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, the latest version, and such. References are not added here but can be found in respective articles.

Linux distributions endorsed by the Free Software Foundation[1] are marked 100% Free under the System distribution commitment column.

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 3.2.3 ? 2015-08-13[2] X security, lightweight, general Gratis
ALT Linux ALT Linux Team ALT Linux Team, ALT Linux LLC 2001 7.0 ? 2013-07-10[3] X Mandriva Linux general, school Gratis
antiX Anticapitalista Anticapitalista 2007 15 ? 2013-05-39[4] X Debian - MEPIS old computers Gratis
Apricity OS Apricity OS Team Apricity OS Team 2015 Rolling Rolling ? X Arch Linux desktop, web applications Gratis
ArchBang Willensky Aristide Stan McLaren 2010 Rolling Rolling ? X Arch Linux general Gratis
Arch Linux Judd Vinet dev team 2002 Rolling Rolling ? X general 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 3.1.1 ? 2015-11-18 X Debian, Ubuntu desktop Gratis
CentOS CentOS Project CentOS Project 2003 7.0 10 years 2014-07-07 X Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) server, workstation Gratis
Chakra Jan Mette and Arch Linux KDEmod developers The Chakra Project Team 2010 Rolling Rolling ? X Arch Linux[5] 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[6] X Debian desktop Gratis
Damn Small Linux John Andrews dev team 2003 4.4.10 ? 2008-11-18[7] X Debian, Knoppix portable, lightweight Gratis
Debian Ian Murdock Debian Project 1993 8.2 ~3 years[g 1] 2015-09-05[8] Debian Social Contract general, server, desktop 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 0.3.1 ? 2015-09-03[9] X Ubuntu general Gratis
ELinOS SYSGO SYSGO 1999 ? ? 2014-07-31[10] X embedded systems ?
Elive Thanatermesis Thanatermesis 2005 2.0 ? 2010-03-04 X Debian desktop Gratis
Emdebian Grip Embedded Debian Project Embedded Debian Project 2009 3.1 End-of-life ? X Debian embedded systems Gratis
Fedora Fedora Project Fedora Project 2003 23 ? 2015-11-03[11] Fedora Licensing Guidelines general Gratis
Distribution Founder Maintainer Initial release year Current stable version Security updates (years) Release date System distribution commitment Forked from Target audience Cost
Freespire Lindows.com, Inc. Linspire, Inc. 2002 ? ? ? X Debian desktop Gratis
Gentoo Linux Daniel Robbins Gentoo Foundation, Inc. 2002 Rolling Rolling ? 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[12] 100% Free: GNU FSDG Debian general, server Gratis
gnuLinEx Regional Government of Extremadura dev team 2002 ? ? ? X Debian desktop Gratis
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 2.0 ? 2015-08-11[13] X Debian auditing, forensic, security, network Gratis
Knoppix Klaus Knopper dev team 2000 7.4.2 ? 2014-09-28[14] X Debian live Gratis
Kodibuntu The XBMC Project Team Kodi 2008 ? ? ? X Debian, Ubuntu multimedia Gratis
Korora Christ Smart Dev Team 2005 20 ? 2015-08-02[15] X Fedora desktop Gratis
LibreCMC/LibreWRT LibreWRT team LibreWRT team 2010 1.3 (LibreWRT was at 2.0) ? 2014-12-23 100% Free: GNU FSDG LibreWRT embedded systems Gratis
Linux Mint Clement Lefebvre dev team 2006 17.3 ~3 years (LMDE); 5 years (main editions) 2015-12-04[16] X Debian, Ubuntu desktop Gratis
Mageia Mageia Community mageia.org 2010 5 1 2015-09-13[17] 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
Distribution Founder Maintainer Initial release year Current stable version Security updates (years) Release date System distribution commitment Forked from Target audience Cost
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 42.1 3 years[18] 2015-11-04 X general, desktop 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 Rolling Rolling 2015-08-01[19] 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 ? 6.0.2CE 2015-02-05 X portable, lightweight Gratis
Qubes OS Joanna Rutkowska Invisible Things Lab 2012 3.0 (and R3 rc1) ? 2015-10-01[20] X Xen and Fedora Security by Compartmentalization, desktop Gratis
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Red Hat Red Hat 2002 7.2 ? 2015-11-19[21] X Red Hat Linux, Fedora server, workstation Commercial
Red Hat Linux Red Hat Red Hat 1995 9 ? ? X server, workstation Gratis
Rocks Cluster Distribution UCSD Supercomputing Center, Clustercorp UCSD Supercomputing Center, Clustercorp 2000 6.2 ? 2015-05-12 X Red Hat Linux server, workstation ?
Sabayon Linux Fabio Erculiani dev team 2005 15.12 ? 2015-11-29[22] X Gentoo Linux general Gratis
Salix OS Cyrille Pontvieux, George Vlahavas, Pierrick Le Brun, Thorsten Mühlfelder Salix team 2009 ? ? ? X Slackware general Gratis
Distribution Founder Maintainer Initial release year Current stable version Security updates (years) Release date System distribution commitment Forked from Target audience Cost
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 1.8 ? 2015-12-15 X 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 5 years[g 2] 2014-11-03 100% Free: GNU FSDG Ubuntu LTS desktop Gratis
Ubuntu and Derivatives [23] Canonical Ltd. Canonical Ltd. 2004 16.10 Standard releases – 9 months; LTS releases – 5 years 2016-10-13 X Debian general, server, 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 7.1 ? 2015-06-27 X Slackware desktop Gratis
Void Linux Juan Romero Pardines dev team 2008 Rolling Rolling ? X general Gratis
Webconverger Kai Hendry Webconverger Limited 2007 32.0 ? 2015-09-25 X Debian Kiosk software, digital signage Gratis
Zentyal eBox Technologies eBox Technologies 2005 ? ? ? X Debian, Ubuntu Small Business Server ?
Zenwalk Jean-Philippe Guillemin dev team 2004 7.9.6[24] ? 2015-10-31 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. 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.
  2. for more information visit: https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/trisquel

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,[27] Red Hat Enterprise Linux,[28][29] SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.[30]

The following distributions had at least one version which used to cost money: Corel Linux OS (discontinued), Elive (now freely available), Linspire[31] (discontinued) and Xandros (discontinued)

Technical

The table below shows the default file system, but many Linux distributions support some or all of ext2, ext3, ext4, Btrfs, 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
Apricity OS ext4 systemd GNOME
Arch Linux none[32] systemd none
BLAG ext3 sysvinit GNOME
Bodhi Linux ext4 sysvinit Moksha (Enlightenment fork)
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 systemd GNOME, KDE, Xfce, LXDE[33]
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)[34]
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
LibreCMC/LibreWRT[35] ext4 busybox-init none
Linux Mint[36] 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[37] ext4 initscripts LXDE
OpenELEC SquashFS shell script XBMC Media Center
openSUSE btrfs systemd KDE Plasma Workspaces, GNOME, Xfce
OpenWrt overlayfs+SquashFS/JFFS2[38] procd[39] none
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre none systemd none
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[40] 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 busybox-init 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[41] systemd Unity on GNOME, Unity 2D for fallback
Kubuntu ext4[41] systemd KDE Plasma Workspaces
Xubuntu ext4[41] systemd Xfce
Ututo ext3 ? GNOME
VectorLinux ReiserFS sysvinit KDE, Openbox, Fluxbox, IceWM, Xfce
Void Linux none runit none
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. To limit its size this table lists only distributions supporting other architectures.

Distribution x86 x86-64 ia64 ppc[42] ppc64 sparc32 sparc64 arm hppa[43] loongson mips[44] sh s390 s390x alpha[45] m68k[46]
Alpine Linux Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No
Arch Linux Yes (>=i686) Yes No Discontinued unofficial port No No No Yes
Unofficial[47]
No In progress. Unofficial port [48] No No No No No No
BackTrack Discontinued from BackTrack 5 and superseded by Kali Linux[49] 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
[50]
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
[51]
Beta
4.0
No Beta
4.2
[51][52]
No No No No No No Discontinued
3.5-3.8
4.1-4.7
[51][53]
Discontinued
3.5-3.8
4.1-4.7
[51][53]
Discontinued
4.2-4.3
[51][54][55]
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[56] Yes Yes
4.0+
Discontinued
3.0-7.0
[57]
Yes
2.2+
Yes Discontinued
2.1-4.0
[58]
Discontinued
-7
[59]
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[60] Yes Yes Discontinued from
Fedora 9
[61]
Yes Yes No Still active but slow in development, Last available is
Fedora 12,
Working on
Fedora 18
[62]
Yes[63] No In progress Inactive from
Fedora 13
[64]
No No Yes No No
Finnix Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Gentoo[65] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[66] Yes Yes[67] Yes[68][69] 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
LibreCMC/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[70] Yes Yes No No[71] No[71] No partial[72] partial[73] No No No No No No No No
OpenWrt[74] Yes No No Yes No No No Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No
Oracle Linux[75] Yes Yes Discontinued
5
[76]
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
[77]
Discontinued
8.0
[77]
Discontinued
3
[78]
No Discontinued
3
[78]
No No No No No No No No No No No
Red Hat Linux[79] Discontinued
9.0
No Discontinued
7.1-7.2
Test release
5.1
[80]
No Discontinued
4.0-4.2
5.1-6.2
Test release
5.1
[80]
No No No Test release
5.1
[80]
No Discontinued
7.2
Yes Discontinued
2.1-7.1
Test release
5.1
[80]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux[81] Discontinued
2.1-6
[82]
Yes
3+
Discontinued
2.1-5
[83]
Yes
3+
Yes
3+
No No No No No No No Discontinued
3-4
[84]
Yes
3+
No No
Sabayon Linux Discontinued Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No 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
?
[85]
No Yes No No No No Discontinued
?
[86]
Discontinued
?
[86]
Discontinued
8.1
[87]
No
Source Mage GNU/Linux Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No ? No No No No No No
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server[88] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No No
Tor-ramdisk Yes Yes[89] No No No No No No No No Yes[90] 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
Void Linux Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No No 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 tool(s) Package format Default installer Graphical installation process Netinstall Netboot
Alpine Linux 8,135[91] apk[92] .apk[93] setup-alpine No ? ?
ALT Linux 8,300[94] APT (APT-RPM), RPM RPM Yes ? ?
Arch Linux 13,628[95] 29,935 from AUR[96] Pacman .pkg.tar.xz None (install scripts only) No Yes iPXE
BLAG 10,000[97] RPM, yum, APT RPM Yes No No
Bodhi Linux 35,000 APT .dpkg Ubiquity Yes ? ?
CentOS 17,565[98] RPM, yum/up2date RPM Yes Yes ?
Chakra 3,074[99] CCR: 4,663[100] 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 56,864[101] 21,041[note 1] APT .deb Debian-Installer Yes Yes PXE
Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre 484 pkgsystem[102] .tlz ? No No No
dyne:bolic ? ? APT .deb Debian-Installer Yes No No
Elive 20,000 APT .deb Yes ? ?
Fedora 22,000 DNF, yum, PackageKit RPM Anaconda Yes ? ?
Gentoo 108[103] 18,721[104][note 2] Portage .ebuild, .tbz2 Yes[105] ? PXE[106]
gNewSense ? ? APT .deb Debian-Installer Yes Yes No
gnuLinEx 200 APT .deb Yes ? ?
Knoppix 3,600 APT .deb No ? ?
LibreCMC/LibreWRT 826 ? ? ? ? ? ?
Linux Mint 50,781 APT .deb Ubiquity Yes ? ?
Mageia 17,283 (i586), 11,409 (x86-64)[107] 8,834[108] urpmi, rpmdrake RPM DrakX Yes Yes ?
Mandriva Linux 22,600 urpmi, rpmdrake[109] RPM DrakX Yes ? ?
MEPIS 20,000 APT .deb MEPIS Install Yes ? ?
Musix GNU+Linux 1819 APT .deb Debian-Installer Yes No No
OpenELEC 140 [110] XBMCbuntu addon manager, own and 3rd party addons .zip Yes ? ?
openSUSE 69,367 34,891[111] YaST, Zypper RPM YaST Yes Yes ?
OpenWrt 2,000 opkg .ipk - No ? ?
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre 15,352[112] ? 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[113]) RPM, yum RPM Yes ? ?
Rxart 5,000 APT .deb Yes ? ?
Sabayon Linux >13,130 Portage, Entropy ebuild, .tbz2 Calamares 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[114] Tazpkg .tazpkg tazinst Yes iPXE iPXE
Source Mage GNU/Linux 5,514 Sorcery Package Manager src Yes ? ?
SUSE Linux 24,094 11,385 YaST, Zypper RPM YaST Yes ? ?
Tiny Core Linux 25,160 ab, tce-load tcz tc-install, core2usb Yes ? ?
Tiny SliTaz 50 Web site[115] tazpkg No ? iPXE
Tor-ramdisk none none No ? ?
Trisquel 52,748[116] ? APT .deb Ubiquity Yes ? ?
Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu 58,318[117] 24,474[note 3] APT .deb Ubiquity Yes Yes PXE
Ututo 5,000 ? UTUTO Package Manager ebuild ? ? No No
Vector Linux slapt-get, gslapt, installpkg tgz Yes ? ?
Void Linux 6,000 ? xbps .xbps No Yes ?
XBMC Live APT .deb No ? ?
Zentyal APT .deb dpkg Yes ? ?
Zenwalk 2,000 netpkg, installpkg, upgradepkg tgz, txz Yes ? ?
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

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[118] Yes Yes Yes Yes
AUSTRUMI Linux 280 Yes Yes Yes Yes
BLAG 700 ? Yes No ?
Bodhi Linux 500 80 Yes Yes Yes Yes
CentOS 700 to 3,400 DVD Yes Yes Officially not supported[119] 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[120] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Debian Live 50 to 5,120 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre 650 ? Yes ? ? ?
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
LibreCMC/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 2,000 ? No Yes Yes Yes
Nanolinux ≈14 ≈64 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Micro Core Linux ≈8 ≈48 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Network Security Toolkit (NST) 2,400 1,024 No 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 531 ? Yes Yes Yes Yes
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[121] 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[122] 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 ≈4 Yes Yes By SliTaz By SliTaz
Tor-ramdisk 5 256 or >[123] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Trinity Rescue Kit 104 Yes Yes
Trisquel 1,500[124] 384 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ubuntu 1,100[125] 384 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ututo 3,500 ? No Yes Yes ?
Edubuntu 2,900[126] Yes Yes Yes
Kubuntu 1,200[127] 384 Yes Yes Yes Yes
XBMC Live 700 256 to 1,024 Yes No Yes Yes
Zentyal 600 256 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Xubuntu 963[128] 256 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Distribution Size of media (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 Yes[129] Unknown PaX Yes Unknown
Debian/Ubuntu Yes SELinux,[130] AppArmor PaX optional Optional Optional
Fedora Yes SELinux[131] Exec Shield[132] No No
Gentoo[133] Optional SELinux PaX optional Optional Optional
gNewSense Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Mandriva Unknown AppArmor[134] Unknown Unknown Yes
SUSE Linux Yes AppArmor[135] Hardware NX and other methods in mainline kernel and toolchain[136] No No
Tor-ramdisk Unknown Unknown PaX Yes No
Trisquel Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Ututo Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown

See also

Notes

  1. From the Sources.gz files in the main, contrib and non-free sections of Debian Jessie. On the 2015-11-21, Debian Sid, the development release, have 24757 source packages.
  2. Note this number is just of packages in the Official Gentoo Overlay (or Portage Tree). Several hundred other packages are available from other overlays
  3. From the Sources.gz files in the main,universe, multiverse and restricted sections of Ubuntu Wily.

References

  1. https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
  2. http://www.alpinelinux.org/posts/Alpine-3.2.3-released.html
  3. http://www.altlinux.com/en/news/archive/2013/07/item/697/
  4. http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page#News
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=306356#p306356
  7. http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/static/act-ST/f-4/t-20519.html
  8. https://www.debian.org/News/2015/20150905
  9. http://blog.elementary.io/post/128271333121/freya-031-is-here
  10. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gnewsense-users/2014-02/msg00002.html
  13. https://www.kali.org/news/kali-linux-20-released/
  14. http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/knoppix742-en.html
  15. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2946
  17. https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_5_Release_Notes
  18. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. http://blog.invisiblethings.org/2015/10/01/qubes-30.html
  21. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. How to Buy: Novell Open Enterprise Server
  26. redhat.com | Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  27. redhat.com | Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Operating Systems
  28. How to Buy | SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
  29. Linspire.com - Products
  30. Official Arch Linux Install Guide: Set Filesystem Mountpoints
  31. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. DistroWatch.com: Linux Mint
  35. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/techref/filesystems
  37. http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/techref/procd
  38. Sabayon Forums • View topic - Sabayon Linux 4.1 KDE: Stable release
  39. 41.0 41.1 41.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. penguinppc.org
  41. PA-RISC Linux
  42. LinuxMIPS
  43. AlphaLinux
  44. The Linux/m68k Home Pages
  45. Arch Linux ARM
  46. https://www.parabola.nu/packages/?sort=-last_update&arch=mips64el
  47. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. 51.0 51.1 51.2 51.3 51.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. 53.0 53.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  54. Debian - Ports
  55. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  57. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  58. Fedora Architectures Specific Notes
  59. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  60. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  61. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  63. Gentoo Linux -- Where to Get Gentoo Linux
  64. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  65. Project:MIPS
  66. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  67. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  68. openSUSE download page
  69. 71.0 71.1 no longer listed at site
  70. openSUSE:SPARC - openSUSE
  71. openSUSE ARM Portal
  72. OpenWrt
  73. Oracle Linux Technical Information
  74. Oracle Linux Operating System,Specifications
  75. 77.0 77.1 红旗桌面版 Red Flag inWise V8.0全新发布
  76. 78.0 78.1 Red Flag 4 server
  77. Red Hat Linux archive
  78. 80.0 80.1 80.2 80.3 Linux Rough Cuts
  79. Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Version comparison chart
  80. 7.0 Release Notes
  81. Red Hat Enterprise Linux, version 2.1
  82. RHEL 4 is the last version to support 31-bit s390. RHEL 5 only supports 64-bit s390x.
  83. Slackware Linux for SPARC
  84. 86.0 86.1 No updates since Dec-2009
  85. Slackware Linux for the Alpha
  86. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Tech Specs
  87. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  88. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  89. http://git.alpinelinux.org/cgit/aports/tree/
  90. http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Alpine_Linux_package_management
  91. http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Alpine_package_format
  92. Sisyphus - intro
  93. Arch Linux package search
  94. Arch Linux AUR repository
  95. BLAG :: View topic - rolling or frozen
  96. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  97. The Chakra Project Packages
  98. Chakra Community Repository
  99. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  100. http://dragora.org/wiki/doku.php/guides/d2/pkgmanager
  101. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  102. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  103. Can be installed graphically (GTK+ and ncurses), but traditionally done by command line (install cd, live cd, netboot, and from distributions).
  104. Diskless install using PXE boot
  105. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  106. Build system status
  107. Mandriva 2008 release notes
  108. https://github.com/OpenELEC/OpenELEC.tv/tree/master/packages
  109. Stats for openSUSE_(Factory|Tumleweed) for Jan 12, 2016, using the script http://inai.de/files/dist/countpkg-suse3 -r 'openSUSE_(Factory|Tumbleweed)', which inspects the project list from the openSUSE.org Build Service instance and discounts non-SUSE and home projects. Numbers for 13.2: 63438 bin, 32707 src; for 42.1: 43401 bin, 17428 src.
  110. https://parabolagnulinux.org/packages/
  111. Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux
  112. SliTaz Packages Database, the package query webtool
  113. Tiny SliTaz, the configuration builder webtool
  114. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  115. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  116. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  117. The CentOS LiveCD Project
  118. [1] Archived April 27, 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  119. Pentoo Development Website Archived January 8, 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  120. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  121. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  122. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  123. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  124. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  125. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  126. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  127. http://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/package/main/x86/fortify-headers
  128. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  129. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  130. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  131. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  132. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  133. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  134. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links