (Codename: Shadow) in 2003. Since then, the development has been continuous, with a new version every year. blackPanther OS v11.1 (Darkness) was released October 17, 2011. blackPanther OS v14.1 (Walking Dead) was released July 29, 2015. blackPanther OS 16.1 (Silent Killer) was released August 6, 2016.
UHU-Linux
http://www.uhulinux.hu/
UHU-Linux is a Linux distribution from Hungary. It is an easily installable, dpkg-based distribution, with fully automatic hardware detection (based partly on Mandrake and other distros). It is primarily aimed at beginners. Version 1.0 was released April 18, 2003. UHU-Linux 3.0 (LTS) was released July 17, 2014.
Ankur Bangla Live
http://www.bengalinux.org/
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=43331
The Ankur Bangla Project is working toward supporting the Bangla (Bengali) language on the GNU/Linux operating system. The project has created a Morphix-based Live CD with GNOME 2.4, localized into Bangla. Beta 2 of Ankur Bangla Live was released October 8, 2003. Version 1.0 was released December 23, 2003. Ubuntu based AnkurBangla Install CD 7.10 was released October 27, 2007. Ankur Live was released March 21, 2012.
http://bosslinux.in
BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) is a Linux distribution developed by the National Resource Centre For Free/Open Source Software in India. It's based on Debian and made specifically for the Indian environment with a pleasing Desktop environment coupled with Indian language support (Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, and more) and other packages that are most relevant for use in the government domain. BOSS joined the list at verison 1.0 released January 2007. BOSS 3.0 was released September 5, 2008. EduBOSS 3.0 and BOSS 5.0 were current in March 2014. BOSSMOOL (Minimalistic Object Oriented Linux) aims to redesign the Linux kernel to reduce coupling and increase maintainability by means of OO (Object Oriented) abstractions. BOSS 6.0 "Anoop" was released September 2015.
SuperX
http://superxos.com/
SuperX stands for "Simple, User friendly, Powerful, Energetic and Robust eXperience". SuperX uses a tweaked version of KDE and is aimed towards beginners, casual users and business looking for a well supported user-friendly OS. It is used in government domains and universities in India. SuperX joined the list with the release of SuperX 3.0 "Grace" beta in December 2014. SuperX 3.0 "Grace" was released March 23, 2015. SuperX 5.0 "Lamarr" was released May 2, 2019.
TAS OS
http://www.tasos.in/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/tasos/
Web Log
Tas OS is based on Ubuntu, customized to provide a stable gnome environment with integrated applications. The project's goal is to promote open source software and provide an alternative to commercial operating systems. Tas joined the list with the release of 10.05 (cougar) dated May 27, 2010. TasOS 12.07 was released August 7, 2012.
http://www.blankonlinux.or.id/
BlankOn is an Indonesian distribution, targeting desktop users with limited Internet access. BlankOn is developed by Indonesian Linux Activator Foundation (YPLI, Yayasan Penggerak Linux Indonesia) and BlankOn Developers in order to encourage Indonesian people to get involved with Free/Open Source Software development. BlankOn was added to the list with the release of Catatan Rilis BlankOn 6.0 (Ombilin), dated July 4, 2010. BlankOn Sajadah 6.0 was released August 10, 2010. BlankOn 7.0 was released August 17, 2011. BlankOn 8.0 Rote was released August 16, 2012. BlankOn Linux 10.0 "Tambora" was released January 5, 2017. BlankOn 11.0 "Uluwatu" was released May 2, 2018.
Broletto
http://www.broletto.org/
Broletto is a simple and lightweight distribution based on Debian stable. Broletto contains resources, code and scripts to improve the best experience when you use Django. The first release, Broletto - Piazza Loggia, came out in October 2012.
http://fuss.bz.it/
FUSS (Free Upgrade in SouthTyrol's Schools) is a project funded by the European Social Fund which has upgraded the computer systems of all the Italian schools in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen. All software with a proprietary license has been removed from the FUSS GNU/Linux Soledad distribution. The project has developed the software solution and released it under a free software license. FUSS 4, based on Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04), was released May 20, 2009.
Hymera
http://www.hymera.it/
Hymera is a Debian based desktop distribution. Hymera aims to be simple, fast and flexible, with a friendly graphical interface suitable for beginners. Version 1.0 was released March 19, 2009.
openmamba GNU/Linux
http://www.openmamba.org/
openmamba GNU/Linux is a distribution for personal computers (Intel i686-compatible) that can be used on notebooks, desktops and servers. It comes with a plenty of software programs for office, multimedia, internet, games and much more. Created and maintained by mambaSoft, openmamba is now supported by a community of developers and Open Source software fans. openmamba is free software, with roots in the discontinued QiLinux project. It uses APT for RPM and Synaptic as its package management tools. openmamba was added to the list August 25, 2008, at version 1.0. openmamba milestone3 was released October 25, 2015.
Puzzle GNU/linux
http://www.puzzlelinux.it/
Puzzle features a hybrid desktop that combines elements from Openbox, xbmc, and KDE. It aims to be highly customizable. It's compatible with Ubuntu repositories and the project maintains unique Puzzle packages. Puzzle 1.1 was released November 21, 2014. PuzzleLinux 2.0 was the current version in October 2016.
SalentOS
http://salentos.it/
SalentOS is an Ubuntu based distribution that uses the Openbox desktop, with additional software from GNOME and XFCE. SalentOS 14.04 was released May 18, 2014. SalentOS 14.04.4 was released February 20, 2016. Debian stable based SalentOS "Luppìu" 1.0 was released October 21, 2016. SalentOS 2.0 Neriton was released November 29, 2017.
Berry Linux
http://berry-lab.net/
Berry Linux is a lightweight, fast operating system. It can boot from the CD-ROM / USB drive / USB-HDD / HDD. Fedora-based Berry Linux emphasizes the Japanese environment, with various fonts and a good input engine. The initial version of Berry Linux, 0.01 Beta, was released April 13, 2003. Berry Linux 1.24 was released January 7, 2017.
Linux MLD
http://www.mlb.co.jp/
There appears to be a full distribution from Media Lab. There is also a mini-distribution, as well as other Linux products. Version 7.0 was released August 14, 2003. Latest update dated July 18, 2016 as of February 2017.
Miracle Linux
http://www.miraclelinux.com/
Miracle Linux is a high reliability, scalability and availability server OS for the enterprise market, according to MIRACLE LINUX CORPORATION, the developer of the distribution. MIRACLE LINUX CORPORATION was originally founded by Oracle Corporation Japan. The current distribution (as of February 2017) was Asianux Server 7.0, along with other products.
Momonga Linux
http://www.momonga-linux.org/
Momonga Linux is the successor to Kondara. This general purpose distribution is developed mostly by Japanese programmers, but it supports English just as well and the Momonga web site provides English content, together with English-language mailing lists. One nice thing about Momonga is its support for 8 different Japanese input method servers, a selection of which is available directly from the GDM login screen. Best of all, these input servers work nicely even if you choose to keep your user interface in English (or any other language). The first stable release, Momonga Linux 1, was released August 6, 2004. Momonga Linux 7 was released September 13, 2010. Momonga Linux 7 LiveCD was released March 29, 2011.
Omoikane GNU/Linux
http://www.omoikane.co.jp/
This appears to be a Debian based distribution translated to Japanese. It comes in several editions. Appeared to be current as of April 2009. ARMA (Omoikane GNU/Linux) 3.0 was the current version in February 2017.
Vine Linux
http://www.vinelinux.org/
"The Supreme Linux Distribution with Integrated Japanese Environment for Your Desktop PCs and Notebooks." Multiple platforms seem to be supported. Vine Linux 2.5 was released April 15, 2002. Vine 6.3 was released February 26, 2015. Vine 6.5 was released April 3, 2017.
Jarro Negro
http://jarronegrolinux.com/
Jarro Negro came from a project called Muser, a project to develop a distribution for servers of different architectures (including SPARC). Jarro Negro is a 'built from scratch' distribution. JN added RPM package management with version 2.0.2, the current version when it was added to the list, February 10, 2009.
Chitwanix
http://chitwanix.com/
Chitwanix features the Sagarmatha desktop environment. Sagarmatha is forked from Cinnamon. Chitwanix OS 1.5 "Khukuri" was released July 12, 2014.
NepaLinux
http://www.nepalinux.org/
NepaLinux is a live CD it can also be installed on the hard drive. The work for the installation process has been facilitated through the European Commission supported Bhasha Sanchar Project which is led by the Open University (UK). The first version features a 2.6.12 Linux kernel and a GNOME desktop localized in Nepali and lots more Free Software, released December 19, 2005. NepaLinux 2.0 was released June 20, 2007. NepaLinux 3.0 was released July 6, 2008.
PakOS
https://sourceforge.net/projects/pakos/
PakOS is based on Debian and aims to be easy to use and reasonably secure with minimum resource utilization; for office, home, internet and off-line use. Language support includes English and Urdu. Development on PakOS began in December 2018. PakOS2019-06-09_Lxqt, based on Debian 10 "buster", was the current version when this entry was added (July 23, 2019).
TumiX
http://www.softwarelibre.org.pe/
TumiX is a Peruvian Linux distribution based on Slackware and SLAX. It provides the KDE desktop environment together with a large number of academic, office and multimedia applications. The distribution is targeted at colleges, universities and Peruvian educational institutions in order to help teaching and understanding GNU/Linux and to spread the use of Free Software in Peru. Tumix is an initiative of the Peruvian Community of Free Software and is distributed under the GNU GPL. Version 0.9 is the project's first public release; it is based on Slackware 10.1 with kernel 2.6.10, X.Org 6.8.2, KDE 3.4.0, and more; dated June 23, 2005. Not sure if there is still a distribution here (April 2009 and February 2017), but it is an active Software Libre website.
KahelOS
http://www.kahelos.org/
KahelOS is based on Arch Linux and favors the rolling release model. It comes with the GNOME desktop. The Kahel Server and Desktop distribution aims to provide the most up-to-date and comfortable Linux OS distribution optimized for i686 and x86-64. KahelOS joined the list with the release of KahelOS 050110 (May 1, 2010). KahelOS 111111 LiveCD with GUI Installer Desktop Edition is out. KahelOS 020212 Desktop Edition was released February 4, 2012.
http://www.pld-linux.org/
http://livecd.pld-linux.org/
PLD is a Linux distribution made mainly in Poland and by Poles, with documentation and mailing list available in English and Polish. PLD, which stands for PLD Linux Distribution, provides two managers for its RPM-based packages; a clone of Debian apt and its own poldek. The PLD Linux team released the first official stable version on November, 22, 2002. There are also PLD Live CD and PLD Rescue CD versions. PLD 2.0 (Ac) was released April 1, 2007. PLD Th 2013 snapshot was released December 31, 2013. PLD NR (New Rescue), built with the Th 2013 snapshot, was released January 1, 2014. PLD Th 2018 was released January 1, 2019. PLD Rescue 2018-1.6 was released January 2, 2019. PLD Th 2019 was released January 13, 2020.
Alinex
http://www.alinex.org/
Alinex is the product of a partnership between Junta de Extremadura in Spain and the University of Évora in Portugal. It's a general purpose distribution targeted to the educational system and public administration. Alinex 2.0 beta was available for download when this entry was added, April 30, 2007. Alinex 2.2 was the current version in April 2009. Alinex 3.9.10 was the current version in March 2017.
Caixa Mágica
Caixa Mágica was originally based on Debian and SuSE. It has been rewritten and localized in Portuguese. Caixa Mágica was added to list July 8, 2002. Caixa Mágica Desktop 10 Pro was released April 4, 2005. Caixa Mágica 20 was released June 5, 2013. Caixa Mágica 21 was released February 27, 2014. Caixa Mágica 23 was the current version in March 2017.
http://www.kolibrios.org/
Kolibri is the Russian word for hummingbird. Like the hummingbird, this OS aims to be small and fast. KolibriOS has a monolithic preemptive kernel and video drivers for 32-bit x86 architecture computers. It is developed and maintained by The KolibriOS Project Team. It is written entirely in FASM (assembly language). However C, C++, Free Pascal, Forth, and other high-level languages, may also be used in user application development. This OS takes about 5 MB of disk and around 10 MB of memory. Supported languages are Russian, English and German. Kolibri joined the list at version 0.7.5.0, released January 31, 2009. Nightly builds are available.
http://www.rosalab.com/
http://en.rosalinux.com/
http://wiki.rosalab.ru/en/
ROSA is a general purpose distribution from ROSA JSC. This Mandriva fork comes with additional software developed in-house. ROSA joined the list with the April 6, 2012 release of ROSA Marathon 2012 beta. The final release of ROSA Marathon 2012 was dated May 14, 2012. Marathon Release Pack 2 was released April 18, 2013. ROSA Desktop Fresh R6 was released July 21, 2015. ROSA Enterprise Desktop X2 was released May 19, 2015. ROSA Desktop Fresh R6 LXQt was released December 9, 2015. ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE R7 was released January 22, 2016. ROSA Desktop Fresh R7 Gnome3 was released February 25, 2016. ROSA R8.1 was released March 7, 2017. ROSA Desktop Fresh R9, released April 20, 2017, will be supported for 4 years. ROSA R9 LXQt was released June 7, 2017. ROSA Desktop Fresh R11 was released March 15, 2019.
Serbian GNU/Linux
http://www.debian-srbija.iz.rs/
https://septor.sourceforge.io/
Serbian GNU/Linux is a Debian-based distribution for Serbian-speaking people. Serbian 2016 KDE was released January 25, 2016. Serbian 2016 Openbox was released February 8, 2016. Serbian Septor, released June 15, 2018, is focused on security and privacy and uses the Tor network. Septor 2019 was released January 1, 2019. Serbian 2019 KDE was released January 21, 2019. Serbian 2019 Openbox was released February 1, 2019. Septor 2019.4, released July 10, 2019, is based on Debian 10 buster. Septor 2020 was released January 1, 2020. Serbian 2020 KDE was released January 16, 2020.
Greenie
http://greenielinux.org/
Greenie is a user-friendly Ubuntu-based distribution optimized for use by Slovak and Czech-speaking users. Greenie joined the list with the release of v4i R3, dated March 14, 2009. Greenie 5j was released June 10, 2009. Greenie 8M was released November 8, 2010. Greenie 8.1 was released January 23, 2011. Greenie 9N was released June 17, 2011. Greenie e-book 14.04.1 was released May 11, 2014. Greenie 16.04 was released March 2, 2017. Greenie 18.04 was released May 13, 2018.
MakuluLinux
http://www.makululinux.com/
MakuluLinux is based on Debian testing. It aims to be sleek, smooth and stable, and it includes pre-installed multimedia codecs and software for everyday use. Makulu 4.3 Xfce was released November 28, 2013. Other desktop varieties are available. The MakuluLinux 15 Series Base was released September 27, 2018. Makulu 15 Core, released January 25, 2019, uses the MakuluLinux 15 Series Base with the Core desktop environment, which is a fork of Xfce.
ASLinux Desktop
http://www.activasistemas.com/
Activa Sistemas presents ASLinux Desktop, a desktop-oriented distribution based on Debian Sarge. Unlike the Debian base, however, ASLinux restricts itself to one application for each task, simplifying the choices faced by users. Version 1.0 was released December 1, 2003. Version 2.0 was released February 10, 2005. ASLinux Desktop 2.0 was released May 31, 2005. ASLinux Desktop 4.0 will be available in 2009. May still be a distribution in there somewhere as of March 2017.
Guadalinex
http://www.guadalinex.org/
Guadalinex is a Debian based distribution for the Andalusia area of Spain. Ubuntu-based Guadalinex 2005 was released October 2005. Version 4.1 was released November 23, 2007. Guadalinex 5.0 was released November 11, 2008. GUADALINEX V8 (based on Ubuntu 11.10) was released March 13, 2012. Guadalinex v9 was released November 21, 2014.
LliureX
http://lliurex.net/
LliureX is an Ubuntu-based educational distribution developed by the Council of Culture, Education and Sport at the Municipality of Valencia in Spain. Version 9.09 was released September 23, 2009. LliureX 11.09 was released September 14, 2011. LliureX 15.05 343 was released Februrary 23, 2017.
ExTiX
http://www.extix.se/
http://linux.exton.net/
ExTiX is a live CD supporting English and Swedish, created by Arne Exton. Arne once created several other Swedish localized live Linux CDs: KNOPPIX-EXTON v3.7, KNOPPIX-EXTON Gnome Version, PCLinuxOS-EXTON p8.1a, Adios-EXTON v4.10 and EXTON-Slack v10.1. ExTiX was at v1.4 when this entry was added April 11, 2005. Originally ExTix used a KNOPPIX/Debian base, but version 6.0 was based on the Swiss Linux System paldo. ExTiX 7.0 was released in July 2009. ExTiX 9 x64, a remaster of Ubuntu 11.10, was released in December of 2011. ExTiX 15.4 LXQt and KDE Live DVD, based on Debian 8.1 Jessie/Ubuntu 15.10, was released October 18, 2015. ExTiX 16.5 LXQt (based on Ubuntu 16.10) was released October 12, 2016. ExTiX 17.0 KDE Live DVD, based on Debian 8.6 Jessie/Debian 9 Stretch/Ubuntu 16.10 with KDE 4.16, was released December 21, 2016. ExTiX 17.8 LXQt Live DVD was released October 12, 2017. ExTiX 17.7, with the Budgie Desktop, was released July 12, 2017. ExTiX 18.0 with the Deepin 15.5 Desktop was released November 23, 2017. ExTiX 18.10 LXQt Live DVD was released October 6, 2018. Extix 19.3, based on Ubuntu 19.04, was released March 7, 2019. ExTix 19.10 was released October 23, 2019. ExTiX Deepin 20.1 (based on Deepin 15.11) was released December 30, 2019.
Daylight Linux
http://daylightlinux.ch/
Daylight Linux is a Debian based OS with the fluxbox desktop. It's aimed at the Raspberry Pi and a live iso version is also available. Daylight 3, released December 23, 2018, is based on Debian 10 "Buster". Daylight 4 was released September 17, 2019.
Linpus Linux
http://www.linpus.com/
Linpus Professional Linux Services started out with an embedded distribution, which was originally based on uClinux. Linpus has branched out and offers a Desktop, Server and Media Center editions as well as the Lite LiveCD. Linpus Linux 9.5 was the current version in February 2008. Fedora based Linpus Linux Lite 1.3 for netbooks was released March 2, 2010. Linpus Lite 1.9 was released February 7, 2013. Linpus Lite 2.2 was released July 14, 2017.
LinuxTLE
http://www.opentle.org/
The OpenTLE (Thai Linux Extension) seems to be a good place for finding open source applications localized in Thai. LinuxTLE 5.5 (Samila) was released February 4, 2004. Linux TLE 5.5 Live CD with Gnome 2.6 was released April 26, 2004. LinuxTLE 9.0 "Hua-Hin" was released February 11, 2008.
Phayoune Secure Linux
http://www.phayoune.org/
Phayoune-Desktop 0.0.11 was the most recent version when it was added to list July 8, 2002. The site appears current as of November 2005, with a firewall, web server, thin clients and embedded Linux products. As of April 20, 2009 this site was home to Phayoune ISOFlash Linux, a live CD with KDE 3.5.8, based on Linux From Scratch.
SUTLinux
http://linux.sut.ac.th/
SUTLinux provides a Thai localized version of Ubuntu. The current version was based on Ubuntu 8.10 64 bit Server, released January 12, 2009 when this entry was added (June 9, 2009). SUTinsDesktop was relased October 9, 2014.
http://archman.org/en/
Archman is an Arch Linux derivative that aims to be easy, fast and powerful. Offical versions are available with Xfce, KDE-Plasma, Mate, and LxQt desktops. It uses the Calamares installer. The Pacman command-line package manager is available as well as GUI applications Pamac and Octopi. Archman uses a rolling release model with snapshots. Archman Xfce 2019-09 was released September 5, 2019. Archman Xfce 2020-01 was released January 8, 2020.
Milis Linux
https://milislinux.org/en/
Milis Linux is a project aimed at creating a local desktop operating system in Turkey. It's created with LFS (Linux From Stratch) principles and it has own package system and original tools. Milis Linux 1.0 Atilla Xfce4 was released December 9, 2017.
http://www.pardus.org.tr/
Pardus is a Debian-based distribution jointly developed by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey and National Academic Network and Information Centre. Version 1.0 featured a KDE 3.5 desktop localized in Turkish and was also available in English, Spanish, German and Dutch. Pardus 2007.2 "Caracal caracal", released July 11, 2007, was available in French, Italian, Catalan, Turkish, English, Spanish, German, Dutch, and Brazilian Portuguese. Pardus 2013.0 Corporate was released March 25, 2013. Pardus Community Edition 1.0 was released April 12, 2013. Pardus Community 2.0 GNOME was released September 20, 2013. Pardus 17.0 was released July 6, 2017, after a long hiatus. The 17.x series will be supported until January 5, 2021. Pardus 17.5 was released March 4, 2019. Pardus 19.1 was released November 20, 2019.
Pardus Topluluk
http://pardustopluluk.org/
Pardus Topluluk is a community fork of Pardus, that started while the original project was on hiatus, and continues as an independent project. Pardus Topluluk 4.0 was released in July 2017.
Pisi GNU/Linux
http://www.pisilinux.org/
Pisi GNU/Linux is based on Pardus Linux with it's PISI package system. It provides the base system that allows you to do things like listen to music, browse the internet and create documents. Pisi GNU/Linux uses the KDE Desktop Environment, providing you with a traditional desktop. Pisi joined the list with the release of 1.0 beta, dated June 18, 2013. Pisi 1.0 was released August 14, 2014. Pisi Linux 1.2 was released July 10, 2015. Pisi Linux 2.0 beta 2 was released August 30, 2016.
Canaima GNU/Linux
http://canaima.softwarelibre.gob.ve
Canaima is a Venezuelan desktop Linux distribution designed primarily for the country's government and schools, based on Debian GNU/Linux. Version 2.0 was based on Debian 5.0 (lenny). Canaima GNU/Linux 2.0.1 was released May 5, 2009. Debian 6.0 (squeeze) based Canaima 3.0 was released February 10, 2011. Canaima 3.1 was released November 14, 2012. Canaima 5.1 was released September 7, 2017.
Hacao Linux
http://hacao.com/
Hacao Linux started out as Puppy Linux translated to Vietnamese. The distribution remains lightweight, capable of running on low-end hardware and is entirely localized into Vietnamese. Hacao 4.21 was released May 31, 2009. Hacao Linux 2011 was the current version in September 2017.
Arabeyes Project
http://www.arabeyes.org/
Arabeyes is a Meta project that is aimed at fully supporting the Arabic language in the Unix/Linux environment. It is designed to be a central location to standardize the Arabization process. Arabeyes relies on voluntary contributions by computer professionals and enthusiasts all over the world.
IndLinux
http://www.indlinux.org/
The Indian Linux Project was formed with the goal of creating a Linux distribution that supports Indian Languages at all levels. This Indianisation project will strive to bring the benefits of Information Technology down to the Indian masses. We want to make technology accessible to the majority of India that does not speak English. Efforts are underway in Hindi, Punjabi, Oriya and Telugu, with more teams working on Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Tamil. A Rangoli live CD is available. As of April 20, 2009 teams were working on Hindi, Oriya, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu, Dzongkha (Bhutan), Nepali (Nepal) , Sinhala (Sri Lanka), and Pan Localization.
http://alpinelinux.org/
http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/
Alpine Linux is an independent, non-commercial, general purpose Linux distribution designed for power users who appreciate security, simplicity and resource efficiency. It uses musl libc and busybox for a smaller footprint. Alpine 1.7.19 (development), released July 2, 2008, was the current version when this entry was added (August 25, 2008). Alpine 3.11.0 was released December 19, 2019.
http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/
Ångström was started by a small group of people who worked on the OpenEmbedded, OpenZaurus and OpenSimpad projects to unify their effort to make a stable and user-friendly distribution for embedded devices like handhelds, set top boxes and network-attached storage devices and more.
Baserock
http://baserock.org/
The Baserock Linux distribution is used by the company Codethink in their products. The distribution is open source and initially targets x86, x86_64 hardware. Support for ARM is underway. Baserock is designed to provide an optimized build approach for embedded Linux solutions. This entry was added August 28, 2012 with the release of v1.1 "Secret Volcano". Baserock 15.47 was released December 2015.
DIET-PC
http://www.dietpc.org/
DIET-PC (DIskless Embedded Technology Personal Computer) is a Do-It-Yourself open source thin client software kitset, allowing IT professionals to construct generic- or special-purpose thin clients using commodity x86 PC hardware. DIET-PC is based on an embedded Linux O/S running entirely in RAM, loaded over the network via TFTP. The O/S is fully self-contained and - except for the basic service protocol - communicates with its environment only by means of industry standard IP protocols, such that the Linux nature of the O/S is largely hidden from and irrelevant to the user. Technologies used include Etherboot, Linux kernel with ext2 initrd, devfs, Busybox, XFree86, RDesktop, TightVNC and Citrix ICA Client. An alpha version was released May 10, 2002. Version 2 was released April 4, 2005. DIET-PC 3 was released February 2, 2013.
ELinOS
http://www.elinos.com/
From German firm SYSGO Real-Time Solutions GMBH, ELinOS is an embedded Linux distribution for Industrial Applications. ELinOS v2.0 includes PowerPC-Support, Real-Time Extension RTAI, Linux Kernel v2.4 and more. V5.0 was released March 3, 2009. ELinOS 6.1 was released March 2016.
Enea Linux
https://www.enea.com/linux
Enea Linux provides a comprehensive cross-development tool chain and runtime environment for common networking target architectures, and is an integrated, modular, solution which can be combined with Enea and other proprietary technologies, depending on the specific use cases and requirements. It uses Yocto as a base. Enea joined the list with the release of v2.0, dated October 2, 2012. Enea 5.0 CGL (Carrier Grade Linux) was released January 27, 2016. Enea Linux 6, based on Yocto Project 2.1, was released August 9, 2016.
Franki/Earlgrey Linux
http://www.angelfire.com/linux/wills/stubs.html
Franki and Earlgrey Linux are proof-of-concept source-based Linux distributions whose configuration is controlled by a loosely-knit suite of scripts designed to produce utility toolchains, known as STUBS. Based around the uClibc library and busybox utilities, Earlgrey Linux boots from floppy or CD with iso- or sys-linux and hosts enough utilities in 4MB of RAM to replicate the ramdisk content on hard disk or run its own ('egp') installer to do the same; "Franki" Linux is merely the codename for the finished result. The first version we know of was 0.3.16, released Sepember 5, 2003. Earlgrey 0.9.5-2pre2 was released September 29, 2008.
KaeilOS
http://www.kaeilos.com/
Koan Software
KaeilOS (formerly Klinux) is an Italian GNU/Linux embedded distribution for industrial applications from Koan Software. It includes an integrated development environment (IDE) and debugging instruments for embedded and real time systems. KaeilOS is based on kernel 2.6.15 and 2.4.31. It supports the processor families x86, ARM, PPC. Version 2.0 was released in July 2004. The current version of KaeilOS was 4.0 as of April 23, 2009. KaeilOS 4.4.1 was released May 3, 2012.
LEAF (Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall)
http://leaf.zetam.org/
http://leaf.sourceforge.net/
LEAF (Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall) is an easy-to-use embedded Linux system that is meant for creating network appliances for use in small office, home office, and home automation environments. There are several branches of LEAF. Bering-uClibc 3.1.1 beta 2 was released February 15, 2009. LEAF Bering-uClibc 4.3.3 was released December 29, 2012. LEAF Bering-uClibc 6.0.5 was released July 16, 2017. LEAF Bering-uClibc 6.0.6-rc1 was released September 18, 2017.
http://lineageos.org/
LineageOS was founded in late December 2016 after the the company Cyanogen, Inc. shut down. LineageOS is a free/open-source system for mobile devices, based on the Android Open Source Project. Lineage 15.1, based on Android 8.1 Oreo, was released February 24, 2018. Lineage 16.0, based on Android 9 Pie, was released February 28, 2019.
LTIB
http://ltib.org/
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/ltib
The LTIB (Linux Target Image Builder) project is an RPM based build system that can be used to develop and deploy BSPs (Board Support Packages) for a number of embedded target platforms including PowerPC, ARM, Coldfire.
http://www.merproject.org/
Mer is an open, mobile-optimised, core distribution aimed at device manufacturers; powered by Qt/QML and HTML5 - openly developed, inclusive, and meritocratically governed. Sailfish OS used Mer as a base and the projects were merged March 19, 2019. The Mer Project will be retired and absorbed into Sailfish OS.
MontaVista Linux
http://www.mvista.com/
Once known as Hard Hat Linux this embedded distribution from MontaVista, Inc., provides a cross development platform and a set of tool kits designed specifically for embedded solutions along with a Linux platform. A long list of microprocessors are supported. Renamed MontaVista Linux with the release of v2.1 on January 29, 2002. MontaVista Linux now comes in Professional Edition, Carrier Grade Edition, and Consumer Electronics Edition. MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition 4.0 was released May 16, 2005. MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 5.0 was released April 4, 2007. MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition 5.0 was released November 21, 2007. MontaVista Linux 6 was released May 12, 2009. MontaVista was acquired by Cavium Networks, finalized December 18, 2009. MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition 6.0 was released October 21, 2010.
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Distributions
Openmoko distributions are designed to run on various mobile devices, with the primary aim of Openmoko Inc.'s Neo 1973 and Neo FreeRunner phones. They are similar to Linux distributions; complete operating systems with user applications. You can install any of them on your phone or even have a multiboot system with two distributions installed. Current versions include Om 2007.2 (GTK), Om 2008.8 (Qtopia) and FSO - FreeSmartphone.Org. This entry was added August 15, 2008.
ProteanOS
http://proteanos.com/
ProteanOS is an operating system innovatively designed and built from scratch for a wide range of embedded devices, with inspiration from other successful operating systems. ProteanOS is designed to be as small as possible. Only essential programs and libraries are installed by default. And each software package is stripped down as much as possible. ProteanOS is endorsed by the Free Software Foundation. Entry added July 15, 2015.
SansaLinux
http://www.SansaLinux.org
SansaLinux is port of iPodLinux for the Sandisk Sansa e200 MP3player series. It is useable only with the original e200 series, but not with the V2 models. Sansalinux comes with a bootloader, a 2.4 Linux-kernel, a modified podzilla2 and some podzilla-plugins. It needs no repartitioning of the Sansa-flash. It runs directly from an ext2 loop-filesystem which is stored on the FAT-filesystem. Added to the list April 8, 2008.
UBports
https://ubports.com/
Ubuntu Touch is a touch-friendly mobile version of Ubuntu, developed and maintained by UBports. Ubuntu Touch is 100% community driven and independent. UBports joined the list with the release of Ubuntu Touch OTA-4 on August 26, 2018. Ubuntu Touch 16.04 OTA-6 was released December 7, 2018. Ubuntu Touch OTA-8 was released March 6, 2019. Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 was released October 23, 2019.
uClinux
http://www.uclinux.org/pub/uClinux/dist/
The Linux/Microcontroller project is a port of Linux to systems without a Memory Management Unit (MMU). Pronounced "you-see-linux", the name uClinux comes from combining the greek letter "mu" and the english capital "C". "Mu" stands for "micro", and the "C" is for "controller". uClinux was first ported to the Motorola MC68328: DragonBall Integrated Microprocessor. The first target system to successfully boot is the 3Com PalmPilot using a TRG SuperPilot Board with a custom boot-loader created specifically for our Linux/PalmPilot port. Version 20020701 was initially released on Freshmeat on July 16, 2002. V. test-20051209 was released January 4, 2006. uClinux v.20070130 was released January 30, 2007. Full Source Distribution 20160919 was current as of July 25, 2018.
Voyage Linux
http://linux.voyage.hk/
Voyage Linux is Debian derived distribution that is best run on a x86-based embedded platforms such as WRAP and Soekris 45xx/48xx boards. It can also run on low-end x86 PC platforms. Typical installation requires 128MB disk space, although larger storage allows more packages to be installed. Voyage Linux is so small that it is best suitable for running a full-feature firewall, wireless access point, VoIP gateway and network storage device. Voyage Linux joined the list at version 0.3.1 (etch-based), released April 14, 2007. A beta version of the Debian-Lenny based VL0.6 was released September 4, 2008. Voyage Linux 0.6.1 was released February 19, 2009. Voyage Linux 0.11.0 was released May 12, 2017.
Wind River Linux
http://windriver.com/products/linux/
Wind River provides commercial Linux solutions for embedded devices, real-time applications, and carrier grade applications. WindRiver became a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel in 2009. It was announced in April 2018 that global alternative asset firm TPG will acquire the company from Intel. Wind River Linux 3.0 was the current version in April 2009. Wind River Linux 8, released October 5, 2015, was based on Yocto Project 2.0 code. As of April 2018 the current version used Yocto 2.4.
Yocto Project
http://www.yoctoproject.org/
The Yocto Project is an open source collaboration project that provides templates, tools and methods to help you create custom Linux-based systems for embedded products regardless of the hardware architecture, using the Poky reference distribution. Yocto 1.0, with Poky 5.0, was released April 6, 2011. Yocto 1.3 was released October 26, 2012. Yocto 1.7 Dizzy was released October 30, 2014. Yocto Project 2.0 (jethro 14.0.0) was released November 10, 2015. Yocto 2.7 was released May 1, 2019. Yocto 3.0 was released October 23, 2019.
BackBox Linux
http://www.backbox.org/
BackBox is an Ubuntu-based penetration testing and security assessment oriented distribution. It provides a network and systems analysis toolkit and includes some of the most commonly known/used security and analysis tools. BackBox Linux 2 was released September 3, 2011. BackBox Linux 6.0 was released June 11, 2019.
BlackArch Linux
http://blackarch.org/
BlackArch Linux is a lightweight expansion to Arch Linux for penetration testers and security researchers. Early ISOs were released July 1, 2014. BlackArch 2020.01.01 is out.
http://www.caine-live.net/
CAINE (Computer Aided INvestigative Environment) is an Italian GNU/Linux live distribution created as a project of Digital Forensics. CAINE offers a complete forensic environment that is organized to integrate existing software tools as software modules and to provide a friendly graphical interface. CAINE joined the list with the release of v2.0 "NewLight" dated September 14, 2010. CAINE and NBCAINE 4.0 "Pulsar" were released March 18, 2013. CAINE 8.0 "blazar" was released October 30, 2016. CAINE 9.0 "Quantum" was released October 25, 2017. CAINE 10.0 "Infinity" was released November 9, 2018. CAINE 11.0 "Wormhole" was released December 1, 2019.
CLIP OS
https://clip-os.org/en/
The CLIP OS project is maintained by the ANSSI (National Cybersecurity Agency of France) that aims to build a hardened, multi-level operating system, based on the Linux kernel and a lot of free and open source software. The source code and documentation for CLIP OS 5 alpha (based on Hardened Gentoo) was released September 18, 2018 in French and English.
CopperheadOS
https://copperhead.co/android/
CopperheadOS is a hardened open-source system based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) release. The first beta was released February 8, 2016. CopperheadOS Android 9 Pie was released March 26, 2019.
Discreete Linux
https://www.privacy-cd.org/
Discreete Linux started out as the Ubuntu Privacy Remix. It is meant to be run from a USB drive and is not intended for permanent installation on hard disk. Its goal is to provide an isolated, working environment where private data can be dealt with safely. In August 2016 the distribution was renamed and rebased to Debian. The first stable version, UPR 8.04r1, was released December 4, 2008. UPR 12.04r1 was released May 7, 2014. Discreete Linux Beta 1 was released December 8, 2016.
Endian Firewall Community
http://www.endian.com/en/
Endian Firewall Community is a "turn-key" Linux security distribution that turns every system into a full featured security appliance. The software has been designed with "usablity in mind" and is very easy to install, use and manage, without losing its flexibility. This distribution was added to the list at version 2.1, released January 9, 2007. Endian Firewall Community 2.1.2 was released July 10, 2007. Version 2.2 was released May 28, 2009. Endian Firewall Community 2.5.2 was released August 23, 2013. Endian Firewall Community 3.3 was released November 5, 2018.
https://heads.dyne.org/
Heads is much like Tails (listed below). Like Tails, it is intended to be used as a live CD/USB and uses Tor to help you be anonymous. However Devuan-based heads uses only free software and has applied for inclusion to the FSF's list of free distributions. heads 0.4, released March 26, 2018, was based on Devuan Beowulf (Testing).
IPFire
http://www.ipfire.org/
IPFire is a hardened, versatile, state-of-the-art Open Source firewall based on Linux. It aims for ease of use, high performance in any scenario, and extensibility. The project uses Linux From Scratch as its base. IPFire 2.7 was released July 2, 2010. IPFire 2.21 Core Update 130 was released April 16, 2019. IPFire 2.23 Core Update 139 was released January 9, 2020.
http://www.kali.org/
Kali Linux is the successor of the BackTrack distribution, funded and developed by Offensive Security. It's aimed at penetration testing and related tasks. Debian-based Kali Linux was announced March 13, 2013. Kali 2.0 was released August 11, 2015. Kali Linux 2018.4 was released October 29, 2018. Kali Linux 2019.4 was released November 26, 2019.
Liberté Linux
http://dee.su/liberte
Liberté Linux is a secure, reliable, lightweight, and easy to use Gentoo-based LiveUSB Linux distribution intended as a communication aid in hostile environments. Liberté installs as a regular directory on a USB/SD key, and after a single-click setup, boots on any desktop computer or laptop. Available internet connection is then used to set up a Tor circuit which handles all network communication. Liberté joined the list with the release of 2010.1, dated November 22, 2010. Liberté Linux 2012.2 was released June 17, 2012. Liberté Linux 2012.3 was released September 1, 2012.
https://www.digi77.com/linux-kodachi/
Linux Kodachi based on Debian. It will provide you with a secure, anti- forensic, and anonymous operating system considering all features that a person who is concerned about privacy would need to have in order to be secure. Kodachi aims to be easy to use. It is a live system, intended to run from a USB drive and provides an established VPN connection + Tor Connection + DNScrypt service running. It runs in RAM so once you shut it down no trace is left behind. The first release of Kodachi was on October 20, 2013. Debian 8.6-based Kodachi 3.7 was released January 8, 2017. Linux Kodachi 4.0, based on Debian 9.5, was released October 3, 2018. Kodachi 6.1, based on Xubuntu 18.04, was released June 27, 2019.
Live Hacking CD
http://livehacking.com/cd-dvd/live_hacking_cd.htm
The Live Hacking CD is packed with tools and utilities for ethical hacking, penetration testing and countermeasure verification. Based on Ubuntu this live CD/DVD runs directly from the CD/DVD and doesn't require installation on your hard-drive. Once booted you can use the included tools to test, check, ethically hack and perform penetration tests on your own network to make sure that it is secure from outside intruders. Live Hacking CD was added to the list February 16, 2010. Live Hacking Penetration Testing DVD V1.3 was released April 21, 2011.
Matriux
http://www.matriux.com/
Matriux is a fully featured security distribution consisting of a bunch of powerful, open source and free tools that can be used for various purposes including, but not limited to, penetration testing, ethical hacking, system and network administration, cyber forensics investigations, security testing, vulnerability analysis, and much more. It is a distribution designed for security enthusiasts and professionals, although it can be used normally as your default desktop system. Matriux 1.2 was released February 16, 2012. Matriux v3 RC1 "Leandros" was released September 26, 2013.
NetSecL
http://netsecl.com/
NetSecL is a Slackware based distribution with Grsecurity, chroot hardening, /tmp race prevention, extensive auditing and many other security features. Many scanners and sniffers are included to help keep your system secure. NetSecL joins the list with v2.1, released July 16, 2007. NetSecL 2.6 was released February 27, 2010. NetSecL 3.0 was released August 23, 2010. NetSecL 3.2 was released July 14, 2011. NetSecL OS 4.0 was released August 7, 2012. NetSecL 5.0, with XFCE and an openSUSE 12.3 base, was released November 26, 2013.
Network Security Toolkit (NST)
http://www.networksecuritytoolkit.org/nst/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/nst/
The Network Security Toolkit (NST), is a live CD based on Fedora. The toolkit was designed to provide easy access to best-of-breed Open Source Network Security Applications and should run on most x86 platforms. NST also makes an excellent tool to help one with all sorts of crash recovery troubleshooting scenarios and situations. Version 1.2.3 was released September 5, 2005. Fedora 28 based NST 28 SVN:10234 was released July 1, 2018. NST 30 SVN:11210, based on Fedora 30, was released July 16, 2019.
Openwall GNU/Linux
http://www.openwall.com/Owl/
Owl (Openwall GNU/*/Linux) is a small security-enhanced distribution for servers. Owl also makes a good base system for customized virtual machine images and embedded systems, and Owl live CDs with remote SSH access are good for recovering or installing systems (whether with Owl or not). A single Owl CD includes the full live system, installable packages, the installer program, as well as full source code and the build environment capable of rebuilding the entire system from source. Owl supports multiple architectures (x86, x86-64, SPARC, and Alpha) and offers some compatibility for packages developed for other Linux distributions. The primary approaches to security are proactive source code review, privilege reduction, privilege separation, careful selection of third-party software, safe defaults, and "hardening" to reduce the likelihood of successful exploitation of security flaws. The Owl 0.1-prerelease was released on May 11, 2001. Owl 3.1 was released January 5, 2015.
Parrot Security OS
https://www.parrotsec.org/
Parrot Security OS is a Debian-based distribution aimed at cloud oriented pentesting. It has a number of security tools for penetration testing, information gathering, vulnerability assessment, anonymity, cryptography, and more. Parrot joined the list February 2, 2016 when the current version was 2.1 "Murdock". Parrot 3.11 was released January 28, 2018. Parrot 4.0 was released May 21, 2018. Parrot 4.7 was released September 18, 2019.
PureOS
https://pureos.net/
PureOS is a Debian derivative with added emphasis on privacy protection. Privacy-protecting software applications are preinstalled and you may easily encrypt your hard drive. PureOS is used in Purism computers and it is endorsed by the Free Software Foundation. PureOS 8.0 "Prometheus" beta 1 was the current version in December 2017.
QubesOS
http://qubes-os.org/
Qubes is an open source operating system designed to provide strong security for desktop computing. Qubes is based on Xen, X Window System, and Linux, and can run most Linux applications and utilize most of the Linux drivers. The first alpha version was released April 7, 2010. Qubes 1.0 was released September 3, 2012. Qubes OS 4.0 was released March 28, 2018. Qubes OS 3.2.1 was released November 12, 2018. Qubes OS 4.0.2 was released January 2, 2020. Qubes OS 4.0.3-rc1 was released January 15, 2020.
Redcore Linux
https://redcorelinux.org/
Redcore Linux is based on Gentoo (stable + some unstable). It aims to be a very quick way to install Gentoo. Redcore provides a repository with prebuilt binary packages which receive continuous updates (rolling release model). Redcore 1801 was released January 28, 2018. In February 2018 the project announced that they will be rebasing to Gentoo Hardened, using many hardening techniques to help secure the distribution. Redcore Hardened 1803 was released April 1, 2018. Redcore Hardened 1806 was released July 1, 2018. Redcore 1908 Mira, released August 17, 2019, is based on Gentoo Testing.
REMnux
http://zeltser.com/remnux/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/remnux/
REMnux is a lightweight Linux distribution for assisting malware analysts in reverse-engineering malicious software. The distribution is based on Ubuntu and is maintained by Lenny Zeltser. REMnux 1.0 was made available as a VMWare virtual machine image, released July 8, 2010. REMnux 6 was released June 7, 2015.
https://santoku-linux.com/
Santoku is dedicated to mobile forensics, analysis, and security. It is based on Lubuntu and comes with a wide range of useful tools to analyze and mobile applications. Santoku joined the list at version 0.4.
Security Onion
http://security-onion-solutions.github.io/security-onion/
Security Onion is an Ubuntu-based distribution aimed at intrusion detection, network security monitoring, and log management. Security Onion 14.04.3.1 was the current version as of February 2, 2016.
SmoothWall
http://www.smoothwall.org/
SmoothWall was first released to the world in July 2000 as a hardened internet firewall device. Products include Smoothwall Server and Smoothwall GPL, renamed Smoothwall Express. Smoothwall GPL 1.0 was released December 10, 2002. Smoothwall Express 2.0 was released December 17, 2003. SmoothWall Express 2.0 SP1 (stable update) was released December 22, 2006. SmoothWall Express 3.0 "Polar" was released August 22, 2007. Update 5 for Express 3.0 was released September 2, 2009. Smoothwall Express 3.1 Update9 was released April 21, 2018.
Sophos UTM
http://www.sophos.com/
When this entry joined the list in 2003 the distribution was called Astaro Security Linux and it was a firewall and VPN product. Version 2.033 was released April 25, 2003. In 2007 the distribution was renamed to Astaro Security Gateway, an all-in-one product with a firewall, intrusion protection, antivirus, spam protection, URL filtering, and a VPN gateway. ASG 8.300 was released January 10, 2012. The distribution was renamed again, to Sophos UTM (Unified Threat Management) and v9 was released July 15, 2012. Sophos UTM 9.1 was released May 13, 2013.
Subgraph OS
https://subgraph.com/sgos/
Subgraph believes that the best way to empower people to communicate and live freely is to develop technology that is secure, free, open-source, and verifiably trustworthy. Subgraph OS was designed from the ground-up to reduce the risks in endpoint systems so that individuals and organizations around the world can communicate, share, and collaborate without fear of surveillance or interference by sophisticated adversaries through network borne attacks. Subgraph OS is designed to be difficult to attack. This is accomplished through system hardening and a proactive, ongoing focus on security and attack resistance. Subgraph OS also places emphasis on the integrity of installable software packages. Supgraph joined the list February 24, 2016 when the project was in the pre-alpha stage. Subgraph OS Alpha 4 was released September 22, 2017.
http://tails.boum.org/
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian based live CD/USB aimed at preserving your privacy and anonymity by forcing all outgoing connections to the Internet to go through the Tor network and by leaving no trace on local storage devices unless explicitly asked. Tails 0.7, based on Debian 6.0 squeeze, was released April 15, 2011. Debian 9 stretch-based Tails 3.16 was released September 4, 2019. Debian 10 buster-based Tails 4.2.2 was released January 14, 2020.
Trusted End Node Security (TENS)
https://spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm
Trusted End Node Security (TENS) is developed by the US Department of Defense. Once called Lightweight Portable Security, TENS boots a thin Linux operating system from removable media without mounting a local hard drive and runs in RAM, providing a trusted network environment on an untrusted computer. LPS joined the list with the release of LPS-Public ISO 1.1.1, dated November 15, 2010. TENS is updated on a regular basis. Users should be sure to update to the latest version to have the latest protection and most recent drivers. TENS 1.7.6 was released May 17, 2019.
Whonix
https://www.whonix.org/
http://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/
Whonix (called TorBOX or aos in the past) is an anonymous general purpose operating system based on Virtual Box, Debian GNU/Linux and Tor. By Whonix design, IP and DNS leaks are impossible. Not even malware with root rights can find out the user's real IP/location. This is because Whonix consists of two virtual machines. One machine solely runs Tor and acts as a gateway, called the Whonix-Gateway. The other machine, called Whonix-Workstation, is on a completely isolated network. Only connections through Tor are possible. Whonix joined the list with the release of Alpha 0.4.5, dated October 9, 2012. Whonix VirtualBox 14.0.0.6.6 was released February 6, 2018. Whonix 14 was released August 7, 2018. Whonix KVM 14.0.0.9.6 XFCE was released December 12, 2018. Whonix VirtualBox 14.0.1.4.4 was released March 17, 2019. Whonix KVM 15.0.0.0.9, released April 16, 2019, updates the Whonix base to Debian 10 buster. Whonix 15 was released July 1, 2019. Whonix VirtualBox 15.0.0.6.6 was released November 22, 2019. Whonix KVM 15.0.0.7.1 was released November 23, 2019.
http://www.wifislax.com/
Wifislax is a Slackware-based live CD with a collection of utilities designed to perform various security and forensics tasks. Wifislax joined the list with the release of version 4.7 (based on Slackware 14.1 - released November 10, 2013). Wifislax 4.11.1 was released July 29, 2015. Wifislax 4.12 was released August 6, 2016.
All the distributions listed in this category are specialized for a particular task. Most of them are small, since limiting the functionally can also limit the size. However there are some Special Purpose distributions listed here that are not small.
4MLinux
http://4mlinux.com/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux4m/
4MLinux is a miniature Linux distribution focusing on four capabilities: Maintenance (system rescue live CD), Multimedia (supports most image, audio and video formats), Miniserver (DNS, FTP, HTTP, MySQL, NFS, Proxy, SMTP, SSH, and Telnet), and Mystery (includes a collection of classic Linux games). 4M joined the list with the release of 4MLinux-3.0-rescue-edition, dated September 16, 2011. 4MLinux 12.0 Allinone Edition was released May 9, 2015. 4MLinux 31.0 was released December 15, 2019.
http://64studio.com/
64 Studio is developing a collection of software for digital content creation on x86_64 hardware (that's AMD's 64-bit CPUs and Intel's EM64T chips). It's based on the pure 64 port of Debian GNU/Linux, but with a specialized package selection and lots of other customizations. 64 Studio 1.1.0 was released January 11, 2007. Development release 1.4.0 was announced May 22, 2007. 64 Studio 2.0 'Electric' was released July 27, 2007. 64 Studio 2.1 'A Minha Menina' was released June 9, 2008.
ABC GNU/Linux
http://www.ehu.es/AC/ABC.htm
ABC GNU/Linux is an Ubuntu based distribution for building Beowulf clusters. It can be initated from a live DVD or from a disk installation and can be used to automatically configure other machines in the cluster.
Aboriginal Linux
http://landley.net/code/firmware/
http://landley.net/aboriginal/
Aboriginal Linux (formerly Firmware Linux) is a set of tools to build custom virtual machines. It lets you boot virtual PowerPC, ARM, MIPS and other exotic systems on your x86 laptop (using an emulator such as QEMU). Development on Firmware Linux began in August 2006. Aboriginal Linux 1.0 was released September 5, 2010. Aboriginal Linux 1.1.0 was released October 2, 2011.
Adriane Knoppix
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-adriane/index-en.html
Adriane Knoppix aims to be an easy-to-use desktop system, which can be used entirely without vision oriented output devices, suitable for blind or visually impaired people with few or no computer skills. The live CD can be installed to a hard drive and provides access to standard Internet services like email, www, chat, and using mobile phone extension services like SMS and MMS (over the user's own mobile phone via bluetooth). Klaus Knopper, creator of Knoppix, and his visually impaired wife Adriane are the principle developers. ADRIANE is also an acronym for Audio Desktop Reference Implementation and Networking Environment. ADRIANE 1.2 was released November 17, 2009. See the KNOPPIX entry (under 'Also Well-Known' for more information.
aLinux
http://alinux.tv/
aLinux Support Forum
aLinux is a Professional Linux Operating System (700MB) designed for ease of use and sports a visually stunning Graphical User Interface, while maintaining a level of sophistication that experienced linux users can appreciate. Formerly known as Peanut Linux when v12.1 was released February 23, 2005. The name was changed to aLinux and version 12.2 was released March 24, 2005. Version 12.8 was released July 31, 2006. aLinux 14.0 was released June 1, 2010. aLinux 15.0 was released February 22, 2013.
Android-x86 is a project to port Android to x86 platforms. Android-x86 4.4-RC2 (KitKat-x86) was released May 20, 2014. Android-x86 4.4-r5 (KitKat-x86) was released February 6, 2016. Android-x86 6.0-r3 (Marshmallow-x86) was released April 24, 2017. Android-x86 7.1-r2 (Nougat-x86) was released May 2, 2018. Android-x86 8.1-rc3 (Oreo-x86) was released October 30, 2019.
Apertis
https://wiki.apertis.org/Main_Page
Apertis is an open source GNU/Linux-based platform for infotainment in automotive vehicles. It uses GNOME libraries and components. It was in active development, with a 3-month release cycle and daily builds, when this entry was added, September 8, 2016.
APODIO
http://apodio.org/ http://www.apo33.org/apodio/doku.php
APODIO is a Mandriva based distribution containing audio, text-friendly, graphic and video tools. It can be used as a liveCD or be installed on a partition of your hard disk. Version 4.3.6 was released May 11, 2006. Version 4.3.9 test was released July 28, 2006. APODIO 10.3 was released May 6, 2015.
ArcheOS
http://www.arc-team.com/
ArcheOS is short for Archeological Operating System. It is a live CD GNU/Linux distribution built for archaeological aims and based on PCLinuxOS. ArcheOS is developed following the Oparc project guidelines and it's released under the General Public License (GPL). ArcheOS Akhenaton v1.0.1 was the current version when this entry was added, January 9, 2006. ArcheOS v 1.1.6 was released June 27, 2006. ArcheOS v 2.0.0 was released February 19, 2008. ArcheOS v 3.0.0 was released March 12, 2009.
https://arkos.io/
arkOS is a lightweight system based on Arch Linux that runs on a Raspberry Pi. It provides a full software stack to manage your self-hosting experience using the Genesis configuration tool. arkOS 0.8.0 'Galileo' was released October 15, 2016. An end to development was announced April 21, 2017.
ArtistX
http://www.artistx.org/
ArtistX is a live DVD which turns a computer into a full multimedia production studio. Early versions were based on Debian GNU/Linux, later versions are Ubuntu based. It contains nearly all the available free audio, 2D and 3D graphics, and video software for the GNU/Linux computing platform. It doesn't need to be installed, and boots directly into a running system without touching hard drives. The files produced with ArtistX can be easily stored on USB devices or CD/DVD medium while it is running. ArtistX joined the list with its 0.3 release, April 2, 2007. ArtistX 1.1 was released July 6, 2011. ArtistX 1.5 was released September 16, 2013.
Asterisk Live! CD
Asterisk Live! CF
http://www.automated.it/asterisk/
http://www.automated.it/asterisk/asterisk-cf.htm
Asterisk PBX is Linux based, open source PBX software that provides voice over IP in three protocols and is interoperable with most standards-based telephony equipment using comparatively inexpensive hardware. If you want to play around with Asterisk check out this distribution which is available as a Live CD and a Compact Flash install. The Getting Started With Asterisk guide provides an excellent starting point.
http://www.asterisknow.org/
AsteriskNOW is an open source Software Appliance; a customized Linux distribution that includes Asterisk (an open source telephony engine and tool kit), the AsteriskGUI, and all other software needed for an Asterisk system. AsteriskNOW aims to be easy to install, flexible, functional and featurful. AsteriskNOW joined the list with the release of v1.5.0 (based on CentOS 5.3), dated April 1, 2009. AsteriskNOW 3.0 was released March 20, 2013.
AsteroidOS
http://asteroidos.org/
AsteroidOS is an open-source operating system for smartwatches. A developer preview was available when this entry was added, June 28, 2016. Alpha 1.0 was available in January 2017 and supported four types of smartwatches. AsteroidOS 1.0 was released May 15, 2018.
Audiophile Linux
https://www.ap-linux.com/
Audiophile (AP) Linux aims to be the best digital music player. Based on Arch Linux, Audiophile uses a custom real time kernel for improved audio processing. AP-Linux V4 was released April 16, 2017.
AV Linux
http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/
AV Linux is an Audio/Graphics/Video workstation based on Debian Testing and Xfce. AV Linux 3.0 was a full-featured LiveDVD. It was created using the Debian GNU/Linux Testing branch and Remastersys. Once installed AV Linux transforms the users computer into a full-blown Audio/Video Workstation. Its program selection covers most common everyday computer tasks, including a full complement of the best F/OSS Multimedia Applications available allowing users to enjoy Multitrack Audio Recording and Mixing, Video Capturing, Editing and Converting, DVD Authoring and Creation, iPod Tools and much more. AV Linux also contains Hard Drive utilities making it an excellent troubleshooting and rescue solution. AV Linux joined the list with the release of 3.0R1 (revision 1) dated January 15, 2010. AV Linux 6.0 'The Now' was released August 16, 2012, with an announcement that no further releases were planned. As it happens, AV Linux 6.0.1 was released June 4, 2013. AV Linux 2016 was released March 24, 2016. AVL 2019.4.10 was released April 3, 2019.
Bedrock Linux
http://bedrocklinux.org/
Bedrock Linux is a Linux distribution created with the aim of making most of the (often seemingly mutually-exclusive) benefits of various other Linux distributions available simultaneously and transparently. If one would like a rock-solid stable base (for example, from Debian or a RHEL clone) yet still have easy access to cutting-edge packages (from, say, Arch Linux), automate compiling packages with Gentoo's portage, and ensure that software aimed only for the ever popular Ubuntu will run smoothly - all at the same time, in the same distribution - Bedrock Linux will provide a means to achieve this. Bedrock combines the Linux kernel with the Busybox userspace for a lightweight base system. The first alpha version was released August 3, 2012. Bedrock 0.7.3 Poki was released April 14, 2019. Bedrock 0.7.7 was released August 27, 2019.
BG-Rescue Linux
http://www.giannone.eu/rescue/current/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/bgrescue/
BG-Rescue Linux is a Busybox 0.60.5 and uClibc 0.9.19 based rescue system with kernel 2.4.21. It is loaded either from two floppy disks or from one 2.8MB El Torito CD. The system runs entirely in RAM. It joins the list at version 0.1.2, released July 12, 2003. Version 0.4.1 was released March 2, 2005. Version 0.9.1 was released April 2, 2008.
http://envgen.nox.ac.uk/tools/bio-linux
Bio-Linux is based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. Bioinformatics-related customisations include the inclusion of a large number of bioinformatics programs and programming libraries, the addition of graphical menus for much of the bioinformatics software, and links from the desktop to key documentation and applications. The system also includes a comprehensive, categorised and searchable documentation system for bioinformatics software. The Bio-Linux project began in 2002 and was designed as a mechanism to deploy bioinformatics and data management software on a powerful computing platform to researchers funded by the NERC Environmental Genomics Thematic Programme. Bio-Linux version 1.0 was released in 2002. Bio-Linux 7.0, based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, was released November 22, 2012. Bio-Linux 8.0.5 was released January 9, 2015.
BitKey
https://bitkey.io/
BitKey is a Debian stable based distribution aimed at Bitcoin users. It is meant to be run from USB drive or CD/DVD where it will run in RAM. It has everything you need to perform highly secure air-gapped Bitcoin transactions. Under the hood it contains a swiss army knife of handy Bitcoin tools that support a wide range of usage models, including a few very secure ones which would otherwise be difficult to perform. BitKey is a side project by the core developers of TurnKey GNU/Linux. The initial release, version 14.1.0, was dated January 20, 2017. BitKey 14.2.0 was released May 22, 2017.
http://project-byzantium.org/
Byzantium is a live Linux distribution that delivers easy-to-use, secure, and robust mesh networking capabilities which can augment or replace the current telecommunications infrastructure in the event that it is knocked offline or rendered untrustworthy. Project Byzantium is a working group of HacDC. Byzantium was added to the list with the 0.3 alpha "Beach Cat" release, dated March 27, 2013.
CAELinux
http://www.caelinux.com/CMS/
CAELinux is a live DVD distribution for Computer Aided Engineering. Early versions were based on PCLinuxOS, but later changed to Xubuntu. CAELinux incorporates many open source applications to create an open engineering development workstation with CAD, CAM, CAE / FEA / CFD, electronic design, and 3D printing. CAElinux 2008 was released April 18, 2008. CAELinux 2018 (based on Xubuntu 16.04) was released January 4, 2019.
CeroWrt
http://www.bufferbloat.net/
CeroWrt is a project aimed at resolving endemic problems in home networking, and to push the state of the art of edge networks and routers forward. Projects include tighter integration with DNSSEC, wireless mesh networking (Wisp6), measurements of networking and censorship issues (BISMark), among others, notably reducing bufferbloat in both the wired and wireless components of the stack. CeroWrt RC5 (beta) was released August 18, 2011. CeroWrt 1.0-RC6 (beta 2) was released September 20, 2011. CeroWrt 3.10.50-1 was released July 28, 2014.
Chromium OS
http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os
Chromium OS is an open-source project that aims to build an operating system that provides a fast, simple, and more secure computing experience for people who spend most of their time on the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. Each app is contained within a security sandbox. The source was first released November 19, 2009.
Clear Linux
https://clearlinux.org/
Intel's Clear Linux Project is a distribution built for various Cloud use cases. It aims to be a showcase of the best of Intel Architecture technology and performance, from low-level kernel features to complex applications that span across the entire OS stack. An unversioned release of Clear Linux was dated January 20, 2017.
Clonezilla Live
http://www.clonezilla.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/clonezilla/
The Free Software Lab at the NCHC has combined Debian Live with Clonezilla to produce "Clonezilla Live," a live CD that can be used to easily clone individual machines. The primary benefit of Clonezilla Live is that it eliminates the need to set up a DRBL server ahead of time and the need for the computer being cloned to boot from a network. Clonezilla Live can be used to clone individual computers using a CD/DVD or USB flash drive. Though the image size is limited by the boot media's storage capacity, this problem can be eliminated by using a network filesystem such as sshfs or samba. Clonezilla live 1.2.1-53 (stable) was released April 7, 2009. Clonezilla live 2.6.3-7 (stable) was released September 17, 2019.
CloudLinux OS
https://www.cloudlinux.com/
CloudLinux OS is designed for shared hosting providers. It isolates each customer into a separate "Lightweight Virtualized Environment" (LVE), which partitions, allocates, and limits server resources, like memory, CPU, and connections, for each tenant.
Condres OS
https://condresos.codelinsoft.it/
Condres OS aims to be a modern, intuitive operating system for the cloud generation of computing; easy to use, easily accessible, and beautifully designed. It also incorporates software to minimize security risks as much as possible. It is a rolling release, based on Arch Linux. Condres OS 2019.03 was released March 1, 2019. Condres OS 2019.09 is out.
Container Linux
https://coreos.com/
Formerly known CoreOS, Container Linux is designed to be a modern, minimal base to build a platform for massive server deployments. It provides automated tools for security patches and clustering. CoreOS joined the list with the release of v268.1.0, dated March 27, 2014. The company CoreOS changed the name of the distribution to Container Linux in December 2016, when Container Linux 1248.1.0 was the current version. Container Linux 1967.4.0 was released January 29, 2019.
https://cumulusnetworks.com/
Cumulus Linux allows you to affordably build and efficiently operate your network like the world's largest data center operators — unlocking vertical network stacks. With Cumulus Linux, customers can run their data center networks the way Google and Facebook have done for years, highly automated, without all the development time or expensive, specialized hardware. Cumulus Linux 3.3 was released May 2, 2017. Cumulus Linux 3.6 was released April 30, 2018.
Damn Vulnerable Linux
http://www.damnvulnerablelinux.org/
http://www.computerdefense.org/dvl/
Damn Vulnerable Linux (DVL) is a live CD packed with broken, ill-configured, outdated, and exploitable software that makes it vulnerable to attacks. DVL isn't built to run on your desktop - it's a learning tool for security students. DVL is designed to be as vulnerable as possible, to teach topics such as reverse code engineering, buffer overflows, shellcode development, Web exploitation, and SQL injection. DVL was added to the list July 19, 2010.
Darik's Boot And Nuke
http://www.dban.org/
Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN) is a self-contained boot disk that automatically deletes the contents of any hard disk that it can detect. This method can help prevent identity theft before recycling a computer. It is also a solution commonly used to remove viruses and spyware from Microsoft Windows installations. DBAN prevents all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis. It does not provide users with a proof of erasure, such as an audit-ready erasure report. DBAN joined the list with the release of v2.2.7, dated November 1, 2012.
DebianDog
https://debiandog.github.io/doglinux/
DebianDog is a very small Debian Live CD shaped to look and act like Puppy Linux. Debian structure and Debian behaviour are untouched and Debian documentation is 100% valid for DebianDog. You have access to all debian repositories using apt-get or synaptic. There are several Dogs such as DebianDog-Jessie and XenialDog. DebianDog was added to the list February 28, 2017.
Debian-Med
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-med/
Debian-Med is an internal Debian project to support tasks of people in medical care. The goal of Debian-Med is to build a a complete system for all tasks in medical care, using only free software. Version 5.0 was released February 15, 2009.
Distro Astro
http://www.distroastro.org/
Distro Astro aims to create a Linux distribution for astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts that provides the best experience for both professional and amateur astronomers. Distro Astro is based on Ubuntu and features the MATE desktop. Version 2.0 Pallas was released November 20, 2013. Distro Astro 3.0 Juno was released November 9, 2014. Distro Astro 3.0.1 was released January 6, 2015.
DNA Linux
http://www.dnalinux.com/
DNA Linux is a live Linux distribution with bioinformatics software preloaded. It is for people who find it hard to install EMBOSS, Primer3, BLAST, and other bioinformatics software or who want to have a test system for class or demonstration purposes. The first public version was 0.13, released January 31, 2004. Version 0.592, based on SLAX 5.10, was released April 18, 2006.
http://www.dickmacinnis.com/dreamstudio/
http://dream.dickmacinnis.com/forum/
Dream Studio is aimed at multimedia creation. It comes with a variety of applications to create graphics, videos, music and websites. The live DVD can be installed to hard-drive or USB. Ubuntu-based Dream Studio 11.10 was released February 24, 2012. Dream Studio 12.04.3 was released June 27, 2013.
EasyOS
https://easyos.org/
EasyOS is an experimental, container friendly distribution, by Puppy Linux creator Barry Kauler. It is built from source with the Woof build system. EasyOS was created in January 2017. EasyOS 1.0.8 was released February 20, 2019. Easy Buster 2.2 was released December 26, 2019.
Easy Peasy, formerly Ubuntu Eee, is an Ubuntu based distribution for netbooks and the Asus Eee PC. It uses the Netbook Remix interface, favoring the best software available, which may not be open source. Easy Peasy was added to the list February 4, 2009. Easy Peasy 1.1 was released April 22, 2009. Easypeasy 1.5 was released September 8, 2009. EasyPeasy 1.6 was released April 26, 2010.
EeeDora
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EeePc
http://code.google.com/p/eeedora/
EeeDora is a Fedora based distribution for the Asus eeePC. The current version was 2008-01-25_12h58m (spun from Fedora 8) when the entry was added; January 29, 2008.
eeeXubuntu
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ubuntu:eeexubuntu:home
eeeXubuntu is a custom version of the Xubuntu 7.10 Live CD for the Eee PC. It comes with fully-integrated hardware support, including native wireless drivers, functioning Ethernet support, tweaks for low-resolution desktop environments, and other miscellaneous fixes. Wherever possible, these changes are incorporated using custom .deb packages rather than spewing assorted files all over post-install. A broader goal of this project is to assist the Ubuntu community in supporting the eeePC hardware, with an eye towards other Dynabook-like form factors like Everex's Cloudbook and the OLPC XO-1. This entry was added to the list June 26, 2008, when the current version was release 3.
http://www.elementmypc.com/
Element is an Ubuntu-based operating system for Home Theater or Media Center Personal Computers designed to be connected to your HDTV for a digital media and internet experience within the comforts of your own living room or entertainment area. Element comes stacked with the software you need to manage your music, videos, photos, and internet media. Also included are a variety of applications that provide many of the same functions as your desktop PC, from web browsing to instant messaging and playing games. Element 1.0 was released February 16, 2010. Element 1.4 was released September 1, 2010.
http://elks.sourceforge.net/
git repo
ELKS: The Embeddable Linux Kernel Subsystem. ELKS 0.1.0-pre4 was released March 4, 2002. ELKS-0.1.3-pre1 was released July 13, 2003. After a period of inactivity ELKS development started up again in early 2012. ELKS-0.1.4 was released February 19, 2012.
eMoviX
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fedoramissing/files/Fedora/Missing_Packages/emovix/
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=147066
eMoviX is a tiny Linux CD distribution containing all the software to boot from a CD and play every video file localized in the CD root. Supported formats are all formats supported by MPlayer, most noticeably DivX & XviD but more in general most AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, WMV, ASF, FLI and a few others. eMoviX 0.9.0-1 was released November 24, 2011.
http://www.elivecd.org/
Elive is a live CD based on Debian and featuring the Enlightenment window manager. Elive also supports a hard disk install. Version 0.4.2 was released March 4, 2006. Elive 1.0 was released July 5, 2007. Elive stable "Topaz" 2.0 was released March 3, 2010. Elive stable 3.0.4 was released April 28, 2019. Elive 3.8.1 beta was released December 8, 2019.
Excelixis
http://excelixis.wordpress.com/excelixis/
Excelixis is a derivative of Xubuntu, which comes with several development tools and environments (such as Eclipse, NetBeans, Lazarus, Apache web server, MySQL) pre-installed and some applications (screenlets, cairo-dock) to make it more appealing to the eye. The initial release was based on Xubuntu 8.04.
Exherbo
http://www.exherbo.org/
Exherbo is a distribution designed for people who know what they're doing with Linux. It is inspired in many places by Gentoo -- in particular, it supports flexible source-based installation with up-front configuration. It uses the Paludis package manager with a custom built EAPI. Exherbo is a place for developers to experiment. Added to the list May 21, 2008.
http://fannagioscd.sourceforge.net/drupal/
FAN (Fully Automated Nagios) aims to provide a CD based on CentOS in order to simplify installation of Nagios and other Nagios tools. Tools installed by FAN are: Linux, MySQL, Nagios, Nagios Plugins, NaReTo, NagVis, Centreon, Net-SNMP and NDOUtils. FAN was added to the list with the release of version 0.3 on May 27, 2008.
Fatdog64
http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/
Fatdog64 Linux is a small yet versatile 64-bit multi-user Linux distribution. Originally created as a "fatter" (=more built-in applications) derivative of Puppy Linux, Fatdog has grown to become an independent, mature 64-bit Linux distribution while still keeping true to Puppy Linux spirit: small, fast and efficient. The original release of Fatdog64 was April 12, 2008. Fatdog64-630 was released February 11, 2014. Fatdog64-710 was released December 4, 2016. Fatdog64 720 was released December 20, 2017. Fatdog64-801 was released May 4, 2019.
Fedora Jam
http://spins.fedoraproject.org/jam-kde/
Fedora Jam is for audio enthusiasts and musicians who want to create, edit and produce audio and music on Linux. It comes with Jack, ALSA and Pulseaudio by default including a suite of programs to tailor your studio. This Fedora spin is compatible with Fedora repositories. Version 19 was the current version when this entry was added, July 10, 2013. Fedora Jam 20 was released December 27, 2013.
FemtoLinux
http://femtolinux.com/
FemtoLinux is optimized for real-time embedded systems. Its design goal is a low system call and interrupt-to-application latency and overhead, achieved by running critical Linux applications in kernel mode. As of July 2010 FemtoLinux was available for ARM, with MIPS and PowerPC in the works.
Freedombone
https://freedombone.net/
Freedombone is a Debian-based home server system which enables you to self-host email, chat, VoIP, web sites, file synchronisation, wikis, blogs, social networks, media hosting, backups, VPN, and more, all from your place of residence (not a data center). You can run Freedombone on an old laptop or single board computer. Freedombone got its start in 2013. Freedombone 4.0, based on Debian 10 "buster", was released August 5, 2019.
https://www.freepbx.org/
FreePBX is a web-based GUI that controls and manages Asterisk (PBX), a communication server. FreePBX can be installed manually or as part of the pre-configured FreePBX distribution that includes the system OS, Asterisk, FreePBX GUI and assorted dependencies. Version 13 was current when this entry was added, March 13, 2017.
GalliumOS
https://galliumos.org/
GalliumOS has been carefully optimized for performance and compatibility on Chromebooks and Chromeboxes. The project aims to outperform ChromeOS on the same hardware, while delivering a full Linux environment. GalliumOS 1.0 Beta 1 was released November 11, 2015. GalliumOS 2.1 was released February 28, 2017.
http://www.gargoyle-router.com/
Gargoyle is a free firmware upgrade for many widely available routers such as the WRT54GL and the original La Fonera. Gargoyle 1.3.8 was released November 23, 2010. Gargoyle 1.3.11 was released February 28, 2011.
http://www.geexbox.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/geexbox/
GeeXboX is a distribution that turns a desktop computer into a media center. It can run from a live CD, USB, or SD/MMC card. Hard disk installation is also supported. GeeXboX sources are heavily customizable. The distribution comes with its complete cross-compilation framework that allows you to compile it for multiple architectures, selecting the packages you want to be integrated. The project was founded in 2002, with the initial public release of version 0.90-1 on May 17, 2003. GeeXboX 3.0 was released September 18, 2012. GeeXboX 3.1 was released November 1, 2013.
GentooX
http://gentoox.shallax.com/
GentooX is Gentoo for the XBox. Gentoox Pro v3.0, Gentoox Home v5.0, Gentoox Sparke v2.0, Gentoox Resctoox v4.0 were all released July 4, 2006. Resctoox v5.1 was released August 1, 2006. Gentoox Pro v4.1 was released August 21, 2006. Gentoox Home v6.1 was released August 23, 2006. Home edition was upgraded to v7.1 and Pro to v5.1 January 28, 2010.
gittup
http://gittup.org/gittup/
gittup is most of a Linux distribution in git, built with tup. gittup was added to the list October 11, 2016.
GNU Guix
http://www.gnu.org/software/guix/
https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/guix/
GNU Guix is a purely functional package manager, and associated free software distribution, for the GNU system. It's based on the Nix package manager. In addition to standard package management features, Guix supports transactional upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, per-user profiles, and garbage collection. A user-land free software distribution for GNU/Linux comes as part of GuixSD. The first alpha release was dated November 22, 2012. GNU Guix and GuixSD 0.16.0 were released December 6, 2018. Guix 1.0.1 was released May 19, 2019.
GNU Radio Live SDR Environment
http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/GNURadioLiveDVD
The GNU Radio Live SDR Environment, produced by Corgan Labs, is a bootable Ubuntu Linux DVD with GNU Radio and third party software pre-installed. It is designed for quick and easy testing and experimentation with GNU Radio without having to make any permanent modifications to a PC or laptop. Version 3.7.3 was released March 18, 2014.
GoboLinux
http://www.gobolinux.org/
GoboLinux is an alternative Linux distribution that redefines the entire filesystem hierarchy. Package management is performed through the directory layout itself by storing each program in its own /Programs/[AppName]/[Version] directory. GoboLinux joins the list at version 007, released on October 25, 2003. GoboLinux 013 was released November 3, 2006. GoboLinux 014 was released January 1, 2008. GoboLinux 014.01 was released April 2, 2008. Scripts 2.10.2 and Compile 1.13.3 were released April 27, 2010. GoboLinux 015 was released May 8, 2014. GoboLinux 016.01 was released April 4, 2017.
GParted LiveCD
http://gparted.org/
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
The GParted Live CD puts the power and simplicity of GParted on a business card sized Live CD. The CD aims to be fast, small in size, and use minimal resources to get that disk partitioned the way you want it. GParted LiveCD was originally based on Slackware Linux and Fluxbox window manager. Later versions use Debian unstable as a base. Version 0.1 was released January 12, 2006. GParted Live 0.33.0 was released December 15, 2018. GParted Live 1.0.0-1 was released May 30, 2019.
io GNU/Linux
http://io.gnu.linux.free.fr/
http://mk.biniou.net/iognulinux.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/io-gnu-linux/
io GNU/Linux is a live system that turns almost any computer into a professional multimedia workstation. It includes a real-time enabled kernel and a great collection of free software for all uses (sound, video, graphics, internet and more). It's based on Debian SID (unstable) and built with the Debian Live tools. io 2014.1 was released January 11, 2014. io GNU/Linux 2019.01 was released March 1, 2019.
Jolicloud
http://www.jolicloud.com/
Jolicloud is an Internet operating system for the netbook. It combines the two driving forces of the modern computing industry: the open source and the open web. Jolicloud transforms your netbook into a sophisticated web device that taps into the cloud to expand your computing possibilities. Jolicloud joined the list with the second alpha version, which was released June 26, 2009. Jolicloud Pre-Final was released March 29, 2010. Jolicloud 1.0 was announced July 9, 2010. Jolicloud 1.1 was released December 7, 2010. Jolicloud 1.1.1 supports older hardware, released February 22, 2011. With version 1.2 (released March 9, 2011) the project has renamed the system "Joli OS" which includes the "Jolicloud online desktop".
https://neon.kde.org/
KDE Neon provides the latest KDE software on a solid Ubuntu base. Suitable for KDE developers and early adopters. The first images were released in January 2016. KDE Neon 5.8 was released (with Plasma 5.8) October 4, 2016. Ubuntu 18.04-based Neon was released September 26, 2018. KDE neon 5.17 (with Plasma 5.17) was released October 15, 2019.
Keysoft
https://keysoft-technology-productions.com/en/
Keysoft is based on openSUSE and designed for blind users. It comes with a screenreader, Orca and Braille display drivers, and BrlTTY preinstalled. Keysoft is primarily a German distribution, though multi-language support is available.
Korora
http://kororaproject.org/
http://www.kororaa.org/
The Korora Project started out as Kororaa Linux (note the extra 'a'). In the beginning (March 2006) Kororaa was a way of installing Gentoo Linux easily and quickly. A live CD showcasing Xgl technology was released March 8, 2006. Kororaa Xgl Live CD 0.2 was released April 6, 2006. Kororaa was on hiatus for some time, but an installable Live DVD x86_64 beta for Kororaa 14 (derived from Fedora 14, with KDE) was released December 23, 2010. Kororaa 14 (Nemo) was released May 31, 2011. The name change was announced February 14, 2013. Korora 25 (Gurgle) was released December 7, 2016. Korora 26 (Bloat) was released September 16, 2017. As of May 2, 2018 there are no planned updates for Korora and the distribution is on hiatus. A community edition of Korora 28 is available and Korora 29 is in developement, as of November 3, 2018.
Kuki Linux
http://www.kuki.me/
Kuki Linux is a lightweight Ubuntu-based Linux distribution founded by João Ferro (leak), built to be a replacement for the Linpus Lite distribution on the Acer Aspire One. Kuki should work on other Intel Atom powered netbooks. It uses XFCE 4.6 as a window manager and features lightweight software and all the fixes to allow the Acer Aspire One to work as well as possible. The Kuki project was founded on October 21, 2008. Development on v2.9 was ongoing as of January 23, 2010.
KXStudio
http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/
KXStudio is an Ubuntu based distribution that includes a collection of applications and plugins for professional audio production. It is compatible with Debian and Ubuntu repositories. KXStudio 14.04.5 LTS was released June 11, 2017.
http://www.lakka.tv/
Lakka is a lightweight Linux distribution that transforms a small computer into a full blown game console. Lakka joined the list with the release of version 2.0, dated April 28, 2017. Lakka 2.1 was released November 28, 2017. Lakka 2.3 was released September 14, 2019.
https://lede-project.org
The LEDE Project (Linux Embedded Development Environment) is a Linux operating system based on OpenWrt. It is a complete replacement for the vendor-supplied firmware of a wide range of wireless routers and non-network devices. LEDE 17.01.0-rc1 was released January 31, 2017. LEDE 17.01.4 was released October 18, 2017. The project merged with OpenWrt in January 2018. The LEDE 17.01 series remains supported, but the next major version will use the OpenWrt name.
https://libreelec.tv/
LibreELEC is a lightweight 'Just enough OS' Linux distribution purpose-built for Kodi on current and popular media-center hardware. It is a fork of the OpenELEC project, started in March 2016. LibreELEC is Kodi oriented but other forks provide the stable JeOS base for Plex Embedded, Lakka, and a number of single-purpose IoT and maker projects. LibreELEC (Krypton) 8.2.1 was released November 21, 2017. LibreELEC (Krypton) 8.2.4 MR was released March 14, 2018. LibreELEC (Leia) 9.0.2 was released May 11, 2019. LibreELEC 9.2 was released November 25, 2019.
LinHES
http://www.linhes.org/
Formerly known as KnoppMyth, this distribution was a combination of Knoppix and MythTV, providing an easy-to-use TV settop box. KnoppMyth R5F27 was released September 9, 2007. KnoppMyth was renamed LinHES, Linux Home Entertainment System, in 2009. It also switched to an Arch Linux base. LinHES 8.5 was released December 9, 2017. LinHES 8.6 was released March 18, 2019.
Linutop OS
http://www.linutop.com/software.en.html
http://www.linutop.com/index.en.html
Linutop, a French company, makes a fanless mini PC and an Ubuntu-based distribution optimized for its hardware. Linutop OS is a small, secured OS for for kiosks, media centers, digital signage, and more. A free demo of the distribution is available and should run on all types of PCs. This entry was added to the list July 25, 2012. Linutop OS 5.0 was released September 4, 2012. Linutop OS 14.04 was released September 24. 2014.
LinuxConsole
http://linuxconsole.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/linuxconsole/
LinuxConsole is a "live" Linux distribution that comes from France. You can boot it from CD, HD, USB, or PXE. There is a "core" ISO image (55MB), with all the drivers (3D and ADSL included) needed to install it or just try it. LinuxConsole joined the list at version 0.4RC2 released March 10, 2004. That version was based on Mandrakelinux 9.1, however later versions are original (not based on another distribution). Version 0.4.5.1 was released September 20, 2004. LinuxConsole 2019 was released December 23, 2019.
linuX-gamers.net Live
http://live.linux-gamers.net/
The project live.linuX-gamers.net provides a "boot 'n play" system, designed to run on CD, DVD or USB. The first public release of the live DVD, v0.9.1, was released June 16, 2007. linuX-gamers.net live 0.9.7 was released May 9, 2011.
http://www.linuxmce.com/
LinuxMCE is a free, open source distribution based on Kubuntu. It includes a complete whole-house media solution with PVR and distributed media, and the most advanced smarthome solution available. It is stable, easy to use, and requires no knowledge of Linux and only basic computer skills. LinuxMCE joined the list at version 0704, released August 7, 2007. LinuxMCE-0810 beta was released October 16, 2009.
LuneOS
http://webos-ports.org
LuneOS is a fork of Open webOS. The main focus of LuneOS is to provide a mobile operating system which is driven by the community. The September 1, 2014 release of LuneOS "Affogato" supported the Nexus 4 and HP TouchPad.
https://animesoft.wordpress.com/linux/
Mangaka is a GNU/Linux system based on Ubuntu and Debian. It's especially developed for the specific needs of the anime and manga community from Japan and world wide, including by default professional free software for fansubbing, web browsing, multimedia playback and 2D graphical creations as well codecs, java and flash out-of-the-box. Mangaka joined the list with the release of Linux Mangaka Nyu (Beta), dated June 6, 2015. Linux Mangaka Nyu (Final) was released June 21, 2015. Linux Mangaka Chu was released October 14, 2015.
Maru OS
http://maruos.com/
Maru works on your phone and transitions to a Debian desktop when plugged into a monitor via HDMI. A bluetooth mouse and keyboard can be used in desktop mode. The phone runs independently of the desktop so you can take a call and work on your big screen at the same time. The initial beta release of Maru was based on Android Lollipop. Maru was released open source February 11, 2016 and is still in the early stages of becoming a collaborative project. Maru OS 0.3 was released November 3, 2016. Maru OS 0.6 Okinawa, released March 6, 2019, uses Android 8.1 Oreo, LineageOS, and Debian 9 stretch under the hood.
http://meego.com/
MeeGo merges two mobile Linux projects, Moblin and Maemo. MeeGo targeted platforms such as netbooks/entry-level desktops, handheld computing and communications devices, in-vehicle infotainment devices, connected TVs, and media phones. All of these platforms have common user requirements in communications, application, and internet services in a portable or small form factor. The first release was announced March 31, 2010. MeeGo v1.0 was released May 25, 2010. The handset baseline source code was made available to the development community June 30, 2010. MeeGo for IVI "in-vehicle infotainment" 1.0 was released August 2, 2010. The seventh update for MeeGo v1.0 was released March 1, 2011. MeeGo 1.1 was released October 28, 2010. MeeGo 1.1 Update 5 was released May 24, 2011. MeeGo Tablet Developer Preview was released March 30, 2011. MeeGo 1.2 was released May 19, 2011. Tizen, see entry below, is an amalgamation of the MeeGo and LiMo projects directed by Samsung and Intel.
http://merproject.org/
The Mer project was announced in October 2011. Mer is an open, mobile-optimized, core distribution aimed at device manufacturers; powered by Qt/QML and HTML5 - openly developed, inclusive, and meritocratically governed. The core is based on MeeGo and Mer plans to share effort with the Tizen project.
Mindi Linux
http://www.mondorescue.org/
Mindi builds boot/root disk images using your existing kernel, modules, tools and libraries. Version 0.71_20021109 was released November 10, 2002. Version 0.87 was released October 30, 2003. MondoRescue 2.2.1 was released January 2, 2007. MondoRescue 2.2.9.7 was released June 28, 2011.
MorpheusArch
http://morpheusarch.co.uk/
MorpheusArch Linux is based on Arch Linux and contains tools for data recovery. MorpheusArch Linux can also be considered a DFTT (Digital Forensics Tool Testing Image) due to its ISO9660 compliance. It offers a very lightweight environment and will fit on a 1GB USB stick. The current version was 20-01-17-2017.01.20 when this entry was added in April 2017.
Myrinix
http://myrinix.com/
Myrinix- Digital Home Edition is a Linux (Debian and sidux) based live CD. Using Myrinix you can connect a High Definition Plasma TV or a big LCD screen to a central server that can record and play DVD or internet. The Myrinix 2007-08/4 live CD/DVD was released March 19, 2008. Myrinix 201104 was released April 5, 2011.
Neophysis
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/neophysis/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/neophysis/
Neophysis is a distribution for the Openmoko Freerunner, although it could potentially run on any embedded system. It aims to provide fast boot speed and phone stabiltity. The project was in an alpha stage when it was added to the list, March 8, 2010. Version 0.3.1 preview was released August 2, 2010.
http://www.nimblex.net/
http://custom.nimblex.net/
NimbleX is a small but versatile operating system which is able to boot from a small 8 cm CD, from flash memory like USB pens or MP3 players and even from the network. Because it runs entirely from a CD, USB or network it doesn't require installation or even much hardware. NimbleX is based on Slackware with the use of linux-live scripts. NimbleX 2007 was released December 25, 2006. NimbleX 2007v2 was released April 25, 2007. Custom NimbleX allows you to generate a customized Linux distribution. Custom NimbleX 2 RC1 was released August 3, 2007. NimbleX 2007 v2 now comes in a sub100MB Edition. An updated sub100 was released September 28, 2007. NimbleX 2008 was released July 22, 2008. NimbleX 2010 Beta was released April 29, 2010.
NixOS
http://nixos.org/
NixOS is a Linux distribution based on Nix, a purely functional package management system. NixOS is an experiment to see if an operating system can be built in which software packages, configuration files, boot scripts and the like are all managed in a purely functional way. That is, they are all built by deterministic functions and they never change after they have been built. NixOS is continuously built from source in Hydra, the Nix-based continuous build system. Entry added May 26, 2009. In January 2013 NixOS switched from Upstart to systemd. Nix 1.5.2 was released May 13, 2013. Nix 2.1 was released September 2, 2018. NixOS 18.09 "Jellyfish" was released October 5, 2018. NixOS 19.09 "Loris" was released October 9, 2019.
NSLU2-Linux
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/
The NSLU2-Linux project exists to discuss, develop and modify the firmware and hardware of the Linksys NSLU2, the Synology DS101, the Iomega NAS100d, the D-Link DSMG600, and other ixp4xx-based devices with large attached storage. SlugOS is the collective name for a group of firmware distributions which are derived from a common source base (and therefore share common documentation as a result of that). OpenSlug uses the OpenEmbedded package repository, and is designed for use with an external disk. UcSlugC also uses the OpenEmbedded package repository, but is designed to be the basis of some other application-specific firmware distribution, rather than a firmware distribution in its own right. SlugOS/LE (formerly known as DebianSlug) uses the Debian package repository and is an alternative for those people who want to run Debian on their NSLU2. SlugOS 5.3 beta was released March 2009.
http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-raspberry-pi-educational-linux-distro/
Adafruit created Occidentalis, a distribution for the Raspberry Pi, named for the black raspberry, Rubus occidentalis. The initial version, 0.1, is based on Raspbian (Debian) Wheezy and was released August 2, 2012. Occidentalis has been tweaked to be more hardware-hacker friendly and aims to be a good tool for teaching electronics using the Raspberry Pi. Occidentalis v0.2 was released August 31, 2012.
openArtist
http://www.openartisthq.org/
openArtist is a Linux operating system for artists. Based on Ubuntu, openArtist incorporates packages from a variety of other distributions. There are also many selfmade packages, and some freeware. It can be used as live CD or installed to a hard drive. Software packages for 2D, 3D, Audio, Video, VJ, Hardware Interfacing, Programming and Collaboration have been integrated. openArtist was added to the list on June 24, 2009. An alpha release (based on Ubuntu 12.04) was announced October 31, 2012.
http://www.openelec.tv/
Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center, or OpenELEC for short, is a small Linux distribution built from scratch as a platform to turn your computer into a complete XBMC (Kodi) media center. OpenELEC is designed to make your system boot as fast as possible and the install easily so that anyone can turn a blank PC into a media machine in less than 15 minutes. OpenELEC 1.0 was released October 20, 2011. OpenELEC 8.0 was released April 9, 2017.
OpenMediaVault
http://www.openmediavault.org/
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/openmediavault/index.php
OpenMediaVault is the next generation network attached storage (NAS) solution based on Debian Linux. It contains services like SSH, (S)FTP, SMB/CIFS, DAAP media server, RSync, BitTorrent client and many more. Thanks to the modular design of the framework it can be enhanced via plugins. OpenMediaVault is primarily designed to be used in home environments or small home offices, but is not limited to those scenarios. It is a simple and easy to use out-of-the-box solution that will allow everyone to install and administrate a Network Attached Storage without deeper knowledge. The initial release was v0.2, dated October 17, 2011. OMV 2.1 (Stone burner) was released June 29, 2015. OMV 3 (Erasmus), based on Debian 8 (jessie), was released June 13, 2017.
http://openwrt.org/
OpenWrt started out in 2003 as a Linux distribution for the Linksys WRT54G. Instead of trying to cram every possible feature into one firmware, OpenWrt provides only a minimal firmware with support for add-on packages. For users this means the ability to custom tune features, removing unwanted packages to make room for other packages and for developers this means being able to focus on packages without having to test and release an entire firmware. WhiteRussian 0.9 was released February 3, 2007. OpenWrt Backfire 10.03.1 was released December 21, 2011. OpenWrt Attitude Adjustment 12.09 was released April 25, 2013. OpenWrt "Barrier Breaker" 14.07 was released October 2, 2014. OpenWrt "Chaos Calmer" 15.05.1 was released March 16, 2016. OpenWrt merged with LEDE in January 2018. OpenWrt 15.05 received limited support, while the LEDE 17.01 series was the most up-to-date. OpenWrt/LEDE 17.01.5 "Reboot" was released July 17, 2018. OpenWrt 18.06.2 was released January 31, 2019. OpenWrt 19.07 was released January 10, 2020.
Oryx Linux
http://oryx-linux.org/
Oryx Linux is an embedded Linux distribution built on top of OpenEmbedded and The Yocto Project. It incorporates a lightweight container runtime engine to bring the benefits of containerisation to the embedded sector without disrupting existing developer workflows. Togán Labs provides commercial support for Oryx. Oryx Linux 0.2.0 was released July 5, 2017.
OSGeoLive
http://live.osgeo.org
OSGeoLive is a self-contained bootable [DVD, USB, VM] based on Lubuntu, that allows you to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software. OSGeo-Live 11.0 was released August 9, 2017. OSGeoLive 12.0 was released September 11, 2018. OSGeoLive 13.0 was released September 5, 2019.
https://osmc.tv/
OSMC (Open Source Media Center) is a free and open source media player based on Debian and Kodi. Founded in 2014, OSMC lets you play back media from your local network, attached storage and the Internet. A slightly belated December 2017 release (with Debian Stretch and Kodi 17.6) was announced January 9, 2018. OSMC releases regular updates, based on Debian stable, with newer versions of Kodi.
OviOS
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ovios/
OviOS is an open source storage OS based on the Linux kernel and includes opensource software needed to create a fully functional, highly performant storage server. OviOS joined the list with the release of version 3.0, dated December 30, 2018.
PapugLinux
http://www.papuglinux.net/
PapugLinux is a minimal GNU/Linux live CD based on Gentoo, for x86 computers. The goal of PapugLinux is to provide a minimal but functional free operating system and to be runable on most computers, from 128mb old systems to the latest powerful configurations. Papug 11.1a was released January 23, 2011.
Parted Magic
http://partedmagic.com/
Parted Magic is a Linux LiveCD/USB/PXE with its elemental purpose being to partition hard drives. Optimized at approximately 30MB, the Parted Magic OS employs core programs of GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease, while featuring other useful programs (e.g. Partition Image, TestDisk, fdisk, sfdisk, dd, ddrescue, etc.) and an excellent set of documentation to benefit the user. An extensive collection of fileystem tools are also included, as Parted Magic supports the following: ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, jfs, linux-swap, ntfs, reiserfs, reiser4, and xfs. Parted Magic 2.2 was released May 7, 2008. Parted Magic 6.7 was released September 2, 2011. Parted Magic 2019_12_24 is out.
PelicanHPC
http://pelicanhpc.awict.net/
http://pareto.uab.es/mcreel/PelicanHPC/
PelicanHPC picked up where ParallelKnoppix left off, providing a live CD that will let you set up a high performance computing cluster in a few minutes. The frontend node (either a real computer or a virtual machine) boots from the CD image. The compute nodes boot by PXE, using the frontend node as the server. All of the nodes of the cluster get their filesystems from the same CD image, so it is guaranteed that all nodes run the the same software. The CD image is created by running a single script, which takes advantage of the Debian Live infrastructure. If you need to add packages, it is very easy to create a custom version by adding the package names to the script and then running it. Pelican v1.0 was released January 10, 2008. Pelican 2.0 was released January 12, 2010. PelicanHPC 2.9 was released January 2013 and an End-of-Life was announced in June 2013. The project was revived and PelicanHPC 3.0 was released in November 2014. PelicanHPC 4.1 was released December 30, 2016.
Pentoo
http://www.pentoo.ch/
Pentoo is a Linux LiveCD, based on Gentoo, with a focus on penetration testing. The current version was 2005.1 when Pentoo was added to this list on June 1, 2005. Mini-Pentoo 2006.1 was released July 5, 2006. Pentoo 2015 RC5 was released August 2, 2016.
PicUntu
http://ubuntu.g8.net/
wiki PicUntu is an Ubuntu based system for RK3066 chipset devices. The initial version, 0.9b, was based on Ubuntu 12.10. PicUntu joined the list with the release of 0.9 RC 2.2, dated January 17, 2013.
Plop Linux
Plop Linux is a small distribution that can boot from CD, DVD, USB flash drive (UFD), USB harddisk or from network with PXE. It's designed to rescue data from a damaged system, backup and restore operating systems, automate tasks and more. Plop 4.1.2 was released August 9, 2011. PlopKexec 1.4.1 was released August 13, 2016. Plop 4.3.4 was released February 17, 2018.
Poseidon Linux
https://sites.google.com/site/poseidonlinux/
Brazilian site
Poseidon Linux was designed as a friendly and complete desktop, based on open source software and aimed at the Brazilian/International scientific community. This operating system is based on Ubuntu and inspired by Quantian Linux. It offers several specific tools in the areas of GIS, 3D Visualization, Mathematics, Statistics and several otherfields of research. It also has all the software expected in a modern desktop such as an office suite - with spell checker, web browsers, e-mail readers, instant messaging, and more. Poseidon Linux 3.0, released June 21, 2008, supports Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, English and German. Poseidon 3.1 was released November 23, 2008. Poseidon 3.2 was released May 11, 2010. Poseidon 4.0 was released July 28, 2011. Starting with Poseidon 5.0 the project started focusing on Bathymetry, Seafloor Mapping and GIS software. Poseidon 8.0 was released November 2016.
postmarketOS
https://postmarketos.org/
https://github.com/postmarketOS/
postmarketOS is a touch-optimized, pre-configured Alpine Linux with its own packages, that can be installed on smartphones. The idea is to extend the useful life of a smartphone. postmarketOS was very much a work in progress when this entry was added May 30, 2017, and remains so in this April 2018 update.
http://www.proxmox.com/en/
Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH provides Proxmox Virtual Environment and Proxmox Mail Gateway, as well as support services and training. Proxmox Mail Gateway 4.0 was released January 20, 2015. Proxmox VE 4.0 was released October 6, 2015. Proxmox VE 5.4 was released April 11, 2019. Proxmox Mail Gateway 5.2 was released March 26, 2019. Proxmox VE 6.1 was released December 4, 2019. Proxmox Mail Gateway 6.1 was released November 27, 2019.
http://www.puppylinux.org/
Puppy Linux Family Tree
Puppy Linux is a very small, yet quite fully featured distribution that uses the Woof build system. There are many puplets created by members of the Puppy community; some use Slackware or Ubuntu as a base. Puppy 0.7.6 was released May 11, 2003. BionicPup (based on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver) was released March 24, 2019.
RancherOS
http://rancher.com/rancher-os/
RancherOS is a minimalist Linux distribution for running Docker containers. It was added to the list June 27, 2016. RancherOS 0.5.0 was released August 12, 2016. RancherOS 1.0.0 was released April 12, 2017. RancherOS 1.5.0 was released December 29, 2018.
Raspberry Slideshow
http://www.binaryemotions.com/digital-signage/raspberry-slideshow
Raspberry Slideshow is an operating system for the Raspberry Pi focused on image and video slideshows. It plays all media contained in a USB key, fetched from a Windows (Samba) share, from a Webserver or FTP server. The operating system can refresh the media list at given intervals as well, in order to slide images and videos according to remote changements. Raspberry Slideshow joined the list with the release of Raspbian Stretch-based 10.0, November 20, 2017. Raspberry Slideshow 13.0 was released January 12, 2020.
http://www.raspbian.org/
Raspbian is a Debian-based distribution optimized for the Raspberry Pi hardware. Raspbian provides more than a pure OS: it comes with over 35,000 packages, pre-compiled software bundled in a nice format for easy installation on your Raspberry Pi. Raspbian joined the list July 23, 2012. Debian "Jessie" based Raspbian 2017-06-21 is out. Raspbian "Stretch" was released August 17, 2017. Raspbian 2018-11-13 is out. Raspbian for the Raspberry Pi 4, released June 24, 2019, is based on Debian "Buster".
RebeccaBlackOS
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rebeccablackos/
RebeccaBlackOS showcases Wayland and Weston. This entry was added to the list May 24, 2013. RebeccaBlackLinux_i386.iso and RebeccaBlackLinux_Reduced_i386.iso were released September 1, 2013. ISOs (based on Ubuntu 14.10 and Wayland/Weston 1.6+) were released October 27, 2014. ISO images based on Debian-testing using SVN Revision 4086 were released February 8, 2016. ISOs with Wayland desktops; KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment, Orbital, Hawaii, Orbment, and Sway were released October 10, 2016. RebeccaBlackOS 2019-05-06 was released May 6, 2019.
Rescatux
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/
Rescatux is a GNU/Linux rescue cd that comes with Rescapp. Rescapp is a nice wizard that will guide you through your rescue tasks. Super Grub2 Disk is included. Rescatux joined the list with the release of v0.30.2, dated November 20, 2012. Super Grub2 Disk 2.00s2 was released May 18, 2014. Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s5 was released October 29, 2016. Rescatux 0.51 beta 3 was released December 10, 2017. Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s9 was released May 7, 2017. Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s10 was released November 1, 2018. Rescatux 0.72-beta4 was relased November 17, 2019. Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s1 was released August 26, 2019. Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s2-beta2 was released September 8, 2019.
Rocks Cluster Distribution
http://www.rocksclusters.org/
Rocks Cluster emphasizes ease of management, configurability and security in clusters. An early version was based on Red Hat Linux 7.3. Rocks is now based on CentOS release 4/update 5 and all updates as of July 4, 2007. Rocks 4.0.0 (Whitney) was released June 7, 2005 with support for Athlon, Itanium, Nocona (EM64T), Opteron, and Pentium. Rocks 6.2 (Sidewinder) was based on CentOS 6.6 and released May 11, 2015 for 64-bit only. Rocks 7 was released December 1, 2017.
Rockstor
http://rockstor.com/
Rockstor is a Linux and btrfs powered NAS and Cloud storage server system. Rockstor offers Personal Cloud Server, SMB Cloud Server, and Traditional NAS server. Rockstor joined the list with the release of Rockstor 3.8-10, dated December 11, 2015. Rockstor 3.9.1 was released July 2, 2017.
Rogue Class Linux
http://rogueclass.org/
Rogue Class Linux (RCL) is a toy distribution for playing games and reading books. RCL has a streamlined installer and it supports joystick controls in most of the programs. RCL favors turn-based games, such as puzzles and rogue-like games. Slackware-based RCL 1 was released June 9, 2013.
http://www.sabily.org/
Sabily, formerly UbuntuME or Ubuntu Muslim Edition, is a free, open source operating system based on Ubuntu Linux with Islamic software (prayer times, Quran study tool, web content filtering tool, etc.) and a different design. The Feisty-based UbuntuME 7.04 was released October 14, 2007. UbuntuME 7.10 was released November 27, 2007. UbuntuME 8.04.1 was released July 4, 2008. UbuntuME 8.10 was released November 17, 2008. Sabily 9.10 "Gaza" was released December 27, 2009. Sabily 10.04 (Manarat) was released June 27, 2010. Sabily 10.10 "Al Quds" was released November 2, 2010. Sabily 11.04 "Al-Badr" was released May 5, 2011. Sabily 11.10 was released December 19, 2011.
https://sailfishos.org/
Sailfish OS is a descendant of Maemo/MeeGo/Mer. It's made by the Finnish company, Jolla for use in smart phones and other mobile devices. This entry was added November 22, 2012 with the initial announcement of Sailfish. Sailfish 1.0 was released February 21, 2014. Sailfish OS 2.0 was released March 2, 2015. Sailfish OS 2.1.4 was released February 20, 2018. Sailfish OS 2.2.1 was released September 11, 2018. Sailfish OS 3 was introduced in February 2018. Sailfish OS 3.0.3 "Hossa" was released May 7, 2019. Sailfish OS 3.1 "Seitseminen" was released July 25, 2019. Sailfish OS 3.2.1 "Nuuksio" was released December 20, 2019.
Scyld Beowulf
https://www.penguincomputing.com/
Penguin Computing developed Scyld Beowulf, the original cluster virtualization platform, created by Donald Becker, for Linux 2.4.X-based HPC clusters. Penguin Computing continues to provide Scyld products, such as Scyld ClusterWare and Scyld Insight for infrastructure monitoring.
SELKS
https://www.stamus-networks.com/open-source/#selks
SELKS is both Live and installable ISO based on Debian implementing a ready to use Suricata IDS/IPS. The name comes from its major components: Suricata Elasticsearch Logstash Kibana Scirius. After starting or installing SELKS, you get a running Suricata with IDPS and NSM capabilities, Kibana to analyse alert and events and Scirius to configure the Suricata ruleset. The first public release, SELKS 1.0 beta1, was announced May 27, 2014. SELKS 1.0 was released October 16, 2014. SELKS 3.0 was released August 12, 2016. SELKS5 RC1 was released December 21, 2018.
Shell-Linux
http://shellinux.crazycoder.me/
Shell-Linux aims to be light, stable, user friendly, and fast. The initial version (3.0) had no X system and was just a little shell with a package manager. Shell-Linux 5.5 includes a Light TinyX (Xvesa) X system and JWM window manager. Shell-Linux was added to the list May 21, 2013.
SliTaz GNULinux
http://www.slitaz.org/
SliTaz is a very small desktop system that runs from live CD or live USB. SliTaz v1.0 was the first stable version to be released, after two years of development. This version, released March 22, 2008, weighed in at under 25Mb using light-weight packages like the JWM window manager and the lighttpd web server. Cooking is the SliTaz development branch and new Cooking betas are usually available monthly. SliTaz 3.0 was released March 28, 2010. SliTaz 4.0 was released April 10, 2012. SliTaz Raspberry Pi was released March 29, 2014. SliTaz 5.0 Rolling was released July 17, 2016.
sposkpat
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sposkpat/
Single Purpose Operating System: Kpatience distractionless card game (sposkpat) turns any PC into a distractionless Patience card game. It runs inside qemu and VMware virtual machines, completely in RAM. It's based on KDE's kpat and Debian 6.0 live-build. sposkpat 1.02 was released October 29, 2012. sposkpat 1.05 was released December 2, 2015.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse#
http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/
SteamOS is the operating system behind Valve Software's Steam gaming platform. The initial public version was SteamOS 1.0 "alchemist" beta. It was based on Debian 'wheezy' (stable 7.1) with some proprietary bits, and it was released December 14, 2013. SteamOS "brewmaster", based on Debian 8.1, was released June 25, 2015.
StressLinux
http://www.stresslinux.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/stresslinux/
StressLinux is a minimal Linux distribution that runs from a bootable CDROM, USB, VMWare or via PXE. It makes use of some utitlities such as stress, cpuburn, hddtemp, lm_sensors, etc. It is dedicated to users who want to test their system(s) entirely on high load and monitor the health of these systems. Initial version 0.1.5b was released July 4, 2003. StressLinux 0.5.111 (based on openSUSE 11.2) was released April 23, 2010. stresslinux 0.7.106 was released July 31, 2011.
SuperGamer
https://www.supergamer.x10host.com/
SuperGamer is a live DVD with lots of games. All Games are Linux Native. It was originally based on PCLinuxOS, but later moved to a VectorLinux base. A test release of SuperGamer-VL was announced June 29, 2007. SuperGamer 5, released January 11, 2020, was based on Xfce, Ubuntu 19.10, and Linux Lite.
http://www.sysresccd.org/
SystemRescueCd is a Linux system on a bootable media for repairing your system and your data after a crash. It also aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk. It contains a lot of system utilities (parted, partimage, fstools, ...) and basic ones (editors, midnight commander, network tools). It aims to be very easy to use and supports many file systems. SystemRescueCd was based on the Gentoo LiveCd when it joined the list with the release of version 0.3.3 on March 1, 2007. SystemRescueCD switched to an Arch Linux base (and dropped 32bit support) with the release of version 6.0 on February 2, 2019.
TalkingArch
http://talkingarch.tk/
TalkingArch is a respin of the Arch Linux live CD/USB image modified to include speech and braille output for blind and visually impaired users. TalkingArch joined the list with the release of v2014.04.01. TalkingArch monthly snapshot for April 2017 is x86_64 only.
Tango Studio
http://tangostudio.tuxfamily.org/
Tango Studio is a Debian derivative for musicians and professional recording studios. It includes both free and nonfree audio applications. Debian Wheezy based Tango Studio 2.2 was released June 3, 2014.
ThinStation
http://thinstation.sourceforge.net/
ThinStation is a Linux distribution that enables you to convert standard PCs into full-featured diskless thinclients supporting all major connectivity protocols. It can be booted from the network using Etherboot/PXE or from standard media like floppy/CD/hd/flash-disk etc. The configuration is centralized to simpliy terminal management. The initial Freshmeat release was on May 15, 2003, version 0.91. Version 2.2 was released October 17, 2006. Thinstation 5.0, the sucessor to v2.2.2, is based on Crux 2.7 but the user front end is much like it was before. Version 5.0 was released February 10, 2012.
http://tinycorelinux.net/
Tiny Core Linux is a very small (10 MB) minimal Linux Desktop. It is based on Linux 2.6 kernel, Busybox, Tiny X, Fltk, and Jwm. The core runs entirely in ram and boots very quickly. It is not a complete desktop nor is all hardware completely supported. It represents only the core needed to boot into a very minimal X desktop typically with wired internet access. Tiny Core joined the list on March 16, 2009, when 1.2 was the current version. Tiny Core 4.2, released December 26, 2011, refactored Tiny Core to be highly modular to provide a foundation for user created desktops and also introduced CorePlus. piCore 6.0 was released January 20, 2015. Tiny Core Linux 6.4.1 was released November 29, 2015. Tiny Core 9.0 was released February 26, 2018.
TinyMe
http://tinymelinux.com/
TinyMe is a minimalist Linux distribution aimed at making your computing experience as bloat and lag-free as possible. TinyMe is suitable for old computers, or for those who like to mess around with small/fast systems, or just want a minimal environment. Early versions of TinyMe were a smaller version of PCLinuxOS, with less than 200 MB on a live CD. TinyMe 2008.0 was released May 23, 2008. TinyMe 2008.1 was released December 10, 2008. TinyMe "Acorn" 2012.03.05 Alpha is available.
https://www.tizen.org/
Tizen has its roots in MeeGo and LiMo. The project was announced on September 27, 2011, to be directed by Samsung and Intel. Tizen runs under the hood of many Samsung products. Tizen 1.0 Larkspur was released April 30, 2012. Tizen 2.0 Magnolia was released February 19, 2013. Tizen 2.2.1 was released November 8, 2013. Tizen Common Milestone 3.0.2014.Q3 was released November 4, 2014. Tizen-Common Q1 2015 was released June 30, 2015. Tizen 3.0 started shipping on some Samsung phones in May 2017. Tizen 5.5 Milestone 2 was released October 30, 2019.
http://www.trixbox.org/
trixbox is a telephony application platform based on Asterisk Open Source PBX Software. The trixbox application platform makes it fast and simple to install and configure your business-class telephony system. With unlimited extensions, voicemail-to-email, music on hold, call parking, analog lines or high density T1/E1 circuits and many other features, trixbox provides all the functionality your business needs. trixbox brings big business PBX features to small and medium-sized businesses. trixbox 2.2 was released May 3, 2007. trixbox CE 2.4 was released January 4, 2008. trixbox 2.6.2.2 was released February 13, 2009. trixbox 2.8.0.4 was released March 27, 2011.
TurnKey Linux
http://www.turnkeylinux.org/
TurnKey Linux provides a set of software appliances. Appliances are currently available as a single bootable ISO image that can run on real hardware in addition to most types of virtual machines. Each TurnKey appliance is different, but they are all carefully built from the ground up with the minimum components needed to serve a specific role. Available appliances include LAMP, LAPP, Joomla, Drupal, MediaWiki, and more. TurnKey was added to the list December 15, 2008. Debian Squeeze based TurnKey Core 12.0 was released August 30, 2012. TurnKey 12.1 was released June 6, 2013. TurnKey 13.0 was released November 20, 2013. TurnKey 14.1 was released April 15, 2016. TurnKey 15.0 was released July 27, 2018.
http://ubos.net/
UBOS aims to make it 10x easier to run server-side apps for yourself, or for your family, on hardware you own. It is available for Raspberry Pi, x86_64 PCs, and as a VirtualBox image. The first beta was released November 24, 2014. UBOS beta 13 was released March 3, 2018. UBOS beta 14 was released April 28, 2018.
Ubuntu Christian Edition
http://ubuntuce.com/
Ubuntu Christian Edition is a free, open source operating system geared towards Christians. It is based on Ubuntu Linux and is suitable for both desktop and server use. Along with the standard Ubuntu applications, Ubuntu Christian Edition includes the best available Christian software. The latest release contains GnomeSword, a top of the line Bible study program for Linux based on the Sword Project. There are several modules installed with GnomeSword including Bibles, Commentaries, and Dictionaries. Ubuntu CE v1.4 (based on Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS) was released October 3, 2006. Ubuntu CE 12.04 was released September 6, 2012.
Ubuntu Satanic Edition
http://ubuntusatanic.org/
Ubuntu Satanic Edition provides a stock Ubuntu system with dark themes and metal music on the installation CD. Version 666.9, released December 6, 2010, was based on Ubuntu 10.10. Ubuntu Satanic Edition 666.10 (Necrophiliac Necromancer) was released July 28, 2011.
Untangle Gateway
http://www.untangle.com/
Untangle Gateway is a KNOPPIX-based network gateway with pluggable modules for network applications like spam blocking, web filtering, anti-virus, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention, VPN, SSL VPN, firewall, and more. All Untangle apps can be downloaded indvididually to tailor your Untangle Server to the specific needs of your network. Untangle Gateway 6.2 (based on Debian Lenny) was released June 5, 2009. Untangle 8.1 was released February 13, 2011. Untangle Gateway 9.4 was released January 10, 2013. Untangle 11.0 was released October 6, 2014. Untangle 12.1 was released July 13, 2016. Untangle NG Firewall 13.1 was released September 6, 2017. Untangle NG Firewall 14.2 was released June 11, 2019.
Vinux
http://vinuxproject.org/
Vinux is a Ubuntu derived distribution optimised for the needs of blind and partially sighted users. By default Vinux provides two screen-readers, Braille display support and a friendly community. When you boot the live Vinux image, you will be greeted by the Orca screen reader enabling you to navigate the graphical Gnome desktop using keyboard commands. Finally, Brltty provides Grade 1 and 2 Braille output via Orca. Vinux 5.0, based on Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS, was released November 4, 2015. Vinux 5.1, based on Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS, was released January 18, 2017.
VortexBox
http://vortexbox.org/
VortexBox is a free, open source (GPL v3), quick-install ISO that turns your unused computer into an easy-to-use music server/jukebox. Once VortexBox has been loaded on an unused PC, it will automatically rip CDs to FLAC and MP3 files, ID3 tag the files , and download the cover art. Vortexbox will then serve the files to network media players such as Logitech Squeezebox, Sonos, or Linn. The music files can also be streamed to a Windows or Mac OSX system. VortexBox 1.7 was released December 30, 2010. VortexBox 1.10 was released September 7, 2011. VortexBox 2.3 was released April 9, 2014.
http://www.vyatta.com/
The Vyatta Community Edition is a freely-available, community-supported release of Vyatta's open-source router/firewall product. Vyatta Community Edition 2 was released February 19, 2007. Vyatta Community Edition 2.2 (Camarillo) was released August 31, 2007. Vyatta Community 4.0 was released April 21, 2008. Vyatta CE 4.1.4 was released October 16, 2008. Vyatta Core 6.4 was released May 4, 2012. Vyatta Core 6.6 was released May 1, 2013.
VyOS
https://vyos.io/
VyOS is a community fork of Vyatta, a Linux-based network operating system that provides software-based network routing, firewall, and VPN functionality. VyOS joined the list with the 1.1.0 release, dated October 9, 2014. VyOS 1.2.2 LTS was released July 15, 2019. VyOS 1.2.3-epa1 ("early production access") was released September 5, 2019. VyOS 1.2.3 became generally available September 23, 2019. VyOS will offer rolling release builds based on Debian 10 Buster in 2020 as development on the 1.3.x LTS release progresses. VyOS 1.2.4 was released January 1, 2020.
wattOS
http://www.planetwatt.com/
wattOS is designed to be a lightweight but fully featured distribution using less energy. The OS will run on low power computers and recycled systems. wattOS Beta 2, released January 24, 2009, combines OpenBox with a Ubuntu mini install. wattOS R7.5 was released October 10, 2013. wattOS R8, released May 11, 2014, marks a change to a Debian "Wheezy" base and comes in Mate, LXDE and Microwatt editions. wattOS R9 switched back to an Ubuntu LTS base and was released May 31, 2015. wattOS R10 was released September 1, 2016. Microwatt-R10 was released September 23, 2016.
Wazo
http://wazo.community/
Wazo is a Debian-based distribution providing a unified communications platform for business. It includes the traditional PBX feature set and much more. Wazo 17.05 was released April 3, 2017. Wazo 17.16 was released November 20, 2017.
Webconverger
http://webconverger.com/
Webconverger uses Debian Live technology to provide a Web platform for kiosks, thin clients, or anywhere else you want a secure, dedicated web browser. It runs from a live CD or USB device. A hard drive install option will probably be available in the future. The maxi version of Webconverger has good support for CJK languages, such as Korean. This entry was added to the list April 23, 2008 when the latest version was Webconverger 3 beta with Firefox 3 beta. Webconverger 35.1 was released May 19, 2016.
http://webosose.org/
webOS is a web-centric and usability-focused software platform for smart devices. The operating system has evolved, passing through its journey from Palm to HP, and most recently to LG Electronics. webOS became an open-source project, named webOS Open Source Edition (OSE), in March 2018.
Window Maker Live
http://wmlive.sourceforge.net/ Window Maker Live (wmlive) is an installable live CD/ISO, based mostly on the "wheezy" branch of Debian Linux. Its main purpose is to serve as a show case for the Window Maker window manager. wmlive joined the list with the 2013-03-06 release, with Window Maker 0.95.4. wmlive 0.95.6-1 was released September 20, 2014.
XtreemOS
http://www.xtreemos.eu/
The overall objective of the XtreemOS project is the design, implementation, evaluation and distribution of an open source Grid operating system (called XtreemOS) with native support for virtual organizations (VO) and capable of running on a wide range of underlying platforms, from clusters to mobiles. The first release was dated December 22, 2008. The second public release was announced November 12, 2009. XtreemOS 3 was released February 10, 2012.
Zenwalk
http://www.zenwalk.org/
Zenwalk was formerly known as Minislack, a lightweight Slackware derivative. Zenwalk Linux focuses on Internet applications, multimedia and coding tools. The first Zenwalk release, v1.2, was released August 12, 2005. The first ZenLive Linux LiveCD was released June 30, 2006. Zenwalk 7.4 was released February 13, 2014. Zenwalk Live 7.4 was released April 28, 2014. Zenwalk 8.0 was released July 2, 2016. Zenwalk 220217 was released February 22, 2017.
Zeroshell
http://www.zeroshell.net/eng/
Zeroshell is a Linux distribution aimed at providing the main network services a LAN requires. It uses Netfilter and Linux iptables for firewalling. It runs from a live CD or bootable compact flash. Zeroshell 1.0.beta4 was released February 18, 2007. Zeroshell 1.0.beta16 was released September 10, 2011. Zeroshell 2.0.RC1 was released July 25, 2012.
Zevenet
https://www.zevenet.com/products/community/
Zevenet is a load balancer and application delivery system based on Debian. The Zevenet platform provides HTTP and HTTPS connections for web applications as well as load balancing services for TCP and UDP traffic. Zevenet CE 5.10 was released October 9, 2019.
Fli4l (Floppy ISDN/DSL)
http://www.fli4l.de/
http://freecode.com/projects/fli4l
Fli4l "the on(e)-disk-router" is a single floppy Linux-based ISDN, DSL and Ethernet-Router. You can build it from an old 486 based pc with 16 megabyte memory, which is more than adequate for this purpose. Stable version 2.0.8 was released April 27, 2003, adding the ability to install and boot from a USB memory stick or DiscOnChip. Development version 3.1.1 was released September 9, 2006. fli4l 3.6.2 rc1 was released August 6, 2012.
floppyfw
http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/
http://freecode.com/projects/floppyfw
floppyfw is a router with firewall capabilities. Suitable for use as a screening router or as a packet filtering firewall. Version 2.0.3 was released October 3, 2002. floppyfw 3.0.15 was released July 21, 2011.
http://www.freesco.org/
http://www.freesco.info/
FREESCO (stands for FREE ciSCO) is a free replacement for commercial routers supporting up to 3 ethernet/arcnet/token_ring/arlan network cards and up to 2 modems. Mirror sites are available in Canada, Europe, Russia, and South Africa. Version 0.3.7 was released March 11, 2007. FREESCO 0.4.4 was released February 5, 2012.
Some of these are for system rescue tasks. Some are full featured distributions (on a single CD) that can run anywhere, school labs, Internet cafes, on a Windows system where ever you are. Note that this category is somewhat outdated. Many of these distributions are available as DVD and USB images and some support a hard disk install.
http://cyti.latgola.lv/ruuni/
AUSTRUMI is a business card size (50MB) bootable Live CD Linux distribution based on Slackware. The current version was 0.9.7 when the entry was added on August 13, 2005. Version 1.2.0 was released May 9, 2006. Version 1.9.3 was released July 2009.
CDLinux
http://freecode.com/projects/cdlinux
CDlinux is compact Linux distribution that aims to be both featureful and small. It started out as an administration/rescue tool for Eastern Asian (CJK) users. CDlinux is also highly user configureable, and supports a wide range of hardware (PCMCIA/SCSI/USB). Version 0.4.3 was released June 10, 2003. CDlinux 0.9.0 developement was released December 19, 2008. CDlinux 0.9.7.1 was released March 19, 2012.
Debox GNU/Linux
http://sourceforge.net/projects/deboxlive/
Debox GNU/Linux Live CD is a hybrid distribution based on Debian, the Liquorix kernel, and OpenBox. It includes a wide range of software and supports lots of hardware. Debox joined the list shortly after the September 29, 2014 release of version 1.5.
http://dslr.dimakrasner.com/
DSLR is a small, "live" Linux-libre distribution in the spirit of Damn Small Linux, targeted at advanced users. It's a lightweight operating system for i686 and x86_64, which comes pre-loaded with many useful applications and breathes new life into nostalgic applications and old hardware. It is an independent distribution, not based on any other distribution. It is available for i686 and x86-64 systems, with or without UEFI support. DSLR joined the list September 10, 2014, while in an alpha state.
dyne:bolic GNU/Linux
http://www.dynebolic.org/
dyne:bolic GNU/Linux is a live CD/DVD/USB with media creativity tools. Dyne:bolic has been recommended by the Free Software Foundation as a distribution with no proprietary bits or closed source firmware. The initial version of Dyne:bolic 0.3.1 was released February 17, 2002. dyne:bolic 3.0 was released September 8, 2011.
Finnix
http://www.finnix.org/
Finnix is a self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators. You can mount hard drives, set up network devices, repair filesystems, and pretty much do anything you can do with a regular server distribution. Finnix is not intended for the average desktop user, and does not include any desktops, productivity tools, or sound support, in order to keep distribution size low. The project started in 1999. Finnix 86.0 was released October 24, 2005. Finnix 111 was released June 4, 2015.
http://www.gibraltar.at/
Gibraltar is a project that aims to produce a Debian GNU/Linux-based router and firewall package. This package boots and runs from CD-ROM, so a hard disk installation is not necessary. Version 0.99.6 was released January 13, 2003. Version 2.5 was released September 10, 2007. Gibraltar 2.6 was released July 17, 2008. Gibraltar 3.1 was released May 4, 2011.
GRML
http://grml.org/
grml is a live CD based on Knoppix and Debian with a collection of GNU/Linux software for system administrators. It provides automatic hardware detection and can be used for system rescue, for analyzing systems/networks or as a working environment. GRML version 0.4 (Eierspass) was released May 15, 2005. A smaller version, grml-small, fits on a business card CD-ROM or USB device. The initial version of grml-small, 0.1, was released July 5, 2005. grml 2008.11 (all flavors) was released December 1, 2008. grml-live v0.15.0 was released July 8, 2011. Grml 2014.11 "Gschistigschasti" was released November 17, 2014. Grml 2017.05 "Freedatensuppe" was released June 14, 2017. Grml 2018.12 "Gnackwatschn" was released December 31, 2018.
Groovix
http://groovix.com/
Open Sense Solutions offers the Groovix Kiosk Disk, a live Linux CD based on Debian, that can turn any computer into a public access computer. It is set up to run in single-user mode, presenting a Firefix web browser on boot-up. Open Sense Solutions will customize a CD/DVD to your business needs.
ImagineOS
http://www.imagineos.com.br/
ImagineOS (formerly GoblinX) is Slackware-based Live CD, directed towards those users who appreciate quality applications and a workspace that is both practical and beautiful. GoblinX 1.2.1 was released in early November 2005. G:Standard 3.0 was released October 2, 2009. ImagineOS 20100628 X1 (a beta release based on Slackware 13.1 with XFCE) was the first release under the new name. ImagineOS 20101103 K1 was announced November 9, 2010. Imagineos 20110605 K1 was announced June 11, 2011.
KANOTIX
http://kanotix.com/
KANOTIX is a KNOPPIX based live CD using mostly Debian sid packages optimized for i586. Also available for x86-64. KANOTIX "BUG HUNTER" 08-2004 was announced September 20, 2004. KANOTIX 2006 Preview, CeBIT-Version, was released March 10, 2006. KANOTX 2006-01-RC4 is available for testing. After years of chasing Debian unstable (sid), KANOTIX has shifted to a more stable base. Debian Etch based Kanotix 2007 (Thorhammer) RC7 was released January 1, 2008. Debian Lenny based Kanotix 2010 Excalibur was relased June 9, 2010. Kanotix 2011-05 Hellfire (based on Debian Squeeze) was released May 11, 2011. Kanotix Dragonfire (Wheezy-based) was released May 23, 2013 at LinuxTag 2013 in Berlin.
Linux Live
http://www.linux-live.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/linuxlivescripts/
Linux Live is a set of bash scripts which allows users to create their own live CD from any Linux distribution. It joins the list at version 3.0.27, released January 21, 2004. Version 5.1.8 was released September 26, 2005. Linux Live 6.2.9 was released November 26, 2008. As of August 2013 the project remains active, with no formal releases.
Linux LiveCD
http://www.wifi.com.ar/english/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/cdrouter/
Linux LiveCD is a small and simple LiveCD distribution aimed at broadband and wifi users. Does not require installation, does not require a hard disk. There are commerical version of Linux LiveCD Firewall and Linux LiveCD HotSpot, with features like easy web configuration and management, vpn, traffic control and QoS, virus, spam and web content filtering. Linux LiveCD Router version 1.5 was released under the GNU GPL on November 10, 2003. Linux LiveCD Router 2.0.50 was released May 31, 2009.
Nelum OS
http://sourceforge.net/projects/nelum-os/
Nelum OS is a light and fast Live installable Linux distribution, based on Debian/Ubuntu. Nelum Openbox 32 bit is a Debian sid based rolling release. Nelum-16.04-64 is based on Ubuntu 16.04 with Openbox. Nelum-Bang is a minimalist distro based on Debian Jessie. Nelum joined the list January 27, 2016.
http://porteus.org/
Porteus is a portable/live media Linux OS, based on Slackware and Linux Live Scripts which have been heavily modified by chief maintainer Fanthom. In essence, Porteus is a portable Slackware which started out as Fanthom keeping the Slax OS up to date as a community remix project. Unlike a standard linux install, Porteus exists in a compressed state on the portable drive. It has no /root /bin /etc file structure on the portable device itself, rather this is created on the fly during the boot process, which only takes around 20-30 seconds on a relatively new computer. It is modular in design which means extra software comes in the form of 'modules' which can be activated and injected into the live file system. It does not need to be installed and uninstalled as you may expect with other operating systems which takes numerous amounts of clicks and agreements. Porteus joined the list with the release of version 1.0 rc2 x86_64, dated May 7, 2011. Porteus 1.0 was released June 20, 2011. Porteus 3.2.2 was released December 29, 2016. Porteus Kiosk 4.9.0 was released September 16, 2019. Porteus 5.0 rc1 was released June 16, 2019.
SAMity
http://www.samity.org/
SAMity is a desktop distribution originally based on Mandriva Linux and PCLinuxOS. It uses the XFCE desktop. SAM joined the list at TestRelease 1.0, released September 28, 2004. SAM2009 was released August 10, 2009. SAMity Linux 2010 was released October 30, 2010. SAMity School Edition was released November 1, 2010.
SLAX-Live CD
http://slax.org/
SLAX-Live CD is a bootable live CD based on Slackware Linux distribution. All the scripts and source code are included to build your own live CD, or just download the ISO image. Version 2.9.0.22 was released September 22, 2003. Version 5.1.6 was released May 23, 2006. Version 5.1.7 Standard edition was released July 22, 2006. SLAX 5.1.8 was released October 9, 2006. Slax 6.x has a Slackware 12.0 base. Slax 6.1.2 was released August 4, 2009. After a period of dormancy Slax development was restarted August 2012. Slax 7.0 KDE preview was released October 21, 2012. Slax 7.0.6 was released March 14, 2013. After a long hiatus, a new Debian-based Slax 9.2.1 was released November 16, 2017. Slax 9.11.0, based on Debian 9 Jessie, was released September 14, 2019.
http://trinityhome.org//
The Trinity Rescue Kit is based on Mandrake/Mandriva. It is designed to rescue/repair/prepare dead or damaged systems, be it Linux or Windows. It now has networking capabilities like ssh and samba and supports about every network card, disk controller and USB controller. Version 1.1 was released July 7, 2003. TRK 3.2 was released January 19, 2007. TRK 3.4 was released August 16, 2010.
Arch Linux ARM
http://archlinuxarm.org/
Arch Linux ARM provides targeted kernel and software support for soft-float ARMv5te, hard-float ARMv6 and ARMv7, and ARMv8 (AArch64) instruction sets on a variety of consumer devices and development platforms. Our collaboration with Arch Linux brings users the best platform, newest packages, and installation support. It follows the rolling release model. Arch Linux ARM joined the list December 22, 2015.
FatdogArm
http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/arm-index.html
FatdogArm is a port of Fatdog64 to the ARM platform. Like Fatdog64, FatdogArm is intended for desktop-style operations but on the lower-cost ARM-based systems. FatdogArm joined the list with the first beta release, dated March 10, 2014. While the Alpha versions were direct ports of Fatdog64, the beta version is based on Linux From Scratch 7.4 and targets ARMv7 with VFPv3-d16 (no NEON).
Linaro
http://www.linaro.org/
Linaro is a not-for-profit engineering organization with over 120 engineers working on consolidating and optimizing open source software for the ARM architecture, including the GCC toolchain, the Linux kernel, ARM power management, graphics and multimedia interfaces. Linaro 12.06 was released June 29, 2012. ARMv8 images became available in October 2012. Linaro 13.01 was released February 1, 2013. Linaro ERP (Enterprise Reference Platform) 17.12 was released December 13, 2017.
(PA-RISC)
PA-RISC Linux
http://parisc-linux.org/
On December 11, 2001 the PA-RISC Linux development community announced version 0.9.3, the latest version of Linux for computers using Hewlett Packard's PA-RISC processor. This site continues to track Linux distributions that support HPPA, including Debian and Gentoo.
(PowerPC)
MintPPC
http://mintppc.org/
MintPPC is a Linux distribution for 32-bit PowerPC computers. It is based on Linux Mint LXDE, ported to Debian/PPC. The idea behind MintPPC is to have a fast good looking lightweight desktop manager, which runs well on older G3 and G4 machines. MintPPC is for desktop users who want a very fast system without the need to install software themselves. It is easy to use and it is complete. An advantage of this distribution for PowerPC users is that a few bugs, which are always present in Debian/Ubuntu, have been overcome. After installing MintPPC things like battery status meter, laptop sleep mode and sound will work out of the box. MintPPC is not affiliated with Linux Mint but it uses the same underlying source code. MintPPC was first released as Linux Mint LXDE Debian Lenny in May 2010. MintPPC joined the list with the release of MintPPC 9 (released October 31, 2010), which was based on Linux Mint LXDE 9 (Isadora) and Debian Squeeze. MintPPC 11 was released November 14, 2011.
PenguinPPC.org
http://penguinppc.org/
PenguinPPC.org does not provide a complete distribution, but it is a good resource for information about Linux on a wide range of different PowerPC-based machines, ranging from small embedded systems, through desktop systems such as the Apple Power Macintoshes and clones, to high-end servers such as IBM's eServer pSeries (RS/6000) and iSeries (AS/400) range.
Slackintosh
http://workaround.ch/
The Slackintosh Project aims to get Slack on your Macintosh. Version 10.2 was released October 30, 2005. Slackintosh 11.0 was released October 8, 2006. Slackintosh 12.0 was released July 15, 2007. Slackintosh 12.1 was released June 7, 2008.
http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/
http://www.ydl.net/products/ydl/
Yellow Dog Linux started out as Red Hat Linux for the PowerPC. YDL remains RPM-based but has otherwise moved on from its roots. It supports several PPC products. YDL 3.0 was released March 19, 2003. The 64-bit YDL v4.0.90 was released April 27, 2005. Terra Soft Solutions, parent company of Yellow Dog Linux, was acquired by the Japanese firm Fixstars Corporation (announced November 11, 2008). Yellow Dog Enterprise Linux for CUDA was released March 2, 2010. Yellow Dog Linux for NVIDIA CUDA v6.2.1 was released July 20, 2010. YDL 7 was designed to support the PowerLinux - 7R2 Yellow Dog Appliance, released August 7, 2012.
XO Software
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/The_OLPC_Wiki
XO Software is a Fedora-based system developed for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. The XO and its software is designed specifically for the educational benefit of children in the developing world. XO Software Release 8.2.0 became available October 15, 2008. Stable 10.1.3 was release January 16, 2011. OLPC OS 11.2.0 (based on Fedora 14) and XO-1.75 were released July 26, 2011. OLPC OS 11.3.0 was released November 1, 2011. OLPC OS 12.1.0 was released August 31, 2012. OLPC OS 13.2.8 was released December 12, 2016. OLPC OS 13.2.10 (for XO-1, XO-1.5, XO-1.75, and XO-4) was released December 29, 2018.
Cooperative Linux
http://www.colinux.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/colinux/
Cooperative Linux (or CoLinux) is a version of the Linux kernel that provides a method for running Linux natively under Microsoft Windows without commercial PC virtualization software. Development of CoLinux began in late 2003, with early releases in January 2004. CoLinux 0.7.2 was released November 18, 2007. CoLinux 0.7.9 was released April 9, 2011.
K12LTSP
http://www.k12ltsp.org/
K12Linux for Fedora
K12LTSP is a terminal server appliance distribution originally based on Red Hat Linux. It's easy to install and configure. Version 4.0, based on Fedora Core 1, was released December 17, 2003. K12LTSP (Fedora + LTSP) 6.0.0 was released December 24, 2006. Fedora 9 based K12Linux Terminal Server RC1 was released October 16, 2008. K12Linux F10 Live Server was released February 3, 2009.
LTSP
http://www.ltsp.org/
The Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) is all about running thin client computers in a GNU/Linux environment. Version 3.0 was announced January 7, 2002. LTSP 4.1.1 was released April 19, 2005. Best Of Show at the 2005 Linux World Conference and Expo in San Francisco. LTSP-5 packages are available for Debian, Ubuntu and other distributions since March 2007.
We only list distributions which have a valid website. It may still be possible to download the source code for these inactive distributions, but we make no guarantees. Some of these projects might not have ever gotten that far. There may be other historical distributions listed above.
http://pages.ccapcable.com/alisou/cms/?AliXe
AliXe is a SLAX-based Live CD from Canada. AliXe v0.09 ICE edition, released November 20, 2006, is a bilingual live CD (English & French). It's based on SLAX and features IceWM with lots of GTK2 applications. AliXe 0.10 ICE rc1 was released January 11, 2007. AliXe 0.11b Xfce was released October 2, 2007.
andLinux
http://www.andlinux.org/
andLinux is a complete Linux distribution that runs seamlessly in Windows. There is no need to partition, dual boot, configure or dedicate a machine. Users will have a complete Linux environment running along with Windows in a matter of minutes. The Proof Of Concept v2.1, based on Debian unstable, was released March 5, 2006. Ubuntu based andLinux Beta 2 was released May 22, 2009.
Annvix
http://annvix.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/annvix/
Annvix is a Mandrakelinux-based secure Linux server distribution that aims to provide a small, easy-to-use server with high security. Features include a secure kernel, gcc with SPP stack protection patches, and secure defaults for all services. It also includes unique features such as running all services under DJB's daemontools and auditing tools such as rsec (msec's baby brother), tripwire, snort, and chkrootkit. Initial version 1.0-CURRENT alpha1 was released June 3, 2004. Annvix 3.0-RELEASE (Freya) was released December 30, 2007.
http://antergos.com/
Antergos was formerly known as Cinnarch, an Arch Linux derivative using the Cinnamon desktop. Antergos retains the Arch base and broadened the desktop selection to include GNOME, Cinnamon, KDE, MATE, Openbox, and Xfce. The Arch repositories are supported. Cinnarch joined the list with the release of 2012.10.01. Antergos 2013.05.12 was the first release after the name change. Antergos 19.4 was released April 4, 2019. The project announced an end to development May 21, 2019. There will be no future releases.
http://user-contributions.org/archie.html
Archie is a complete live Arch linux system (originally based on v0.7) to be run from a CD/USB, built with the KISS philosophy in mind. This is a full Arch Linux system, while striving for the fastest performance with no extensive bloating. Archie uses its own hardware detection tool (lshwd) and supports a wide range of hardware with low detection time. Archie also provides extended features like multi-lingual, nesting capabilities and hd-install. Archie v0.4.1 was released April 15, 2005.
http://quietsche-entchen.de/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/ariane/00-WikiIndex
http://freshmeat.net/projects/ariane/
ariane is a console-only Linux system. It boots from CD-ROM into RAM and does not require a hard disk. It can also be booted from PXE or USB. It can be used for everything a minimal Linux system could be used for. ariane joins the list at version 434/51, released May 1, 2004. ariane version 2 is a minimal Debian system that runs in RAM. Version 2.0.4 was released August 29, 2007.
ARM Linux
http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/
ARM Linux was a very early effort to port Linux to ARM processors.
ATmission
http://www.atconsultancy.nl/atmission/
ATmission is a Live Linux CD based on Fedora Core 4. You can boot from this CD-ROM and experiment with Linux in all its aspects. The main advantage of ATmission compared to other Live Linux CD's is its flexibility. Any file on the ATmission Live CD can be modified and your changes can be preserved in a file located on hard disk or on a USB memory stick. Version 2.0-01 was released September 26, 2005.
Aurora Sparc Project
http://auroralinux.org/
This Sparc Linux distribution was originally based on Red Hat 7.3. Build 0.2 was announced on December 4, 2001. Build 0.4 (Titanium) was released September 26, 2002. The first Fedora Core 2 based tree of Aurora SPARC Linux, Build-1.91 (Code Name Wombat), was released May 29, 2004. Aurora Build-2.0 (FC3-based) was released April 14, 2006. Aurora 3.0 is FC6 based. Build 2.99 (3.0 beta 2) was released November 30, 2007. In November 2009 the project announced that their efforts would go into supporting SPARC in Fedora.
Two Penetration Testing live Linux distributions, Auditor Security Linux and WHAX merged to create BackTrack in February 2006. Backtrack was originally based on SLAX, but later switched to an Ubuntu base. BackTrack may be run on live media and contains a wide array of tools for penetration testing. BackTrack v.1.0 Final was released May 26, 2006. BackTrack 5 R3 was released August 13, 2012. BackTrack was succeeded by Kali Linux in March 2013.
BBLCD Toolkit
http://freshmeat.net/projects/bblcd/
BBLCD is the acronym for Bernhard's Bootable Linux CD or Build your own Bootable Linux CD. BBLCD is a toolkit for building your own bootable Linux CD from your favorite (and possibly customized) distribution. It uses, more or less, an intelligent cp -a / /dev/cdrom to create a CDROM from an existing system. Version 0.7.7 was released April 9, 2003. Version 0.7.10, released October 1, 2003, seems to be the last release.
Bent Linux
http://bent.latency.net/
Bent Linux is a compact Linux distribution. It's inspired by Linux From Scratch, but uses Busybox, uClibc, and static linking. It's particularly suited to building dedicated servers, initrds for custom installers and rescue disks, and systems with a nice crisp mid-1980s mouthfeel to satisfy the mid-life crises of crusty curmudgeons. Bent works on older systems without much processing power or RAM. Entry added November 16, 2005. A git repository was opened early in 2008 but the contents are looking a bit dusty. Moved to historical August 25, 2008.
BLAG Linux and GNU
http://www.blagblagblag.org/
BLAG Linux and GNU by the Brixton Linux Action Group is an operating system. It comes with everything you need to get a computer up and running--it needs no other software. It has Internet, graphics, video, sound, office, security, file sharing, and more applications. It's fast, reliable, runs on older machines, and flies on fast boxes. You can install miniblag (the smallest install at less than 350 Megs), deskblag (includes a Gnome desktop with all the typical apps), serverblag (all the server daemons but no GUI) or get it all with blagblagblag. BLAG starts with Fedora and adds applications from Dag, Freshrpms, NewRPMS, and includes custom packages. BLAG9000 was the current version when the entry was added, November 11, 2003. BLAG 60001 was released May 10, 2007. BLAG 70000 (sugarwater) was released November 12, 2007. BLAG 90001 (oxygen) was released July 21, 2008. BLAG 200000 Alpha was released October 23, 2014. blag 140000 (Spartakus) was the current version as of July 2015. Moved to historical June 2018.
Bluewhite64 Linux Project
http://www.bluewhite64.com/
The Bluewhite 64 Linux project is an unofficial port of Slackware Linux to the AMD64 architecture. Bluewhite64-current v20060609 was available when this entry was added to the list. Bluewhite64 12.1 was released May 4, 2008. Bluewhite64 Linux 12.1 LiveDVD and Flash was released May 26, 2008. Bluewhite64 Linux 12.1 KDE4 LiveDVD RC1 was released August 25, 2008. Bluewhite64 Linux 12.2 "LiveDVD" was released March 9, 2009. Bluewhite64 Linux 12.2 was released December 15, 2008. Bluewhite64 13.0 was released September 9, 2009. Bluewhite64 Linux 13.0 LiveDVD was released was released November 16, 2009.
BIOKNOPPIX
http://bioknoppix.hpcf.upr.edu/
BIOKNOPPIX comes from the University of Puerto Rico High Performance Computing facility (HPCf) and the Puerto Rico Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN-PR). It's a Live-CD Linux distribution, based on KNOPPIX, specialized to include tools for bioinformatics. Bio-Knoppix beta version 0.2 was released February 13, 2004. Version 0.2 was still the current stable release as of March 2007.
Bonzai Linux
http://developer.berlios.de/projects/bonzai/
Bonzai Linux has been built to offer a Debian based Desktop-OS that fits on a 180MB CD-R(W). The Distribution includes the current stable version of KDE and has been modified for easier installation. Version 1.5 was released May 20, 2003. Version 3.2 was released January 14, 2004.
BRaiLleSPEAK
http://www.brlspeak.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/brlspeak/
BRLSPEAK is a Braille and Speech oriented mini-distribution of Linux for the visually impaired. Support for English, French, Italian and Dutch (Netherlands). Initial version 7.0-1, released November 22, 2001, was based on Slackware. Version 07-10-2003, released October 8, 2003, is Debian-based.
BYLD
http://byld.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/byld
Build Your Linux Disk (BYLD) is a little package that helps you to build a Linux distribution on a single floppy disk to use as you want. Build a net client, rescue disk or other small application. Version 1.0.3 was released November 25, 2000.
http://cdlinux.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdlinux/
This CDLinux was a Chinese Debian GNU/Linux running on a CD. Last update, March 30, 2001.
ChainSaw Linux
http://www.chainsawlinux.com/
Crimson Chain Productions, a Maryland based film & video production company, brings you CHAINSAWLINUX - a Linux distribution designed solely for video editing, CGI, & 3D animation. The current version of ChainSaw was 0.0.1 for some time. A "We're not Dead" notice was posted April 27, 2006. Very little has been posted since.
Cool Linux CD and Emergency Linux CD
http://emergencycd2.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/emergencycd2/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/coollinuxcd/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/emergencycd2/
Emergency CD is a console version liveCD for maintenance operations and rescuing your system after a crash. Cool Linux CD is a fully functional Linux desktop system with X graphical interface and many additional software packages. Cool Linux 2.3 was released September 17, 2003. Emergency CD 3.0 GE was released October 28, 2003.
Coyote Linux
http://www.coyotelinux.com/
Coyote Linux v1.x (Floppy Release) was designed to run entirely from a floppy without requiring a hard drive or CDROM. Coyote Linux was used as the base OS in products such as the Wolverine Alpha 1 Firewall and VPN and the Fury IP Load Balancer. Coyote Linux 1.32 was released January 6, 2003. Coyote Linux 3.00.31 was released December 9, 2005. Coyote Linux v3.00.46 was released April 12, 2006. In it's later days Coyote became a small, embedded distribution.
Crash Recovery Kit
http://crashrecovery.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/crk/
The Crash Recovery Kit for Linux was originally based on Red Hat Linux Newer version are based on Mandrake Linux. It can be used as a recovery disc for lots of systems, not just Linux. All Linux filesystems as well as FAT16 and FAT32 are supported. Version 2.4.18 was released March 31, 2002. Version 2.6.7-mdk100 and crash247-mdk100.iso, based on Mandrake 10.0 (i586), was released July 7, 2004. CRK 2.6.11.10 was released May 18, 2005. CRK 2.4.37.5 (based on Red Hat Linux 7.3) was released September 1, 2009.
CTKArch
http://ctkarch.org/
CTKArch is a minimalistic Arch Linux setup that comes with a set of carefully selected applications and provides maximum hardware support, exclusively using free open-source software. The project started in June 2009 and joined the list with the release of 0.7 in April 2011.
DemoLinux
http://www.demolinux.org/
DemoLinux is a complete distribution on a bootable CDROM. Take Linux with you and run Linux anywhere. The website shows multi-lingual support for English, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. DemoLinux 3.01p15 was released July 27, 2002.
Devil-Linux
http://www.devil-linux.org/
Devil-Linux is a distribution which boots and runs from CDROM. The configuration can be saved to a floppy diskette or a USB pen drive (new in 1.0). Devil Linux was originally intended to be a dedicated firewall/router but now Devil-Linux can also be used as a server for many applications. Attaching an optional hard drive is easy, and many network services are included. Devil-Linux 0.5RC1 was released May 30, 2002. Stable Devil-Linux v1.4.1 was released December 16, 2010. Devil-Linux 1.6.9 was released August 24, 2015. Devil-Linux 1.8.0 was released April 16, 2017. There will be no more new versions, as of January 7, 2018.
DragonLinux
http://dragonlinux.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/dragonlinux/
DragonLinux is a complete Linux operating system distribution that has been customized to install on top of versions of Microsoft Windows or any version of DOS. DragonLinux v2r2pre was released November 26, 2001. After a long time in the Historical section, DragonLinux v3r1pre was released January 10, 2005. This release used Slackware 10.0 packages. The source code for this project is available, but it is no longer developed. Moved back to the historical section January 31, 2008.
Dreamlinux
http://www.dreamlinux.info
Dreamlinux aims to be a light, modern and functional free OS that runs as a live CD or installed to a hard drive. Dreamlinux Works edition includes plenty of desktop applications and the XGL Edition provides additional eye candy for people with Nvidia cards. It comes with the XFCE desktop environment. The MkDistro tool is included to help people create their own specialized distribution. Dreamlinux Works Edition 2.1 was released September 19, 2006. Dreamlinux 5.0, released January 1, 2012, is a complete redesign of the distribution and is compatible with Debian testing. The project was discontinued in September 2012.
eLearnix
http://freeloaderlinux.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeloaderlinux/
Once upon a time a distribution called Embedded Freedom Linux was in the embedded section of this list; version 1 released December 15, 2002. EFL turned into FreeLoader Linux before morphing into eLearnix. eLearnix 2.6.6 was released May 16, 2004. Now a product of Privare Networks, a provider of embedded Linux solutions, Freeloader and eLearnix are available for free download. Privare 1.2 was released February 27, 2006. Freeloader and eLearnix were still available when this entry moved to historical on April 13, 2009.
Embedded Debian
http://www.emdebian.org/
EmDebian (Embedded Debian) is a project to make Debian GNU/Linux a mainstream choice for embedded projects. Embedded Debian tries to strip Debian down to be a much smaller system whilst keeping all the good things. Emdebian GNU/Linux Grip 1.0 and Crush 1.0, both based on Debian 5.0 "lenny", were released February 14, 2009. Grip is binary compatible with lenny. Crush, the smallest Emdebian installation and only available for ARM, is not binary compatible with lenny. Emdebian Grip 1.0.1 was released September 6, 2010. Updates for Emdebian Grip ceased in July 2014.
Eurielec Linux
http://www.eurielec.etsit.upm.es/linux/
This was a project started by a a club of students at ETSIT (UPM), according to the Spanish web site.
EvilEntity Linux
http://sourceforge.net/projects/undead
Some say the Linux desktop is dead. Undead Linux seeks to counter that opinion by offering EvilEntity Linux, an easy to install, easy to use, i686 "Windows replacement" Linux desktop for the home computer. The initial release, EvilE DR-0.2.4d, was released April 26, 2002. EvilE DR-0.2.5 was released January 27, 2003. This project seems to be dead, but some code is available at SourceForge. Moved to historical April 24, 2008.
Ewrt
http://www.portless.net/menu/ewrt/
Ewrt is a Linux distribution for the Linksys WRT54G that was forked from the Linksys and Sveasoft code bases. It is designed to meet the needs of open wireless network operators by providing a captive portal based on NoCatSplash and large-scale management functionality on a stable and low-cost platform. The first public release, version 0.2 beta1, became available April 27, 2004. Ewrt-0.4 was released March 2006. The last official release of Ewrt was Ewrt-0.4.4.
Fd Linux
http://www.fdlinux.com/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/fdlinux/
Fd Linux is a very tiny floppy distribution of Linux, set to fit on one floppy disk (kernel and root fs are combined!). All binaries are based on Red Hat. Version 2.1-0 was released March 12, 2002. Version 3.0-0 was released March 10, 2003.
Feather Linux
http://featherlinux.berlios.de/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/featherlinux/
Feather Linux is a Linux distribution which runs completely off a CD and takes up under 50Mb of space. It is suitable especially for business-card sized CDs. It is a Knoppix remaster (based on Debian), and tries to include software which most people would use every day on their desktop. Feather joins the list at version 0.2, released November 30, 2003. Version 0.7.5 was released July 1, 2005.
http://biatchux.dmzs.com/
http://fire.dmzs.com/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/biatchux/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/fire-biatchux/
FIRE was a portable bootable cdrom based distribution with the goal of providing an immediate environment to perform forensic analysis, incident response, data recovery, virus scanning and vulnerability assessment. The initial version (v.0.1.0.5b) was released February 28, 2002. FIRElite v0.2b was released August 19, 2002. FIRE 0.4a was released May 14, 2003. Moved to historical July 30, 2009.
Flash Linux
http://flashlinux.org.uk/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/flashlinux/
Flash Linux is a customised Linux distribution based on Gentoo Linux, designed to be run directly off a USB key or other (similar) forms of bootable flash memory. It should work within the contraints of 256Mb of (flash) memory although larger devices may also be used. Flash Linux release 0.3.1 became available November 27, 2004. FlashLinux 0.3.4 was released February 9, 2005.
Foresight Desktop Linux
http://foresightlinux.com/
http://www.foresightlinux.org/
Foresight Linux is a Distribution which showcases some of the latest and greatest from GNOME. Some of the things that may not be mature enough for some of the other distros. As of March 10, 2005 Foresight included GNOME 2.10, Mono 1.1.4 and many Mono applications, GNOME Office, Howl, Conary and more. Foresight 0.9.3 was released December 15, 2005. Foresight 2.5.2 was released December 21, 2011. Foresight 2.5.3 was released April 12, 2013. The Foresight project announced the end of development May 11, 2015.
free-EOS
http://free-eos.org/modules/news/
Free-EOS is a French distribution with the aim of being incredibly easy to set up and get a set of services running. Version 1.1 was released June 14, 2003. Version 1.3-1a was released November 27, 2004. Version 2.0 was released June 25, 2006, activity seems to die out after that.
FreeMed Live
http://freemedsoftware.org/
The FreeMed Software Foundation has a live CD, based on Kubuntu 5.04 (Hoary) with FreeMED 0.8.0 and REMITT 0.3 configured for test use. Version 0.1 was released September 29, 2005. FreeMED 0.8.3 was released August 11, 2006.
FTOSX
http://www.futuretg.com/FTOSX/
A product of Future Technologies, the FTOSX Desktop is a RPM-based OS for IA-32 platforms. FTOSX offers more than 1,000 software packages including its own KDE-base desktop. FTOSX Desktop 2005 seems to be the last release. Moved to historical April 24, 2008.
Fuduntu
http://www.fuduntu.org/
Fuduntu is a light hearted and fun Linux distribution that earns its name by its design to fit somewhere in-between Fedora and Ubuntu. It is designed to be asthetically pleasing, and is optimized for Netbook and other portable computers. Fuduntu isn't limited to portable computers however, it is a fantastic desktop distribution too. Fuduntu 14.10 was released June 18, 2011. The project announced a break from the Fedora release schedule and a shift to a rolling release model (or quarterly releases with small incremental improvements), followed by the release of Fuduntu 14.11 on September 20, 2011. Fuduntu 14.12 was released November 7, 2011. Fuduntu 2012.4 was released October 1, 2012. Fuduntu 2013.2 was released April 8, 2013. On April 15, 2013 the project announced that 2013.3 will be the last release.
GENDIST
http://www.bablokb.de/gendist/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/gendist/
GENDIST (the Linux Distribution Generator) allows you to create your own special mini-distribution. It creates a makefile-based build system for your distribution, and helps you to automate the following three tasks: maintaining your root filesystem, maintaining your "CD filesystem" (in case you create a bootable CD), and packaging everything on media. GENDIST 1.6.0 (Stable) was released September 14, 2003.
Glendix
http://www.glendix.org/
Glendix combines the Linux kernel with the Plan9 user space. The name of this project is derived from the two words 'Glenda' and 'Tux'. Glenda the rabbit is the mascot of the Plan 9 operating system, while Tux the penguin is the mascot for the Linux kernel.
H3Knix
http://freshmeat.net/projects/h3knix/
H3Knix is a small, source-based, desktop Linux distribution. It provides a custom package management system based on "capsules", which allows the user to select the functionality they require (e.g., "Dialup Internet access"), and it will automatically retrieve all required applications, including relevant dependencies. H3Knix joins the list at version 1.2 released July 14, 2004. Version 2.2 was released May 27, 2005. Moved to historical April 20, 2009.
Hidden Linux
http://www.hiddenlinux.com/
Hidden Linux is an enterprise grade Linux distribution, created to address the needs of organizations wishing to develop a secure Internet presence. It is designed for experienced Linux administrators and can be used as a mail, Web, database, FTP, print, Samba (PDC), PPTP, IPSec gateway server and client, firewall, DHCP, cache/proxy, and time server. Hidden joins the list at version 1.2, released July 2, 2004. That seems to have the last release as well. Moved to historical on October 15, 2008.
IDMS Linux
http://idms-linux.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/idms/
IDMS-Linux is a specialized Linux distribution focused on stability, security and long term support. The distribution targets more installations on servers and experienced administrators, providing an advanced, stable platform for services and development. The initial Freshmeat announcement was for version 2.0.25, dated June 22, 2002. Version 4.0.0 was released February 27, 2008. Development version 4.1.0 was expected to be released in early 2009.
http://www.inside-security.de/insert_en.html
German: http://www.inside-security.de/INSERT.html
http://freshmeat.net/projects/insert/
INSERT (INside SEcurity Rescue Toolkit) is a complete, bootable Linux system. It comes with a graphical user interface running the fluxbox window manager while still being sufficiently small to fit on a credit card-sized CD-ROM. The first release we know of is v1.0, announced August 4, 2003. Version 1.3.9b was released February 27, 2007.
http://inx.maincontent.net/
The name INX is recursive "INX Is Not X". It is a "Live CD" distribution of GNU/Linux, derived from Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS, but using "ubuntu-minimal" and "ubuntu-standard" as a base. It is console only, without any graphical "X" programs. INX is intended as a tutorial and introduction to the Bash command line, but is a fully capable, portable GNU/Linux system in its own right. It has a collection of easy-to-use menus, colour themes, easy configuration tools, music (and video on the frame buffer), some games, and several surprises for those who are not aware of what can be done in a console/tty. Version 1.0 was the current release when this entry was added to the list (November 25, 2008). INX 1.1 was the current version as of April 13, 2009.
IsaMorph
http://www.brucker.ch/projects/isamorph/
IsaMorph is a highly specialized GNU/Linux Live CD. It's based on Morphix and features the interactive theorem prover Isabelle, for a complete theorem proving environment. IsaMorph joins the list at version 0.2.1, released July 29, 2004. Version 0.9 was released December 22, 2005.
http://jailbait.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/jailbait/
JAILBAIT's Another Interesting Linux But Also Intimidating Too:
A fully-functional Linux distribution that fits into 16 MB. Many modern net-appliance-type products such as the Netpliance iOpener have an internal SanDisk device that is 16 MB in size. Version 6, released June 24, 2000, remains the most current release.
K Linux
http://daif.net/klinux/ar/announce-en.htm
K Linux was a modified version of Slackware Linux 9.1 with the Zipslack kernel. It can be installed on a FAT 32 file system with any version of Windows (9x, NT, 2000, XP). It comes on one CD-ROM and requires at least 2.5 GB of free space on the hard drive. The drive does not need to be partitioned. The system will be accessible from Windows, appearing to be another folder, or you can run Linux by booting from a floppy. Localized in Arabic. Version 2.0 has been the current version since 2004. Moved to the historical section January 31, 2008.
http://kaboot.ainkaboot.co.uk/
Kaboot provides bootable ISO images for the creation of live CDs and USB devices. This Gentoo-based distribution currently comes in four flavors, Recovery, Lite, Science and Kaboot Komplete for a full-featured KDE desktop. Kaboot was added to the list February 21, 2006.
knopILS
http://knopils.linux.it/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/knopils/
knopILS is a customized version of Knoppix that has an Italian boot prompt, default keyboard, and default language. Each .deb package installed belongs to the free tree of Debian GNU/Linux, or could be classified as such if it is not an official one. Localized .deb files are present when available, and minor changes were made to graphics. The initial version was 0.1, released June 12, 2003. Version 0.8 was released May 17, 2005.
KnoppiXMAME
http://sourceforge.net/projects/knoppixmame
http://freshmeat.net/projects/knoppixmame/
KnoppiXMAME is a bootable arcade machine emulator with hardware detection and autoconfiguration. It works automatically on all modern and not-so-modern hardware, including gameports and joysticks. It is powered by Knoppix Debian GNU/Linux, X-MAME, and gxmame. Stable version 1.0 was released June 18, 2003. Version 1.3 beta 19 was released May 11, 2004.
Knoppix-STD
http://www.knoppix-std.org/
STD (security tools distribution) is a collection of hundreds if not thousands of open source security tools on a Live Linux CD. Its sole purpose in life is to put as many security tools at your disposal with as slick an interface as it can. The initial version, Knoppix-STD 0.1 CD, was released January 23, 2004.
Kurumin Linux
http://www.guiadohardware.net/kurumin/
Kurumin started out as a stripped down Knoppix, but it has since grown into a unique distribution. It can be run as a live CD, or installed to a hard drive. It comes with plenty of documentation written in Portuguese and has many scripts capable of doing all sorts of tasks from installing (hundreds of) programs to mounting pen drives. This entry was added February 25, 2004, at version 2.20. Kurumin 6.1 was released September 7, 2006. Kurumin Light, a stripped-down edition of version 6.1, was released September 24, 2006. Kurumin 7.0 Light was released January 16, 2007. Kurumin 7.0 was released February 22, 2007. Kurumin NG 8.06 Final was released June 17, 2008. This Brazilian distribution was discontinued in early 2009.
Leetnux
http://leetnux.sourceforge.net/index_old.html
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=9567&release_id=9864
Leetnux is a Linux distribution specifically designed for Linux users who want maximum configuratibility. Therefore, the installation is quite hard, absolutely nothing is done "automagically" as in modern Linux distributions, but the user has total control over the installation. The idea behind Leetnux comes from Linux From Scratch, but a Leetnux system is not as "pure" as an LFS system, because a minimal pre-compiled system must be installed. Version 0.1, released August 15, 2000, is still available from SourceForge.
Lineox
http://www.lineox.net/
Lineox Enterprise Linux is built from modified Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources. The Finnish company Lineox offered customers an enterprise level Linux operating system without bundled support options. The Always Current Lineox Enterprise Linux made updates and errata available to customers. Lineox Enterprise Linux was first released January 29, 2004. Lineox announced it's end of life on January 31, 2008. Lineox Enterprise Linux 2.1 support ended April 29, 2008. Lineox Enterprise Linux 3 was supported until March 18, 2009 and Lineox Enterprise Linux 4 was supported until August 12, 2009.
Lintrack
http://www.lintrack.org/
Lintrack is a small, easy to configure and highly integrated GNU/Linux distribution for routers, firewalls, network access servers, content filters and more. It is targeted especially to small and medium-sized wireless Internet service providers. Lintrack 2.0 "Hockenheim", released October 15, 2006, was the current version when this entry was added to the list.
Linux4Geeks
http://www.linux4geeks.de/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/linux4geeks/
Linux4Geeks is a LFS-based small distro which works around several problems and issues mainstream Linux distributions have. It offers different versions compiled for each architecture and has all the packages required for a slim installation including a firewall and network administration tools, amongst others. Version 0.01 was released June 11, 2003. Version 0.10, released October 15, 2005, appears to be last release.
Linux/Coldfire
http://www.uclinux.org/ports/coldfire/
Here is a site dedicated to making available a Linux based system for the Motorla ColdFire processor family. The core is a port of the Micro-controller Linux (uC-Linux) kernel to the ColdFire processors. Additionally there is a growing number of ports of GNU/Linux utilities to the ColdFire. It is currently possible to build stable, complete, fully functional, embedded, Linux systems using uClinux/ColdFire. uClinux/Coldfire uses the 2.6 kernel as of February 18, 2004. UClinux/Coldfire fully supports the Linux kernel 2.6 series as of October 14, 2005. As of July 17, 2007 uClinux/ColdFire is fully supported in the Linux kernel 2.6 series.
Linux DA OS
http://www.linuxda.com/
Empower Technologies made this embedded OS for the Motorola Dragonball platform, TI's OMAP5912 dual-core processors, and others. LinuxDA powers the PowerPlay brand of PDAs.
LinVDR
http://linvdr.org/projects/linvdr/index.en.php
http://freshmeat.net/projects/linvdr/
LinVDR is a small, lightweight, ready-to-run and easy-to-install distribution of VDR which can turn almost any PC with a DVB-s (digital satellite) card into a digital hard disk recorder. It contains VDR Admin for Web administration and Samba shares to upload your MP3 files or download DVD images made from your TV recordings. It's compatible with Debian (woody). Version 0.2 was released September 29, 2003. Version 0.7 was released December 7, 2004.
Lisp Resource Kit
http://www.common-lisp.net/project/lisp-res-kit/
The Lisp Resource Kit is a dedicated development/learning environment on a self-booting CD. It is designed to be an easy to use single resource for those who are interested in exploring Common Lisp, regardless of their experience or domain of expertise. The initial public release was on January 20, 2004 at Linux World Expo in New York City. A version remastered from Knoppix 3.7 was released December 23, 2004.
LiveContent
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Livecontent
Creative Commons and the Fedora project have created the LiveContent CD, a live CD used to showcase free and open content released under a Creative Commons license. The initial version was announced August 7, 2007 and contained Fedora 7 with addition CC content. Future plans include live DVD and USB versions. LiveContent 2.0 was released in February 2008.
Local Area Security Linux
http://www.localareasecurity.com/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/las/
L.A.S. Linux is a 'Live CD' distribution based on Knoppix but with a strong emphasis on security tools and small footprint. There was a 185 MB version and a 210 MB version. The initial announcement was for version 0.3b on August 8, 2003. Version 0.5 MAIN was released April 7, 2004. The 210 MB version is at 0.5, released March 5, 2004.
Lonix
http://lonix.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/lonix/
Lonix is a console-based full Linux system which runs from a live CD. Based on Linux From Scratch, this distribution includes useful utilities for students and developers. Some servers, such as Apache, Proftpd, and sshd are pre-configured and included. It can also be used as a partition tool (featuring fdisk and parted) or as a rescue CD. Currently, the homepage and some scripts in the CD are just in Spanish. There may be a future release that is also in English. The initial Freshmeat announcement for version 1.0rc3, was made on October 13, 2002. Version 1.0rc5 was released October 27, 2002.
MEPIS Linux
http://www.mepis.org/
MEPIS Linux is a Debian-based system for the desktop or as a dedicated server. It is designed for both personal and business purposes. The first official release was version 2003.0, dated May 10, 2003. SimplyMEPIS 3.4-3 was released February 9, 2006. SimplyMEPIS uses its own binary packages, compliled from Debian and Ubuntu sources. SimplyMEPIS 8.5 was released March 30, 2010. SimplyMEPIS 11.0 was released May 5, 2011. SimplyMEPIS 11.0.12 was released February 3, 2012. MEPIS 12 beta was released May 11, 2013.
http://www.morphix.org/
Morphix is a modular distribution, with live-CD support. No configuration is necessary, just burn the CD and boot it. Morphix is partly based on KNOPPIX, the rest comes directly from Debian. The initial version, 0.3-2, was released February 27, 2003. Morphix Base 0.5-pre6 'Amalthea', MorphixLiveKiosk 0.01 and MorphingMorphix v 0.3 were all released as part of Morphix SVN Commit Day, September 5, 2006. Medianix, a Morphix-based Asterisk PBX, released version 0.7, May 21, 2007.
Mulimidix
http://freshmeat.net/projects/mulimidix/
Mulimidix is a mini Linux distribution for building a PC-based set-top box and multimedia player system with digital TV, MP3, DivX, etc. support, using VDR, Freevo and other tools. It is currently optimized for i686. Initial version 0.1 was released April 4, 2003. Version 0.7 was released June 29, 2004. Entry moved to historical March 28, 2007.
Mupper
http://www.mupper.org/
Mupper is a rescue-CD project for the PegasosPPC. It is based on Gentoo Linux and contains various tools like parted, midnight-commander and support for various filesystems including FAT, VFAT, ReiserFS, XFS and EXT3. The live CD also includes some network tools such as snort and tcpdump. Mupper joins the list at version 0.3 which was released August 28, 2005. Mupper v1.0 was released October 30, 2005. The first version of mupper for the efika was released December 13, 2006.
Netstation Linux
http://sourceforge.net/projects/netstation/
NetStation is a Linux distribution for diskless thin client terminals using standard x86 hardware. It can boot from network using Etherboot and connect to an application server using VNC, RDP, X11 or SSH. The initial release, NetStation 0.1 (alpha), is dated August 28, 2001. Development version 0.8.2 was released June 6, 2002.
NoMad Linux
http://www.nomadlinux.com/
The web site says NoMad Linux 2.0 is on the way. It has said that for a long time, though. NoMad first came about in spring of 1997. It is based on the encap package managing system. NoMad's main purpose was to keep it's creators happy and give them something to do in their free time. No doubt it suceeded at that, at least for a while. Nomad was moved to the historical section March 2006.
Onebase Linux
http://www.ibiblio.org/onebase/
Onebase Linux (OL) is an independent meta source distribution originally created in July 2003. It aims to be a free distribution, both powerful and easy to use. OL 2005 was released April 30, 2005. OnebaseGo 3.0 and GamesGo 1.0 were released July 12, 2005. Onebase DevelopGo is a live CD with plenty of software developement tools. DevelopGo 1.0 was released July 30, 2005. StudioGo 1.0 was released August 17, 2005. Moved to historical January 6, 2009.
OpenNA Linux
http://www.openna.com/
The OpenNA Linux Operating System provides a highly secure and fast Linux server. Dedicated for mission critical tasks in the servers domain, the OpenNA Linux operating system provides a secure, strong, reliable and fast solution. A beta4 development version was released July 22, 2002. Version 1.0 was released November 11, 2003. Moved to historical November 12, 2009.
OpenPsion
http://linux-7110.sourceforge.net/
OpenPsion (formerly PsiLinux) is a project to port Linux to a group of palmtops produced by Psion, and related machines such as the Geofox One. At present, working Linux systems can be installed on any of the Series 5, Series 5MX, Series 5MX-Pro, Revo (Revo+, Mako), and Series 7/netBook machines. Debian 3.1 "Sarge" was released for the Series 7/netBook September 6, 2005.
Orange Linux
http://orangelin.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/orangelin/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/orangelin/
Orange Linux is a lightweight distribution that fits on a floppy. The host development environment is designed to work around the Bochs x86 emulator, so that you can easily test changes to the kernel. The initial release v1.0 was released March 11, 2003 and included a set of tools for making your own distribution, a VGA graphics library, and a small Pong game. By May 30, 2005 the project goals were updated; the aim is to create a fully operational operating system that is built around a lightweight, fast Java virtual machine mechanism (JamVM, JikesRVM), with applications built around Java and the scripting environment Jython (Python on Java). Version 0.1.17 was released May 21, 2005.
Parsix GNU/Linux
http://www.parsix.org/
Parsix GNU/Linux is a live and installation DVD based on Debian. It aims to provide a ready to use, easy to install, desktop and laptop optimized operating system based on Debian's testing branch and the latest stable release of GNOME desktop environment. It aims for a new release every six months. Extra software is available from the APT repositories. Parsix GNU/Linux 0.76 was released February 7, 2006. Parsix GNU/Linux 8.0r0 (Mumble) was released September 14, 2015. Parsix 8.5r1 (Atticus) was released May 7, 2016. Parsix 8.10r0 was released July 31, 2016. Parsix 8.15 was released February 12, 2017. On May 19, 2017 the project announced that it would shut down 6 months after the release of Debian 9.0 Stretch. Shutdown occured December 15, 2017.
http://paud.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/paud
PAUD (Parted And Utilities Disk) is a Linux utility bootdisk. It fits on a single 1.44 floppy disk. It contains mc, parted, and other utilities such as filesystem utilities for ext2, ext3, and Reiserfs. It is great for partition maintenance and for rescue purposes. Version 1.0.3 was released July 8, 2002. Version 1.0.4 was released May 3, 2004. Version 2.0.3 was released December 25, 2005.
PCFluxboxOS
http://pcfluxboxos.wikidot.com/
TinyFlux
PCFluxboxOS is a remaster series of PCLinuxOS with Fluxbox as the window manager. PCFluxboxOS gives you all the power of PCLinuxOS through Synaptic and the Control Center, whilst delivering a lightning fast operating system, even on older hardware. TinyFlux is a related project with an even lighter footprint. MidiFlux 0.6.1 beta was released September 27, 2007. TinyFlux 1.0 was released November 2, 2007.
PeeWeeLinux
http://peeweelinux.com/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/peeweelinux/
PeeWeeLinux is a development effort to provide an environment that makes the configuration and installation of a Linux operating system on an embedded platform as easy and painless as possible. PeeWeeLinux v0.61.1 was released February 27, 2002. Moved to historical section March 12, 2004.
Perl/Linux
http://perllinux.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/perllinux
Just for fun check out Perl/Linux, a Linux distribution where all programs are written in perl. The current (only) version is 0.9.5, released under Artistic License.
Petite Linux
https://sites.google.com/site/petitelinux/
Petite Linux is an openSuSE build, created using susestudio.com, featuring the Enlightenment (e17) Desktop Environment. Petite joined the list with the release of 11.4-beta, dated March 28, 2011. Petite 12.2 rc3 is out.
Pidora
http://pidora.ca/
Pidora is a Fedora Remix built by the The Seneca Centre for Development of Open Technology (CDOT) and optimized for the Raspberry Pi. Pidora 18 was the current version when this entry was added on May 22, 2013. Pidora 2014, based on Fedora 20, was released May 9, 2014.
PlumpOS
http://plumpos.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/plumpos/
PlumpOS is a CD-based mini-openMosix/Linux distribution. Pop the CD into a 586+ computer and you have an instant openMosix node. It supports loading 3rd-party packages and adding custom kernels. It was originally a clone of Clump/os, but it turned into a complete rewrite. Version 6.9 RC1 was released March 27, 2003. Version 7.0-pre3 was still in progress as of February 1, 2005.
Qimo
http://www.qimo4kids.com/
Qimo is a desktop operating system designed for kids. Based on the Ubuntu Linux desktop, Qimo comes pre-installed with educational games for children aged 3 and up. Qimo's interface has been designed to be intuitive and easy to use, providing large icons for all installed games, so that even the youngest users have no trouble selecting the activity they want. Qimo was added to the list on March 2, 2009. Qimo 2.0 was released May 26, 2010. Qimo was retired in January 2016.
Qplus
http://sourceforge.net/projects/qplus/
Qplus is highly configurable embedded Linux system. Based on CML2, you can configure kernel, applications, libraries, and target specific information at once through GUI interface. it can be used any embedded systems such as router, settop box and PDA. Version 1.0 was released December 16, 2002. Moved to historical section February 1, 2006.
Quantian
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/quantian.html
The Quantian Scientific Computing Environment is a Knoppix / Debian variant tailored to numerical and quantitative analysis. Quantian is an extension of Knoppix from which it takes its base system of about 2.0 gigabytes of software, along with fully automatic hardware detection and configuration, then Quantian adds a set of programs of interest to applied or theoretical workers in quantitative or data-driven fields. Version 0.3 (based on ClusterKnoppix) was released June 10, 2003. Version 0.7.9.2 was released March 1, 2006.
http://www.redflag-linux.com/
Red Flag claims to be the leading Linux OS provider in China. Redflag Linux Desktop 3.2 beta was released August 12, 2002. Version 4.1, based on Asianux 1.0, was released November 6, 2004. The "Workstation" release of 5.0 (based on Asianux 2.0) for i386 and x86_64 processors became available November 11, 2005. Red Flag Linux 6.0 (based on Asianux 3.0) was released October 1, 2007. The Red Flag "Olympic" edition was released August 14, 2008. Red Flag Linux 8.0 was released April 23, 2013. The demise of Red Flag was reported February 14, 2014.
Repairlix
http://repairlix.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/repairlix/
Repairlix is a networked Linux distribution/bootable system intended to fit in 12MB of media - so small that an image can be burned onto a business-card-sized shaped CDROM, suitable for your wallet. It has a suite of utilities for doing system recovery. The latest version of Repairlix is called Nail, dated September 24, 2000 (as of September 2007).
Rock Linux
http://www.rocklinux.org/
ROCK Linux is a source-based Linux distribution and a Distribution Build Kit. You can configure your personal build of ROCK Linux to get the distribution you want. ROCK Linux supports i686, Generic Sparc, Server PPC and Router ARM architectures. ISO images are available for Crystal ROCK, the general purpose distribution, and the ROCK Linux LiveCD. The ROCK Linux Live CD incorporates a full KDE desktop and other applications like mplayer and xine in the last release, dated October 16, 2005. ROCK 3 was released July 27, 2006. A crystal test build with a new installer was released October 19, 2008. Updated LiveCDs with KDE 3.5.10 and 4.1.2 were released November 29, 2008. Rock Linux was discontinued in 2010.
ROOT Linux
http://rootlinux.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/rootlinux/
ROOT Linux is an advanced GNU/Linux operating system. It aims to be fast, stable and flexible. ROOT Linux is not recommended as a first Linux distribution. People should have experience with Linux and computers in general. Version 1.3 was released August 27, 2002. Version 1.4 was released December 16, 2004. As of February 15, 2006 Root is optimized for Intel 686. Moved to historical January 6, 2008.
http://rule.zona-m.net/
The RULE (Run Up2date Linux Everywhere) project makes an existing distribution install and run on older hardware. Specifically, it takes standard Red Hat Linux (now Fedora), adds a custom installer, provides resource-friendly RPM package lists, and packages alternative light-weight GPL applications. The advantage of this approach is that the original distribution provides all the patches and documentation, reducing the maintenance load for RULE. The RULE Project was started in February 2002. The current installer "slinky" was released August 28, 2007, for use with Fedora 7.
http://runt.mybox.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/runt/
RUNT (ResNet USB Network Tester) is Slackware Linux designed to run off of a 128 MB USB pen drive. It consists of a boot floppy image and a zip file, similar to zipslack. It is intended to be a fairly complete Linux installation for use as a testing tool capable of booting on any x86 computer with a USB port and a bootable floppy drive. RUNT 0.92, the initial version, was released November 27, 2002. Version 4.0 was released November 11, 2004. RUNT 5.0 was released February 1, 2007.
http://salvare.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/salvare/
Salvare (from the Latin "to rescue") is a small Linux distribution designed for small, credit-card sized CDs which typically hold around 34MB. More Linux than tomsrtbt but less than Knoppix, it aims to provide a useful workstation as well as a rescue disk. Initial version 0.1.0 was released July 2, 2003. Version 0.1.5 was released November 1, 2004.
Sectoo Linux
http://www.sectoo.org/
Sectoo Linux is a live CD based on Gentoo, with tools related to network security. It does port scanning, packet sniffing, OS fingerprinting, intrusion detection, and much more. A pre-alpha version was released August 4, 2006. Moved to historical November 12, 2009.
Sentry Firewall
http://www.sentryfirewall.com/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/sentry_firewall_cd/
Sentry Firewall CD-ROM is a Linux based bootable CD-ROM suitable for use as an inexpensive and easy to maintain Firewall or IDS (Intrusion Detection System) Node. The system is designed to be immediately configurable for a variety of different operating environments via a configuration file located on a floppy disk or a local hard drive. Version 1.2.0 was released March 27, 2002. Version 1.5.0-rc16 was released January 13, 2005. According to the website the project is stalled, posted March 18, 2006.
Serverdisk diskette distro
http://serverdisk.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/serverdisk/
Serverdisk diskette distro is a Linux floppy disk distribution which includes FTP and HTTP servers. Just a small server, not intended to be a rescue disk or standalone firewall. The initial version, 0.1, was released September 19, 2002. Version 0.2 was released September 26, 2002.
Slack/390
http://www.slack390.org/
Slack/390 was a port of Slackware Linux to IBM's S/390 hardware. Slack/390 10.0 was released February 11, 2005. Moved to historical January 6, 2008.
Slamd64
http://www.slamd64.com/
Slamd64 is an unofficial port of Slackware Linux to the x86_64 architecture; despite the name containing AMD64, Slamd64 should work both on K8 (AMD64) and EM64T (some Intel) processors. It was started from Slackware -current in 2004, and was created by cross-compiling from scratch, rather than using an existing 64-bit distribution as a base. Slamd64 is a multi-lib distribution, which means that you can run 32-bit applications easily, without a chroot. You can directly install most packages targeted at x86 Slackware. Slamd64 10.2 was released September 15, 2005. Slamd64 12.2 was released February 1, 2009.
SLAMPP
http://slampp.abangadek.com/
SLAMPP is a generic Linux distribution which can boot and run directly off CD/DVD or it can be installed to a hard drive. It is based on Zenwalk with Slackware packages and uses Linux Live Scripts. SLAMPP is designed to be used as an instant home server. SLAMPP 1.1 was released November 18, 2005. SLAMPP Live CD/DVD 2.0 (Kalinda) was released July 27, 2009.
Server optimized Linux
http://www.sol-linux.com/
SoL (Server optimized Linux) is a product of antitachyon, an Austrian company located in Vienna. Built from the ground up from original sources, SoL aims to be stable and fast server distribution. SoL 18.00 was released May 18, 2004. Antitachyon also provides the SoL-DESKTOP and XoL (Diskless X office Linux). SoL 25.00 was released June 26, 2007. Moved to historical January 6, 2009.
SPB-Linux
http://spblinux.sourceforge.net/
SPB-Linux is a USB distribution that boots from a memory stick. SPB-Linux joined the list at version 2.0 on July 29, 2003. The current version was 2.1, as of February 2006. The current version was still 2.1 as of April 12, 2007.
SprezzOS
http://www.sprezzos.com/
Sprezzatech provides SprezzOS, based on Debian unstable. SprezzOS is not built by committee or consensus, rather the HIC (Hacker-in-Charge) has authority over the project. The HIC is appointed by Sprezzatech. This distribution is aimed at power users (developers and administrators), HPC professionals, server administrators, and cluster designers. SprezzOS also aims to facilitate experimentation with new technologies while remaining interoperable with Debian. SprezzOS 1.0.2 (von Neumann) was released January 13, 2013. SprezzOS 1.1.1 was released April 29, 2013. The project went on hiatus in October 2013.
StartCom Linux
http://www.startcom.org/
StartCom Ltd. is based in Eilat, Israel, offering Linux distributions, service and support. StartCom Linux distributions are based on Red Hat Advanced Server 3 source code, and modified to fit various tasks. StartCom plans to release four flavors of SmartCom Linux: Enterprise Linux, the MultiMedia Edition, the Office Edition and the Developer Edition. The first release was the StartCom Linux Enterprise AS-3.0.0 dated August 2, 2004. StartCom Enterprise Linux AS-3.0.6 was released August 29, 2006. The x86_64 edition of 4.0.0 was released May 27, 2005. StartCom MultiMedia Edition ML-5.0.6 (Kessem) was released October 31, 2007. StartCom MultiMedia Edition ML-5.0.7 (Kessem) Update RC1 was released January 15, 2008. StartCom Enterprise Linux AS-5.0.3 was released February 2, 2009.
STUX
http://www.gpstudio.com/stux/
STUX comes in two live CD versions. The first one (called "STUX") is a full-featured 650MB CD with a complete KDE, GNOME, WindowMaker, OpenOffice and other major applications. The second product (called "DINO-STUX") is a small CD reduced to 255MB of data with KDE, KOffice, Mozilla, Samba and Xine, but not much else beyond the base system. The STUX project also provides tools for building a custom bootable CD image from an existing Linux installation. Version 0.9.2 was released November 10, 2006. STUX GNU/Linux 2.0 was released September 9, 2008.
http://web.syllable.orgpages/index.html
The Syllable project creates a family of operating systems that form a network platform. Syllable Desktop is a complete desktop operating system that is exceptionally powerful, fast, and easy to use. It has its own kernel, file system, GUI, and applications. Syllable Desktop is largely POSIX.1 compliant and uses many of the GNU utilities. Syllable Server is a server operating system built to be similar to Syllable Desktop, but on the Linux kernel. It is small and efficient and especially suited for virtualisation, both for running as small guest systems on another host and as a small host platform for running other guest systems. Syllable joins the list with the release of Syllable Server 0.3, dated September 12, 2008. Syllable Server 0.4 was released June 8, 2010.
http://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/SYS/
SYS aims to be an easy to install and use distribution, for beginners and advanced users. This is a non-commercial distribution. SYS packages can be used for Slackware and VectorLinux too. SYS hails from the French Guyana/northern Brazil area of South America, where most DVDs are passed around by hand. SYS has replaced Windows on many computers in that area. SYS was added to the list on March 16, 2009 when the current version was SYS_Linux-0.23.iso, created August 25, 2008. A DVD iso of the current branch - SYS_Linux.iso - was created March 17, 2009.
http://www.t2-project.org/
T2 is a flexible open source System Development Environment or Distribution Build Kit. T2 allows the creation of custom distributions with bleeding edge technology. Currently the Linux kernel is normally used, but there are plans to expand to Hurd, OpenDarwin and OpenBSD, and more. T2 started as a community driven fork from the ROCK Linux Project with the aim of creating a decentralized development and clean a framework for spin-off projects and customized distributions. Live CD 2.2.0-beta was released May 21, 2005. The T-Resc target provides a tiny rescue system based on uClibC and K-drive Xvesa/Xfb for minimal size, released January 20, 2007. T2 8.0 "Phoenix" was released July 14, 2010.
TA-Linux
http://talinux.tal.org/
TA-Linux is a small, multiplatform Linux distribution. It comes with just enough to be usable and it's easy to customize to some particular use. TA-Linux sparc pre-0.2.0-test was released June 6, 2002. A major rewrite of TA-Linux, version 0.2.0-Preview1, was released July 6, 2002. TA-Linux 0.2.0-Beta1 (Alpha) was released August 15, 2002. Version 0.2.0 RC1 (i386) was released December 7, 2004. Raspberry Pi images were in the works as of August 28, 2012.
Tempest Showroom
http://www.dirk-loss.de/tempest-showroom.htm
Tempest for Eliza by Erik Thiele makes your computer monitor send out special radio signals so that you can then hear computer generated music in your radio. Tempest Showroom is a live CD with everything you need to run Tempest for Eliza on a PC. Tempest Showroom 0.9.7 was released November 19, 2006.
Tin Hat
http://opensource.dyc.edu/tinhat
Tin Hat is a Linux distribution derived from hardened Gentoo which aims to provide a very secure, stable and fast Desktop environment that lives purely in RAM. Tin Hat boots from CD, or optionally a pen drive, but it is not a LiveCD. It does not mount any file system from CD via unionfs or otherwise. Rather, Tin Hat is a massive image (approx. 2.3GB) which loads into tmpfs upon booting. One pays the prices of long boot times (5 minutes off CD, 2 minutes off pen drives), but the advantage afterwords is that there are no delays going back to the CD when starting applications. Needless to say, this has some rather extreme advantages and disadvantages, making Tin Hat a rather particular distribution. Tin Hat was added to the list with the release of 20080830. Tin Hat 20130228 is out.
Tinfoil Hat Linux
http://tinfoilhat.shmoo.com/
Tinfoil Hat Linux started as a secure, single floppy, bootable Linux distribution for storing PGP keys and then encrypting, signing and wiping files. At some point it became an exercise in over-engineering. Now at version 1.0, THL is released under a BSD style license. A pre-release of v2.0 has been available for testing for several years now (10/2008).
http://tiny.seul.org/
The website is available in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian. Tiny Linux is a small Linux distribution designed especially for old recycled computers.
TopologiLinux
http://www.topologilinux.com/
http://topologi-linux.sourceforge.net/
TopologiLinux is a free easy to install Linux distribution that runs on top of a DOS/WIN harddisk without partitioning the disk. Version 1.0, released August 25, 2002, was based on Slackware 8.1. Topologilinux 5.1.0 was released Januray 3, 2005. Topologilinux 6.1.0 was released April 12, 2007. Topologilinux 7.0.1 was released January 10, 2009.
TrinityOS
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch/LINUX/index-linux.html#trinityos
http://freshmeat.net/projects/trinityos/
TrinityOS is a step-by-step, example-driven HOWTO on building a very functional Linux box with strong security in mind. TrinityOS is well known for its strong packet firewall ruleset, Chrooted and Split DNS (v9 and v8), secured Sendmail (8.x), Linux PPTP, Serial consoles and Reverse TELNET, DHCPd, SSHd, UPSes, system performance tuning, the automated TrinityOS-Security implementation scripts, and much more. It was at version 04/08/2003 released April 8, 2003 when added to the list. Version 03/21/04 was released March 21, 2004. The last update was released May 22, 2005.
ubuntutrinux
http://code.google.com/p/ubuntutrinux/
Trinux: A Linux Security Toolkit was a ramdisk-based Linux distribution that was under active development from 1998-2003. ubuntutrinux seeks to integrate elements (and code, where appropriate) of Trinux with the Debian/Ubuntu mkinitramfs infrastructure to allow easy development and packaging Ubuntu binary (and ultimately package and repository) compatible ramdisk distributions using recent 2.6.x kernels. Although small ISO images will be released, the primary focus of the project is development and documentation of a flexible build environment based on Ubuntu Dapper LTS.
ttylinux
http://www.minimalinux.org/ttylinux/
ttylinux is a minimalistic Linux distribution available for several CPU architectures. This small system has an 8 MB file system and runs on i486 computers within 28 MB of RAM, but provides a complete command line environment and is ready for Internet access. Version 3.2 was released July 7, 2003. Version 6.2 was released October 30, 2007.
uClibcLinux
http://sourceforge.net/projects/uclibclinux/
uClibcLinux is a Linux distribution based on uClibc. This source-based distribution has two main goals: - provide an easily extensible build-system - provide a repository of software compiling and running with uClibc. Initial version 0.4.5 was released June, 25, 2002. Moved to historical February 1, 2006.
ULTILEX
http://ultilex.linux-bg.org/
ULTILEX stands for "Ultimate Linux Experience". This is a live Linux CD compilation which in turn contains several live Linux distributions. You can boot ULTILEX from CD/DVD and USB flash devices. The 10.7 release (dated July 11, 2010) contains Slax, Puppy Linux, Tiny Core, System Rescue CD, Parted Magic, and boot.kernel.org (BKO). ULTILEX 10.8 was released in August 2010.
http://www.unifix.de/
Unifix is the original POSIX certified Linux distribution. Last updated December 25, 2001.
Vigyaan
http://www.vigyaancd.org/
Vigyaan is an electronic workbench for computational biology and computational chemistry. It has been designed to meet the needs of both beginners and experts, with ready to use modeling software. VigyaanCD v0.1 was based on KNOPPIX v3.3 and it was released April 14, 2004. KNOPPIX v3.7-based VigyaanCD v1.0 was released September 7, 2005.
Virtual Linux
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-linux/
Virtual Linux is based on Mandrake 8.1, modified to run from CDROM. Modifications include a new startup script, automatic search and mount of CDROM drive, and cloop compression. The CD contains 1.7 GB of software. Version 1.1 was released May 4, 2002.
VMKnoppix
http://www.rcis.aist.go.jp/project/knoppix/vmknoppix/index-en.html
VMKnoppix (formerly Xenoppix) is a Debian/Knoppix based live medium Linux distribution featuring a collection of Virtual Machine (VM) software, such as Xen, KVM, VirtualBox, QEMU, KQEMU (QEMU with accelerator) and UserMode Linux. Xenoppix knoppix v4.0 20050608 linuxtag xen-20050912 + IPAFont (Stable) was released September 15, 2005. The Xenoppix (Xen3.0.4 + KNOPPIX5.1.1) CD was released in early 2007. VMKnoppix 5.3.1CD was released May 19, 2008.
Voltalinux
http://voltalinux.sicurezzarete.com/
Voltalinux is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Slackware GNU/linux and the pkgsrc package system from NetBSD. This project aims to deliver a prebuilt distribution with the clean design of Slackware and the availability of about 5400 ports (packages) ready to install. Version 1.0 was released June 9, 2006. Version 2.1 was released June 9, 2008.
Webfish Linux
http://webfish-linux.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/webfish-linux/
Webfish Linux is a small, stripped down Linux distribution based on GNU source packages. Webfish is built with the more experienced user in mind and is aimed at small, fast, secure server and workstation systems with a minimum of installed packages. The initial release of Webfish Linux, version 0.9b, was released June 20, 2002. Version 2.0pre3 was released on April 21, 2004. The Webfish Linux Firewall-1 branch released its initial verion, 1.1, on July 24, 2002. Fishwall 1.2 was released August 27, 2002. Webfish-2.0pre3 was released April 15, 2004. Moved to historical March 2, 2009.
wrt54g-linux
http://www.batbox.org/wrt54g-linux.html
http://freshmeat.net/projects/wrt54g/
wrt54g-linux is a mini-distribution for the Linksys wrt54g 802.11b/g access point and router. It includes basic tools such as sh, syslog, telnetd, httpd (with cgi-bin support), vi, snort, mount, insmod, rmmod, top, grep, find, nfs modules, etc. The installation script runs in about 20 seconds and installs strictly to the RAM disk. The initial release, version 0.1, is dated September 6, 2003. BatBox wrt54g distribution v0.61 was released December 31, 2006.
X/OS Linux
http://www.xoslinux.org/
X/OS Linux is a GNU/Linux distribution for business and enterprise users. It's based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources and the company offers long term availability of security updates and software enhancements. X/OS Linux 3 was updated October 7, 2004 to include updates from RHEL3 update 3. X/OS Linux 5.1 was released January 1, 2008. X/OS Linux 4 and 5 moved to CentOS sources in the later part of 2008.
Xfld
http://www.xfld.org/
Xfld is 'Xfce live demo', a GNU/Linux operating system (derived from Knoppix) that can be run completely from CD. It features an up-to-date Xfce as desktop environment. The initial version of Xfld uses Xfce 4.1 and is derived from Knoppix 3.4. Xfld 0.2 was released January 16, 2005. Version 0.3, released October 29, 2006, is based on Xubuntu and features Xfce 4.4.
Zool Linux
http://zoollinux.berlios.de/doku.php
http://freshmeat.net/projects/zoollinux/
Zool Linux is a project whose goal is to assist in making Linux mini-distributions, useful for floppy-based rescue systems, or to check hardware and network connections. It supports many different filesystems and utilities. Zool 1 is a Linux rescue disk based on the 2.2.23 kernel. Zool 2, released January 9, 2003, is based on the 2.4.18 kernel. Zool 5 was released May 18, 2004.
*-ZyX
http://cloudsession.com/dawg/projects/zyx-live-os/
*-Zyx is a family of LiveOS projects built with the VirOS toolset. ViROS uses open and free RPM based *nix (like Fedora or CentOS) distributions to generate custom purpose live-CDs. The project has been around since 2005. Sci-ZyX 0.6.0.3 (based on Scientific Linux 6) was released January 11, 2011.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl