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Comparison of Linux distributions

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Technical variations of Linux distributions include support for different hardware devices and systems or software package configurations. Organizational differences may be motivated by historical reasons. Other criteria include security, including how quickly security upgrades are available; ease of package management; and number of packages available.

These tables compare each actively and noteworthy distribution's latest stable release on wide-ranging objective criteria. It does not cover each operating system's subjective merits, branches marked as unstable or beta, nor compare Linux distributions with other operating systems.

General

Basic general information about the distributions: creator or producer, release date, latest version, and such. References are not added here but can be found in respective articles.

Distribution Founder Maintainer Initial release year Current stable version Security updates (years) Release date System distribution commitment Forked from Target audience Cost
Alpine Linux Alpine Linux Team Alpine Linux Team 2006 2.7.8 ? 2014-05-21 X – network, lightweight Gratis
ALT Linux ALT Linux Team ALT Linux Team, ALT Linux LLC 2001 ? ? ? X Mandriva Linux general, school Gratis
antiX Anticapitalista Anticapitalista 2007 13.2 ? 2013-11-05 X Debian - MEPIS old computers Gratis
ArchBang Stan McLaren 2010 ? ? ? X Arch Linux general Gratis
Arch Linux Judd Vinet dev team 2002 2014.08.01 –[g 1] ? X – simpl Gratis
BLAG Brixton Linux Action Group Brixton Linux Action Group 2002 140k ? 2011-05-04 100% Free: GNU FSDG Fedora desktop Gratis
Bodhi Linux Bodhi Linux Team Bodhi Linux Team 2011 2.4.0 ? 2013-09-13 X Debian, Ubuntu desktop Gratis
CentOS CentOS Project CentOS Project 2003 7.0 10 Years 2013-12-01 X Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) server, workstation Gratis
Chakra Jan Mette and Arch Linux KDEmod developers The Chakra Project Team 2010 ? ? ? X (originally forked from Arch Linux)[citation needed] desktop Gratis
Chromium OS ? ? 2009 ? ? ? X Chrome OS web applications Gratis
ClearOS Peter Baldwin ClearFoundation 2000 6.5.0 ? 2013-12-20 X RHEL, CentOS server, gateway, network Gratis
CrunchBang Linux Philip Newborough Philip Newborough 2008 11 ? 2013-05-06 X Debian desktop Gratis
Damn Small Linux John Andrews dev team 2003 4.4.10 ? 2008-11-18 X Debian, Knoppix portable, lightweight Gratis
Debian Ian Murdock Debian Project 1993 7.7 ~3 Years[g 2] 2014-10-18 Debian Social Contract – general, server Gratis
Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre Matias A. Fonzo Matias A. Fonzo 2009 2.2 ? 2012-04-21 100% Free: GNU FSDG – general Gratis
dyne:bolic Jaromil Jaromil 2005 3.0.0 ? 2011-09-08 100% Free: GNU FSDG Debian multimedia Gratis
Elementary OS Daniel Foré elementary 2011 0.2 ? 2013-08-10 X Ubuntu general Gratis
ELinOS SYSGO SYSGO 1999 ? ? ? X – embedded systems ?
Elive Thanatermesis Thanatermesis 2005 ? ? ? X Debian desktop Gratis
Emdebian Grip Embedded Debian Project Embedded Debian Project 2009 ? ? ? X Debian embedded systems Gratis
ESSPEE ESSPEE Project Sourceforge.net 2012 ? ? ? X Ubuntu Penetration Testing, Forensics, Security Gratis
Fedora Fedora Project Fedora Project 2003 20 ? 2013-12-17 Fedora Licensing Guidelines – general Gratis
Freespire Lindows.com, Inc. Linspire, Inc. 2002 ? ? ? X Debian desktop Gratis
Gentoo Linux Daniel Robbins Gentoo Foundation, Inc. 2002 ? ? ? Gentoo Social Contract – general Gratis
gNewSense Brian Brazil and Paul O'Malley Sam Geeraerts with sponsorship from the FSF 2006 3.1 (Parkes) ? 2014-02-09 100% Free: GNU FSDG Debian general, server Gratis
gnuLinEx Regional Government of Extremadura dev team 2002 ? ? ? X Debian desktop ?
Grml Michael Prokop The Grml Team 2005 ? ? ? X Debian live, maintenance, security, network, forensic, accessibility Gratis
Instant WebKiosk Marco Buratto Binary Emotions 2012 ? ? ? X Debian web kiosks, digital signage, personal web navigation ?
Kali Linux Max Moser, Mati Aharoni, Martin J. Muench Remote-Exploit 2013 ? ? ? X Debian auditing, forensic, security, network Gratis
Knoppix Klaus Knopper dev team 2003 ? ? ? X Debian live Gratis
Korora Christ Smart Dev Team 2005 20 ? 2014-01-10 X Fedora desktop Gratis
Kubuntu Canonical Ltd. Canonical Ltd. 2005 14.04 LTS 5 Years 2014-04-17 X Debian desktop Gratis
LibreWRT LibreWRT team LibreWRT team 2010 2.0 ? 2013-07-10 100% Free: GNU FSDG ? embedded systems Gratis
Linux Mint Clement Lefebvre dev team 2006 17 ? 2014-05-31 X Debian, Ubuntu desktop Gratis
Mageia Mageia Community mageia.org 2010 ? ? ? X Mandriva Linux general Gratis
Mandriva Linux Mandrakesoft S.A. Mandriva S.A. 1998 ? ? ? X Red Hat Linux general ?
MEPIS Warren Woodford MEPIS LLC 2003 ? ? ? X Debian desktop, server Gratis
Musix GNU+Linux Musix team Musix team 2008 3.0.1 ? 2014-03-13 100% Free: GNU FSDG Debian multimedia Gratis
Netrunner Blue Systems dev team 2009 ? ? ? X Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu desktop Gratis
Novell Open Enterprise Server Novell Novell, Inc. dev team 2003 ? ? ? X SUSE Linux Enterprise Server server Commercial
OpenELEC Stephan Raue, OpenELEC Team OpenELEC Team 2011 ? ? ? X – multimedia Gratis
openSUSE SUSE Linux, Novell openSUSE Project 2006 13.1 ? 2013-11-19 X – general Gratis
OpenWrt ? OpenWrt team 2007 ? ? ? X – embedded systems Gratis
Oracle Linux Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation 2006 2012 ? 2014 X Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) server Gratis
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre Parabola Hackers Parabola Hackers 2009 2013.09.01 ? 2013-09-01 100% Free: GNU FSDG followed in Parabola GNU/Linux-libre Social Contract Arch Linux general Gratis
Pardus Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) TÜBİTAK 2005 ? ? ? X – general Gratis
Parsix Alan Baghumian Parsix Project 2005 ? ? ? X Debian desktop Gratis
PCLinuxOS Bill Reynolds dev team 2003 ? ? ? X PCLinuxOS desktop Gratis
Pentoo Michael Zanetta, Rick Farina, Jens Pranaitis Pentoo 2005 ? ? ? X Gentoo Linux auditing, security ?
Porteus Fanthom Porteus 2010 ? ? ? X Slackware lightweight, portable Gratis
Puppy Linux Barry Kauler Puppy Foundation 2003 ? ? ? X – portable, lightweight Gratis
Qubes OS Joanna Rutkowska Invisible Things Lab 2012 2.0 ? 2014-09-26 X Xen and Fedora Security by Compartmentalization, desktop Gratis
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Red Hat Red Hat 2002 ? ? ? X Red Hat Linux, Fedora server, workstation Commercial
Red Hat Linux Red Hat Red Hat 1995 ? ? ? X – server, workstation Gratis
Rocks Cluster Distribution UCSD Supercomputing Center, Clustercorp UCSD Supercomputing Center, Clustercorp 2000 ? ? ? X Red Hat Linux server, workstation ?
Sabayon Linux lxnay Design dev team 2005 ? ? ? X Gentoo Linux general Gratis
Salix OS Cyrille Pontvieux, George Vlahavas, Pierrick Le Brun, Thorsten Mühlfelder Salix team 2009 ? ? ? X Slackware general Gratis
Scientific Linux CERN, Fermilab dev team 2004 6.5 ? ? X Red Hat Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) server, workstation Gratis
Slackware Patrick Volkerding dev team 1993 14.1 ? 2013-11-07 X Softlanding Linux System (SLS) general Gratis
Slax Tomas Matejicek Tomas Matejicek 2002 ? ? ? X Slackware live Gratis
SliTaz GNU/Linux Christophe Lincoln dev team 2008 ? ? ? X – portable Gratis
SolydXK Arjen Balfoort dev team 2013 ? ? ? X Debian desktop Gratis
Source Mage GNU/Linux Ryan Abrams, Eric Schabell dev team 2002 ? ? ? Source Mage Social Contract Sorcerer general Gratis
SUSE Linux SUSE Linux, Novell Novell, Inc. dev team 1994 ? ? ? X Slackware, Jurix workstation, server Gratis
Tails ? ? 2009 1.2 ? 2014-10-16 GPLv3+ Debian security-focused aimed for anonymity and privacy Gratis
Tiny Core Linux Robert Shingledecker Team Tiny Core 2009 ? ? ? X Tiny Core Linux portable Gratis
Tor-ramdisk Anthony G. Basile dev team 2008 ? ? ? X Gentoo Linux Embedded, uClibc Tor server ?
Trisquel GNU/Linux Rubén Rodríguez Pérez (quidam) Rubén Rodríguez Pérez (quidam) 2005 7.0 ? 2014-11-03 100% Free: GNU FSDG Ubuntu LTS desktop Gratis
Ubuntu Canonical Ltd. Canonical Ltd. 2004 14.04 LTS Standard Releases - 9 months; LTS Releases - 5 years 2014-10-23 X Debian general Gratis
Ubuntu GNOME Canonical Ltd. Canonical Ltd. 2012 14.04 LTS 5 Years 2014-04-17 X Debian desktop Gratis
Univention Corporate Server Univention GmbH Univention GmbH 2004 3.2-2 ? 2014-05-15 X Debian (small business) server ?
Ututo Diego Saravia, Daniel Olivera UTUTO dev team 2000 XS 2012 ? 2012-04-27 100% Free: GNU FSDG Gentoo Linux general Gratis
VectorLinux Robert S. Lange dev team 1999 ? ? ? X Slackware desktop ?
Webconverger Kai Hendry Webconverger Limited 2007 ? ? ? X Debian Kiosk software, digital signage Gratis
XBMCbuntu The XBMC Project Team-XBMC 2008 ? ? ? X Debian, Ubuntu multimedia Gratis
Xubuntu Canonical Ltd. Canonical Ltd. 2006 14.04 LTS 5 Years 2014-04-17 X Debian desktop Gratis
Zentyal eBox Technologies eBox Technologies 2005 ? ? ? X Debian, Ubuntu Small Business Server ?
Zenwalk Jean-Philippe Guillemin dev team 2004 ? ? ? X Slackware general ?
Distribution Founder Maintainer Initial release year Current stable version Security Updates ( years ) Release date System distribution commitment Forked from Target audience Cost
  1. ^ This distribution uses a rolling release model for updates, so security updates will be available indefinitely.
  2. ^ Debian releases are officially supported for 1 year after the subsequent release, with releases being approximately 2 years apart. The Debian LTS Project provides community based support extending the complete support period to 5 years.

Cost

The majority of Linux distributions are available for free.

The following distributions come in several editions, some of which cost money and some do not: ClearOS, Mandriva Linux, MEPIS, Univention Corporate Server, Zentyal and Zorin OS.

The following distributions cost money: Novell Open Enterprise Server,[1] Red Hat Enterprise Linux,[2][3] SUSE Linux Enterprise,[4]

The following distribution had at least one version which used to cost money: Elive (now freely available), Xandros (discontinued), Linspire[5] (discontinued)

Technical

The table below shows the default file system, but many Linux distributions support some or all of ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, Reiser4, JFS, XFS, GFS2, OCFS2, and NILFS. It is possible to install Linux onto most of these file systems. The ext file systems, namely ext2, ext3, and ext4 are based on the original Linux file system.

File systems have been developed by companies to meet their specific needs, by hobbyists, or adapted from Unix, Microsoft Windows, and other operating systems. Linux has full support for XFS and JFS, FAT (the DOS file system), and HFS, the main file system for the Macintosh. Support for Microsoft Windows NT's NTFS file system has been developed and is now comparable with other native Unix file systems. CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs' ISO 9660 and Universal Disk Format (UDF) are supported.

Unlike other operating systems, Linux and Unix allow any file system regardless of the medium it is stored on, whether that medium is a magnetic disk, an optical disk (CD, DVD, etc.), a USB flash memory key, or even contained within a file located on another file system. Similarly, many C compilers (mainly GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)), init systems (mainly sysvinit), desktop environments and window managers are widely supported.

Distribution Default file system Default init system Install-time desktop environment or window manager selection
Alpine Linux ext4 openrc none
ALT Linux ext3 systemd KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce
Arch Linux none[6] systemd none
BLAG ext3 sysvinit GNOME
Bodhi Linux ext4 sysvinit Enlightenment
CentOS xfs systemd GNOME
Chakra ext4 systemd KDE Plasma Workspaces
ClearOS ext3 ? GNOME
CrunchBang Linux ext4 sysvinit Openbox
Damn Small Linux ext3 sysvinit JWM
Debian ext4 sysvinit GNOME, KDE, Xfce, LXDE[7]
Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre ext4 runit Xfce
dyne:bolic ? ? ?
Elive SquashFS, ReiserFS initscripts Enlightenment
Fedora ext4 systemd GNOME
Gentoo none openrc Awesome, Enlightenment, Fluxbox, GNOME, KDE, LXDE-Meta, Openbox, XBMC and Xfce (live DVD)[8]
gNewSense ext3 ? GNOME
gnuLinEx ext2 ? GNOME
Instant WebKiosk SquashFS ? Has no DE. It's a browser-only interface
Kali Linux ext3 sysvinit GNOME
Knoppix XFS microknoppix LXDE
LibreWRT ? ? ?
Linux Mint[9] ext4 upstart MATE, Cinnamon
Mageia ext4 systemd KDE Plasma Workspaces, GNOME
Mandriva Linux ext4 systemd KDE Plasma Workspaces
MEPIS ext3, ext4 sysvinit KDE Plasma Workspaces
Musix GNU+Linux ? ? ?
OpenELEC SquashFS shell script XBMC Media Center
openSUSE ext4 systemd KDE Plasma Workspaces, GNOME, Xfce
OpenWrt overlayfs+SquashFS/JFFS2[10] procd[11] none
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre ? ? ?
Pardus ext4 ? KDE Plasma Workspaces
Parsix ext4 systemd GNOME
PCLinuxOS none sysvinit KDE Plasma Workspaces, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce, Enlightenment, Openbox
Pentoo SquashFS openrc Enlightenment
Porteus Squashfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, FAT32, reiser, xfs sysvinit KDE, LXDE, Xfce, Openbox, Razor-qt
Puppy Linux SquashFS containing ext2 busybox-init JWM
Red Hat Enterprise Linux xfs systemd GNOME
Rxart Desktop ext3 ? KDE Plasma Workspaces
Sabayon Linux ext4[12] systemd KDE Plasma Workspaces, GNOME
Scientific Linux ext4 sysvinit GNOME
Slackware ext4 sysvinit KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce, Fluxbox, Blackbox, twm
Slax SquashFS sysvinit KDE Plasma Workspaces
SliTaz GNU/Linux ext3 systemd Openbox
Source Mage GNU/Linux ext2 simpleinit-msb none
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop ext3 systemd GNOME
Tor-ramdisk ext2 ? none
Trisquel ext4, xfs upstart GNOME, LXDE
Ubuntu/Edubuntu ext4[13] upstart Unity on GNOME, Unity 2D for fallback
Kubuntu ext4[13] upstart KDE Plasma Workspaces
Xubuntu ext4[13] upstart Xfce
Ututo ext3 ? GNOME
VectorLinux ReiserFS sysvinit KDE, Openbox, Fluxbox, IceWM, Xfce
Webconverger gitfs sysvinit dwm enforcing a Browser-only interface
XBMC Live ext3 upstart XBMC Media Center
Zentyal ext4 ? LXDE
Zenwalk ext4 sysvinit Xfce
Distribution Default file system Default init system Install-time desktop environment or window manager selection

Instruction set architecture support

Most Linux distributions support the x86 instruction set architecture and its evolution the x86-64 architecture.

Distribution x86 x86-64 ia64 ppc[14] ppc64 sparc32 sparc64 arm hppa[15] loongson mips[16] sh s390 s390x alpha[17] m68k[18]
Arch Linux Yes (>=i686) Yes No Discontinued unofficial port No No No Yes
Unofficial[19] 		No In progress. Unofficial port [20] No No No No No No
BackTrack Discontinued from BackTrack 5 and superseded by Kali Linux[21][22] Discontinued from BackTrack 5 and superseded by Kali Linux No No No No No Discontinued from BackTrack 5 and superseded by Kali Linux No No No No No No No No
Bodhi Linux Yes Yes No No No No No Discontinued
2013-10-23[23] 		No No No No No No No No
BOSS Linux Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No ? No No No No No No No No
CentOS Discontinued
2.1-6 		Yes Discontinued
3.5-3.8
4.1-4.7[24] 		Beta
4.0 		No Beta
4.2[24][25] 		No No No No No No Discontinued
3.5-3.8
4.1-4.7[24][26] 		Discontinued
3.5-3.8
4.1-4.7[24][26] 		Discontinued
4.2-4.3[24][27][28] 		No
Chakra No Yes No No No No No ? No No No No No No No No
CRUX Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
Debian[29] Yes Yes
4.0+ 		Discontinued
3.0-7.0[30] 		Yes
2.2+ 		Yes Discontinued
2.1-4.0[31] 		Discontinued
-7[32] 		Yes
2.2+ 		Discontinued
3.0-5.0 		Yes Yes
3.0+ 		In progress Discontinued
3.0-7 		Yes
7+ 		Discontinued
2.1-5.0 		Discontinued
2.0-3.1
Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Fedora[33] Yes Yes Discontinued from
Fedora 9
[34] 		Yes Yes No Still active but slow in development, Last available is
Fedora 12,
Working on
Fedora 18
[35] 		Yes[36] No In progress Inactive from
Fedora 13
[37] 		No No Yes No No
Finnix Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Gentoo[38] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[39] Yes Yes[40] Yes[41][42] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
gNewSense Yes Yes No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No
Kali Linux Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No
LibreWRT No No No No No No No No No No Yes XBurst No No No No No
MEPIS Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No
OpenELEC Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No
openSUSE[43] Yes Yes No No[44] No[44] No partial[45] partial[46] No No No No No No No No
OpenWrt[47] Yes No No Yes No No No Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No
Oracle Linux[48] Yes Yes Discontinued
5[49] 		No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre Yes Yes No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No
Red Flag Linux Discontinued
8.0[50] 		Discontinued
8.0[50] 		Discontinued
3[51] 		No Discontinued
3[51] 		No No No No No No No No No No No
Red Hat Linux[52] Discontinued
9.0 		No Discontinued
7.1-7.2 		Test release
5.1[53] 		No Discontinued
4.0-4.2
5.1-6.2 		Test release
5.1[53] 		No No No Test release
5.1[53] 		No Discontinued
7.2 		Discontinued
7.1 		Discontinued
2.1-7.1 		Test release
5.1[53]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux[54] Discontinued
2.1-6[55] 		Yes
3+ 		Discontinued
2.1-5[56] 		Yes
3+ 		Yes
3+ 		No No No No No No No Discontinued
3-4[57] 		Yes
3+ 		No No
Scientific Linux Yes Yes Discontinued
3-4 		No No No No No No No No No No No No No
SHR No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No
Slackware Yes Yes No No No Discontinued
?[58] 		No Yes No No No No Discontinued
?[59] 		Discontinued
?[59] 		Discontinued
8.1[60] 		No
Source Mage GNU/Linux Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No ? No No No No No No
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server[61] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No No
Tor-ramdisk Yes Yes[62] No No No No No No No No Yes[63] No No No No No
Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu/Lubuntu Yes Yes No Yes No No No Yes, including 64-bit ARMv8-A No No No No No No No No
Ututo Yes Yes No No No No No No No In progress No No No No No No
XBMCbuntu Yes No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No
Yellow Dog Linux No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Distribution x86 x86-64 ia64 ppc ppc64 sparc32 sparc64 arm hppa loongson mips sh s390 s390x alpha m68k

Package management and installation

Information on features in the distributions. Package numbers are only approximate (some distributions like Ubuntu tend to separate tools into different packages (usually stable release, development release, documentation and debug).

Distribution Approximate number of pre-compiled packages Approximate number of source packages Default package management tools Package format Default installer Graphical installation process Netinstall Netboot
ALT Linux 8,300[64] APT (APT-RPM), RPM RPM Yes ? ?
Arch Linux 11,288[65] 52,594 (5,365 from ABS[66] plus 47,229 from AUR[67]) Pacman .pkg.tar.xz None (install scripts only) No Yes iPXE
BLAG 10,000[68] RPM, yum, APT RPM Yes No No
Bodhi Linux 35,000 APT .dpkg Ubiquity Yes ? ?
CentOS 1,660 (plus 9,155 from EPEL[69]) RPM, yum/up2date RPM Yes ? ?
Chakra 3,074[70] CCR: 3,374[71] Pacman (will be replaced by Akabei in future) .pkg.tar.xz Package manager in development ? ?
ClearOS RPM, yum RPM No ? ?
CrunchBang Linux 23,000 APT .deb Yes ? ?
Damn Small Linux 610 myDSL, APT .dsl, .tar.gz, .uci, .unc, .deb No ? ?
Debian 48,610[72] 14,975 APT .deb Debian-Installer Yes Yes PXE
Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre ? ? APT .dpkg ? ? No No
dyne:bolic ? ? APT .deb Debian-Installer Yes No No
Elive 20,000 APT .deb Yes ? ?
Fedora 22,000 yum, PackageKit RPM Anaconda Yes ? ?
Gentoo 17,711[73] 37,872[73] Portage[74] ebuild[75] Yes[76] ? PXE[77]
gNewSense ? ? APT .deb Debian-Installer Yes Yes No
gnuLinEx 200 APT .deb Yes ? ?
Knoppix 3,600 APT .deb No ? ?
LibreWRT ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Linux Mint 50,781 APT .deb Ubiquity Yes ? ?
Mageia 17,283 (i586), 11,409 (x86-64)[78] 8,834[79] urpmi, rpmdrake RPM DrakX Yes ? ?
Mandriva Linux 22,600 urpmi, rpmdrake[80] RPM DrakX Yes ? ?
MEPIS 20,000 APT .deb MEPIS Install Yes ? ?
Musix GNU+Linux ? ? APT .deb Debian-Installer Yes No No
OpenELEC 140 [81] XBMCbuntu addon manager, own and 3rd party addons .zip Yes ? ?
openSUSE 54,595 18,895[82] YaST, Zypper RPM YaST Yes ? ?
OpenWrt 2,000 opkg .ipk - No ? ?
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre 15,352[83] ? Pacman .pkg.tar.xz None (install scripts only) No MIPS64 No
Pardus 4,000 PiSi .pisi YALI Yes ? ?
Parsix 29,000 14,900 APT .deb Yes ? ?
PCLinuxOS 12,000 APT, RPM RPM Yes ? ?
Puppy 700 PupGet, DotPup .pup, .pet Yes ? ?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3,000 (plus 9,155 from EPEL[69]) RPM, yum RPM Yes ? ?
Rxart 5,000 APT .deb Yes ? ?
Sabayon Linux 12,000 Portage, Entropy ebuild Yes ? ?
Scientific APT/yum RPM Yes ? ?
Slackware 2,292 installpkg, upgradepkg tgz, .txz, .tlz, .tbz No ? ?
Slax 2,050 none .lzm ? ?
SliTaz GNU/Linux 3,381[84] Tazpkg .tazpkg tazinst Yes ? ?
Source Mage GNU/Linux 5,514 Sorcery Package Manager src Yes ? ?
SUSE Linux 24,094 11,385[82] YaST, Zypper RPM YaST Yes ? ?
Tiny Core Linux 25,160 ab, tce-load tcz tc-install, core2usb Yes ? ?
Tiny SliTaz 50 Web site[85] none No ? ?
Tor-ramdisk none none No ? ?
Trisquel 52,734[86] ? APT .deb Ubiquity Yes No No
Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu 52,541[87] APT .deb Ubiquity Yes ? ?
Ututo 5,000 ? UTUTO Package Manager ebuild ? ? No No
Vector Linux slapt-get, gslapt, installpkg tgz Yes ? ?
XBMC Live APT .deb No ? ?
Zentyal APT .deb dpkg Yes ? ?
Zenwalk 2,000 netpkg, installpkg, upgradepkg tgz, txz Yes ? ?
Distribution Approximate number of packages Approximate number of source packages Default package management tools Package format Default installer Graphical installation process Netinstall Netboot

Live media

Distribution Size of media (MB) RAM use (MB) Boots from CD Boots from DVD Installable live CD/DVD Installable from USB
ALT Linux Desktop or Lite 700 Yes Yes No
Arch Linux 181 to 673[88] Yes Yes Yes Yes
AUSTRUMI Linux 280 Yes Yes Yes Yes
BLAG ? ? ? ? ?
Bodhi Linux 500 80 Yes Yes Yes Yes
CentOS 700 to 3,400 DVD Yes Yes Officially not supported[89] Yes
Chakra 1,600 No Yes Yes Yes
ClearOS 700 Yes No
CrunchBang Linux 873 256 to 1024 No Yes Yes Yes
Damn Small Linux 50 16 to 24[90] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Debian Live 50 to 5,120 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre ? ? ? ? ? ?
dyne:bolic ? ? ? ? ? ?
Elive 700 Yes Yes
Feather Linux 128 48 to 96 Yes Yes
Fedora
live CD 		683 256 to 1,024 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Freespire 700 128 to 768 Yes No Yes
Gentoo 100 up to 128 Yes Yes Yes Yes
gNewSense ? ? ? ? ? ?
Grml 110 to 700 32 to 128 Yes No Yes Yes
Inquisitor live CD 210 96 Yes Yes Yes
Kali Linux 2,400 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Knoppix CD
edition 		700 128 to 320 Yes Yes Only DVD edition is maintained
Knoppix DVD
"Maxi" edition 		4,812.8 No Yes
LibreWRT ? ? ? ? ? ?
Linux Mint 700 256 to 768 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mandriva Linux One 700 128 to 768 Yes Yes Yes Yes
MEPIS 700 to 4,000 128 to 512 Yes Yes Yes Yes
MCNLive 350 Yes Yes
Musix GNU+Linux ? ? ? ? ? ?
Nanolinux ≈14 ≈64 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Micro Core Linux ≈8 ≈48 Yes Yes Yes Yes
nUbuntu 265 Yes Yes
OpenELEC 80 to 180 80 to 512 No No No Yes
openGEU 700 192 to 512 Yes Yes
openSUSE 700 128 to 768 Yes Yes Yes Yes
OpenWrt min 4 min 16 No No No No
Oralux 500 Yes Yes No longer updated
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre ? ? ? ? ? ?
Pardus 1,256 to 1,276 256 to 1,024 Yes Yes Yes Yes
PCLinuxOS 130 to 700 96 to 512 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Pentoo 666 and 700 48 to 96 Yes Yes By hand[91] By hand
Puppy Linux (standard edition) 128 32 to 192 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Puredyne 542 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sabayon Linux live CD 695 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sabayon Linux live DVD 2,400 No Yes Yes Yes
Scientific Linux 431 to 2,300[92] 640 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Slax 200 96 to 320 Yes Yes Yes
SystemRescueCD 160 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Tiny Core Linux ≈10 ≈48 Yes Yes Yes Yes
SliTaz GNU/Linux 35 24 to 192 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Tails ≈900 ≈1,024 No Yes Yes Yes (when run from DVD)
Tiny SliTaz 1.44 ≈8 Yes Yes By SliTaz By SliTaz
Tor-ramdisk 5 256 or >[93] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Trinity Rescue Kit 104 Yes Yes
Trisquel 1,500[94] 384 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ubuntu 700 384 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ututo ? ? ? ? ? ?
Edubuntu 700 Yes Yes Yes
Kubuntu 900 384 Yes Yes Yes Yes
XBMC Live 700 256 to 1,024 Yes No Yes Yes
Zentyal 600 256 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Xubuntu 700 256 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Distribution Size (MB) RAM use (MB) Boots from CD Boots from DVD Installable live CD/DVD Installable from USB

Security features

Distribution Compile time buffer checks Mandatory access control Software executable space protection grsecurity RSBAC
Alpine Linux Un­known Un­known PaX Yes Un­known
Debian/Ubuntu Yes SELinux,[95] AppArmor PaX Optional Optional
Fedora Yes SELinux[96] Exec Shield[97] No No
Gentoo[98] Optional SELinux PaX Optional Optional
gNewSense ? ? ? ? ?
Mandriva Un­known AppArmor[99] Un­known Un­known Yes
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre ? ? ? ? ?
SUSE Linux Yes AppArmor[100] Hardware NX and other methods in mainline kernel and toolchain[101] No No
Tor-ramdisk Un­known Un­known PaX Yes No
Trisquel ? ? ? ? ?
Ututo ? ? ? ? ?

See also

References

  1. ^ How to Buy: Novell Open Enterprise Server 2
  2. ^ redhat.com | Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  3. ^ redhat.com | Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Operating Systems
  4. ^ SUSE Linux Enterprise Operating Systems from Novell[dead link]
  5. ^ Linspire.com - Products
  6. ^ Official Arch Linux Install Guide: Set Filesystem Mountpoints
  7. ^ "Index of /debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd".
  8. ^ Abbott, David. "Gentoo Linux releases 11.2 LiveDVD". Gentoo Linux. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  9. ^ DistroWatch.com: Linux Mint
  10. ^ http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/techref/filesystems
  11. ^ http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/techref/procd
  12. ^ Sabayon Forums • View topic - Sabayon Linux 4.1 KDE: Stable release
  13. ^ a b c "Ubuntu 10.10 Release Notes".
  14. ^ penguinppc.org
  15. ^ PA-RISC Linux
  16. ^ LinuxMIPS
  17. ^ AlphaLinux
  18. ^ The Linux/m68k Home Pages
  19. ^ Arch Linux ARM
  20. ^ https://www.parabola.nu/packages/?sort=-last_update&arch=mips64el
  21. ^ "BackTrackDownloads". Retrieved 2014-09-14.
  22. ^ cite web | url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BackTrack | title=BackTrackWikipedia | accessdate=2014-09-14
  23. ^ "Dropping Official Support for ARM Devices". Retrieved 2014-05-13.
  24. ^ a b c d e Pasi Pirhonen (2005-10-13). "CentOS-4.2 is Released for i386, x86_64, ia64, s390, s390x and alpha architectures". CentOS-announce (Mailing list). {{cite mailing list}}: Unknown parameter |mailinglist= ignored (|mailing-list= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ Pasi Pirhonen (2006-05-24). "EOL notice for CentOS-4/sparc beta release". CentOS-announce (Mailing list). {{cite mailing list}}: Unknown parameter |mailinglist= ignored (|mailing-list= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ a b Pasi Pirhonen (2005-06-24). "CentOS-4.1 s390(x) Release Announcement". CentOS-announce (Mailing list). {{cite mailing list}}: Unknown parameter |mailinglist= ignored (|mailing-list= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ Pasi Pirhonen (2005-06-26). "CentOS-4/alpha 4.1beta is there to play". CentOS-announce (Mailing list). {{cite mailing list}}: Unknown parameter |mailinglist= ignored (|mailing-list= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ Pasi Pirhonen (2006-06-25). "EOL notfication for CentOS-4/axp (alpha)". CentOS-announce (Mailing list). {{cite mailing list}}: Unknown parameter |mailinglist= ignored (|mailing-list= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ Debian - Ports
  30. ^ Cyril Brulebois (2014-03-19). "Debian Installer Jessie Alpha 1 release". debian-devel-announce (Mailing list). {{cite mailing list}}: Unknown parameter |mailinglist= ignored (|mailing-list= suggested) (help)
  31. ^ Jurij Smakov (2007-07-18). "Retiring the sparc32 port". debian-devel-announce (Mailing list). {{cite mailing list}}: Unknown parameter |mailinglist= ignored (|mailing-list= suggested) (help)
  32. ^ Philipp Kern (2014-04-26). "SPARC removed from Jessie". debian-devel-announce (Mailing list). {{cite mailing list}}: Unknown parameter |mailinglist= ignored (|mailing-list= suggested) (help)
  33. ^ Fedora Architectures Specific Notes
  34. ^ "Architectures/IA64". Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  35. ^ "Architectures/SPARC". Retrieved 2012-05-19.
  36. ^ "Architectures/ARM". Retrieved 2010-07-20.
  37. ^ "Architectures/MIPS". Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  38. ^ Gentoo Linux -- Where to Get Gentoo Linux
  39. ^ "Gentoo Linux ARM Handbook".
  40. ^ Project:MIPS
  41. ^ "Gentoo Linux/MIPS Frequently Asked Questions".
  42. ^ "Gentoo/MIPS Linux Hardware Requirements".
  43. ^ openSUSE download page
  44. ^ a b no longer listed at site
  45. ^ openSUSE:SPARC - openSUSE
  46. ^ openSUSE ARM Portal
  47. ^ OpenWrt
  48. ^ Oracle Linux Technical Information
  49. ^ Oracle Linux Operating System,Specifications
  50. ^ a b 红旗桌面版 Red Flag inWise V8.0全新发布
  51. ^ a b Red Flag 4 server
  52. ^ Red Hat Linux archive
  53. ^ a b c d Linux Rough Cuts
  54. ^ Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Version comparison chart
  55. ^ 7.0 Release Notes
  56. ^ Red Hat Enterprise Linux, version 2.1
  57. ^ RHEL 4 is the last version to support 31-bit s390. RHEL 5 only supports 64-bit s390x.
  58. ^ Slackware Linux for SPARC
  59. ^ a b No updates since Dec-2009
  60. ^ Slackware Linux for the Alpha
  61. ^ SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Tech Specs
  62. ^ "Tor-ramdisk x86_64 Port". Retrieved 2011-04-15.
  63. ^ "Tor-ramdisk MIPS Port". Retrieved 2011-04-15.
  64. ^ Sisyphus - intro
  65. ^ Arch Linux package search
  66. ^ Arch Linux PKGBUILD sources
  67. ^ Arch Linux AUR repository
  68. ^ BLAG :: View topic - rolling or frozen
  69. ^ a b Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux
  70. ^ The Chakra Project Packages
  71. ^ Chakra Community Repository
  72. ^ "All Debian Packages in "wheezy"".
  73. ^ a b Gentoo Packages Categories
  74. ^ Portage
  75. ^ Ebuild
  76. ^ Can be installed graphically (GTK+ and ncurses), but traditionally done by command line (install cd, live cd, netboot, and from distributions).
  77. ^ Diskless install using PXE boot
  78. ^ "Linux Free Software Catalog and Packages Search". Linux Free Software Catalog and Packages Search. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  79. ^ Build system status
  80. ^ Mandriva 2008 release notes
  81. ^ https://github.com/OpenELEC/OpenELEC.tv/tree/master/packages
  82. ^ a b Stats for openSUSE_13.1 for Nov 06, 2014, using the script http://inai.de/files/dist/countpkg-suse3 -r openSUSE_13.1 (or -r 'SLE_11.*'). Excludes known non-SUSE projects from the project list retrieved from the openSUSE.org Build Service instance.
  83. ^ https://parabolagnulinux.org/packages/
  84. ^ SliTaz Packages Database, the package query webtool
  85. ^ Tiny SliTaz, the configuration builder webtool
  86. ^ "All Trisquel Packages in "belenos"". Trisquel. Retrieved 2014-11-05.
  87. ^ "All Ubuntu Packages in "trusty"". Canonical. Retrieved 2014-04-22.
  88. ^ "Arch Linux - Downloads". Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  89. ^ The CentOS LiveCD Project
  90. ^ [1][dead link]
  91. ^ Pentoo Development Website[dead link]
  92. ^ "Scientific Linux i386 Live CD/DVD". Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  93. ^ "Tor-ramdisk Quickstart Guide". Retrieved 2011-04-15.
  94. ^ "Download Trisquel GNU/Linux". trisquel.info. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  95. ^ "Debian SELinux". Retrieved 2012-07-22.
  96. ^ "Mandatory Access Control with SELinux" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-12-24.
  97. ^ "Fedora Core 1 Release Notes - Kernel Notes". Retrieved 2007-12-24.
  98. ^ "Hardened Gentoo - 4. Subprojects". Retrieved 2007-12-24.
  99. ^ "Mandriva Linux 2008 Release Notes: Apparmor has replaced RSBAC as the in-kernel application security tool".
  100. ^ "AppArmor".[dead link]
  101. ^ "Security Features". Retrieved 2009-11-23.[dead link]
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