d77void GNU/Linux is a Void-based Linux distribution created to demonstrate the capabilities of Void's tools, such as void-mklive and void-packages. Originally initiated as a Void respin with the Fluxbox window manager, the project has evolved to offer a wide range of window manager, Wayland compositor and desktop environment options, including Awesome, bspwm, COSMIC, dwm, Fluxbox, herbstluftwm, Hyprland, i3wm, JWM, labwc, LeftWM, LXQt, Niri, Openbox, Qtile, River, Sway, Wayfire and Xfce. The distribution can be installed to a hard disc with the text-mode d77void-installer.
ObsidianOS is a set of Linux distribution based primarily on Arch Linux. Its main feature is an A/B partition style (as used by Android or Chrome OS) so if an update causes some issues, it is possible to reboot into the first partition and restore the second one. It uses the ext4 filesystem exclusively. ObsidianOS offers three variants of the product - "Base", "KDE Plasma" and "COSMIC".
ArchEZ (formerly ZestISO) is a rolling-release desktop Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. It comes in three editions, with the "KDE Gaming" variant designed for modern computers and with gaming and multimedia software as well as HDR (High Dynamic Range) video support included, while "Xfce" and "IceWM" are lightweight options designed for older systems. The "KDE Gaming" flavour also provides the Wine compatibility layer for running some Windows games and programs and offers support for Microsoft's NTFS volumes. ArchEZ uses its own graphical installation wizard called "ArchEZ Installer".
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The product ships with several Internet applications, including web browser, IRC client, mail client and instant messenger, all pre-configured with security in mind and with all traffic anonymised. To achieve this, Incognito uses the Tor network to make Internet traffic very hard to trace.
Puppy Linux is yet another Linux distribution. What's different here is that Puppy is extraordinarily small, yet quite full-featured. Puppy boots into a ramdisk and, unlike live CD distributions that have to keep pulling stuff off the CD, it loads into RAM. This means that all applications start in the blink of an eye and respond to user input instantly. Puppy Linux has the ability to boot off a flash card or any USB memory device, CDROM, Zip disk or LS/120/240 Superdisk, floppy disks, internal hard drive. It can even use a multisession formatted CD-RW/DVD-RW to save everything back to the CD/DVD with no hard drive required at all.
BigLinux is a Brazilian Linux distribution localised into Brazilian Portuguese (with support for English). It is was originally based on Kubuntu, but starting from 2017 the distribution was re-born based on deepin. It then offered two desktop environments - Cinnamon and Deepin. In 2021 the distribution switched bases and desktop environments again, migrating to Manjaro Linux and using the KDE Plasma desktop.
GNOME OS is an experimental, immutable Linux distribution that ships the latest in-development GNOME desktop, core applications and stack. It serves as a reference for developers and testers. It is designed around the modern systemd and GNU-based userland built from the Freedesktop SDK. Initially, GNOME OS used a library and set of utilities called OSTree to deploy the root filesystem and manage updates, but later migrated to "systemd-sysupdate" which offers enhanced immutability, auto-updating, adaptability, factory reset, uniformity and other modernised security properties. GNOME OS can be loaded as a live image in Boxes, VirtualBox, QEMU and other virtualisation software, but it can also be installed on a standard x86_64 hardware. The distribution does not support traditional package management; however, additional software applications can be installed via the Flatpak utility which is supported out of the box.
XIVA Studio is a multimedia-oriented Linux distribution derived from Manjaro Linux and BigLinux. It's main goal is to cater to the needs of professional creators in the area of video, audio, graphics and animation production. XIVA Studio provides optimised Linux kernels built for a number of popular processor and graphics cards configurations. It uses KDE Plasma as the default desktop environment.
ShrikeLinux is an Arch Linux-based distribution featuring a customised Xfce desktop. It offers three separate edition with different Linux kernels: a long-term supported Linux kernel for servers and workstations that require rock-solid stability, the latest stable Linux kernel as provided upstream by Arch Linux, and a "Zen" Linux kernel optimised for performance, gaming and power use. The distribution is developed by Free and Open Source Software Community in Uganda.
Calam Arch Installer is an Arch-based Linux distribution created to facilitate the installation of an Arch Linux system to a hard disk. It is also a full-featured live Linux system with Xfce as the preferred desktop. The Calamares system installer offers a choice of several popular desktop environments and window managers, including Budgie, Cinnamon, Deepin, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, MATE, Openbox and Xfce. The distribution also offers support for both BIOS and UEFI boot, as well as hard disk encryption with LUKS.
OpenIndiana is a continuation of the OpenSolaris operating system. It was conceived during the period of uncertainty following the Oracle takeover of Sun Microsystems, after several months passed with no binary updates made available to the public. The formation proved timely, as Oracle discontinued OpenSolaris soon after in favour of Solaris 11 Express, a binary distribution with a more closed development model to début later this year. OpenIndiana is part of the illumos Foundation, and provides a true open-source community alternative to Solaris 11 and Solaris 11 Express, with an open development model and full community participation.
MODICIA O.S. is a Linux multimedia distribution designed primarily for musicians, graphic designers and video makers. It is based on Debian's "stable" branch, but uses the Cinnamon desktop and a recent Linux kernel. MODICIA O.S. comes with a set of carefully-selected, open-source multimedia software and tools, such as Audacity (audio editor), Brasero (disc-burning utility), Cheese (webcam application), Curlew (multimedia converter), GIMP (graphics editor), HandBrake (video transcoder), Kdenlive (video editor), MediaInfo (tool that provides technical data about media files), mpv (media player), Peek (animated GIF recorder), RawTherapee (photo processor), XnView (image viewer), and many others. The distribution also integrates the OnlyOffice software suite for general office tasks.
ArchBang Linux is a lightweight distribution based on Arch Linux. Using the labwc Wayland compositor, it is fast, up-to-date and suitable for both desktop and portable systems. Besides GreenBANG, the project also develops a distribution called SwayBang featuring the Sway Wayland compositor.
Neko-Void is a Void-based rolling-release distribution featuring a preconfigured MATE desktop environment with carefully selected software. It is designed for users who want Void Linux's stability and minimalism with modern desktop functionality. The distribution ships with a custom system installer called Kasha Installer, and is available in two separate editions, with either X.Org or Xlibre display servers.
FreeBSD is a UNIX-like operating system for the i386, amd64, IA-64, arm, MIPS, powerpc, ppc64, PC-98 and UltraSPARC platforms based on U.C. Berkeley's "4.4BSD-Lite" release, with some "4.4BSD-Lite2" enhancements. It is also based indirectly on William Jolitz's port of U.C. Berkeley's "Net/2" to the i386, known as "386BSD", though very little of the 386BSD code remains. FreeBSD is used by companies, Internet Service Providers, researchers, computer professionals, students and home users all over the world in their work, education and recreation. FreeBSD comes with over 20,000 packages (pre-compiled software that is bundled for easy installation), covering a wide range of areas: from server software, databases and web servers, to desktop software, games, web browsers and business software - all free and easy to install.
Terence Eden reports
that the UK's National
Health Service (NHS) is preparing to close almost all of its open-source repositories as a
response to LLM tools, such as Anthropic's Mythos, becoming more
sophisticated at finding security vulnerabilities. He does not, to put
it mildly, agree with the decision:
The majority of code repos
published by the NHS are not meaningfully affected by any advance
in security scanning. They're mostly data sets, internal tools,
guidance, research tools, front-end design and the like. There is
nothing in them which could realistically lead to a security
incident.
When I was working at NHSX during the pandemic, we were so
confident of the safety and necessity of open source, we made sure the
Covid Contact Tracing app was open sourced the minute it was available
to the public. That was a nationally mandated app, installed on
millions of phones, subject to intense scrutiny from hostile powers -
and yet, despite publishing the code, architecture and documentation,
the open source code caused zero security
incidents.
Furthermore, this new guidance is in direct contradiction to the
UK's Tech
Code of Practice point 3 "Be open and use open source" which
insists on code being open.
VailuxOS is a German, desktop-oriented Linux distribution based on Ubuntu's long-term support (LTS) branch or Debian's "Stable" branch. The project's primary goal is to make the transition from Windows to Linux as seamless as possible by maintaining familiar ways of working and workflows. The distribution uses the KDE Plasma desktop.
AbeirOS is a Void-based Linux distribution featuring a vanilla KDE Plasma desktop. Its main feature is the use of the musl C library (instead of GNU's glibc library used by most Linux distributions), considered a lightweight and efficient alternative to glibc but with some compatibility challenges, more suitable for containers and embedded systems. Other than that, AbeirOS is a standard Void with the XBPS package manager and runit init system.
AfagOS, a sister project of AgarimOS, is a Void-based Linux distribution featuring a vanilla KDE Plasma desktop. Like all distributions based on Void, it uses the XBPS package manager with the OctoXBPS graphical frontend and the Topgrade meta-updater. The distribution is free of systemd, using the runit init system instead.
AgarimOS is a desktop Linux distribution based on Void. It comes in several popular desktop flavours, including Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE and Xfce, all with a limited set of applications in their default states. Like its parent, AgarimOS does not use the systemd service manager, relying instead on the runit init scheme. It employs the XBPS package management system, together with a graphical front-end called OctoXBPS. The distribution also includes various optimisations, custom themes and some interesting software selection, such as the WezTerm terminal emulator, the Neofetch system information utility, the hBlock ad blocker, and the aria2 download tool.
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