Distros / OSs

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Linux

See also Packages, Stack


  • DistroWatch.com - first published on 31 May 2001. The concept started as a very simple table comprising of five major distributions and the chart only compared a few features (price, version, release date) and a few package versions (Linux kernel, KDE, GNOME, XFree86, Apache web server). Trying to make it slightly more comprehensive and useful (and failing to find anything similar and up-to-date on the Internet), we have kept adding more distributions, features and packages until the table reached a fairly reasonable state in terms of information provided.




  • OpenSourceWatershed - a project aimed at understanding the relationship between distributions (downstream) and the individual software components (upstream). It is the basis for a larger study of distributions and their evolution. It is distrology. The aggregate analysis is done over a variety of packages. The three forms of analysis are percent obsolete, the average number of newer releases per package and the time since the oldest new release. In other words the lag is the amount of time a distro had to move to a newer package.




to sort;


Arch Linux

  • AUR - Arch User Repository.




Install

See Box

10Gb is NOT enough for the root partition (where packages are stored).



Network boot

See *nix#Network boot

Installers

  • https://github.com/altercation/archblocks - a very lightweight framework for creating quick, modular, non-interactive Arch Linux install scripts tailored to specific systems. It is accessible via a single quick curl downloadable script (from, for example, github).



  • https://github.com/angeltoast/feliz2 - has helpful on-screen advice at every stage, guiding you through the entering of such essential data as your location, username, etc, offering you a host of extras from the official Arch repos (like desktop environments, web browsers, office software and programming tools) and working with you to set up your partitioning. Then everything rolls along automatically, displaying all output on the screen, so you can see exactly what the installer is doing - just like a manual installation.


Custom ISO

  • https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/archiso - a small set of bash scripts capable of building fully functional Arch Linux live CD/DVD/USB images. It is the same tool used to generate the official images, but since it is a very generic tool, it can be used to generate anything from rescue systems, install disks, to special interest live CD/DVD/USB systems, and who knows what else. Simply put, if it involves Arch on a shiny coaster, it can do it. The heart and soul of Archiso is mkarchiso. All of its options are documented in its usage output, so its direct usage will not be covered here. Instead, this wiki article will act as a guide for rolling your own live media in no time!


The difference between archboot and the archiso install media;

  • It provides an additional interactive setup and quickinst script.
  • It contains [core] repository on media.
  • It runs a modified Arch Linux system in initramfs.
  • It is restricted to RAM usage, everything which is not necessary like man or info pages etc. is not provided.
  • It doesn't mount anything during boot process.
  • It supports remote installation through ssh.



  • http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Isohybrid - ISO 9660 filesystems created by the mkisofs command as described in the ISOLINUX article will boot via BIOS firmware, but only from optical media like CD, DVD, or BD. The isohybrid feature enhances such filesystems by a Master Boot Record (MBR) for booting via BIOS from disk storage devices like USB flash drives.


  • Tux2live - toolkit to build your Linux live environment from what you installed in hard disk and it's easy to customize and configure.

Other


Derivative


  • Anarchy-Linux - a distribution aimed at bringing the Linux revolution to the world. We believe that Linux is the way of the future for desktop computing and provide you with a platform to install a custom Arch based operating system just the way you like. Anarchy Linux is intended for both novice and advanced users alike. Simply write the Anarchy Linux ISO to a CD or USB and boot from your computer or VirtualBox.





  • KaOS - an independent distribution focused on Qt and KDE.






  • JustBrowsing - Designed with old machines in mind. Don't throw out your old computer, put JustBrowsing on it! No logins, no malware, no sluggish boot. Perfect for guests. Boot from CD-ROM, USB, hard drive, I-ODD, or Virtual Machine. Releases are built with the latest version of Firefox (stable) and Chrome (stable). Both are loaded up with useful bookmarks and sensible extensions "out of the box" with the freedom to add your own and even to sync your profile with Firefox Sync or Chrome Sign-in.


  • Parabola GNU/Linux-libre - Derived from Arch (the GNU/Linux distribution), Parabola provides packages from it that meet the Free System Distribution Guidelines (FSDG) and replacements for the packages that don't meet this requirement. Packages are provided for the i686, x86_64, and armv7h architectures.


  • https://github.com/fsquillace/junest - Jailed User NEST is a lightweight Arch Linux based distribution that allows to have an isolated GNU/Linux environment inside any generic host GNU/Linux OS and without the need to have root privileges for installing packages.




  • UBOS - The Linux Distro for Personal Servers and Indie IoT Devices - a Linux distro that aims to make it 10x easier to run server-side apps for yourself, or for your family, on hardware or cloud servers you own. Why give your valuable data to Google or some other data overlord, if you can keep it under your own control? All you need is a spare (physical, virtual, or cloud) computer that can run Linux. UBOS automates much of the administration, so you can get on with life. Want to use Nextcloud instead of Dropbox? Shaarli instead of delicious? An RSS reader or an Internet-of-Things app? UBOS makes installation and maintenance easy and quick.

Debian



not in backports (as of oct 2012): vim 7.3, atop 1.26/1.27-3


  • antiX is a fast, lightweight and easy to install linux live CD distribution based on Debian Testing for Intel-AMD x86 compatible systems. antiX offers users the "antiX Magic" in an environment suitable for old computers. So don't throw away that old computer yet! It should run on most computers, ranging from 64MB old PII 266 systems with pre-configured 128MB swap to the latest powerful boxes. 128MB RAM is recommended minimum for antiX. The installer needs minimum 2.2GB hard disk size. antiX can also be used as a fast-booting rescue cd.





  • Devuan GNU+Linux - a fork of Debian without systemd. In addition to the current 1.0.0 Jessie release (LTS), the 2.0 ASCII Release Candidate is now available. Since the declaration of intention to fork in 2014, infrastructure has been put in place to support Devuan’s mission to offer users control over their system. Devuan Jessie provided a safe upgrade path from Debian 7 (Wheezy) and Debian 8 (Jessie). Now Devuan ASCII offers an upgrade from Devuan Jessie as well as a transition from Debian 9 (Stretch) that avoids unnecessary entanglements and ensures Init Freedom.

Ubuntu

Server

  • Ubuntu JeOS (pronounced "Juice") is an efficient variant of the Ubuntu Server operating system, configured specifically for virtual appliances. Currently available as a CD-ROM ISO for download, JeOS is a specialized installation of Ubuntu Server Edition with a tuned kernel that only contains the base elements needed to run within a virtualized environment.


Varieties


  • Kubuntu - an operating system built by a worldwide community of developers, testers, supporters and translators. Kubuntu is a free, complete, and open-source alternative to Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X which contains everything you need to work, play, or share. Check out the Feature Tour if you would like to learn more! Kubuntu unites Ubuntu with KDE and the fabulous Plasma desktop, bringing you a full set of applications. The installation includes productivity, office, email, graphics, photography, and music applications ready to use at startup.


  • Xubuntu - an elegant and easy to use operating system. Xubuntu comes with Xfce, which is a stable, light and configurable desktop environment. Xubuntu is perfect for those who want the most out of their desktops, laptops and netbooks with a modern look and enough features for efficient, daily usage. It works well on older hardware too.
  • Lubuntu - a fast and lightweight operating system with a clean and easy-to-use user interface. It is a Linux system, that uses the minimal desktop LXDE, and a selection of light applications. Because of this, Lubuntu has very low hardware requirements. Lubuntu was founded by Mario Behling and has been grown for many years by Julien Lavergne.


  • Ubuntu MATE - A community developed, Ubuntu based operating system that beautifully integrates the MATE desktop.
  • Ubuntu Budgie - a community developed distribution, integrating the Budgie Desktop Environment with Ubuntu at its core. Whether you are using it on an old computer, or a powerful workstation, Ubuntu Budgie is adaptable to any device, keeping them fast and usable.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Kylin - the official Chinese version of the Ubuntu computer operating system. It has been described as a "loose continuation of the Chinese Kylin OS". In 2013, Canonical reached an agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China to co-create and release an Ubuntu-based OS with features targeted at the Chinese market. Ubuntu Kylin is intended for desktop and laptop computers.


  • Edubuntu - a grassroots movement, we aim to get Ubuntu into schools, homes and communities and make it easy for users to install and maintain their systems. We are students, teachers, parents and hackers who believe that learning and knowledge should be available to everyone who wants to improve themselves and the world around them.

Linux Mint

Elive

  • Elive - a very stable, non-comercial and cost-free operating system that replaces your default system in your computer, it is raised by donations and is developed and maintained by one person. Elive provides an intuitive experience in a fully complete system ready for the daily use. The desktop is a very customized version of Enlightenment DE which offers a light and beautiful experience that works great in even the oldest computers, and uses Debian as base to provide a perfectly stable and powerful system.

Pardus

  • Pardus
    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardus_(operating_system) - a Linux distribution developed with support from the Turkish government. Pardus’ main focus is office-related work, including the use in Turkish government agencies. Despite that, Pardus ships in several languages. Its ease of use and availability free of charge spawned numerous communities throughout the world.

elementary OS

Trisquel GNU/Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available only through a paid subscription service that provides access to software updates and varying levels of technical support."

"Since Red Hat Enterprise Linux is based completely on free and open source software, Red Hat makes available the complete source code to its enterprise distribution through its FTP site to anybody who wants it. Accordingly, several groups have taken this source code and compiled their own versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, typically with the only changes being the removal of any references to Red Hat's trademarks and pointing the update systems to non-Red Hat servers. Groups which have undertaken this include CentOS (the 8th most popular Linux distribution as of November 2011), Oracle Linux, Scientific Linux, White Box Enterprise Linux, StartCom Enterprise Linux, Pie Box Enterprise Linux, X/OS, Lineox, and Bull's XBAS for high-performance computing. All provide a free mechanism for applying updates without paying a service fee to the distributor.""

If going down the based-on-RHEL route, consideration needs to be paid towards the update delay of the distros when a new RHEL release comes out.

CentOS

  • CentOS - a Linux distribution that provides a free, enterprise-class, community-supported computing platform functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). In January 2014, CentOS announced the official joining with Red Hat while staying independent from RHEL, under a new CentOS governing board.


  • Centmin Mod - for installation on CentOS only and written by George Liu (eva2000) with the addition of a shell menu based installer (shown on the right). Centmin Mod shell based menu allows you to do basic Nginx & PHP related management including upgrading or downgrading Nginx & PHP or setting up Nginx vhosts.

Fedora

  • Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (or EPEL) is a Fedora Special Interest Group that creates, maintains, and manages a high quality set of additional packages for Enterprise Linux, including, but not limited to, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL),CentOS and Scientific Linux (SL). EPEL packages are usually based on their Fedora counterparts and will never conflict with or replace packages in the base Enterprise Linux distributions. EPEL uses much of the same infrastructure as Fedora, including buildsystem, bugzilla instance, updates manager, mirror manager and more.

blag linux

  • blag linux - an operating system. blag has a suite of graphics, internet, audio, video, office, and peer to peer file sharing applications. you can replace a windoz installation with blag. if you would like to install and run blag, download and burn it to cd. blag is a single-cd distro with everything desktop users "expect" from a desktop, plus a collection of nice server apps. BLAG 140k (spartakus) is based on Fedora 14 and uses packages from Freed-ora, and free packages from Fedora. It includes all Fedora updates as of time of release.

Mandriva


Oracle Linux

Quicker to release was FUD? corperate atmosphere of Oracle has a baaad relationship with the open source world in general [7]

Various

OpenSUSE

  • openSUSE - a free and Linux-based operating system for your PC, Laptop or Server.

Gentoo

  • Funtoo Linux is a Linux-based operating system that is a variant of Gentoo Linux. Funtoo Linux is a meta-distribution that builds packages automatically from source code. Installation images are optimized for the best possible performance on the latest Intel and AMD hardware.

Slackware


  • Slax is a modern, portable, small and fast Linux operating system with a modular approach and outstanding design. Despite its small size, Slax provides a wide collection of pre-installed software for daily use, including a well organized graphical user interface and useful recovery tools for system administrators. The modular approach gives you the ability to include any other software in Slax easily. If you're missing your favourite text editor, networking tool or game, simply download a module with the software and copy it to Slax, no need to install, no need to configure.

Bedrock Linux

  • 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.


Solus

  • Solus - an independent desktop operating system based on the Linux kernel. It is offered as a curated rolling release model under the slogan "Install Today. Updates Forever". Solus contains a wide variety of desktop environments depending on release chosen, options include Solus's own Budgie Desktop, GNOME, MATE (software) and soon KDE Plasma.

GoboLinux

  • GoboLinux - the alternative Linux distribution - an alternative Linux distribution which redefines the entire filesystem hierarchy. In GoboLinux you don't need a package database because the filesystem is the database: each program resides in its own directory, such as /Programs/Xorg-Lib/7.7 and /Programs/GCC/6.2.0.

NixOS

  • NixOS is a GNU/Linux distribution that aims to improve the state of the art in system configuration management. In existing distributions, actions such as upgrades are dangerous: upgrading a package can cause other packages to break, upgrading an entire system is much less reliable than reinstalling from scratch, you can’t safely test what the results of a configuration change will be, you cannot easily undo changes to the system, and so on. We want to change that.

gNewsense

  • gNewSense 4 Ucclia - gNewSense GNU/Linux - a fully free software GNU/Linux distribution. Free software is software that respects your freedom. You can use it without restrictive licenses, make copies for your friends, school or business. To use free software is to make a political and ethical choice asserting your rights to learn and to share what you learn with others. It is built by people across the globe who work together as a community and sponsored by the FSF (Free software foundation).

GNU Linux-libre

  • GNU Linux-libre is a project to maintain and publish 100% Free distributions of Linux, suitable for use in Free System Distributions, removing software that is included without source code, with obfuscated or obscured source code, under non-Free Software licenses, that do not permit you to change the software so that it does what you wish, and that induces or requires you to install additional pieces of non-Free Software.

Sugar

Papyros

Rescue

  • SystemRescueCd - a Linux system rescue disk available as a bootable CD-ROM or USB stick for administrating or repairing your system and data after a crash. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the hard disk partitions. It comes with a lot of linux software such as system tools (parted, partimage, fstools, ...) and basic tools (editors, midnight commander, network tools). It can be used for both Linux and windows computers, and on desktops as well as servers. This rescue system requires no installation as it can be booted from a CD/DVD drive or USB stick, but it can be installed on the hard disk if you wish. The kernel supports all important file systems (ext2/ext3/ext4, reiserfs, btrfs, xfs, jfs, vfat, ntfs), as well as network filesystems (samba and nfs).
  • Trinity Rescue Kit - or TRK is a free live Linux distribution that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines, but is equally usable for Linux recovery issues. Since version 3.4 it has an easy to use scrollable text menu that allows anyone who masters a keyboard and some English to perform maintenance and repair on a computer, ranging from password resetting over disk cleanup to virus scanning


  • Ikki Boot - a Live CD multiboot which aims troubleshooting, disk partitioning, rescue, backup and restore data. It contains : SliTaz, GParted, Clonezilla and a lot of tools like TestDisk, Darik's Boot and Nuke and Super Grub Disk


  • Rescatux - a GNU/Linux rescue cd (and eventually also Windows) but it is not like other rescue disks. Rescatux comes with Rescapp. Rescapp is a nice wizard that will guide you through your rescue tasks.


  • ESET SysRescue Live - A malware cleaning tool that runs independent of the operating system from a CD, DVD, or a USB. It has direct access to the disk and the file system, and therefore is capable of removing the most persistent threats. - Windows repair

Anonymity

  • Tails is a live DVD or live USB that aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity. [9]

Security

Whonix

  • Whonix - an operating system focused on anonymity, privacy and security. It's based on the Tor anonymity network, Debian GNU/Linux and security by isolation. DNS leaks are impossible, and not even malware with root privileges can find out the user's real IP. Whonix consists of two parts: One solely runs Tor and acts as a gateway, which we call Whonix-Gateway. The other, which we call Whonix-Workstation, is on a completely isolated network. Only connections through Tor are possible. [10]

Qubes

  • Qubes - 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.

Kali Linux

Security Onion

  • Security Onion - a Linux distro for IDS (Intrusion Detection) and NSM (Network Security Monitoring). It's based on Ubuntu and contains Snort, Suricata, Sguil, Squert, Snorby, Bro, NetworkMiner, Xplico, and many other security tools. The easy-to-use Setup wizard allows you to build an army of distributed sensors for your enterprise in minutes!

BlackArch Linux

  • BlackArch Linux - an Arch Linux-based distribution for penetration testers and security researchers. The repository contains 1344 tools. You can install tools individually or in groups. BlackArch Linux is compatible with existing Arch installs. For more information, see the installation instructions. Also, news are published on our blog site.

ArchStrike

Security Onion

  • Security Onion - a free and open source Linux distribution for intrusion detection, enterprise security monitoring, and log management. It includes Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, Snort, Suricata, Bro, OSSEC, Sguil, Squert, NetworkMiner, and many other security tools. The easy-to-use Setup wizard allows you to build an army of distributed sensors for your enterprise in minutes!

Subgraph OS

  • Subgraph OS - a desktop computing and communications platform that is designed to be resistant to network-borne exploit and malware attacks. It is also meant to be familiar and easy to use. Even in alpha, Subgraph OS looks and feels like a modern desktop operating system. Subgraph OS includes strong system-wide attack mitigations that protect all applications as well as the core operating system, and key applications are run in sandbox environments to reduce the impact of any attacks against applications that are successful. [12]

Pentoo

  • Pentoo - a security-focused livecd based on GentooIt's basically a gentoo install with lots of customized tools, customized kernel, and much more. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the features currently included: Hardened Kernel with aufs patches Backported Wifi stack from latest stable kernel releasem Module loading support ala slaxm Changes saving on usb stickm XFCE4 wm, Cuda/OPENCL cracking support with development tools, System updates if you got it finally installed. Put simply, Pentoo is Gentoo with the pentoo overlay.

Network attached storage

See also Storage/Files, Web systems#Storage

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage - a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. NAS is specialized for serving files either by its hardware, software, or configuration. It is often manufactured as a computer appliance – a purpose-built specialized computer. NAS systems are networked appliances which contain one or more storage drives, often arranged into logical, redundant storage containers or RAID. Network-attached storage removes the responsibility of file serving from other servers on the network. They typically provide access to files using network file sharing protocols such as NFS, SMB/CIFS, or AFP. From the mid-1990s, NAS devices began gaining popularity as a convenient method of sharing files among multiple computers. Potential benefits of dedicated network-attached storage, compared to general-purpose servers also serving files, include faster data access, easier administration, and simple configuration.


FreeNAS

NAS4Free

  • NAS4Free is an embedded Open Source Storage NAS (Network-Attached Storage) distribution based on FreeBSD. NAS4Free supports sharing across Windows, Apple, and UNIX-like systems. It includes ZFS v5000 , Software RAID (0,1,5), disk encryption, S.M.A.R.T / email reports etc. with the following protocols: CIFS/SMB (Samba v4.x), FTP, NFS, TFTP, AFP, RSYNC, Unison, iSCSI (initiator and target), HAST, CARP, Bridge, UPnP, and Bittorent which is all highly configurable by its WEB interface. NAS4Free can be installed on Compact Flash/USB/SSD key, Hard disk or booted from a LiveCD with a small usbkey for config storage.
    • portable ZFS

Turnkey: File Server

  • Turnkey: File Server - Simple Network Attached Storage. An easy to use file server that combines Windows-compatible network file sharing with an advanced web based file manager and includes support for SMB, SFTP and rsync file transfer protocols. The server is configured to allow server users to manage files in private or public storage. Based on Samba and AjaXplorer.

OpenMediaVault

  • OpenMediaVault - 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.

RockStor

  • RockStor - Advanced File Storage made Free and Easy. Linux based Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliance. Simple quick installation on a physical or virtual machine. Easy and highly functional management provided by web-ui. Enterprise filesystem features for everyone powered by BTRFS. Free and open source software [14]

Media

See also Video#DVR, Playback

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_server - refers either to a dedicated computer appliance or to a specialized application software, ranging from an enterprise class machine providing video on demand, to, more commonly, a small personal computer or NAS (Network Attached Storage) for the home, dedicated for storing various digital media (meaning digital videos/movies, audio/music, and picture files).


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_theater_PC - HTPC, or media center computer is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, audio playback, and sometimes video recording functionality. In recent years, other types of consumer electronics, including gaming systems and dedicated media devices have crossed over to manage video and music content. The term "media center" also refers to specialized application software designed to run on standard personal computers.

Mythbuntu

LinuxMCE

LinHES

  • LinHES - Linux Home Entertainment System, is a Linux distribution that centers around MythTV. The goal of this project is to make creating and maintaining a Home Theater PC as simple as possible. A blank system can be transformed to a fully functional HTPC in around 20 minutes.


OpenELEC

  • OpenELEC - an embedded operating system built specifically to run Kodi (formerly known as XBMC), the open source entertainment media hub. The idea behind OpenELEC is to allow people to use their Home Theatre PC (HTPC) like any other device you might have attached to your TV, like a DVD player or Sky box. Instead of having to manage a full operating system, configure it and install the packages required to turn it into a hybrid media center, OpenELEC is designed to be simple to install, manage and use, making it more like running a set-top box than a full-blown computer.

LibreELEC

  • LibreELEC - a lightweight ‘Just enough OS’ Linux distribution purpose-built for Kodi on current and popular mediacentre hardware. We forked from the OpenELEC project in March 2016 when it became clear the original project could no longer operate effectively with one person in charge, and with that one person refusing to communicate or listen to other team members (untested changes in public releases was a frequent source of friction). Since forking our team has grown, but retains a strong focus on stable development. We also believe passionately in the long-term value of collaboration and upstreaming code instead of hoarding patches, and we participate actively with other Open Source projects and the ecosystem of regular and drive-by contributors that surround us. LibreELEC remains Kodi oriented but we too have been forked to provide the stable JeOS base for Plex Embedded, Lakka, and a number of single-purpose IoT and maker projects.

OSMC

  • OSMC - Open Source Media Center, is a free and open source media player based on Linux and founded in 2014 that lets you play back media from your local network, attached storage and the Internet. OSMC is the leading media center in terms of feature set and community and is based on the Kodi project.

XBian

  • XBian - a small, fast and lightweight media center distribution for the Raspberry Pi, CuBox-i, Hummingboard and many more devices to come. It is based on a minimal Debian and therefore offers much of the same freedom as Debian offers. Our slogan is “XBian, the bleeding edge” as our main focus is delivering the fastest Kodi solution for various small form factor computers. Just like Debian, XBian incorporates rolling releases. This means that different from other distributions such as OpenELEC or Raspbmc, XBian doesn't release fixed images that often.


GeeXboX

  • GeeXboX is a free and Open Source Media-Center purposed Linux distribution for embedded devices and desktop computers. GeeXboX is not an application, it’s a full-featured OS, that one can boot as a LiveCD, from a USB key, an SD/MMC card or install on its regular HDD. The GeeXboX distribution is lightweight and designed for one single goal: embed all major multimedia applications as to turn your computer into an HTPC. GeeXboX runs on x86, PowerPC and ARM devices.


SqueezeOS


EmbER

  • Embedded Entertainment Rom - a fast, lightweight Linux-based media center distribution for Amlogic based tv boxes (with many more supported devices to come). It is based on Buildroot, an embedded Linux build environment, and is designed to be a slim Just Enough Operating System (JeOS) built with the single goal of running Kodi.

ScreenInvader

  • https://github.com/screeninvader/ScreenInvader - helps you do browse the web, watch videos or flip through images together with your friends on a big screen with just a few simple clicks. The ScreenInvader is a debian based linux distribution, all about presenting content on a screen and sound system - it is best described as social tv.


HTPC-Manager

Play/pause your movies and TV shows, control your media library and create music playlist. Almost all functions XBMC provides, you can run from HTPC Manager. If you use Sick Beard to auto-download your TV shows, you can now do it all from within HTPC Manager. All features like: add new show, search episode, next up and show overview can be handled through HTPC Manager. SABnzbd might be the most populair multi-platform software for Usenet downloads. It is fully automated so you don't have to look at it. And now with HTPC Manager, all it's great features are easily manageable and combined with all your other HTPC software. HTPC Manager is created using Twitter Bootstrap and is compatible with all sorts of devices. Whether you use HTPC Manager on your desktop, tablet or phone, it always looks good! The interface adjusts according to your screen size.


Amahi

  • Amahi - software that runs on a dedicated PC as a central computer for your home. It handles your entertainment, storage, and computing needs. You can store, organize and deliver your recorded TV shows, videos and music to media devices in your network. Share them locally or safely around the world. And it's expandable with a multitude of one-click install apps.


OpenFLIXR

  • OpenFLIXR Media Server - an all-in-one media server for automated downloading and serving media. Tools like CouchPotato, SickRage, Headphones and SABnzbd to download and Plex Media Server to bring everything to your screens. Be it tablets, TVs, PCs, you name it. Completely web-based and includes monitoring and management tools. Smart auto-updating will keep everything up-to-date and running smooth. All programs are optimised to work together so it takes very little time to set it up. Being a virtual appliance gives you the advantage to run it on any platform. The only thing you need is a hypervisor like VirtualBox (Open Source), VMWare Fusion / Workstation / Player / ESXi, Parallels Desktop, KVM / unRAID or Microsoft Hyper-V.

OpenFloxr / projectx

Audio/visual

AudioLinux

  • AudioLinux - based on realtime custom kernels and on the work of that part of linux community trying to achieve very low audio and processor latencies. The results are not audiophile subjective suggestions, but real and measurable. You can make a processor latency test yourself clicking on the oscilloscope test inside Realtime Priority folder on the Desktop. No magic hidden code, but only the magic of music. AudioLinux can be used in Audio Pro studio recording because of stability and freedom from glitches. With a powerful CPU is perfect for extreme upsampling (up to DSD 512 or PCM 768 kHz). What about the sound? Clean, transparent, the last veil is removed... and a quick and complete support that no one is giving in Linux. Your system will be fine-tuned for the absolute best performance. ?

KXStudio

  • KXStudio - a collection of applications and plugins for professional audio production. KXStudio provides Debian and Ubuntu compatible repositories and its own Linux Distribution currently based on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS.

Applications: We offer our own custom set of applications and utilities for Linux and Windows. This includes a fully-featured audio plugin host, a JACK patchbay and more.

Plugins: We provide a wide range of open-source audio plugins and Linux ports. We also provide custom patched plugins to work better and/or support more features.

Repositories: Debian and Ubuntu compatible repositories are available. Use them to get extra applications and updates, or to upgrade to the KXStudio distribution.


AVLinux

  • AV Linux is a free custom shop modded and rodded 32bit+PAE computer Operating System designed to turn a regular old (or fairly new) PC or Intel Mac into an Audio/Graphics/Video workstation appliance. An appliance..? Yes, imagine your Workstation computer being as reliable as that old Frigidaire in the garage! AV Linux features a complete customized Debian Linux XFCE4 4.10 Desktop Environment with the added bonus of a handpicked selection of pre-tested and pre-configured Audio, Graphics and Video content creation software demonstrating the excellence of Open-Source and also includes many unique Commercial Demos.

A veritable treasure chest of Linux and Cross-Platform favourites are pre-installed, Ardour, Audacity, Blender, Cinelerra, Handbrake, Hydrogen, Kdenlive, LinuxDSP (demos), LMMS, Mixbus (demo), Openshot, Renoise (demo) and VLC Media Player are just the tip of the iceberg. AV Linux is distributed as a free LiveDVD ISO image that can be downloaded, burned and run from a DVD-R(W) copied and run from a USB Key or installed to a computer's hard drive.

Debian testing based distro that uses kxstudio

Ubuntu Studio

  • Ubuntu Studio - a free and open source operative system, and an official flavor of Ubuntu. Ubuntu Studio is the most widely used multimedia orientated GNU/Linux distribution in the world. It comes preinstalled with a selection of the most common free multimedia applications available, and is configured for best performance for the Ubuntu Studio defined workflows: Audio, Graphics, Video, Photography and Publishing.


LibraZiK

  • LibraZiK - a francophone software suite project for audio studio. LibraZiK allows you to install and use all the software tools you need to work on sound. Listening, editing, recording, mixing, mastering, ... audio and / or MIDI management, LibraZiK-2 is a complete audio studio.

APODIO

  • APODIO - a GNU/Linux operating system 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


Crossfade GNU/Linux

  • Crossfade GNU/Linux - the cross-platform digital DJ system for USB flash and portable hard drives. Crossfade GNU/Linux allows you to use a USB drive with your music collection to DJ on any modern PC (with an x86 or x86_64 CPU), including Apple Macs, using the DJ program Mixxx customized however you like. USB drives with Crossfade GNU/Linux installed on them show up in Windows, Mac OS X, and GNU/Linux as normal USB drives that music or any other data can be copied onto. Unlike ordinary USB drives, they can also be used to boot Crossfade GNU/Linux. After rebooting, the PC will be back to how it was before.

Crossfade GNU/Linux is setup with a realtime Linux kernel for optimal performance. It includes the Xfce graphical desktop environment, Midori web browser, and Clementine music player. It has a number of other programs for live musical performance including the Hydrogen drum machine, SooperLooper and Giada loopers, Guitarix electric guitar amplifier, Rakarrak guitar effects board, Ardour digital audio workstation, Audacity wave editor, and many LV2 and LADSPA audio effects plugins. Additionally, Crossfade GNU/Linux includes utilities that make it useful as a computer rescue system, such as the GParted partition manager, GNU GRUB bootloader, TestDisk data recovery program, FSArchiver filesystem backup program, and MATE Disk Usage Analyzer. Crossfade GNU/Linux is a Fedora® Remix containing software from sources other than Fedora, namely RPMFusion and PlanetCCRMA, as well as scripts and configuration specific to Crossfade GNU/Linux.

Planet CCRMA

  • Planet CCRMA at Home - a collection of free, open source software packages that you can add to a computer running Fedora 20, 21 or 22 or CentOS 5 to transform it into an audio/video oriented workstation. Here at CCRMA we use a consistent and well defined Linux environment for our daily work in audio and computer music and research. With the Planet CCRMA at Home package collection, you can easily install most of that environment on your own Linux system.

Fedora Jam


Pro-Audio Gentoo Overlay

  • proaudio - an overlay for the Gentoo GNU/Linux portage system. It provides a lot of software for professional audio usage, rt-sources and some other things not in official portage (yet). In most cases you will get the latest version of an app, with all possible features that are available. Also bleeding edge CVS and SVN ebuilds are available for many applications.

Slackermedia

  • About Slackermedia - documentation providing the information a user needs to create a full multimedia studio running on Slackware Linux. It teaches users how to build a home studio using only the best in multimedia content creation tools that Linux has to offer.

Studioware

  • studioware:start - Studioware - a project aimed at providing build scripts of the best open source audio editing software available for the Slackware Linux operating system. It is a powerful suite of multimedia applications for professional audio production, video and photography.

Musix

Studio 13.37

openArtist

io GNU/Linux

  • io GNU/Linux - a powerful operating system that will turn your computer into a state-of-the-art multimedia workstation. It is based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, built around the Enlightenment desktop environment and includes a wide range of the best open source applications suitable for audio, graphics, video production, and more... :)


ArchAudio

  • ArchAudio - the Arch Linux Pro Audio community! From offering a third-party package repository to debating recording techniques to discussing FFT, we aim to be a central point for everything related to working with audio on Arch Linux.

dead

Dyne:bolic

  • Dynebolic - Free software operating system for media activists, artists and creatives. Dynebolic is as a practical tool for multimedia production: you can manipulate and broadcast both sound and video with tools to record, edit, encode and stream, having automatically recognized most device and peripherals: audio, video, TV, network cards, firewire, usb and more; all using only free software!

dead

Stagecraft OS

dead?


64 Studio

  • 64 Studio - produces Debian and Ubuntu releases specialising in multimedia and digital content creation.

dead

Automobile


Home

pilight

  • pilight - an Open Source and Free domotica solution that runs on various small form factor computers with support for more than 60 different devices. It offers an integrated webGUI, has its own Android App and a advanced Eventing library. For more information check the About Us page.

Single board computer

See also Playback#Audio player builds



  • https://github.com/procount/pinn - An enhanced Operating System installer for the Raspberry Pi. PINN is a version of the NOOBS Operating System Installer for the Raspberry Pi.


  • BerryBoot - a simple operating system installer and boot selection screen for ARM devices such as the Raspberry Pi and Cubieboard. It allows you to put multiple Linux distribution on a single SD card.


  • CattlePi - Using the builder in this project you can create and use two images: an initfs image and a rootfs image.The (initfs) is written on the an SD card boot partition. This image contains code to both self-update and to download the final root filesystem (rootfs) used by the RPi.The boot code communicates with with an external API endpoint, to retrieve the configuration associated with your RPi, as well as to figure out where the image files are located and download them (i.e. both the boot image and the rootfs image can freely change between boots).




  • https://github.com/jasbur/RaspiWiFi - Headless WiFi configuration for the Raspberry Pi (or most other devices running Linux) by using a temporary WiFi access point and web interface

Raspbian

  • Raspbian - a free operating system based on Debian optimized for the Raspberry Pi hardware. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your Raspberry Pi run. However, 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.The initial build of over 35,000 Raspbian packages, optimized for best performance on the Raspberry Pi, was completed in June of 2012. However, Raspbian is still under active development with an emphasis on improving the stability and performance of as many Debian packages as possible.Note: Raspbian is not affiliated with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Raspbian was created by a small, dedicated team of developers that are fans of the Raspberry Pi hardware, the educational goals of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and, of course, the Debian Project.



Armbian

Arch Linux

  • Arch Linux ARM - a distribution of Linux for ARM computers. We provide 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.


Small

Alpine Linux

Clear Linux

  • Clear Linux - a distribution built for cloud and IoT use cases. We want to showcase the best of Intel architecture technology and performance, from low-level kernel features to complex applications that span across the entire OS stack. We're putting emphasis on Power and Performance optimizations throughout the operating system as a whole.

Tiny Core Linux

  • Tiny Core Linux - The Core Project is a highly modular based system with community build extensions.It starts with a recent Linux kernel, vmlinuz, and our root filesystem and start-up scripts packaged with a basic set of kernel modules in core.gz. Core (11MB) is simply the kernel + core.gz - this is the foundation for user created desktops, servers, or appliances. TinyCore is Core + Xvesa.tcz + Xprogs.tcz + aterm.tcz + fltk-1.3.tcz + flwm.tcz + wbar.tczTinyCore becomes simply an example of what the Core Project can produce, an 16MB FLTK/FLWM desktop.CorePlus ofers a simple way to get started using the Core philosophy with its included community packaged extensions enabling easy embedded frugal or pendrive installation of the user's choice of supported desktop, while maintaining the Core principal of mounted extensions with full package management.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.The user has complete control over which applications and/or additional hardware to have supported, be it for a desktop, a netbook, an appliance, or server, selectable by the user by installing additional applications from online repositories, or easily compiling most anything you desire using tools provided.

Damn Small Linux

  • Damn Small Linux - a very versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution. DSL was originally developed as an experiment to see how many usable desktop applications can fit inside a 50MB live CD. It was at first just a personal tool/toy. But over time Damn Small Linux grew into a community project with thousands of development hours put into refinements including a fully automated remote and local application installation system and a very versatile backup and restore system which may be used with any writable media including a USB device, floppy disk, or a hard drive.

dslr


tomsrtbt

  • tomsrtbt - The most GNU/Linux on 1 floppy disk.

Aboriginal

SliTaz

  • SliTaz - a free operating system providing a fully featured desktop or server in less than 35 MB. In Live mode SliTaz can run completely in RAM and boot from removable media such as a cdrom or USB key. The system is secure, stable and easy to use.

Linux Lite

  • Linux Lite - Easy to Use Free Linux Operating System

static linux

  • static linux - based on a hand selected collection of the best tools for each task and each tool being statically linked (including some X clients such as st, surf, dwm, dmenu).


bootstrap-linux

  • https://github.com/pikhq/bootstrap-linux - A Linux system which is just barely capable of building itself. This is a complete, self-bootstrapping musl-based Linux system. It contains nothing more than Linux, Busybox, Binutils, GCC, GMP, MPFR, MPC, and GNU Make. I haven't attempted to minimize the configuration of these (yet), merely the package set. The programs get static-linked, but musl does install a dynamic linker, and GCC should be able to link programs against it.

Sabotage

Void Linux

  • Void Linux - a general purpose operating system, based on the monolithic Linux® kernel. Its package system allows you to quickly install, update and remove software; software is provided in binary packages or can be built directly from sources with the help of the XBPS source packages collection.It is available for the Intel x86®, ARM® and MIPS® processor architectures; Software packages can be built natively or cross compiling through the XBPS source packages collection.

Devuan

  • Devuan GNU+Linux - a fork of Debian without systemd. Devuan’s stable release is now 2.0.0 ASCII. The 1.0.0 Jessie release (LTS) has moved to oldstable status. Since the declaration of intention to fork in 2014, infrastructure has been put in place to support Devuan’s mission to offer users control over their system. Devuan Jessie provided a safe upgrade path from Debian 7 (Wheezy) and Debian 8 (Jessie). Now Devuan ASCII offers an upgrade from Devuan Jessie as well as a transition from Debian 9 (Stretch) that avoids unnecessary entanglements and ensures Init Freedom.

Plop Linux

  • Plop Linux - designed for advanced Linux users. You can use Plop Linux as • Live version to boot from CD/DVD, USB and network • Desktop installation • Server (LAMP, mail, media server, and so on)The Desktop Version is available for i486, x86_64, ARMv6l.

Minimal Linux Live

  • Minimal Linux Live - a set of Linux shell scripts which automatically build minimal Live Linux OS based on Linux kernel and BusyBox. All necessary source codes are automatically downloaded and all build operations are fully encapsulated in the scripts. [16]

Morpheus Linux

  • Morpheus Linux - Not everything is set in stone yet, but: Keep it simple. Stable release model with binary packages and a ports system (Plan9 mk-based). Statically linked, using musl-libc. Sane simple base utilities, see: sbase, ubase, hbase etc. Package management using mount overlays (aufs), but mostly FHS compatible. UTF-8 locale. libressl linked. No Native Language Support (NLS). No systemd and rabbit hole. No binary blob drivers (except linux-firmware). Separate /emul namespace for legacy or binary-blob software (skype, wine, robot-unicorn-attack). Uses suckless [17]

LinuxBBQ

Sanity Linux

Minimal Linux Live

  • Minimal Linux Live - a tiny educational Linux distribution, which is designed to be built from scratch by using a collection of automated shell scripts. Minimal Linux Live offers a core environment with just the Linux kernel, GNU C library and BusyBox userland utilities. Additional software can be included in the ISO image at build time by using a well-documented configuration file. Minimal Linux Live can be downloaded as a pre-built image, built from scratch or run in a web browser by using a JavaScript PC emulator. [18]


Aboriginal Linux

  • Aboriginal Linux - a shell script that builds the smallest/simplest linux system capable of rebuilding itself from source code. This currently requires seven packages: linux, busybox, uClibc, binutils, gcc, make, and bash. The results are packaged into a system image with shell scripts to boot it under QEMU. (It works fine on real hardware too.)The build supports most architectures QEMU can emulate (x86, arm, powerpc, mips, sh4, sparc...). The build runs as a normal user (no root access required) and should run on any reasonably current distro, downloading and compiling its own prerequisites from source (including cross compilers).The build is modular; each section can be bypassed or replaced if desired. The build offers a number of configuration options, but if you don't want to run the build yourself you can download binary system images to play with, built for each target with the default options.


Build yourself a Linux

spindle

  • spindle - a set of scripts to aid building and working on a distribution image. I've been using this tool to generate Debian wheezy images for the Raspberry Pi, with the aim of producing reproducible, unbooted, clean setups that require no manual intervention. It works by producing a series of image files in QEMU's QED format (I exploit the format's support for backing files and copy on write).It's not massively user friendly yet, but hopefully that should soon change (and of course, patches are welcome).

Mobile

See Android#Alternative ROMs

Sailfish OS



Firefox OS

webOS

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebOS - a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices such as smart TVs and it has been used as a mobile operating system. Initially developed by Palm, Inc. (which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard), HP made the platform open source, at which point it became Open webOS. The operating system was later sold to LG Electronics. In January 2014, Qualcomm announced that it had acquired technology patents from HP, which included all the webOS and Palm patents.


LuneOS

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LuneOS - a mobile operating system (OS) based on the Linux kernel and currently developed by WebOS Ports community. With a user interface based on direct manipulation, LuneOS is designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. The OS uses touch inputs that loosely correspond to real-world actions, like swiping, tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching to manipulate on-screen objects, and a virtual keyboard. LuneOS is the open source successor for Palm/HP webOS where the user interface is rebuilt from scratch by using the latest technologies available (Qt 5.6.0 / QML, QtWebEngine, etc). All devices can have a LuneOS port if they have a CyanogenMod ROM available that works.


MeeGo

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeeGo - a discontinued Linux distribution hosted by the Linux Foundation, using source code from the operating systems Moblin (produced by Intel) and Maemo (produced by Nokia). Primarily targeted at mobile devices and information appliances in the consumer electronics market, MeeGo was designed to act as an operating system for hardware platforms such as netbooks, entry-level desktops, nettops, tablet computers, mobile computing and communications devices, in-vehicle infotainment devices, SmartTV / ConnectedTV, IPTV-boxes, smart phones, and other embedded systems.

postmarketOS

Networking / telecoms

See also Networking#Hardware, Security#Firewalls


NOC

  • NOC - scalable, high-performance and open-source OSS system for ISP, service and content providers. Major features are: Telecom-specific modules: Network Inventory, IP Address Management, VLAN Management, Service Activation, Configuration Management, Fault Management, DNS Provisioning, Performance Management, Peering Management, Knowledge Base. Over 50 supported vendors, from CPEs to core MPLS routers. Used by small and large companies worldwide, leverages mature and proven open-source technologies: Python, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Django, ExtJS. Integration: REST/JSON API, Python API. BSD License.

ClearOS

  • ClearOS - based on CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, designed for use in small and medium enterprises as a network gateway and network server with a web-based administration interface. It is positioned as an alternative to Windows Small Business Server.

VyOS

  • VyOS - an open source network operating system that can be installed on physical hardware or a virtual machine on your own server, or a cloud platform . It is based on GNU/Linux and joins multiple applications such as Quagga, ISC DHCPD, OpenVPN, StrongS/WAN and others under a single management interface.


Unexicon

  • Unexicon - a spin of Arch Linux for use by operators in the telecommunications industry:  a telco-hardened server platform for network services and operations based on openss7, kannel, sophia, net-snmp and others. Unexicon is both a software and open-hardware release engineered as a full spectrum telecommunications appliance: equally usable as an application development vehicle or VNF VM image for NFV.

Skywave Linux

  • Skywave Linux - an operating system using bleeding-edge technology to robustly access broadcast, utility, military, and amateur radio signals from almost anywhere in the world, including countries with restrictive internet environments. Skywave Linux connects to a large and growing network of state-of-the art software defined radio (SDR) servers, making it possible to experience high performance SDR operation without your own large antennas or on-site radio hardware. All you need to do is boot the system on a computer with internet connectivity. Skywave Linux can also operate numerous types of SDR hardware, plugged in or on the local network. Downloading, installing and configuring SDR software can be difficult for many computer users; Skywave Linux eliminates the hassle by including several applications installed, configured, and ready to run.

Wayland

  • Maui aims to offer an excellent desktop experience. Instead of forcing you to know every detail of your computer we expect you to turn it on, sit down and simply use it. Uses Qt 5, QtQuick and Wayland.

Gaming

live.linuX-gamers.net

  • live.linuX-gamers.net - a Linux live distribution: "boot 'n play". The idea is for you to be able to carry a decent amount of high-quality Linux games with you where ever you go for purposes of demonstration, gaming or parties. Your computer will remain completely unchanged as everything will run live.

Lakka

  • Lakka - a lightweight Linux distribution that transforms a small computer into a full blown retrogaming console. Built on top of the famous RetroArch emulator, Lakka is able to emulate a wide variety of systems and has some useful features such as automatic joypad recognition, rewinding, netplay, and shaders. [21]

Recalbox

  • Recalbox - allows you to re-play a variety of videogame consoles and platforms in your living room, with ease! RecalboxOS is free, open source and designed to let you create your very own recalbox in no time! Use Raspberry Pi, ODROID or even PC (x86)!

XorHub

  • XorHub – When Freedom Meets Fun ! - a free video games platform. We are a group of contributors, developers and network administrators, and together, we want let you discover and give life to games servers under free license. Our mission is simple: offer you libre(and free) games, no matter the operating system you use. (GNU/Linux, OS X or Windows)


SteamOS

  • SteamOS - a public release of Valve's Linux-based operating system. The base system draws from Debian 8, code named Debian Jessie. Our work builds on top of the solid Debian core and optimizes it for a living room experience. Most of all, it is an open Linux platform that leaves you in full control. You can take charge of your system and install new software or content as you want.

Science

Scientific Linux (SL)

Other

Custom

Container

  • Darch - Think Dockerfiles, but for bootable, immutable, stateless, graphical (or not) environments for your everyday usage. Your images can be layered/inherited (like Dockerfiles) using recipes. Each image here can be booted bare-metal. It is up to you how you configure your layers and how granular you get with it. After each reboot, the image is wiped clean (tmpfs overlay). To make changes to your machine, update your recipes and rebuild. Images are built and managed via a Docker-like cli.
  • resinOS - home - Run Docker containers on embedded devices. A host OS tailored for containers, designed for reliability, proven in production.

Static

Embedded

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_on_embedded_systems - operating systems based on the Linux kernel are used in embedded systems such as consumer electronics (i.e. set-top boxes, smart TVs, personal video recorders (PVRs), in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), networking equipment (such as routers, switches, wireless access points (WAPs) or wireless routers), machine control, industrial automation, navigation equipment, spacecraft flight software, and medical instruments in general).Thanks to their versatility, operating systems based on the Linux kernel can be also found in mobile devices that are actually touchscreen-based embedded devices, such as smartphones and tablets, together with personal digital assistants (PDAs) and portable media players that also include a touchscreen.


  • eLinux.org - Embedded Linux Wiki, to preserve and present information about the development and use of Linux in embedded systems as well as open source projects and tools for general embedded development. To use this wiki, click on one of the portal links below.

uClinux

  • uClinux - The Embedded Linux/Microcontroller project is a port of Linux to systems without a Memory Management Unit (MMU).

Yocto Project

  • Yocto Project - 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.

Openembedded

Buildroot

  • Buildroot - a simple, efficient and easy-to-use tool to generate embedded Linux systems through cross-compilation.

Clustering

to sort

  • Zentyal Server is a Linux small business server, that can act as a Gateway, Infrastructure Manager, Unified Threat Manager, Office Server, Unified Communication Server or a combination of them. These functionalities are tightly integrated, automating most tasks, avoiding mistakes and saving time for system administrators.
  • SME Server is a leading Open Source distribution for small and medium enterprises. It is a simple, powerful, secure Linux server for networking and communicating, used by thousands of individuals, companies and organizations all over the world. SME Server provides a friendly, free alternative to expensive proprietary software, standing apart from the competition by shipping with most common functionality preconfigured, and features a number of popular additional enhancements in the form of downloadable Contributions.






VOLKSPC

  • VOLKSPC - can run both Android and Debian applications and user can install them from Google play store or Debian repository. Also Debian GUI applications run faster, thanks to MicroXwin (kernel based X11), while Android applications run at native speeds without emulation.

BSD


386BSD

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/386BSD - sometimes called "Jolix", is a discontinued free Unix-like operating system based on BSD, first released in 1992. It ran on PC-compatible computer systems based on the 32-bit Intel 80386 microprocessor. 386BSD innovations include role-based security, ring buffers, self-ordered configuration and modular kernel design. The BSDs for PC descend from it.

After the release of 386BSD 0.1, a group of users began collecting bug fixes and enhancements, releasing them as an unofficial patchkit. Due to differences of opinion between the Jolitzes and the patchkit maintainers over the future direction and release schedule of 386BSD,[4] the maintainers of the patchkit founded the FreeBSD project in 1993 to continue their work. Around the same time, the NetBSD project was founded by a different group of 386BSD users, with the aim of unifying 386BSD with other strands of BSD development into one multi-platform system. Both projects continue to this day.

FreeBSD



NetBSD


OpenBSD

  • OpenBSD Journal - a site dedicated to providing news and information of interest to members of the OpenBSD community. The site is run by a small group of volunteers. Although several OpenBSD developers are registered users of the site, and the site receives frequent contributions from OpenBSD developers, the OpenBSD Journal is not associated with the OpenBSD project.

PC-BSD


DragonflyBSD


MirBSD

Darwin


Open Solaris forks




  • Dyson - a general-purpose operating system, a Debian derivative using the illumos kernel, libc, and SMF init system (formerly OpenSolaris). It is not a successor of any existing or existed distributions based on illumos or OpenSolaris. Dyson is constructed from scratch to be like Debian as much as possible. Namely, most of Debian packages can be built on Dyson without any changes, and arch-independent packages (arch all in Debian terms) can be installed directly as is.


  • DilOS - illumos based platform with Debian package manager (dpkg+apt). DilOS has MIT license. DilOS will be focused on server side with virtualization like Xen (dilos-xen3.4-dom0 at this moment available), zones and tools for using in small business and home users(Example: as file server with torrent client with WEB GUI, apache + mysql/postgresql + php for development, DLNA media server for smart TV or mobile device with video and music hosting, etc).


  • OpenCSW Solaris - an easy to use open source software distribution installable on top of Solaris and Solaris-based systems. OpenCSW is a community project dedicated to working closely with upstream projects to improve portability of open source software. OpenCSW Solaris packages are provided in the OS-native SVR4 format.  We publish both binary packages and source package definitions, making it possible for others to build on top of OpenCSW’s work.


  • Unleashed - an operating system fork of illumos, which itself is a derivative of OpenSolaris and therefore has its roots in UNIX System V Release 4. It is intended as an operating system for developers by developers. Being an illumos-derived OS, Unleashed comes with ZFS, DTrace, and all the other goodies one would expect. [29]

SmartOS

  • SmartOS unites four extraordinary technologies to revolutionize the datacenter: ZFS + DTrace + Zones + KVM. These technologies are combined into a single operating system, providing an arbitrarily-observable, highly multi-tenant environment built on a reliable, enterprise-grade storage stack.

NeXTSTEP

EdgeBSD

Other

GNU System

  • GNU - offers a Unix-compatible system that would be 100% free software. Not 95% free, not 99.5%, but 100%. The name of the system, GNU, is a recursive acronym meaning GNU's Not Unix—a way of paying tribute to the technical ideas of Unix, while at the same time saying that GNU is something different. Technically, GNU is like Unix. But unlike Unix, GNU gives its users freedom. Completely free system distributions (“distros”) meeting this goal are available today, many using the Linux-libre kernel (the relationship between GNU and the Linux kernel is described more fully elsewhere). The GNU packages have been designed to work together so we could have a functioning GNU system. It has turned out that they also serve as a common “upstream” for many distros, so contributions to GNU packages help the free software community as a whole. Naturally, work on GNU is ongoing, with the goal to create a system that gives the greatest freedom to computer users. GNU packages include user-oriented applications, utilities, tools, libraries, even games—all the programs that an operating system can usefully offer to its users.
  • Guile is an interpreter and compiler for the Scheme programming language, a clean and elegant dialect of Lisp. Guile is a library designed to help programmers create flexible applications. Guile is an efficient virtual machine that executes a portable instruction set generated by its optimizing compiler, and integrates very easily with C and C++ application code. In addition to Scheme, Guile includes compiler front-ends for ECMAScript and Emacs Lisp (support for Lua is underway), which means your application can be extended in the language (or languages) most appropriate for your user base. And Guile's tools for parsing and compiling are exposed as part of its standard module set, so support for additional languages can be added without writing a single line of C.

Hurd

Other

See also Computing#Operating system

Plan9

Unix done 'better'. Ideas from Plan 9 made it into Linux, like more things being files.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs - a distributed operating system, originating in the Computing Sciences Research Center (CSRC) at Bell Labs in the mid-1980s, and building on UNIX concepts first developed there in the late 1960s; until the Labs' final release at the start of 2015. UNIX's 'everything is a file' metaphor was to be extended via a pervasive network-centric filesystem, and graphical user interface assumed as a basis for almost all functionality, though retaining a heavily text-centric ideology. Authoring of source code was made as close to platform-agnostic as possible, while the physical login location of a user was also to be considered arbitrary and irrelevant, as far as practical within the limits of available hardware and laws of physics. The name Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a reference to the Ed Wood 1959 cult science fiction Z-movie Plan 9 from Outer Space. Also, Glenda, the Plan 9 Bunny, is presumably a reference to Wood's film Glen or Glenda. The system continues to be used and developed by operating system researchers and hobbyists.


"In Plan 9, each process has its own filesystem tree, and other programs can expose themselves to this process as file servers, meaning that data internal to the programs can be accessed via the same read, write, delete, etc. calls as files. For example, when running under rio, the Plan 9 window system, the current window contents are available at /dev/window and you can write draw calls to /dev/draw to do graphics."



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9P_(protocol) - a network protocol developed for the Plan 9 from Bell Labs distributed operating system as the means of connecting the components of a Plan 9 system. Files are key objects in Plan 9. They represent windows, network connections, processes, and almost anything else available in the operating system. 9P was revised for the 4th edition of Plan 9 under the name 9P2000, containing various improvements. Some of the improvements made are, the removal of certain filename restrictions, the addition of a 'last modifier' metadata field for directories, and authentication files.[1] The latest version of the Inferno operating system also uses 9P2000. The Inferno file protocol was originally called Styx, but technically it has always been a variant of 9P.


  • Rc - a command interpreter for Plan 9 that provides similar facilities to UNIX’s Bourne shell, with some small additions and less idiosyncratic syntax. This paper uses numerous examples to describe rc’s features, and contrasts rc with the Bourne shell, a model that many readers will be familiar with. Rc is similar in spirit but different in detail from UNIX’s Bourne shell. This paper describes rc’s principal features with many small examples and a few larger ones. It assumes familiarity with the Bourne shell.







Inferno


Minix

Other












  • Sortix - a small self-hosting operating-system aiming to be a clean and modern POSIX implementation. It is a hobbyist operating system written from scratch with its own base system, including kernel and standard library, as well as ports of third party software. It has a straightforward installer and can be developed under itself. Releases come with the source code in /src, ready for tinkering. It has been in development since February 08 2011 by a single developer and contributors. Though the system is stable and capable right now, it is still early in development, and a number of crucial features haven't been made yet. Releases are made yearly and future releases will add features such as networking, SMP, and USB that were skipped in favor of becoming self-hosting now. [42]









MS-DOS

FreeDOS

  • FreeDOS is a free DOS-compatible operating system that you can use to play classic DOS games, run legacy business software, or develop embedded systems. FreeDOS is basically like MS-DOS, but better!

Redox

Other

  • OS/2


http://gunkies.org/wiki/Gordon_Letwin_OS/2_usenet_post








Amstrad

C64

  • C64 OS - has one goal; make a Commodore 64 feel fast and useful in today’s modern world. [48]

Live Distro

Creating an ISO

  • http://wiki.osdev.org/Mkisofs - mkisofs is effectively a pre-mastering program to generate the iso9660 filesystem - it takes a snapshot of a given directory tree, and generates a binary image which will correspond to an iso9660 filesystem when written to a block device


  • GNU xorriso - copies file objects from POSIX compliant filesystems into Rock Ridge enhanced ISO 9660 filesystems and allows session-wise manipulation of such filesystems. It can load the management information of existing ISO images and it writes the session results to optical media or to filesystem objects.Vice versa xorriso is able to copy file objects out of ISO 9660 filesystems.

Bootable ISO

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Torito_(CD-ROM_standard) - an extension to the ISO 9660 CD-ROM specification. It is designed to allow a computer to boot from a CD-ROM. It was announced in November 1994 and first issued in January 1995 as a joint proposal by IBM and BIOS manufacturer Phoenix Technologies.


Wait, don't do this automatically and at once! Isohybrid should be run only once, and many iso files are already treated before uploading to the internet. The Ubuntu iso files are already treated with isohybrid. Use isohybrid only, if the USB drive does not boot after installing using mkusb. Run fdisk on the file. If it shows anything meaningful, it is hybrid.



  • ISOLINUX - a (syslinux) boot loader for Linux/i386 that operates off ISO 9660/El Torito CD-ROMs in "no emulation" mode. This avoids the need to create an "emulation disk image" with limited space (for "floppy emulation") or compatibility problems (for "hard disk emulation").


CD

USB



prep

sudo fdisk /dev/s[XX]

 0c  W95 FAT32 (lba)
   # for fat32/vfat. 21st century mobos do lba.

sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/s[XX1] -n [drive-label]

Single image boot

dd
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx
  # wipe a device with all zeros

sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/manjaro.iso of=/dev/sd[drive letter]
  # not including number

sudo dd if=~/Desktop/linuxmint.iso of=/dev/sdx oflag=direct  bs=1048576
  # copy an iso file straight to a device How to install Linux Mint via USB, 1MiB at a time

sudo dd bs=4M if=image.iso of=/dev/sdb status=progress oflag=sync
  # arch wiki method
Utils



  • Tuxboot - helps you to create a bootable Live USB drive for Clonezilla live, DRBL live, GParted live and Tux2live. It is modified from UNetbootin and runs on both MS Windows and GNU/Linux. You can choose to download the latest version of Clonezilla live, DRBL live, or GParted live ISO/zip file then create the live USB.












  • NetbootCD is a Linux live CD based on Tiny Core Linux. The live CD allows the user to download and run one of several Linux netboot installers, which can install a full GNU/Linux system with only a hard drive and Internet connection.


  • UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. You can either let UNetbootin download one of the many distributions supported out-of-the-box for you, or supply your own Linux .iso file if you've already downloaded one or your preferred distribution isn't on the list.



  • Rufus - a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc. Windows.

Multi-boot



Utils
  • MultiBootUSB - a software / installer which allows user to install multiple Live Linux Distros in to a single USB drive / Pendrive / Flash drive and able to boot from it. USB can be tested without reboot using inbuilt QEMU. Uses syslinux. Python script.




  • GLIM - a set of grub configuration files to turn a simple VFAT formatted USB memory stick with many GNU/Linux distribution ISO images into a neat device from which many different Live environments can be used.



  • YUMI - Your Universal Multiboot Integrator, is the successor to our MultibootISOs. It can be used to create a Multiboot USB Flash Drive containing multiple operating systems, antivirus utilities, disc cloning, diagnostic tools, and more. Contrary to MultiBootISOs which used grub to boot ISO files directly from USB, YUMI uses syslinux to boot extracted distributions stored on the USB device, and reverts to using grub to Boot Multiple ISO files from USB, if necessary. Windows, use via Wine on Linux.
    • out of date in AUR. home page doesn't have Linux version currently, too broken apparently.


Windows utils

  • LinuxLive USB Creator is a completely free and open-source software for Windows only. It has been built with simplicity in mind and it can be used by anyone. All you have to do is to pick up a Linux in the list and give it a try.
  • RMPrepUSB - allows the Windows user to easily and quickly 'roll their own' multiboot USB drive. It allows the user to quickly test, partition, format, install a boot manager, extract or copy files and then test a multiboot (aka multipass) USB bootable drive. It can also make or restore an image and much more. Multiboot 'point-and-shoot' utilities like YUMI or XBOOT are excellent, however they don't support every different ISO or image. You will learn too enjoy making your own personal multiboot drive using RMPrepUSB!


Persistence

Testing

qemu-system-x86_64 -m 512 distro.iso

Installer

  • Calamares - a distribution-independent system installer, with an advanced partitioning feature for both manual and automated partitioning operations. Calamares is designed to be customizable by distribution maintainers without need for cumbersome patching, thanks to third party branding and external modules support.
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