Distros / OSs

Things and Stuff Wiki - An organically evolving personal wiki knowledge base. An on-the-fly taxonomy containing a patchwork trail of topic outlines, descriptions, notes, stubs and breadcrumbs, with links to sites, systems, software, manuals, organisations, people, articles, guides, slides, papers, books, comments, videos, screencasts, webcasts, scratchpads and more. Content is orientated towards mostly free/libre/open, mostly Linux. Quality and age varies drastically. Sometimes old things are first, sometimes last. Use the Table of Contents menu to navigate long pages. Zoom in if text is too small. Dead link? Wayback Machine. I probably need to fix the theme CSS after an update. See also libreav.org. Chat to msg me (not checking tho atm). e

Linux

http://constantmayhem.com/ty-stuff/linuxsurvey/2013.html

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5349626

http://futurist.se/gldt/

Arch

Arch Linux
- Arch Linux news - lists major upgrade changes
- Arch Linux wiki
- AUR - Arch User Repository

Arch vs. Slackware, a friendly comparison - Dec 30, 2009

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=UBfD8aWK - heh

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

https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/607117-build-a-serious-multimedia-production-workstation-with-arch-linux

http://gotux.net/arch-linux/arch-linux-2013-installation/

Debian

http://wiki.debian.org/AptPreferences

http://people.debian.org/~hmh/invokerc.d-policyrc.d-specification.txt

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

http://www.mepis.org/

http://www.dotdeb.org/about/ - LAMP, etc.

http://www.linuxdeepin.com/ - gnome

Ubuntu

http://ubuntu.com/

Server

http://www.ubuntu.com/business/server

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD
- http://wiki.dennyhalim.com/ubuntu-minimal-desktop

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Core

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

Articles

http://www.osnews.com/story/26192/How_to_Undo_Unity

http://askubuntu.com/questions/100925/unity-links-to-usb-drives-do-not-open-nautilus

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-terminal/+bug/1055766

http://joshrendek.com/2013/01/securing-ubuntu/

CentOS

http://wiki.contribs.org/Main_Page

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.

Fedora

Fedora is an RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and owned by Red Hat.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_(operating_system)

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.

Scientific Linux (SL)

http://www.scientificlinux.org/

Oracle Linux

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Linux

Quicker to release was FUD? corperate atmosphere of Oracle has a baaad relationship with the open source world in general [1]

SUSE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUSE_Linux_distributions

http://www.opensuse.org/en/ openSUSE is a free and Linux-based operating system for your PC, Laptop or Server.

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.

Pardus
- Pardus is a Linux distribution developed with support from the Turkish government. Pardus’ main focus is office-related work, including the use in Turkish government agencies.[1] Despite that, Pardus ships in several languages. Its ease of use[2] and availability free of charge spawned numerous communities throughout the world.

Free

Custom

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

http://exherbo.org/ - gentooish, different packaging
- http://halffull.org/2009/03/07/review-of-exherbo-linux-from-a-users-perspective/

Small

http://www.tinycorelinux.net/

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

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

SliTaz is 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.

to sort

http://www.zenwalk.org/ - slackware based
- http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=zenwalk
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenwalk

http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page 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.

Zenix OS?

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.

pfSense includes most all the features in expensive commercial firewalls, and more in many cases. The following is a list of features currently available in the pfSense 2.0 release. All of these things are possible in the web interface, without touching anything at the command line.

http://zorin-os.com/ - easy gui

http://www.dynebolic.org/

Anonymity

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

http://freedomboxfoundation.org/

Security

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. Qubes Release 1 has been released in September 2012. Qubes Release 2 is currently in the works, and Beta 1 has already been released. Qubes 2 supports Windows-based AppVMs.

http://backtrack-linux.org/

http://www.kali.org/ - sucessor to backtrack

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://securityonion.blogspot.co.uk/

Data and media

http://freenas.org/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeNAS

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.

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.

http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/

http://www.64studio.com/

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 is 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.