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Independent GNU/Linux distributions
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Main distro.: Distribution with great reputation and significance, be it in terms of number of users, important/relevant developments or derivative distributions. |
Historical: Distribution is an active or discontinued distribution that has left an important mark on the world of free and open source software and GNU/Linux. |
Active Independent GNU/Linux distributions
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Discontinued Independent GNU/Linux distributions
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4MLinux
4MLinux is a miniarture GNU/Linux distribution from Poland, developed by Developed by Zbigniew Konojacki, small, independent and general-purpose, focus on the following four "M" of computing (4 capabilities):[1]
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- 4MLinux Releases History
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- Active 4MLinux based-distributions
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Adélie Linux
Adélie Linux is an independent GNU/Linux distribution, based on the Linux kernel and musl standard C library, focus on reliability, security, compatibility, portability, and usability.
The Adélie penguin is closely related to the Gentoo penguin, and Adélie Linux traces its roots to Gentoo Linux. Adélie is not a Gentoo fork and has little, if anything, to show for that now. The penguin itself was named after the wife of a French explorer.
Officially, no single individual. We're a group of like-minded hackers who want a better GNU/Linux distribution. Historically, it was started by A. Wilcox and others around 2015 but has taken on several forms since then.
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- Adéline Linux Releases History
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aLinux
aLinux (formerly Peanut Linux) is a discontinued canadian LiveDVD multimpedia GNU/Linux distribution, founded and developed by Jay L. Klepacs, targeted to home and small office users. aLinux was designed from the ground up to be replaces commercial operating systems like Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X. aLinux contained pre-installed a large set of applications of audio, video and graphics categories. It supported High Definition TV, so it is called as Extreme Multimedia Center. The distribution was available for download as a dual-arch LiveDVD ISO image of approximately 1.4GB in size, suitable for either a 32-bit (Intel 32 ~ i386) or 64-bit (AMD64 ~ x86_64) computer and deployable on a DVD disc or a USB thumb drive of 2GB or higher capacity. When booting the DVD image from the BIOS of a PC, the user will be prompted by a boot loader, from where it can start the live system with a specific screen resolution (1280x1024, 1024x768, 800x600 or 640x480), start the live OS in safe graphics mode, or boot an existing operating system from the first disk.
It features the same window decoration, a single taskbar located on the bottom edge of the screen, with an obvious Start button, as well as a system monitoring desktop widget. Be aware though, that you must log in using the root/root username/password combination.
In 2007:
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- aLinux Releases History
Peanut underwent numerous corrections between versions 9.6 and 12.0, and was not officially distributed to the public during this period. During development of version 12.1, a source of Peanut packages (for use with the new Synaptic clone) was released.
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- Discontinued aLinux based distributions
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Alpine Linux
Alpine Linux is a norwegian GNU/Linux distribution designed for routers, firewalls, VPNs, VoIP boxes, containers, and servers. Alpine Linux began as an embedded-first distribution for devices such as wireless routers, based on Gentoo Linux, inspired by GNAP (Gentoo Network Appliance Project) and the Bering-uClibc branch of the LEAF Project (Linux Embedded Appliance Framework). Founder Natanel Copa has said that the name was chosen as a backronym for "A Linux-Powered Network Engine" or some similar phrase, but that the exact phrase has since been forgotten. Alpine Linux uses musl, BusyBox and OpenRC instead of the more commonly used glibc, GNU Core Utilities and systemd respectively.
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Alpine Linux 1.x | ||
Release version | Release date | |
---|---|---|
First Release | 08/2005 | |
1.7.3 | 15/09/2007 | |
1.7.4 | 15/09/2007 | |
1.7.5 | 15/09/2007 | |
1.7.6 | 21/09/2007 | |
1.7.7 | 22/10/2007 | |
1.7.8 | 13/11/2007 | |
1.7.9 | 23/11/2007 | |
1.7.10 | 05/12/2007 | |
1.7.11 | 05/01/2008 | |
1.7.12 | 23/01/2008 | |
1.7.13 | 19/02/2008 | |
1.7.14 | 05/03/2008 | |
1.7.15 | 21/03/2008 | |
1.7.16 | 04/04/2008 | |
1.7.17 | 02/05/2008 | |
1.7.18 | 23/05/2008 | |
1.7.19 | 01/07/2008 | |
1.7.20 | 15/08/2008 | |
1.7.21 | 01/09/2008 | |
1.7.22 | 15/09/2008 | |
1.7.23 | 26/09/2008 | |
1.7.24 | 08/10/2008 | |
1.7.25 | 24/10/2008 | |
1.7.26 | 07/11/2008 | |
1.7.27 | 22/11/2008 | |
1.7.28 | 05/12/2008 | |
1.7.29 | 31/12/2008 | |
1.8.0 | 05/02/2009 | |
1.8.1 | 05/03/2009 | |
1.8.2 | 22/04/2009 | |
1.8.3 | 04/05/2009 | |
1.9.0 | 02/10/2009 | |
1.9.1 | 21/10/2009 | |
1.9.2 | 13/12/2009 | |
1.9.3 | 24/12/2009 | |
1.10.1 | 18/03/2010 | |
1.10.2 | ||
1.10.3 | 08/05/2010 | |
1.10.4 | 09/06/2010 | |
1.10.5 | 10/06/2010 | |
1.10.6 | 16/06/2010 | |
Alpine Linux 2.x | ||
Release version | Release date | Minor releases |
2.0.0 | 17/08/2010 | 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3 |
2.1.0 | 01/11/2010 | 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.1.5. 2.1.6 |
2.2.0 | 03/05/2011 | 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3 |
2.3.0 | 01/11/2011 | 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3, 2.3.4. 2.3.5, 2.3.6 |
2.4.0 | 02/05/2012 | 2.4.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 2.4.4, 2.4.5, 2.4.6, 2.4.7, 2.4.8, 2.4.9, 2.4.10, 2.4.11 |
2.5.0 | 07/11/2012 | 2.5.1, 2.5.2, 2.5.3, 2.5.4 |
2.6.0 | 17/05/2013 | 2.6.1, 2.6.2, 2.6.3, 2.6.4, 2.6.5, 2.6.6 |
2.7.0 | 08/11/2013 | 2.7.1, 2.7.2, 2.7.3, 2.7.4, 2.7.5, 2.7.6, 2.7.7, 2.7.8, 2.7.9 |
Alpine Linux 3.x | ||
Release version | Release date | Minor releases |
3.0.0 | 04/06/2014 | 3.0.1, 3.0.2, 3.0.3, 3.0.4, 3.0.5, 3.0.6 |
3.1.0 | 10/12/2014 | 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.1.4 |
3.2.0 | 26/05/2015 | 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.3 |
3.3.0 | 18/12/2015 | 3.3.1, 3.3.2, 3.3.3 |
3.4.0 | 31/05/2016 | 3.4.1, 3.4.2 3.4.3, 3.4.4, 3.4.5, 3.4.6 |
3.5.0 | 22/12/2016 | 3.5.1, 3.5.2, 3.5.3 |
3.6.0 | 24/05/2017 | 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.6.3, 3.6.4, 3.6.5 |
3.7.0 | 30/11/2017 | 3.7.1, 3.7.2, 3.7.3 |
3.8.0 | 26/06/2018 | 3.8.1, 3.8.2, 3.8.3, 3.8.4, 3.8.5 |
3.9.0 | 29/01/2019 | 3.9.1, 3.9.2, 3.9.3, 3.9.4, 3.9.5, 3.9.6 |
3.10.0 | 13/06/2019 | 3.10.1, 3.10.2, 3.10.3, 3.10.4, 3.10.5, 3.10.6, 3.10.7, 3.10.8, 3.10.9 |
3.11.0 | 19/12/2019 | 3.11.2, 3.11.3, 3.11.5, 3.11.6, 3.11.7, 3.11.8, 3.11.9, 3.11.10, 3.11.11, 3.11.12, 3.11.13 |
3.12.0 | 29/05/2020 | 3.12.1, 3.12.2, 3.12.3, 3.12.4, 3.12.5, 3.12.6, 3.12.7, 3.12.8, 3.12.9, 3.12.10, 3.12.11, 3.12.12 |
3.13.0 | 14/01/2021 | 3.13.1, 3.13.2, 3.13.3, 3.13.4, 3.13.5, 3.13.6, 3.13.7, 3.13.8, 3.13.9, 3.13.10, 3.13.11, 3.13.12 |
3.14.0 | 15/06/2021 | 3.14.1, 3.14.2, 3.14.3, 3.14.4, 3.14.5, 3.14.6, 3.14.7, 3.14.8, 3.14.9, 3.14.10 |
3.15.0 | 24/12/2021 | 3.15.1, 3.15.2, 3.15.3, 3.15.4, 3.15.5, 3.15.6, 3.15.7, 3.15.8, 3.15.9, 3.15.10, 3.15.11 |
3.16.0 | 23/05/2022 | 3.16.1, 3.16.2, 3.16.3, 3.16.4, 3.16.5, 3.16.6, 3.16.7, 3.16.8, 3.16.9 |
3.17.0 | 22/11/2022 | 3.17.1, 3.17.2, 3.17.3, 3.17.4, 3.17.5, 3.17.6, 3.17.7 |
3.18.0 | 09/05/2023 | 3.18.1, 3.18.2, 3.18.3, 3.18.4, 3.18.5, 3.18.6 |
3.19.0 | 07/12/2023 | 3.19.1, 3.20.0 |
3.20.0 | 22/05/2024 |
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Bellsoft Alpaquita Linux
Bellsoft Alpaquita Linux is a full-featured GNU/Linux distribution optimized for Java and cloud environment based on Alpine Linux. It has a minimal memory footprint with base image size of 3.28 MB; kernel optimizations, memory management, optimized mallocs; an enhanced flexibility with glibc and both standard and optimized musl available, and support to CRaC (Coordinated Restore at Checkpoint).
Kernel:
Userspace based on Alpine Linux aports:
LIBC:
Compatibility with Docker, QEMU support:
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ALT Linux
ALT Linux is a russian GNU/Linux distribution (forked from Mandrake), based on RPM Package Manager (RPM) and built on a Linux kernel and Sisyphus package repository.
ALT Linux Team arose from the merger of IPLabs Linux Team and the GNU/Linux community of the Institute of Logic, Cognitive Science and Development of Personality in 2001. The latter cooperated with Mandrake Linux and SUSE Linux teams to improve localization (specifically Cyrillic script), producing a Linux-Mandrake Russian Edition (RE). Mandrake and Mandrake RE became different distributions and thus the decision was made to create a separate project. The name ALT was coined, which is a recursive acronym meaning ALT Linux Team.
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- ALT Linux Releases History
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- Active ALT Linux based distributions
Batocera.linux
Batocera.linux is a french GNU/Linux distribution dedicated to running retro-gaming software. The distribution is able to run on most desktop computers, laptops and several single-board computers, including the Raspberry Pi. Batocera.linux can be copied to a USB stick or an SD card with the aim of turning any computer/nano computer into a gaming console during a game or permanently. batocera.linux is based on RecalboxOS.
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Bedrock Linux
Bedrock Linux is an active meta GNU/Linux distribution which allows users to mix-and-match components from other, typically incompatible distributions. Its similar in spirit to Linux From Scratch or Gentoo, it distributes a means to install a GNU/Linux based operating system even if it does not distribute most of the resulting binary files directly. Bedrock Linux integrates these components into one largely cohesive system. For example, one could have:
All at the same time and working together mostly as though they were packaged for the same distribution. Bedrock Linux provides a technical means to work around cross-distro compatibility limitations and, in many instances, resolve this limitation.[9]
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BOGUS Linux
BOGUS LInux is a discontinued GNU/Linux distribution and it was the first GNU/Linux distribution that featured a pristine source package management system. While other distributions have adopted pristine source management, BOGUS may still be the only distribution that uses a single final build to create the whole distribution. Doug Hoffman, Kevin E. Martin, and Rik Faith started designing BOGUS in October 1993.
BOGUS was a bootstrapping version: all the patches necessary to compile the complete system are provided, including explicit instructions on how was did the compilation. In fact, final compilation was automatic, requiring the user to invoke a single command.[10] |
Conectiva Linux
Conectiva Linux is a brazilian discontinued GNU/Linux distribution and a company founded on August 28, 1995 in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, by a group of friends, mostly civil servants from Banco do Brasil, together with Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo.
Conectiva Linux it was initially a fork of Red Hat Linux.
On 24 January 2005 it was announced that MandrakeSoft had acquired Conectiva for 1.79 million euros. On february 2005, in February 2005, MandrakeSoft merged with Conectiva, under the name of Mandriva S.A., with headquarters in Paris, France. On 7 April 2005, MandrakeSoft announced that it was changing the name of the company to Mandriva and its distributions to Mandriva Linux (in Brazil, just Mandriva).
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- Conectiva Releases History
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CCux
CCux Linux is a german discontinued GNU/Linux distribution developed for i686 architecture, optimised for speed. All packages were built from scratch and not derived from any other distribution. The installation media installs the system in Germany as default and uses the KDE desktop environment as default. It features a graphical QT/X11 based installation to provide an easy installation procedure even to unexperienced users. CCux Linux was especially designed for desktop use. Used the RPM package manager to install and update packages. |
Chakra GNU/Linux
Chakra GNU/Linux is a discontinued GNU/Linux distribution originally based on Arch Linux, and later was independent, focused on KDE software, intending to provide a KDE/Qt minimizing use of other widget toolkits where possible.
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- Chakra Linux Releases History
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Chimera Linux
Chimera Linux is an independent, general-purpose, rolling-release Linux distribution developed from scratch.
Chimera Linux started in the middle of 2021 with the goal of creating a modern non-GNU distribution. The first component of Chimera was cbuild, first imported at the beginning of June 2021 after about a month of development. Initially, cbuild was a from scratch rewrite of xbps-src from Void Linux. It came with a minimal set of build templates, then still based around the GCC compiler and GNU coreutils, as well as the xbps package manager, on the ppc64le CPU architecture (self-bootstrap was possible from the start).[18]
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Clear Linux OS
Clear Linux OS is a rolling release GNU/Linux distribution developed and maintained on Intel's 01.org open-source platform, and optimized for performance and security, for Intel's microprocessors.
Clear Linux OS is not intended to be a general-purpose GNU/Linux distribution; it is designed to be used by IT professionals for DevOps, AI application development, cloud computing, and containers. The operating system upgrades as a whole rather than using individual packages. Extra software can be added to the system (along with associated dependencies) using pre-compiled bundles which can be accessed through the distribution's swupd software manager.
In 2015, Intel introduced Clear Linux OS at OpenStack Summit 2015, Vancouver initially, it was limited to cloud usage. Intel began the Clear Containers project to address container security. In 2015, originally, Clear Linux OS was deployed as a single monolithic unit. In May 2019, Clear Linux OS released a new Desktop Installer and started a Help Forum. Clear Linux OS is available via Microsoft Azure marketplace, and Amazon Web Services marketplace.
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CRUX
CRUX is a lightweight GNU/Linux distribution for the x86-64 architecture targeted at experienced GNU/Linux users, created by Per Lidén and CRUX community.
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- CRUX Releases History
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- CRUX active derivatives
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Thinstation
Thinstation is a New Zealand GNU/Linux distribution maintained by Donald A. Cupp Jr., based on CRUX, basic and small, yet very powerful, Open Source thin client operating system supporting all major connectivity protocols: Citrix ICA, Redhat Spice, NoMachine NX, 2X ThinClient, Microsoft Windows terminal services (RDP, via RDesktop/FreeRDP), VMWare Horizon View, Cendio ThinLinc, Tarantella, X, telnet, tn5250, VMS terminal and SSH (No special configuration of the application servers is needed to use ThinStation).
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- Discontinued Thinstation-based distributions
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Deutsche Linux-Distribution
The Deutsche Linux-Distribution (DLD) was the first German Linux distribution, and is a discontinued GNU/Linux distrobution. It first appeared in 1992, and was published from 1994 onwards by Delix Computer GmbH, which had been founded by Dirk Haaga, Nils Mache and Jens Ziemann,[20] produced and distributed from Stuttgart. Delix Computer GmbH offered its customers the DLD (Deutsche Linux-Distribution) as a premium version and a low-cost version of Slackware.[21] Initially it was compatible with Slackware, but this compatibility was dropped when the Berkeley Software Distribution ('BSD) style init system was changed to System V style and RPM was introduced as the default package format. DLD distinguished itself by translating almost all documentations and programs into German. At the beginning of 1999, the DLD version 6.0 Professional was certified by IBM as Netfinity Server Proven. The last version of the DLD 6.1 was released in 1999. In the same year, Red Hat had taken over the company Delix, and the DLD was discontinued. |
Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre
Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre is an argentinian distribution of GNU/linux based on the concepts of simplicity and elegance created from scratch. 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 13/06/2008.
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EasyOS
EasyOS is a GNU/Linux distribution designed from scratch to support containers, that combine Puppy Linux technologies using containers to run system components..
The container mechanism is named Easy Containers, and is designed from scratch (Docker, LXC, etc are not used).[22] Packages, desktop settings, networking and sharing resources over the network can all be controlled through graphical utilities.
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ELinOS
ELinOS is an embedded GNU/Linux distribution created by SYSGO, and development tools for a development host computer. ELinOS provides embedded Linux as a standalone operating system or it can be integrated into the PikeOS virtualization platform if safety and security demands cannot be met by Linux alone. The latter might be the case if a certification according to a strict industry standard is required. Eclipse is the technical basis for the functionality provided by the integrated development environment (IDE) on the development host. ELinOS was first published in 1999. A free ELinOS Test Version can be downloaded.
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Fuduntu
Fuduntu is a discontinued rolling release GNU/Linux distribution created by Andrew Wyatt. Although it was optimized for netbooks and other portable computers it is a general-purpose OS. It was actively developed between 2010 and 2013.
Initially it was based on Fedora. It was designed to fit in somewhere between Fedora and Ubuntu.
After forking Fedora 14 in early November 2011,[23] Fuduntu became an independent distribution (from version 14.12) and was no longer considered a "remix" of Fedora, it did not qualify as a "spin" because it contained packages not included in Fedora.[24] On a Team Meeting held on 14 April 2013, it was decided that Fuduntu would discontinue development and no new versions will be released. Large parts of the team were planning to work on a new rebased OS.[25] The move of wider support to GTK 3 and Systemd were also factors, as Fuduntu used GTK 2 and wasn't systemd based. |
- Fuduntu Releases History
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Exherbo
Exherbo is a danish source-based Linux distribution inspired by the flexibility found in Gentoo Linux (being a fork of this distribution.). Designed primarily for developers and advanced users who are expected to take an active role in the development of the distribution, Exherbo offers a decentralised development model, original code, and a fast and flexible package manager called Paludis.
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Flatcar Container Linux
Flatcar Container Linux is a container optimized OS (inmutable) GNU/Linux distributions that ships a minimal image, which includes only the tools needed to run containers. The OS is shipped through an immutable filesystem and includes automatic atomic updates. Flatcar Linux is a friendly fork of CoreOS's Container Linux and as such, compatible with it, and announced its launch on 06/03/2018.[26]. It is independently built, distributed and supported by the Kinvolk team.
Flatcar Container Linux was four channels for development:
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- Flatcar Container Linux Releases History[27]
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fli4l
fli4l (flexible internet router for linux; previously: floppy isdn for linux) – a german GNU/Linux based ISDN-, DSL- and Ethernet router distribution which can be operated on hardware based on a 586 CPU with MMX extensions and above. FLI4L is modular. This enables you to create an individual router with varying functionality. For example packages to connect networks over the Internet using encryption (VPN), filtering potential dangers when surfing using proxies or running fli4l in a virtual machine (XEN) is possible with ease. In addition, fli4l can easily be extended with your own packages. However, basic knowledge of Linux/Unix and reading the developer documentation is a precondition here. These extensions can then be placed in a central database. fli4l can easily be installed on hard drives, memory cards or CDs.[28]
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Frugalware
Frugalware is a general-purpose GNU/Linux distribution of hungarian origin, created by Miklós Vajna and designed for intermediate/medium-level users (who aren't afraid of a command terminal).
Frugalware is a distribution optimized for i686 architectures, based on binary x86 packages.
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- Frugalware Releases History
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GNOME OS
GNOME OS is an experimental Linux distribution that ships the latest in-development GNOME desktop, core applications, and stack. It serves as a reference for developers and testers. This operating system is designed and built around the modern systemd and GNU-based userland built from the Freedesktop SDK. GNOME OS is not a separate full-fledged GNU/Linux distribution. In fact, it isn’t based on anything at all. It’s an incomplete reference system just to make GNOME desktop work. It is just a bootable VM (Virtual Machine) image tailored for debugging and testing features before it hits any distribution’s repository. One of the GNOME blogs mention it as:
GNOME OS is GNOME's own operating system, but with a twist. The whole point of GNOME OS is to provide developers and journalists with a quick and nice way to test all the latest and greatest that GNOME has to offer in terms of features. In actual fact, calling it an operating system is not really politically correct since it's not a separate full-fledged Linux distribution. It's build specifically to make the GNOME desktop work, and not much more. The simplest ways of putting it is that GNOME OS is "bleeding edge, in-development software, and not recommended for daily usage if you're not a developer." There are two different versions of GNOME OS: user and developer. The developer version features some additional "stuff" such as git, toolbx, podman, and debug symbols. GNOME OS doesn't have a traditional package manager, all system updates are done via OSTree.
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GNU Guix System
GNU Guix System or Guix System[29][30] (previously GuixSD) is a rolling release GNU/Linux distribution built around the GNU Guix package manager and developed by the GNU Project. Guix supports transactional upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, and more. When used as a standalone distribution, Guix supports declarative system configuration for transparent and reproducible operating systems. It provides Guile Scheme APIs, including high-level embedded domain-specific languages (EDSLs) to define packages and whole-system configurations. It enables a declarative operating system configuration and allows system upgrades which the user can rollback. It uses the GNU Shepherd init system and the Linux-libre kernel, with support of the GNU HurD kernel under development.
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GoboLinux
GoboLinux is a brazilian GNU/Linux distribution created in 2002 which redefines the entire filesystem hierarchy. GoboLinux is a modular GNU/Linux distribution: it organizes the programs in your system in a new, logical way.[31]
Examples GoboLinux Filesystem Hierarchy
Thus, a program "Foo" has all of its specific files and libraries in The root of GoboLinux system: ~] cd / /] ls Programs Users System Data Mount
/] cd /Programs /Programs] ls AfterStep E2FSProgs Htop NTP Subversion ALSA-Driver Ed HTTPD OpenOffice Sudo ALSA-Lib Eject Hydrogen OpenSSH Swfdec ALSA-OSS Elinks IBM-Java2 OpenSSL Synaptics ALSA-Utils Ethereal ID3Lib Pango SysFSUtils Ardour Expat IEEE80211 Patch Sysklogd Audacity File IMLib2 Perl TCL Aumix Firefox InetUtils Pkgconfig TeTeX Autoconf Flac Intltool PodXTPro Texinfo Automake Flex IpodSlave Popt TIFF Bash Fontconfig Iptables PPP TiMidity++ ... ... ... ... ... The design of GoboLinux was influenced by earlier systems such as NeXTSTEP, AtheOS, and BeOS, all of which adopted original filesystem structures while still maintaining a considerable degree of compatibility with Unix. *At the root of the GoboLinux tree, there are six directories: Programs, Users, System, Files, and Mount. It defines a new directory hierarchy which allows the coherent management of the installed base of programs from a system. This is done exclusively through the filesystem layout, without relying on databases or package managers. In GoboLinux, each program resides in its own directory. Each file category (executables, libraries, headers) can also be accessed through unified symlink views.
The design of GoboLinux was influenced by earlier systems such as NeXTSTEP, AtheOS, and BeOS, all of which adopted original filesystem structures while still maintaining a considerable degree of compatibility with Unix. At the root of the GoboLinux tree, there are six directories: Programs, Users, System, Files, and Mount. GoboLinux uses “Compile”, which is a program that downloads, unpacks, compiles source code tarballs, and installs the resulting executable code, all with a single command, using simple compilation scripts known as “recipes”. The Compile system is similar to Gentoo’s Portage system. GoboLinux is available as a Live/Install DVD for i686 CPU with Enlightenment as the default desktop environment. Started from version 016, GoboLinux is shipped with awesome window manager as default, for x86_64 machines only.
The GoboLinux hierarchy represents a radical departure from the filesystem traditionally employed by most UNIX-like operating systems where specific types of files are stored together in common standard subdirectories (such as This is said to produce a more straightforward, less cluttered directory tree. GoboLinux uses symlinks and an optional kernel module called GoboHide to achieve all this while maintaining full compatibility with the traditional Linux filesystem hierarchy. The creators of GoboLinux have stated that their design has other "modernisms", such as the removal of some distinctions between similar traditional directories (such as the locations of executables GoboLinux designers have claimed that this results in shell scripts breaking less often than with other GNU/Linux distributions. This change, introduced by GoboLinux in 2003, has only been adopted by other distributions much later: Fedora merged /bin and /usr/bin in 2012; Debian enabled the /usr merge by default in 2018. GoboLinux also allows the user to have different versions of the same program installed concurrently (and even run them concurrently). Furthermore, it has been claimed that the package management index could never become unsynchronized with the filesystem, because references to nonexistent files simply become broken links, and thus become inactive. GoboLinux's filesystem changes also allow other innovations, such as an entirely new boot system that does not use System V or BSD style init systems.
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- GoboLinux Releases History[32]
- Releases have been numbered using the octal base system.
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IPFire
IPFire is a GNU/Linux distribution (fork of IPCop Firewall), dedicated to firewall that can be installed in any network - from data center down to your home.[33] It is secure, fast and very versatile. Besides from being a stateful inspection firewall it can work as a VPN gateway, analyze data packets with its Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), and comes with many Add-ons that extend its functionality further. It is operated via an intuitive web-based interface which offers many configuration options for beginning and experienced system administrators. IPFire is maintained by developers who are concerned about security and who update the product regularly to keep it secure. IPFire ships with a custom package manager called Pakfire and the system can be expanded with various add-ons.
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JarroNegro
Jarro Negro is a mexican GNU/Linux distribution, developed by students and professors of the Colegio de Ciencias y Humanidades (CCH) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). It has its own package system called JNP that keeps the distribution updated. It uses RPM as a second package system. The first version of the distribution was based on Slackware[34], then based on Debian, and the latest is an independent development.
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- JarroNegro Releases History[35]
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Junos OS Evolved
Junos OS Evolved is a networking GNU/Linux distribution created by Juniper Networks Inc., used on Juniper Networks routing, switching and security devices, intended to create an environment to accelerate the deployment of services and applications on a single network. While Junos OS runs on an instance of the FreeBSD operating system on a specific hardware element (e.g., the routing engine CPU), Junos OS Evolved runs on a native Linux system. Junos OS Evolved uses a node-based model, where system refers to all nodes, including Routing Engines, Flexible PIC Concentrators (FPCs), and more. In Junos OS Evolved, a node is any component that can run the Linux kernel and Junos OS Evolved applications, and all nodes are considered compute nodes.[36] |
Jurix
Jurix was an early GNU/Linux distribution created by Florian La Roche. The distribution was maintained between 1993 and 1999[37] and hosted on the now-defunct "jurix.jura.uni-sb.de" and "susix.jura.uni-sb.de" domains. In 1996, jurix superseded Slackware as a base for SuSE Linux.[38] The name "jurix" was borrowed from the department's first HTTP server, named by Alexander Sigel. It is not known whether the name was taken from the nearby Dutch law and IT organisation JURIX, or simply a portmanteau of "Jura" (meaning "law" in German) and "Unix". At the end of 1997, maintenance and development was stopped as a disjoint distribution of S.u.S.E., although S.u.S.E. was developing a Linux distribution of its own, called SuSE Linux. For this reason, Jurix was, in a way, the development base for SuSE Linux, and is considered the precursor distro to the latter.
The distribution had some other features, in particular an installer that was also able to perform scripted installations, making a given set of software reproducible on relatively identical machines. Standards such as BOOTP or NFS were supported. As the central file system, ext2 was integrated into the distribution by default. This overall package later formed the starting point for the initial version of the current SuSE Linux distribution and its successors. In the course of further development, the person in charge of jurix also joined the SuSE company and was responsible there, for example, for the installer and the YaST configuration tool, which he wrote himself.
A readme from 1999 touts the following software, among others:[39]
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KaOS
KaOS is a GNU/Linux distribution that features the latest version of the KDE desktop environment, the Libre office suite, and other popular software applications that use the Qt toolkit. KaOS was created by Anke "Demm" Boersma, who initially worked on Chakra Linux, based on Arch Linux. The first version was KdeOS 2013.9[40], released on 10/09/2013.
It was inspired by Arch Linux, but the developers build their own packages which are available from in-house repositories. The repository maintenance is pacman/makepkg. KaOS is a desktop rolling release, built from scratch with a very specific focus:
With an emphasis on evaluating and selecting the most suitable tools and applications.[41] The first version of KaOS was released as "KdeOS" in 2013. To prevent confusion between the distribution's name and the desktop environment KDE, the name was changed to "KaOS" in September 2013.[42]
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Kylin OS
Kylin Operating System (Kylin OS) is a chinese GNU/Linux distribution derived from the Kylin and NeoKylin. It is compatible with major X86 architecture CPUs as well as chinese domestic CPU platforms. While Kylin and NeoKylin have a common codebase, they are different from one another. Kylin was focused primarily on servers and cloud deployments, while NeoKylin had historically focused on supporting as many platforms as possible. For example, NeoKylin is the only Chinese-made OS to support all six major "domestic CPUs" -- namely Feiteng, Godson, Zhaoxin, Shenwei, Haiguang, and Kunpeng. Kylin OS V10, it supports Phytium, Loongson, Sunway, Zhaoxin, Hygon, Kunpeng and other proprietary CPUs and x86 platforms. It is optimized for power management, kernel locking and networking, VFS, NVME, etc., and the system loads quickly, significantly improving stability and performance, the company said. It integrates self-developed applications and office software such as Sogou Input Method and WPS Office, which makes your office efficient and convenient. It also builds a unified online software repository for multiple CPU platforms and supports online version updates.
The University of National Defense Technology (UNDT) has granted the trademarks Kirin, Galaxy Kirin, KYLIN and other related intellectual property rights to Tianjin Kirin. In 2014 Tianjin Kylin Information Technology Co., Ltd. was founded by China Electronics Industry Corporation (CEC), Binhai New Area Civil-Military Integration Innovation Research Institute and Tianjin Municipal Government in the field of secure and controllable information system, and is one of the core enterprises of CEC in the layout of secure and controllable information industry.
On 6/12/2019, the two major domestic operating systems, the civilian "China Standard Linux" operating system, developed by China Standard Software Company, Ltd. (CS2C), and the "Galaxy Kylin" operating system, developed by the National University of Defense Technology of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (NUDT), officially announced their merger in Shanghai.
In the future, the two parties will jointly develop operating systems, jointly establish an operating system R&D center, jointly explore the market, and release unified operating system products under the unified brand of "NeoKylin". On 18/02/2020, China Software, a subsidiary of China Electronics Industry Corporation (CEC), announced that China Software's subsidiary, Tianjin Kirin, exchanged shares to acquire a subsidiary, China Standard Software Company (CS2C), and in accordance with the agreement, Tianjin Kirin changed its name to Kirin Software Co., Ltd. and has completed the relevant industrial and commercial change registration formalities, and has obtained a new business licence. On 20/03/2020, the inaugural meeting of Kirin Software, a subsidiary of CEC, was held in Tianjin Auditorium, and Kirin Software's ‘Oceanside’ action plan was released at the same time, and Kirin Software's headquarter was officially settled in Tianjin. During the meeting, Tianjin Municipal Government and CEC, Tianjin Binhai Hi-Tech Zone and KyLinSoft signed a strategic cooperation agreement to build a national operating system development platform.
Galaxy Kylin Desktop OS V10 is a new generation of graphical desktop operating system for desktop applications, as well as an easy-to-use, stable, efficient, secure and innovative operating system product optimised for domestic hardware and software platforms. Galaxy Kylin Desktop OS V10 supports domestic platforms such as Feiteng, Kunpeng, Longxin, Zhaosin, Haikuang, etc. It provides Win 7-like user experience, easy operation and quick start-up, and optimises power management, kernel lock and page copy, network, VFS, NVME, etc. for domestic platforms, so that the system is loaded quickly, and the stability and performance are greatly improved; in terms of ecology: Hundreds of commonly used software, integrated with Kirin series of self-developed applications and Sogou Input Method, Kingsoft WPS and other cooperative office software, make your office efficient and convenient, and also compatible with more than 2,000 Android applications, making up for the shortcomings of the shortage of Linux ecological applications; in the aspect of product upgrading: the construction of multiple CPU platforms unified online software repository, support for version online update, so that your products are always up-to-date. In terms of product upgrading, we have built a unified online software repository for multiple CPU platforms, supporting online update of versions, so that your product can always keep up with the times.
Galaxy Kylin Advanced Server OS V10 is a new-generation self-owned server operating system developed according to CMMI Level 5 standards, providing endogenous security, cloud-native support, in-depth optimisation of home-grown platforms, high performance, and ease of management, which is designed to meet the needs of enterprise-level key businesses and the demands of the era of virtualisation, cloud computing, big data, and the industrial internet for host system reliability, security, performance, scalability, and real-time performance. Tongyuan supports independent platforms such as Feiteng, Longxin, Shenwei, Zhaoshen, Haikuang, Kunpeng, etc.; it can support the construction of large-scale data centre server high-availability clusters, load-balanced clusters, distributed clustered file systems, virtualized applications and container cloud platforms, etc., and can be deployed in physical servers and virtualized environments, private clouds, public clouds and hybrid cloud environments; it can be applied to the government, national defence, finance, education, taxation, public security, Audit, Transportation, Medical, Manufacturing and other fields.
On 13/08/2020, KylinSoft officially released Galaxy KyLin OS V10, which was selected as one of the Top 10 Domestic Science and Technology News in 2020 by China Central Television (CCTV). In October 2021, KyLinSoft released Galaxy KyLin OS V10 SP1. In June 2022, Galaxy KyLin 360 desktop operating system V10 (SP1) version 2203 was released, and the experience of using it was upgraded again. As of 04/10/2022, the number of KyLin software ecosystem adapted products has exceeded 1 million mark. On 31/12/2022, Kirin announced that the number of hardware and software adapters of Kirin software ecosystem has reached a new level, becoming the first domestic OS vendor to exceed 1.5 million ecosystems in China. On 08/08/2024, in China operating system industry conference, Hang Seng Electronics and KyLin Software signed a strategic cooperation agreement, the two sides will continue to deepen cooperation in product adaptation, service innovation, market expansion, and other aspects, and jointly promote the construction of domestic software ecosystem. NeoKylin and Galaxy Kylin are both GNU/Linux-based commercial operating systems developed by Kylin Software Co.'. Its community edition is Ubuntu Kylin.
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- Active Kylin OS derivatives
openKylin
openKylin (開放麒麟) is a community-sourced desktop GNU/Linux distribution led by the openKylin community for desktops, laptops, tablets and embedded devices with major architectures such as: X86, ARM (Raspberry Pi and COOL Pi ) and RISC-V (Hifive unmatched, Safang VisionFive and Ali Pinto Trailing Shadow 1520). openKylin is an independent LFS GNU/Linux distribution developed mainly by Kylinsoft, based on Ubuntu's logics (the system uses apt/dpkg like a Debian/Ubuntu distribution and own repositories, more main, restricted, universe, multiverse, like Ubuntu.) openKylin was founded by basic software and hardware enterprises, non-profit organizations, associations, colleges and universities, scientific research institutions and individual developers, aiming to “co-creation” as the core. With “co-creation” as the core and “open source gathering force, creating the future together” as the community concept, on the basis of open source, voluntariness, equality, and collaboration, it builds a partner ecosystem with enterprises through open source and open approach to build a top community of desktop operating systems, and promotes the prosperous development of Linux open source technology and its software and hardware ecosystems.
openKylin uses the UKUI desktop environment 4.0, that stands for “Ultimate Kylin User Interface”, which handles all the GUI-based user interactions and also extends the functionality of the OS by providing a set of core apps. UKUI is a fork of the MATE desktop environment. openKylin uses the Peony file manager (UKUI's file app), similar to the GNOME files.
openKylin is based directly on the Linux kernel, and belongs to the same level as Debian, openSUSE, Fedora, Arch Linux, and is released by the root community. Unlike Ubuntu and other Ubuntu-based derivatives, openKylin is based directly on the Linux kernel and is not restricted by Ubuntu. |
- openKylin Releases History
First released in June 2022, the first version is version 5.15, and the official declaration is that the community built around Open KyLin is “China's first desktop operating system root community” and “the first desktop operating system developer platform”. |
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LibreELEC
LibreELEC is an independent GNU/Linux distribution, a fork of OpenELEC, and a "just enough OS" (JeOS) to run the Kodi Media Center. It's built to run Kodi on current and popular hardware. The project is an evolution of the OpenELEC project. LibreELEC software will be familiar to OpenELEC users. The distribution runs on x86 desktop computers, Raspberry Pi devices and ODroid and WeTek computers.
In 2015 the OpenELEC project team had a falling out with project founder @sraue over change management practices and maintenance of project infrastructure.[43] A fork of OpenELEC announced in March 2016 as a split from the OpenELEC team after "creative differences", taking most of its active developers at the time to join the new LibreELEC project.
Because of the end of Python 2 support in 2020, LibreElec version 10 with Kodi 19 switches to Python 3. Therefore, addons created for prior versions with python 2 need to be updated by developers for Kodi 19 because python code is not backward compatible.
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- LibreELEC Releases History[45]
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- LibreELEC active derivatives[46]
Linux 0.12
Linux 0.12, or HJ Lu's Boot/Root, was one of the first GNU/Linux distributions in the world, created by HJ Lu in 1992. The installation had to be done with two floppy diskettes. One for the boot, and one for the root environment3. It had no graphical user interface (GUI) and no installer. The concept was similar to today's LiveCD distributions, which work with a CD or USB key, having to edit the master boot record with a hexadecimal editor.
H.J. Lu is a computer programmer who is credited with creating the first approach to the concept of a GNU/Linux distribution in 1992, entitled Boot/Root.
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Linux From Scratch
Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a project that provides you with step-by-step instructions for building your own customized Linux system entirely from source. [51] Linux From Scratch is a way to install a working GNU/Linux system by building all components of it manually (installing a pre-compiled Linux distribution). According to the Linux From Scratch site, the advantages to this method are a compact, flexible and secure system and a greater understanding of the internal workings of the Linux-based operating systems.[52]
To keep LFS small and focused, the book Beyond Linux From Scratch (BLFS) was created, which presents instructions on how to further develop the basic Linux system that was created in LFS. It introduces and guides the reader through additions to the system including the X Window System, desktop environments, productivity software, web browsers, programming languages and tools, multimedia software, and network management and system administration tools. Since Release 5.0, the BLFS book version matches the LFS book version.
The book Cross Linux From Scratch (CLFS) focuses on cross compiling, including compiling for headless or embedded systems that can run Linux, but lack the resources needed to compile Linux. CLFS supports a broad range of processors and addresses advanced techniques not included in the LFS book such as cross-build toolchains, multilibrary support (32 & 64-bit libraries side-by-side), and alternative instruction set architectures such as Itanium, SPARC, MIPS, and Alpha. The Linux from Scratch project, like BitBake, also supports cross-compiling Linux for ARM embedded systems such as the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone.[53]
The book Hardened Linux From Scratch (HLFS) focuses on security enhancements such as hardened kernel patches, mandatory access control policies, stack-smashing protection, and address space layout randomization. Besides its main purpose of creating a security-focused operating system, HLFS had the secondary goal of being a security teaching tool. It has not been updated since 2011.
Automated Linux From Scratch (ALFS) is a project designed to automate the process of creating an LFS system. It is aimed at users who have gone through the LFS and BLFS books several times and wish to reduce the amount of work involved. A secondary goal is to act as a test of the LFS and BLFS books by directly extracting and running instructions from the XML sources of the LFS and BLFS books.
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Fatdog64 Linux
Fatdog64 Linux is a small, desktop, 64-bit GNU/Linux distribution, formerly based on Puppy Linux. From Fatdog64-800 Alpha version, released on 15/11/2018, is based on Linux From Scratch (LFS v8.2 with CLFS 2017.17). Originally created as a "fatter" (=more built-in applications) derivative of Puppy Linux, Fatdog has grown to become an independent, mature 64-bit GNU/Linux distribution while still keeping true to Puppy Linux spirit: small, fast and efficient. Fatdog packages come in two flavors: TXZ packages (it's possible to use the gslapt package manager) and SFS packages, that contains a compressed filesystem, usually a large application or contains multiple applications or libraries.
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- Fatdog64 Linux Releases History
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- Discontinued LFS-bases distributions
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LinuxConsole
LinuxConsole is a french GNU/Linux distribution developed by Yann Le Doaré, built from scratch and has support for multiple languages. It is not based on any other GNU/Linux distribution and primarily focuses on being lightweight and easily accessible. LinuxConsole can function as a live CD or live USB, or it can also be installed as a complete operating system. Its main features are easy installation, extensive choice of software in the form of modules, and excellent hardware detection. LinuxConsole should be written as one word. The "console" part of the word isn't related to Linux system console mode, but instead represents the ease of using a game console.
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LST Power Linux
LST Power Linux (LST) is a discontinued GNU/Linux distribution, it was developed by Linux Support Team (LST). The Linux Support Team Erlangen was a small group of students (Stefan Probst & Ralf Flaxa) from the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany. The LST distribution’s goal was to provide a solid, reliable, easy to install (even for beginners) and well-documented system. As early as 1993, the first distribution of the Linux Support Team saw the light of day as an independent, German offshoot/fork of Slackware.
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Lunar Linux
Lunar Linux is a source based GNU/Linux distribution. It is built entirely by compiling source code, using custom optimizations.
Currently, Lunar only supports the x86 and x86-64 architectures.[54]
In the beginning Lunar was a fork of Sorcerer Linux (SGL), by a small group of people led by Chuck Mead; The fork occurred in late January to early February of 2002 and was originally made up of a small group of people who wanted to collaboratively develop and extend the Sorcerer technology. The original name for the project was Lunar-Penguin but the group decided to re-christen it Lunar Linux while the Lunar-Penguin name has become a sort of umbrella which the team could use if they decide to collaboratively develop something besides Lunar Linux.
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Mandrake - Mandriva
Mandrake | Mandriva |
Mandrake, laterly Mandriva Linux, is a independent discontinued GNU/Linux distribution released by the french company MandrakeSoft SA (then Mandriva) intended for both beginners and experienced users, aimed at personal computers and servers with a focus on users who are new to the world of GNU/Linux and free software.
From then on it went its own way, separate from Red Hat and included numerous proprietary or modified tools, mainly aimed at making system configuration easier. Also this distribution was known because its packages were compiled with optimisations for Pentium processors and above, incompatible with older versions such as 386 and 486.
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- Names History
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- Mandrake → Mandriva History
In 1998, the French company MandrakeSoft SA introduced the Mandrakelinux distribution, created by Gaël Duval, co-founder and former employee of Red Hat, Inc. Part of the name was taken from the comic strip "Mandrake the Magician", a trademark owned by the US company Hearst Holdings. In 2003, MandrakeSoft filed a lawsuit in a French court against Hearst Holdings to cancel the "Mandrake" trademark that the latter still owned, but the court ruled in favour of Hearst and the domain names and the product were returned to their owner. This decision led to the subsequent renaming of MandrakeSoft to Mandriva and the operating system to Mandriva Linux, names derived from the merger between the Mandrake company and the Brazilian company Conectiva, which Mandrakesoft acquired in 2005. The distribution was initially based on Red Hat Desktop 5.1, so the first version was also numbered 5.1. It was an easy-to-use distribution for servers and workstations supplied in a downloadable and a paid version, with documentation and technical support. The different versions were freely licensed and some special versions had programs not licensed under the GPL. However, despite the success of the distribution, some of the employees who worked on it were laid off when Edge-IT, a support company that was acquired by MandrakeSoft in 2004, was liquidated. In April 2005, Mandrakesoft announced the corporate acquisition of Conectiva, a Brazilian-based company that produced a GNU/Linux distribution for Portuguese-speaking (Brazil) and Spanish-speaking Latin America. As a result of this acquisition and the legal dispute with Hearst Corporation, Mandrakesoft announced that the company was changing its name to Mandriva, and that their Linux distribution Mandrake Linux would henceforward be known as Mandriva Linux. On 18 September 2010, due to uncertainty about the future of the company, now called Mandriva, some of the developers issued a statement from Paris announcing that a fork of Mandriva Linux would be created, which was called Mageia. In the summer of 2011, after the last release version called Hydrogen, released on 28/08/2011, Mandriva Linux was discontinued and several members of the community behind it created a new distribution, called OpenMandriva Lx. Most developers who were laid off went to Mageia. Mandriva's bankruptcy was officially announced and the company was finally shut down on 2 June 2015. |
- Mandrake | Mandriva Releases History
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- Active Mandrake → Mandriva-based distributions
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- Discontinued Mandrake | Mandriva-based distributions
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blackPanther OS
blackPanther OS is a discontinued hungarian GNU/Linux distribution based on Mandriva which borrows features from other major projects and aimed at home computer users. The distribution is designed for use at school, home and work as it contains applications for common daily tasks, such as time management, office work or media playback. The distribution comes with the KDE Plasma desktop, it uses packages RPM and has tools borrowed from other projects, such as a graphical system configuration tool from Mandriva Linux, a driver management tool from Ubuntu.
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Mageia
Mageia is a french and independent GNU/Linux distribution, started in 18/09/2010 as a fork of Mandriva, by Mageia founders. Mageia is released by the Mageia community. Its mission is to build a great tools for people. Unlike Mandriva, which was a commercial entity, the Mageia project is a community project and a non-profit organisation whose goal is to develop a free GNU/Linux based operating system, supported by a nonprofit organisation of elected contributors. The first release of Mageia, Mageia 1 was released on 01/06/2011.
There are three ways to get Mageia:
The Greek term mageía (μαγεία) means enchantment, fascination, glamour, wizardry
Mageia was created in 2010 as a fork of Mandriva Linux, by a group of former employees of Mandriva S.A. and several other members of the Mandriva community. On 02/09/2010, Edge IT, one of the subsidiaries of Mandriva, was placed under liquidation process by the Tribunal de commerce in Paris; effective September 17, all assets were liquidated and employees were let go. The next day, on September 18, 2010, some of these former employees, who were mostly responsible for the development and maintenance of the Mandriva Linux distribution, and several community members announced the creation of Mageia, with the support of many members of the community of developers, users and employees of Mandriva Linux.
The following goals were announced in the 18 September 2010 announcement:
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- Mageia Releases Hitory
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Myah OS
Myah OS is a discontinued GNU/Linux distribution, developed by Jeremiah Cheatham, based on Slackware only until 3.0 alpha version, released on 25/10/2007. Then was Independent developed as a LiveCD designed for desktop use. It is built with custom build scripts and optimised for the i686 processor architecture. Myah OS was built around the KDE3 desktop and optimized for i686 processor architecture. Myah OS offered “Full Hard Drive” install option, although there are also options for installing to USB or net-installing versions with Xfce, OpenBox, KDE 3, GNOME, KDE 4, or pure console. The system uses its own package manager. The full KDE version featured a large set of preinstalled applications, such as: Asunder, Audacious, Audacity, Graveman, streamtuner, Xine, MPlayer, Kino, Myah DVD Creator; programs for graphical media: Blender for 3-D modeling, CinePaint, GIMP, mtPaint, Tux Paint; Dia for technical diagrams; Inkscape for scalable vector graphics; and GPicView and gtkam; office tools: Abiword and Gnumeric; network: Pidgin, Azureus, Transmission, Chatzilla, XChat, fireFTP, Firefox. Myah OS was under development between 2005 and 2008. |
- Myah OS Releases History
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MCC Interim Linux
MCC Interim Linux was a GNU/Linux distribution developed by Owen Le Blanc of the Manchester Computing Centre (MCC), part of the University of Manchester.
The MCC first made GNU/Linux available by anonymous FTP in November 1991. Le Blanc's irritations with his early experiments with GNU/Linux, such as the lack of a working fdisk (he would later write one), the need to use multiple FTP repositories to acquire all the essential software, and library version problems, inspired the creation of this distribution. Le Blanc claimed he referred to the distribution as "interim" because "...they are not intended to be final or official. They are small, harmonious, and moderately tested. They do not conform to everyone's taste -- what release does? -- but they should provide a stable base to which other software can be added."
Prior to its first release, the closest approximation to a GNU/Linux distribution had been H J Lu's "Boot/Root" floppy disk images from early 1992. These were two 5¼" diskette images containing the Linux kernel and the minimum tools required to get started. So minimal were these tools that to be able to boot from a hard drive required editing its master boot record with a hex editor. The first release of MCC Interim Linux was based on Linux 0.12 and made use of Theodore Ts'o's ramdisk code to copy a small root image to memory, freeing the floppy drive for additional utilities diskettes. He also stated his distributions were "unofficial experiments", describing the goals of his releases as being:
Indeed, no attempt was ever made to distribute it with a wide range of software or even the X386 windowing system. |
Mini Linux
Mini Linux is a minimal Linux running system consisting only of the kernel and a small init program.[58] The project offers a script to build very small Linux environment of the x86_64 architecture, and then creates an iso image. |
MontaVista Linux
MontaVista Linux (formerly named Hard Hat Linux from 2000 to 2010[59]) is a GNU/Linux distribution developen by MontaVista Software that has been enhanced to become a full real-time operating system. The work on real-time performance has since continued to a point where MontaVista claims to support hard real-time tasks on embedded Linux as of MontaVista Linux 4.0, with response times as fast as other real-time operating systems.[60] |
NixOS
NixOS is a GNU/Linux distribution from Netherlands, based on the Nix package manager and build system. NixOS uses an immutable design and an atomic update model. Its use of a declarative configuration system allows reproducibility and portability. NixOS is configured using composable modules, and relies on packages defined in the Nixpkgs project. It supports reproducible and declarative system-wide configuration management as well as atomic upgrades and rollbacks, although it can additionally support imperative package and user management. In NixOS, all components of the distribution, including the Linux kernel, installed packages and system configuration files, are built by Nix from pure functions called Nix expressions.[61] Package recipes and configurations are written in the purpose-built "Nix language" that ships with the Nix package manager. The main difference between NixOS and other GNU/Linux distributions is that NixOS doesn't follow the Linux Standard Base file system structure. In NixOS however /lib and /usr/lib do not exist. Instead all system libraries, binaries, kernels, firmware and configuration files are placed in the Nix store.[62]
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- NixOS Releases History
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- Active NixOS based distributions
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Omarine
Omarine is a vietnamese GNU/Linux distribution for servers, it can also be used for desktops. It uses the RPM package management software. Omarine offers support for x86_64 machines and desktop environments such as KDE Plasma, GNOME, LXDE and Xfce, option right at the login screen without any additional configuration.[63] Omarine was originally based on Slackware, but is now independently developed. The servers in Omarine are configured to support security means such as krb5, sasl, ssl.
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OpenELEC
OpenELEC (short for Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center) is a swiss discontinued GNU/Linux distribution designed for home theater PCs and based on the Kodi (formerly XBMC) media player.
The idea behind OpenELEC is to allow people to use their Home Theatre PC (HTPC) like any other device one might have attached to a 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. It is designed to consume relatively few resources and to boot quickly from flash memory. OpenELEC disk images for the Raspberry Pi series and Freescale i.MX6 based devices are also available. The OpenELEC team released OpenELEC 4.0 on 5 May 2014, and this version features updated XBMC 13.0 with further updated important parts of the operating system as well as the Linux kernel updated to version 3.14 and additional device drivers.
In March 2016, OpenELEC was forked after "creative differences", taking most of its active developers at the time to join the new LibreELEC project.
Since 2011, the OpenELEC team usually releases a new major version, following the Kodi release schedule. Since 2014, specifics builds supporting a set of Graphics/GPU chipsets (ION, Fusion, Intel,...) are deprecated. And since version 6, x86 builds are deprecated too. Builds are currently available for x86-64 systems (as "Generic Build"), Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi 2, Raspberry Pi 3 and the first generation Apple TV.
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- OpenELEC Releases History
Since 2011, the OpenELEC team usually releases a new major version, following the Kodi release schedule. Since 2014, specifics builds supporting a set of Graphics/GPU chipsets (ION, Fusion, Intel,...) are deprecated. And since version 6, x86 builds are deprecated too. Builds are currently available for x86-64 systems (as "Generic Build"), Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi 2, Raspberry Pi 3 and the first generation Apple TV. |
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- Active OpenELEC-based distributions
openmamba GNU/Linux
openmamba GNU/Linux is an italian GNU/Linux distribution for personal computers (Intel i686-compatible) that can be used on notebooks, desktops and servers. openmamba is available with two modern and always up-to-date desktop environments KDE and LXQt
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OpenMandriva Lx
OpenMandriva Lx is a french GNU/Linux distribution, and a direct descendant of Mandriva Linux. A free Desktop Operating System which aims to stimulate and interest first time and advanced users alike. It has the breadth and depth of an advanced system but is designed to be simple and straightforward in use.[66] It is maintained by the OpenMandriva Association. OpenMandriva Lx was originally an offering of Mandriva Linux, the OpenMandriva product was created in May, 2012, when Mandriva S.A. avoided bankruptcy by abandoning the development of its consumer product to the Mandriva community. The first stable version (OpenMandriva Lx 2013 "Oxygen") was released in late 2013.
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OpenWrt
OpenWrt is an embedded GNU/Linux distribution highly extensible for embedded devices (typically wireless routers).
The OpenWrt project started in January 2004. The first OpenWrt versions were based on Linksys GPL sources for WRT54G and a buildroot from the uClibc project. This version was known as OpenWrt stable release and was widely in use. OpenWrt is built from the ground up to be a full-featured, easily modifiable operating system for your router. In practice, this means that you can have all the features you need with none of the bloat, powered by a Linux kernel that's more recent than most other distributions.[68] The OpenWrt project was started in 2004 after Linksys had built the firmware for their WRT54G series of wireless routers with code licensed under the GNU General Public License. Under the terms of that license, Linksys was required to make the source code of its modified version available under the same license, which enabled independent developers to create derivative versions. Support was originally limited to the WRT54G series, but has since been expanded to include many other routers and devices from many different manufacturers. Using this code as a base and later as a reference, developers created a Linux distribution that offers many features not previously found in consumer-level routers.
In May 2016, OpenWrt was forked by a group of core OpenWrt contributors due to disagreements on internal process. The fork was dubbed Linux Embedded Development Environment (LEDE), shared many of the same goals. The schism was nominally reconciled a year later in May 2017 pending approval of the LEDE developers. The remerger preserves the OpenWrt branding, but uses many of the LEDE processes and rules. The remerge proposal vote was passed by LEDE developers in June 2017,[48] and formally announced in January 2018. The merging process was completed before the OpenWrt 18.06 release.[69]
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OviOS Linux
OviOS Linux is a specialized GNU/Linux distribution aimed at creating the fastest and easiest Linux unified storage server.
It targets users and admins who need a stable out-of-the-box iSCSI, NFS, SMB server, and Linux and storage engineers who want to learn how to build a system from scratch.
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paldo GNU/Linux
paldo GNU/Linux is a Upkg driven GNU/Linux distribution. It's kind of a mix of a source and a binary distribution. Even though it builds packages like a source distribution it provides binary packages. paldo stands for "pure adaptable linux distribution" and we try to accomplish this in every package. paldo comes with very few patches against its packages. We have virtually no local changes, means every patch is one which will go upstream anyway (e.g. compile fixes) or one needed by the LFS build system to enable us to boostrap correctly. It's very easy to make changes to the distro. You can change every package by providing a local version of the sources and specifications you've changed. You can even configure your system automatically through local differencial repositories. The whole distribution is very flexible because it's built on top of Upkg.[70]
paldo uses the Upkg package manager to update/upgrade the system and to install applications. Upkg was uniquely developed for the paldo project and is responsible for the distribution's character as a mixed source and binary based operating system. Written in C#, Upkg uses the Mono runtime to build packages from source, or to install pre-built binaries, using XML specifications that can be customized by the user. It relies on the command-line interface rather than a graphics-based user interface implementation commonly found in many desktop-oriented Linux distributions. Upkg provides dependency resolution, package indexing and automatic menu additions, although its processing time to upgrade the system and install packages, even those available through the online paldo repository, has been found to be relatively long.
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PCLinuxOS
PCLinuxOS is an independent GNU/Linux distribution, fork of Mandrake Linux 9.2. Created in october 2003 by Texstar. working closely with the Live CD Project, Texstar has since developed that fork independently into a full-fledged distribution.
The precursor to PCLinuxOS was a set of RPM packages created to improve successive versions of Mandrake Linux (later Mandriva Linux). These packages were created by Bill Reynolds, a packager better known as "Texstar". From 2000 to 2003, Texstar maintained his repository of RPM packages in parallel with the PCLinuxOnline site. In an interview, Texstar said he started PCLinuxOS "to provide an outlet for [his] crazy desire to package source code without having to deal with egos, arrogance, and politics."
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- PCLinuxOS Active derivatives
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- PCLinuxOS Discontinued derivatives
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Peropesis
Peropesis (personal operating system) is a lituanian small-scale, minimalist, command-line-based Linux operating system. It's an incomplete system, but it's constantly being improved. Also, it is a free operating system created from a free software, mostly distributed under the GNU GPL or BSD licenses. The Peropesis project includes the operating system itself and this website, that contains all the necessary information about this operating system.[71]
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Photon OS
Photon OS is an open source Linux container host optimized for cloud-native applications, cloud platforms, and VMware infrastructure. Photon OS provides a secure run-time environment for efficiently running containers. Photon OS is a minimalistic GNU/Linux distribution container host optimized for cloud-native applications, cloud platforms, and VMware infrastructure; but can also be used in other environments. Developed and released by WMware in 2015, the main function of the operating system is container deployment. Photon OS contains a small number of packages and provides users with a command line interface.
Photon OS supports persistent volumes to store cloud-native application data on VMware vSAN . With Lightwave integration, users are authenticated and authorized via Active Directory or LDAP. All available VMware environments use the Photon OS distribution and therefore this is one of the most popular and widely used Linux operating systems in the world.
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Pisi Linux
Pisi Linux is a turkish end-user oriented GNU/Linux distribution based on the old Pardus Linux 2011 version, with its famous PiSi package management system, providing computer users with great ease in installation, configuration and use, and aiming to meet their main desktop requirements. It's an operating system for desktop computer with software for listening to music, browsing the Internet and creating documents. Pisi Linux is built from scratch on a stable base, but many core user applications, such as the Firefox web browser or the VLC media player, are kept constantly up to date. To increase the distribution's user friendliness, Flash player and many multimedia codecs are installed and pre-configured for immediate use. Pisi Linux, which is being developed by the Anka team, was released version 1.2 on July 10, 2015. With version 2.1, which will bring major changes after version 1.2, which contains more than 6000 updated packages, all packages have been migrated to new versions and many bugs have been fixed, thus increasing the speed and stability of Pisi Linux.
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PLD Linux Distribution
PLD Linux Distribution is a polish, free, RPM-based Linux distribution, created in 1998, aimed at the more advanced users and administrators, who accept the tradeoffs of using a system, that might require manual tweaking in exchange for much flexibility. Simultaneous availability for a wide variety of architectures and non-conservative approach to RPM usage provides our users with a consistent environment on almost all available architectures.[73]
Unlike other big distributions, there is no commercial support behind PLD Linux. The developer community consists of various enthusiasts who wish to donate their time and knowledge for the common good of PLD Linux. There is no specific ideology behind PLD-Linux, we just want to have a fast, stable and flexible environment to work in. PLD Linux started in 1998 as a package repository for another distribution. It soon grew enough to become a self sustaining distribution and has acted as one for the past couple of years. Currently it is one of the most active open source projects in the world and provides a constant flow of feedback to the rest of the FLOSS world.
Unlike Gentoo, PLD provides binary packages optimized for a specific system's architecture. No asking users to log out just to get enough CPU power to compile that office package upgrade. Configuration files are safe, because several kinds of triggers and RPM magic to make sure files are left intact.
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Plop Linux
Plop Linux is a german and small GNU/Linux distribution, developed by Elmar Hanlhofer, that can boot from CD, DVD, USB flash drive (UFD), USB hard disk or from network with PXE. It is designed to rescue data from a damaged system, backup and restore operating systems, automate tasks, etc.
Plop Linux is designed for advanced Linux users. Can be use as:
The desktop version is available for i486, x86_64, ARMv6l. The first release of Plop Linux was in 2003[77]
Plop Linux is a distribution built from scratch. The Live version can boot from CD, DVD, USB flash drive (UFD), USB hard disk or from network with PXE.[78]
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rlxos GNU/Linux
rlxos GNU/Linux (rlxos, pronounced as "r-e-l-e-a-x" or "r-l-x-o-s")[79] is an independent GNU/Linux distribution from India, which runs on an immutable filesystem (safely mutable), privacy oriented, rolling release, developed from scratch, with focus on making a usable Immutable distribution. rlxos GNU/Linux is dedicated to creating a secure, reliable, and high-performance operating system based on the Linux kernel. The project features the Distrobox container manager to facilitate running software from multiple other distributions. It also includes support for Flatpak and includes the Bolt AI assistant.
At the heart of rlxos is its sysroot-managed immutable root filesystem, powered by libostree, which introduces a suite of advanced features designed to enhance system integrity and performance:
An immutable root filesystem refers to a system design where the root filesystem is read-only, protecting it from standard modifications. This design is key to enhancing system security and stability, as it prevents unwanted changes to core components. In rlxos, this concept is realized through libostree, which also enables features such as atomic updates and rollbacks.
Sysroot is a command-line utility designed for managing your system's roots, updates, and extensions, similar to other package managers but with the following features:
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- rlxos GNU/Linux Releases History
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ROCK Linux
ROCK Linux is an austrian discontinued GNU/Linux distribution. It also has a LiveCD for the installation of a desktop distribution. It also has its own package repository. ROCK Linux was a flexible Distribution Build Kit. It can be used for building an own GNU/Linux distributions
Crystal ROCK is "the ROCK Linux distribution". It is designed to bring one solution for one problem yet still be useful for both server and desktop installations.
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- Active ROCK Linux-based distributions
- Discontinued ROCK Linux-based distributions
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T2 SDE
T2 SDE (System Development Environment) is a GNU/Linux distribution kit, fork of ROCK Linux, primarily developed by René Rebe. T2 SDE is not just a regular GNU/Linux distribution - it is a flexible Open source System Development Environment or Distribution Build Kit. Others might even name it Meta Distribution. T2 allows the creation of custom distributions with state of the art technology, up-to-date packages and integrated support for cross compilation. Currently the Linux kernel is usually used, but we also started to port T2 to support compiling home-brew like open source package add-ons on macOS, other BSDs, classic Unix systems or support bootstrapping alternative micro kernel systems (like a L4 variant or Fuchsia, RedoxOS or integrating building "AOSP" Android as well).
ROCK Linux was started in the summer of 1996 by Claire Wolf. T2 SDE was forked in 2004, when developers were dissatisfied with the project. ROCK Linux was discontinued in 2010.
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ROSA Linux
ROSA Linux (РОСА) is independent russian GNU/Linux distribution, originaly was based on Mandriva, and developed by LLC NTC IT ROSA. The first release ROSA 2011 Hydrogen, released on 29/08/2011, was developed in conjunction with Mandriva (Mandriva 2011 Hydrogen), which was the last release prior to Mandriva's bankruptcy.
The ROSA company was founded in early 2010 and released the first version of its operating system in December 2010. It initially targeted enterprise users only, but in late 2012, ROSA started its end-user oriented distribution, Desktop Fresh. Before its bankruptcy, Mandriva developed its last releases jointly with ROSA.
Although its main popularity is in the russian language market, ROSA Desktop also received favorable reviews by several non-Russian online publications. German technology website Golem.de praised ROSA for its stability and hardware support, while LinuxInsider.com called ROSA "a real Powerhouse".
ROSA Linux comes in 3 different variations targeting home users, enterprise users, and enterprise servers.
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- ROSA Linux Releases History
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- Active ROSA Linux-based distributions
MagOS-Linux
MagOS-Linux is a russian GNU/Linux distribution, initially based on Mandriva, since first version Mag-OS Linux 20090511, released on 11/05/2019; until Mag-OS Linux 20121230 version; and then based on ROSA Linux (Rosa 2012.1 "Fresh"), since MagOS-Linux 20130124 version, due to Mandriva's bankruptcy.
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- MagOS-Linux Releases History
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rPath Linux
rPath Linux (formerly Specifix Linux) is a discontinued GNU/Linux distribution developed by rPath Inc., and built with the Conary distributed package management system, created by ex-Red Hat engineers, to both showcase the abilities Conary provides and to provide a starting point for customisation. rPath Linux was distributed with the Anaconda system installer. In November, 2012, rPath was acquired by SAS Institute. Shortly after the acquisition, rPath Linux was discontinued.
Conary was designed, based on many years of GNU/Linux software packaging and distribution development experience, to automate many of the tasks that have made it difficult to build GNU/Linux distributions. Conary it replaces traditional package management solutions (such as RPM and dpkg) with one designed to enable loose collaboration across the Internet. rPath's mission was to provide system software that is easily tailored to suit unique application needs. rPath Linux, built with the Conary distributed software management system, was not only a distribution in its own right, but also a base technology explicitly designed to enable you to create purpose-built operating system images using the rBuilder Online technology.
rPath was founded in April 2005, and was originally known for packaging applications as virtual appliances for its independent software vendors (ISVs) and end-user customers. It was co-founded by Erik Troan, co-author of Red Hat Package Manager (RPM), a popular GNU/Linux package management system. Troan had left Red Hat in 2004 to create a company called Specifix. The first CEO was Bill Marshall. Original investors were North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners, with $6.4 million in funding disclosed in September 2005. A $9.1 million investment in February 2007 including a new investor Wakefield Group was disclosed. A $10 million investment was disclosed on June 24, 2008. A $7 million investment was disclosed during October, 2010. The company was headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. rPath was one of the first companies to market a software appliance. In 2009, rPath made a transition to selling its products to enterprise IT organizations. IT automation was seen as the codification of runbooks by some, but rPath industrialized the operational aspects of the data center by modelling software configurations. rPath provided a commercial version control platform for deployed software systems. rPath was not a source code management system, but rather, an operational management system that applies the principles and disciplines of source code control to the management of deployable software systems—specifically, system manifests, packages, binaries, policies and system configurations. Version control aids systems to be quickly reproduced, patched and updated, rollback-ed and reported on. rPath provided a system inventory. This inventory described the desired state of every file, binary, application component, and software stack on every production system—with complete information about applied policies and dependencies—as version-controlled system manifests. These manifests were actionable models for managing the complete lifecycle of deployed systems, providing the basis for understanding change impact and controlling change. Also, rather than applying universal updates, patches and updates could be targeted to only the systems that require change. rPath allowed definition of systems as layered variants of common base platforms. For example, the standard corporate web server stack may start with a standard build of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) but add a specific custom version of the Apache HTTP Server and remove all availability of FTP. With this feature, rPath enabled IT groups to define and automatically enforce build-time policies that govern how systems are constructed. When rPath imported new or existing software artefacts into system version control, it automatically analyzed each software artifact to discover its entire software supply chain, including operating system (OS) components, middleware and libraries. This information enabled build-time system construction, validation and reduced the number of maintenance failures and outages that result from missing dependencies and conflicting components. "Ovum considers the automated dependency-checking capability to be an extremely useful and often overlooked feature that all such tools should employ." rPath ensured a consistent system definition, eliminating the risk of system "drift" between lifecycle stages and enabling a clean software build environment. rPath developed Conary, an open-source software package management and configuration software that formed the core of rBuilder. It allowed rollbacks, incremental ("changeset") updates, and distributed downloading which removes the need for programs such as apt or yum. rPath supported Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and 2003, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, and CentOS. It was also marketed as software as a service. The NRE Alliance was a coalition of newScale, rPath and Eucalyptus Systems to promote private and hybrid cloud computing. The coalition was announced on August 24, 2010. It had an live web site through August 2012. On November 30, 2012, the business analytics company SAS Institute announced that it acquired key rPath assets, including technology and staff. |
- rPath Linux Releases History
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- Discontinued rPath-based distributions
Salocin
Salocin was a GNU/Linux distribution based on rPath that can be optimized and customized for almost any application or need. It was designed for a variety of tasks ranging from secure server to development workstation. Extreme configurability, performance and a top-notch user and developer community are its goals. The Salocin Linux Project was a worldwide community program sponsored by VIR0S that promotes the use of GNU/Linux for all applications. The program provides free and easy access to a whole new world of possibilities for computing needs. Salocin was an ideal secure server, development workstation, or professional desktop. It was also based on Slackware with added features such as Portage from Gentoo and many other useful tools and features.
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Openfiler
Openfiler was a x86_64 GNU/Linux distribution', from United Kingdom, designed for storage management. It was powered by the Linux kernel and open source applications such as Apache, Samba, Linux Volume Management, ext3, NFS and iSCSI enterprise target. Openfiler combined these ubiquitous technologies into a small, easy-to-manage solution fronted by a powerful web-based management interface. Openfiler allowed building a Network Attached Storage (NAS) and/or Storage Area Network (SAN) appliance, using industry-standard hardware, in less than 10 minutes of installation time.
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SCO Linux
SCO Linux (Santa Cruz Operation Linux, formerly Caldera Open Linux, by Caldera International) is a discontinued distribution, developed by SCO Group (SCO), powered by United Linux, originally based on the german LST Power Linux distribution. The SCO Group (SCO) is a provider of software solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and replicated branch offices. SCO solutions include UNIX and GNU/Linux platforms; management, messaging, and e-business tools; and services that include technical support, education, consulting, and solution provider support programs. Based in Lindon, Utah, SCO has a worldwide presence with offices in 18 countries and representation in 82 countries. SCO solutions are divided into three broad areas: operating systems, extended platform and services. SCO's Operating Systems encompass SCO's UNIX and GNU/Linux platforms. SCO operating systems offer the performance, scalability and confidence of UNIX and the flexibility and reliability of GNU/Linux. SCO operating systems include SCO Linux Server, SCO UnixWare and SCO OpenLinux.
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- SCO Releases History
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- SCO Linux Discontinued derivatives
Lycoris Desktop/LX
Lycoris Desktop/LX (ex Redmond Linux) was a GNU/Linux distribution developed by Lycoris company (formerly Redmond Linux Corp., which was founded in 2000 by Joseph Cheek) located in Redmond, Washington, with a vision of making GNU/Linux simple enough for everyone, and pioneered the Linux-based home user desktop. Lycoris packages Open Source applications for the consumer market and integrates them into Desktop/LX, its simple, robust OS. In 2001 it merged with company called DeepLinux, what made the Redmond Linux Corporation. In january 2002; it was based on Caldera OpenLinux Workstation 3.1, developed by Lycoris. Last version was 1.4, released on 2004. The company was renamed to Lycoris in January 2002 and it was acquired by Mandriva on 15/06/2005. Lycoris GamePak gaming suite including 5 full action-packed games in the trademark Lycoris easy install package, plus access to WineX, TransGaming Technologies’ cross platform gaming software that gives users the ability to play over 150 Windows games on Desktop/LX. |
SliTaz GNU/Linux
SliTaz GNU/Linux (SliTaz stands for Simple, Light, Incredible, Temporary Autonomous Zone) is a independent GNU/Linux distribution, working completely in memory from removable media such as a CD-ROM or USB key.
The default ISO image provides 4 flavors: base, just-x, gtk-only and the full desktop. SliTaz can also be booted from the web, customized to match any needs and installed on a wide range of devices from old computers, to powerful servers and small ARM devices such as the Raspberry Pi.[80]
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- Discontinued SliTaz GNU/Linux derivatives
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Softlanding Linux System
Softlanding Linux System (SLS) is a discontinued canadian GNU/Linux distribution which was the first to actually include the X Window System that actually ran a GUI environment.[82]
The main objectives of the SLS were:
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Solus
Solus (ex Evolve OS), is an irish GNU/Linux distribution built from scratch, designed for x86-64 architecture and it has a semi-rolling release model, with new package updates landing in the stable repository every Friday. It uses a forked version of the PiSi package manager from Pardus Linux, maintained as "eopkg" within Solus, and a custom desktop environment called "Budgie", developed in-house.
The developers of Solus have stated that Solus was intended exclusively for use on personal computers and will not include software that is only useful in enterprise or server environments. ---
...
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Sorcerer
Sorcerer Linux is a discontinued distribution which was a source-based Linux distribution. The distribution downloaded and compiled source code to install and update installed software. |
- Active Sourcerer-based distributions
Active Development |
Source Mage GNU/Linux
Source Mage (or SMGL in abbreviated form) is a source-based GNU/Linux distribution based on a sorcery metaphor of "casting" and "dispelling" programs, which we refer to as "spells", and a package manager called "Sorcery". Our packages are designed to allow the user to customize the package any way they want (custom CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, ./configure flags, etc.) as well as offering as many of the package options as possible to the user up-front (you will not need to know what options a package has or what optional dependencies it can use ahead of time). Source code is always downloaded from the publisher's website and rarely patched. SMGL also includes many advanced features such as self-healing and sub-dependencies.[86]
In 2001, Kyle Sallee released a Linux distribution named Sorcerer GNU/Linux. Due to several issues, in 2002, Chuck S. Mead forked Sorcerer into Lunar Linux. Soon afterwards, Kyle Sallee took Sorcerer GNU/Linux offline. The remaining Sorcerer GNU/Linux development team brought it back online and continued development. A month later, Kyle Sallee brought his version of Sorcerer back online with a new license that prevented forking, dropping GNU/Linux from the name. Consequently, at the request of Sallee, the Sorcerer GNU/Linux team renamed their project Source Mage.[87]
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Talos Linux
Talos Linux is a container optimized GNU/Linux distro; a reimagining of Linux for distributed systems such as Kubernetes. Designed to be as minimal as possible while still maintaining practicality.
Talos can be deployed on container, cloud, virtualized, and bare metal platforms. Talos is fully open source, production-ready, and supported by the people at Sidero Labs All system management is done via an API - there is no shell or interactive console.[89]
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TAMU Linux
TAMU Linux is a discontinued GNU/Linux distribución from USA, recognized as first GNU/Linux distribution to be distributed with an X Window System (GUI), rather than a purely text-based operating system. TAMU Linux was developed primarily by Aggies (Dave Safford) of Texas A&M University, hence the name TAMU, in conjunction with the Texas A&M Unix & Linux Users Group, and was distributed via floppy diskettes.
TAMU.99p12+ is the latest release in the TAMU linux series. Unlike previous releases, this one includes both integrated source and binary sets, with the entire binary set created from a single top level source make. This ensures that all programs are compiled and linked with the same current tools and libraries, and guarantees availability of working source for every program in the binary set. In addition, the new boot diskette fully automates the installation process, including partitioning, lilo bootstrapping, and network configuration. Installation requires no rebooting, and requires the user to know only the host’s name and IP address. At every step of installation, the program provides intelligent defaults, making it a snap for novices, while allowing experts full flexibility in setting installation parameters. Reliability has been improved over past TAMU installation by the use of labels on all disk images, so that the program can detect and recover from bad or misordered diskettes. |
Venom Linux
Venom Linux is a malaysian source based GNU/Linux distribution built from scratch make for daily use targetting experienced users, and a rolling-release distribution inspired by CRUX. Venom uses SysV init as the main init system and BSD-like ports as software packages which are managed by a custom package management tool called scratchpkg (written in compliance with POSIX standards). The distribution offers a simple graphical desktop built around the Openbox window manager and a text-mode system installer.
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Vine Linux
Vine Linux is a japanese GNU/Linux distribution, with integrated japanese environment for desktop PCs and notebooks. Project Vine was founded by six members of the Project Japanese Extension (JPE) in 1998 and has been developing Vine Linux with help of many members and volunteers. Vine Seed, the development version of Vine Linux, is a public software repository, which all developers are welcome to join and contribute to. Out-of-the-box Kanji support is available throughout most applications and Japanese input support is provided by either the FreeWnn (or Wnn6 in the commercial "CR" edition) or the Canna input server.
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Tiny Core Linux
Tiny Core Linux is an independent distribution, forked from Damn Small Linux. and an highly modular based system Tiny Core Linux is a minimal Linux kernel based operating system focusing on providing a base system using BusyBox and FLTK. It was developed by Robert Shingledecker, who was previously the lead developer of Damn Small Linux. The distribution is notable for its small size (11 to ~16-17 MB) and minimalism; additional functions are provided by extensions. The core runs entirely in memory and boots very quickly. The user has complete control over which applications and/or additional hardware to have supported, be it for a desktop, a nettop, an appliance or server; selectable from the project's online repository.
Tiny Core Linux offer 3 different x86 "cores" to start: Core, TinyCore, and our installation image, CorePlus.
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- Discontinued Tiny Core Linux-based distributions
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Void Linux
Void Linux is an independent spanish rolling release GNU/Linux distribution, developed from scratch rather than as a fork, with a focus on stability over bleeding-edge. Uses the X Binary Package System (XBPS) package manager, which was designed and implemented from scratch, and the runit init system. Its package system allow a quickly install, update and remove software, performs checks when installing updates to ensure that libraries are not changed to incompatible versions which can break dependencies. 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 a variety of platforms. Software packages can be built natively or cross compiled through the XBPS source packages collection. Void has musl libc, which focuses on standards compliance and correctness, has first class support. This allows us to build certain components for musl systems statically, which would not be practical on glibc systems.
The name "Void" comes from the C literal void. It was chosen rather randomly, and is void of any meaning.[98]
Void Linux was created in 2008 by Juan Romero Pardines, a former developer of NetBSD, to have a test-bed for the XBPS package manager. The ability to natively build packages from source using xbps-src is likely inspired by pkgsrc and other BSD ports collections. In May 2018, the project was moved to a new website and code repository by the core team after the project leader had not been heard from for several months.
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- Active Void Linux-based distributions
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- Discontinued Void Linux-based distributions
Project Trident
Project Trident it was a GNU/Linux distribution desktop-focused, based on Void Linux, previously Trident was based on TrueOS). Project Trident used the Lumina desktop environment as well as a number of self-developed system administration utilities to provide an easy-to-use system that both beginners and advanced system administrators can feel comfortable running 24⁄7. Project Trident was installed on the ZFS filesystem to provide snapshots and rollback features. Trident was only available for x86_64 machines. The installation image is provided with a graphical system installer. |
- Project Trident Releases History
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Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X
Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X, or LGX (pronounced igg-drah-sill), is an early discontinued GNU/Linux distribution developed by Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated, a company founded by Adam J. Richter in Berkeley, California.
Yggdrasil Linux described itself as a "Plug-and-Play" Linux distribution, automatically configuring itself for the hardware.
Yggdrasil is the World Tree of Norse mythology. The name was chosen because Yggdrasil took disparate pieces of software and assembled them into a complete product. Yggdrasil's company motto was "Free Software For The Rest of Us". Yggdrasil was compliant with the Unix Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.
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References
- ↑ /4MLinux/ : About - 4mlinux.com
- ↑ /4MLinux/ - 4MLinux Is So Lightweight It's Anemic | Reviews | LinuxInsider - www.linuxinsider.com
- ↑ /Antivirus Live CD/ : Website
- ↑ /BakAndImgCD/ : Website
- ↑ /TheSSS/ : Website
- ↑ / Alpine Linux / - Older Releases
- ↑ / Alpine Linux / - Release Branches
- ↑ /postmarketOS/ - Wiki
- ↑ /Bedrock Linux/ - Introduction to Bedrock Linux
- ↑ /BOGUS Linux/ - The BOGUS Linux Release
- ↑ /Chakra GNU/Linux/ - Welcome - web.archive.org
- ↑ /Chakra GNU/Linux/ - Distribution Release: Chakra GNU/Linux 0.2.0
- ↑ /Chakra GNU/Linux/ - Goodbye KDEmod !
- ↑ /Chakra GNU/Linux/ -Chakra project shutting down
- ↑ /Chakra GNU/Linux/ - Board meeting, April 11th, 2022 - Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
- ↑ /Chakra GNU/Linux/ Resolution 2022-04-11.hom.1: Removal of Chakra Linux as an associated project
- ↑ / Chimera Linux / - Documentation
- ↑ / Chimera Linux / - History
- ↑ / CRUX / - About
- ↑ Der Gründer über Gestern, Heute und Linux - In the section: "Nürnberger Kröte", 2nd paragraph - Linux-Magazin.de
- ↑ Linux in Deuschland (in german)
- ↑ / EasyOS / - How and why EasyOS is different
- ↑ / Fuduntu / - Fuduntu 14.12 Release – Happy Anniversary!
- ↑ FedoraProject.org: Remix
- ↑ / Fuduntu / - Fuduntu Team meeting held on 14 April 2013
- ↑ / Flatcar Container Linux / - Announcing the Flatcar Linux project
- ↑ / Flatcar Container Linux / - Release Channels
- ↑ /fli4l/ - What's that, fli4l?
- ↑ / GNU Guix System / - About — GNU Guix - guix.gnu.org
- ↑ / GNU Guix System / - Free GNU/Linux distributions
- ↑ / GoboLinux / - What is GoboLinux?
- ↑ / GoboLinux / - GoboLinux releases
- ↑ / IPFire / - What is IPFire?
- ↑ Jarro Negro – distribución Linux mexicana - 23/01/2008
- ↑ / JarroNegro / - Project (Proyecto)
- ↑ /Junos OS Evolved (/ - Top Differences Between Junos OS Evolved and Junos OS
- ↑ / Jurix / - History
- ↑ / Jurix / - Archive:S.u.S.E. Linux 4.2
- ↑ / Jurix / - La Roche, Florian (1999-02-26). "jurix Linux readme". Technische Universität Darmstadt.
- ↑ / KaOS / - KaOS 2013.9 ISO released with KDE 4.12.0
- ↑ / KaOS / - Review - KaOS
- ↑ / KaOS / - Early September Status - kaosx.us
- ↑ / LibreELEC / - LibreELEC.wiki - Forks
- ↑ / LibreELEC / - Releases
- ↑ /LibreELEC/ - LibreELEC.wiki - Releases
- ↑ / LibreELEC / - LibreELEC.wiki - Forks
- ↑ / Lakka / - Website Lakka
- ↑ / CoreELECT / - Website
- ↑ / CoreELECT / - Github
- ↑ / Jurix / - A Short History of Linux Distributions - lwn.net
- ↑ / Linux From Scratch / - What is Linux From Scratch?
- ↑ / Linux From Scratch / - What is Linux From Scratch?, LFS Project Homepage
- ↑ / Linux From Scratch / - "Cross-Compiled Linux From Scratch - Embedded".
- ↑ / Lunar Linux / - Wiki: About Lunar Linux
- ↑ / Lunar Linux / - About Our Project
- ↑ / blackPanther OS / - github.com
- ↑ /MCC Interim Linux/ - MCC Interm Linux 1.0+ - README file - ibiblio.org
- ↑ /Mini Linux / - github.com
- ↑ / MontaVista / - History
- ↑ / MontaVista / - MontaVista touts native hard real-time Linux
- ↑ / NixOS / - Overview of the NixOS Linux distribution - Wiki
- ↑ / NixOS / - Comparison with traditional Linux Distributions - Wiki
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ / OpeELEC / - Stable OpenELEC 8.0.4 released (web.archive.org)
- ↑ /openmamba GNU/Linux / - About
- ↑ / OpenMandriva LX / - What is OpenMandriva Lx? - Wiki OpenMandriva LX
- ↑ / OpenMandriva LX / - OpenMandriva ROME - The rolling release
- ↑ / OpenWrt / - About
- ↑ / OpenWrt / - OpenWrt version history
- ↑ / paldo GNU/Linux / - What is paldo?
- ↑ / Peropesis / - About
- ↑ / Pisi Linux / - About) (Hakkımızda) (in Turkish)
- ↑ / PLD Linux Distribution / - PLD Linux Distribution
- ↑ /PLD Linux Distribution / - About PLD Linux
- ↑ /PLD Linux Distribution / - PLD Features
- ↑ / Plop Linux / - Plop Linux - Overview
- ↑ / Plop Linux / - Plop Linux History
- ↑ / Plop Linux / - Live > Introduction
- ↑ / rlxos / - Github (Readme)
- ↑ / SliTaz GNU/Linux / - About SliTaz
- ↑ '/ SliTaz GNU/Linux / - About SliTaz / Overview
- ↑ / Softlanding Linux System / - 25 Years of Linux / Red Hat blog / www.redhat.com
- ↑ /SLS/ - SLS: Free Linux Distribution - comp.os.linux
- ↑ / Softlanding Linux System / - 2ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT... The early history of Linux, Part 2, Re: distribution - LinuxUser
- ↑ /Debian/ - NNTP Subject: New release under development; suggestions requested
- ↑ / Source Mage GNU/Linux / - About
- ↑ / Source Mage GNU/Linux / - History
- ↑ / Talos / - What is talos
- ↑ / Talos / - Github - Readme
- ↑ /TAMU Linux/ - A Short History of Linux Distributions - lwn.net
- ↑ / TAMU Linux / - Distribution-HOWTO at mirror.math.princeton.edu/
- ↑ / TAMU Linux / - Beta TAMU 1.0A - Anuncio
- ↑ / TAMU Linux / - TAMU-1.0D
- ↑ / TAMU Linux / - TAMU-1.0 Announcement
- ↑ / Venom Linux / - Venom Linux Files - SourceForge.net
- ↑ / Tiny Core Linux / - Cores
- ↑ / TinyPaw-Linux / - TinyPaw-Linux
- ↑ /Void Linux / - About