Distributions Linux

A Gentoo-based live security distribution, giving penetration testers Gentoo's source-based, compile-from-scratch flexibility applied to a security-tool-focused overlay.

A lightweight Debian-based distribution historically known for cloud/web-app integration, rebuilt directly on Debian after moving away from its Lubuntu/Ubuntu roots.

Broadcom/VMware's minimal Linux host operating system purpose-built for running containers and virtual machine appliances efficiently.

A newer Debian/Ubuntu-hybrid gaming distribution built around a custom-patched, performance-tuned kernel and pre-installed gaming tooling, aimed at squeezing more performance out of a .deb-based system.

System76's own Ubuntu-based distribution, developed to ship on its laptops and desktops, now built around an original Rust desktop environment called COSMIC.

A modular, Slackware-based live distribution designed to boot in seconds from a USB stick and run entirely from RAM, with add-on software delivered as loadable compressed modules.

A free, Debian-based virtualization platform combining KVM virtual machines and LXC containers under one web-based management interface, widely used as a self-hosted alternative to VMware ESXi.

A tiny distribution (historically well under 300MB) designed to run entirely in RAM after booting, so it stays fast even on very old hardware and can boot from almost any removable media.

Purism's Debian-based, privacy- and free-software-focused distribution, developed as the default OS for its Librem laptops and phones and also FSF-endorsed.

A Debian-based distribution defaulting to the Trinity Desktop Environment (a maintained continuation of KDE 3), aimed at both very old hardware and users who prefer that earlier KDE-style interface.

A security-focused desktop OS built on the Xen hypervisor that isolates everything -- apps, files, network access -- into separate, disposable virtual machines called 'qubes.'

A Russian-developed distribution that originated as a fork of the now-defunct Mandriva Linux, continuing development independently across desktop, enterprise-desktop, and enterprise-server editions.

The official, Raspberry Pi Foundation-maintained operating system for Raspberry Pi single-board computers, built on Debian and optimized specifically for that hardware family.

An Arch-based distribution notable for offering one of the widest desktop-environment selections of any Arch derivative, chosen during a guided post-install setup process.

The commercial, paid-support enterprise Linux distribution most other RHEL-compatible distributions (Rocky, AlmaLinux, Oracle Linux) exist to rebuild.

A Brazilian, openSUSE-based distribution aimed at gamers and content creators, built around its own curated app/game store and pre-configured Vulkan/gaming graphics support.

A Debian-based rescue live distribution built around Rescapp, a guided graphical wizard that walks non-expert users through common boot-repair and password-recovery tasks step by step.

A user-friendly, graphical disk-imaging and backup live distribution built on the same underlying engine as Clonezilla, designed to make backup/restore approachable for non-experts.

An Ubuntu-LTS-based distribution built specifically to run Windows applications inside an integrated virtual machine, aimed at businesses and individuals migrating off Windows without giving up specific Windows software.

A specialized distribution for building and managing high-performance computing (HPC) clusters, developed since 2000 by the San Diego Supercomputer Center to make cluster deployment dramatically simpler.

A free, community-governed, bug-for-bug rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, created after CentOS shifted away from being one.

SUSE's commercially supported enterprise desktop operating system, sharing its certified package core with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

SUSE's flagship commercial enterprise server distribution, a longtime RHEL alternative especially strong in Europe and in SAP-certified deployments.

A Slackware-based distribution that stays strictly compatible with Slackware's own package format while adding dependency resolution and a friendlier, one-application-per-task default setup.

A Debian Testing-based distribution built around KDE Plasma and Tor, aimed at users who want an anonymous-browsing setup on a traditional, full-featured Plasma desktop rather than a stripped-down live system.

The oldest actively maintained Linux distribution still in continuous development, deliberately avoiding automatic dependency resolution in favor of a simple, traditional Unix-like system design.

A French-developed, from-scratch minimal distribution whose full live CD image is small enough to fit in roughly 50MB, aimed at very old or resource-limited machines.

An independent rolling-release distribution built specifically for the desktop, and the original home of the Budgie desktop environment before it spread to other distributions.