BioLinux

BioLinux is a term used in a variety of projects involved in making access to bioinformatics software on a Linux platform easier using one or more of the following methods:

• Provision of complete systems
• Provision of bioinformatics software repositories
• Addition of bioinformatics packages to standard distributions
• Live DVD/CDs with bioinformatics software added
• Community building and support systems

There are now various projects with similar aims, on both Linux systems and other Unices, and a selection of these are given below. There is also an overview in the Canadian Bioinformatics Helpdesk Newsletter that details some of the Linux-based projects.

Complete systems

Various complete distributions that integrate bioinformatics software are available, in various stages of development.

• BioBrew
• BioLand
• BioLinuxBR
• BioSLAX
• Debian Med
• NEBC Bio-Linux

Package repositories

Red Hat

Package repositories are generally specific to the distribution of Linux the bioinformatician is using. A number of Linux variants are prevalent in bioinformatics work. Fedora is a freely-distributed version of the commercial Red Hat system. Red Hat is widely used in the corporate world as they offer commercial support and training packages. Fedora Core is a community supported derivative of Red Hat and is popular amongst those who like Red Hat's system but don't require commercial support. Many users of bioinformatics applications have produced RPMs (Red Hat's package format) designed to work with Fedora, which you can potentially also install on Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. Other distributions such as Mandriva and SUSE use RPMs, so these packages may also work on these distributions.

• BioRPMs (RedHat and Fedora)
• RPMfind.net (Various RPM-based distributions, indexed by category)

Debian

Debian is another very popular Linux distribution in use in many academic institutions, and some bioinformaticians have made their own software packages available for this distribution in the deb format.

• Debian Med (Debian contains a lot of medical software internally)
• NEBC Bio-Linux (Non-standard Debian)

Apple/Mac

Many Linux packages are compatible with Mac OS X and there are several projects which attempt to make it easy to install selected Linux packages (including bioinformatics software) on a computer running Mac OS X. These include:

• Fink scientific packages
• Homebrew

Similarly, eBioinformatics provides a Mac OS GUI for over 300 open source bioinformatics programs.

Live DVDs/CDs

Live DVDs or CDs are not an ideal way to provide bioinformatics computing, as they run from a CD/DVD drive. This means they are slower than a traditional hard disk installation and have limited ability to be configured. However, they can be suitable for providing ad-hoc solutions where no other Linux access is available, and may even be used as the basis for a Linux installation (e.g. BioKnoppix).

• BioKnoppix
• DNALinux
• Quantian
• Vigyaan
• VLinux
• NEBC Bio-Linux
• BioSlax

Standard distributions with good bioinformatics support

In general, Linux distributions have a wide range of official packages available, but this does not usually include much in the way of scientific support. There are exceptions, such as those detailed below.

Gentoo Linux

Gentoo Linux provides over 50 bioinformatics applications (see packages.gentoo.org and Gentoo Science Overlay) in the form of ebuilds, which build the applications from source code.

Although a very flexible system with excellent community support, the requirement to install from source means that Gentoo systems are often slow to install, and require considerable maintenance. It is possible to reduce some of the compilation time by using a central server to generate binary packages.

FreeBSD

FreeBSD is not a Linux distribution, but as it is a version of Unix it is very similar. Its ports are like Gentoo's ebuilds, and the same caveats apply. However, there are also pre-complied binary packages available. There are over 60 biological sciences applications, and they're listed on the Fresh Ports site.

Debian

There are more than a hundred bioinformatics packages provided as part of the standard Debian installation. NEBC Bio-Linux packages can also be installed on a standard Debian system as long as the bio-linux-base package is also installed. This creates a /usr/local/bioinf directory where our other packages install their software. Debian packages may also work on Ubuntu Linux or other Debian-derived installations.

Community building and support systems

Providing support and documentation should be an important part of any BioLinux project, that scientists who are not IT specialists may quickly find answers to their specific problems. Support forums or mailing lists are also useful to disseminate knowledge within the research community. Some of these resources are linked to here.

• Bio-Linux BR
• BioLinux Grupo
• NEBC Bio-Linux
• EMBnet.News Two issues (2007) dedicated to Bioinformatics Linux distributions