Best Operating Systems for Linux - Page 2
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Compare the Top Operating Systems for Linux as of October 2025 - Page 2
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1
Unraid
Unraid
Unraid OS allows you to have ultimate control over your data, media, applications, and desktops, using just about any combination of hardware. Video producers, streamers with extensive video libraries, media editors, photographers, musicians, and music collectors use Unraid to reduce their initial costs. Start with as few as two drives and scale using one or more drives at a time. Gamers who also have media servers and like to build their own custom systems use Unraid to do everything without losing their edge. Designers, 3D animators, developers, photographers, and other users who require significant storage use Unraid to locally store assets for fast access. Use Apple Time Machine and Windows Backup services to archive large quantities of infrequently accessed data off of your local devices. Software engineers, game development studios, AR/VR designers, and university labs use Unraid to test software on multiple platforms and across operating systems and devices.Starting Price: $59 one-time payment -
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Guix
Guix
Guix is an advanced distribution of the GNU operating system developed by the GNU Project—which respects the freedom of computer users. Guix supports transactional upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, and more. When used as a standalone distribution, Guix supports declarative system configuration for transparent and reproducible operating systems. It provides Guile Scheme APIs, including high-level embedded domain-specific languages (EDSLs) to define packages and whole-system configurations. Guix comes with thousands of packages which include applications, system tools, documentation, fonts, and other digital goods readily available for installing with the GNU Guix package manager.Starting Price: Free -
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PLD Linux
PLD Linux
PLD is a free, RPM-based Linux distribution, created in 1998, aimed at the more advanced users and administrators, who accept the tradeoffs of using a system, that might require manual tweaking in exchange for much flexibility. Simultaneous availability for a wide variety of architectures and a non-conservative approach to RPM usage provides our users with a consistent environment on almost all available architectures.Starting Price: Free -
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Salix
Salix
Salix is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Slackware that is simple, fast and easy to use, with stability being a primary goal. Salix is also fully backwards compatible with Slackware, so Slackware users can benefit from Salix repositories, which they can use as an "extra" quality source of software for their favorite distribution. Like a bonsai, Salix is small, light & the product of infinite care. Everything that is included in the iso is installed. That includes a complete desktop environment and a complete selection of applications that matches the respective environment, always following the "one application per task" rationale. Only the minimum essentials for a console system to start are included. A graphical environment is not provided. This is ideal if you are an experienced user and want to customize your installation for any specific purpose, such as a web server, file server etc.Starting Price: Free -
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Slint
Slint
Slint is a stable distribution. However, accessibility software is regularly updated, others may be updated on a case-by-case basis. Slint can be used in console and graphical modes and can be switched between these modes without restarting. It is even possible to launch several graphical environments and switch between them. The Slint dashboard gives direct access to the main tools and useful information and links. The installation program, in text mode, is fully accessible for blind people using a screen reader or Braille display and proceeds by questions and answers with online help and integrated documentation. The btrfs file system is configured with subvolumes instead of separate partitions. It allows dividing by 2 the space occupied on the media, to take snapshots and is well adapted to SSD, NVMe and USB sticks.Starting Price: Free -
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Trisquel
Trisquel
Trisquel comes ready for home and office use, and new programs are easy to find and install. Our Documentation will help you explore your options. Accessibility features are an important part of Trisquel's standard edition. Our manuals are screen-reader friendly; we also offer a series of helpful audio guides. The Trisquel operating system is available ''gratis'' (free of charge). To support our work financially you can make a donation or become a member and also buy hardware from ThinkPenguin or Technoetical.Starting Price: Free -
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Ubuntu MATE
Ubuntu MATE
It is ideal for those who want the most out of their computers and prefer a traditional desktop metaphor. With modest hardware requirements, it is suitable for modern workstations, single-board computers and older hardware alike. Ubuntu MATE makes modern computers fast and old computers usable. We are delighted to provide ready-to-run images for the Raspberry Model B 2, 3, 3+ and 4 as well as a range of UMPCs such as the GPD Pocket, GPD Pocket 2, GPD MicroPC and Topjoy Falcon.Starting Price: Free -
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OmniOS
OmniOS
The open-source enterprise server OS with just the features you need. ZFS, OmniOS' native file system, combines a volume manager and file system with strong data-integrity protection. Easily share volumes via iSCSI, CIFS, and NFS. Run lightweight OmniOS or Linux virtual machines in containers without the overhead of a traditional hypervisor and with full resource control. OmniOS also provides full hardware virtualization via bhyve and KVM for running guests such as Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, and many others. Virtualize your network infrastructure through Crossbow virtual interfaces and switches and even allocate dedicated resources for specific services. DTrace provides a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework to aid troubleshooting across the whole software stack. Always available, instrument anything on demand. OmniOS is open-source, self-hosting, and maintained on GitHub. All development is done out in the open with pull requests and anyone can grab the source and build OmniOS.Starting Price: Free -
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DragonFly BSD
DragonFly BSD
DragonFly version 6.2.2 is released. The 6.2 series has hardware support for type-2 hypervisors with NVMM, an amdgpu driver, the experimental ability to remote-mount HAMMER2 volumes, and many other changes. DragonFly belongs to the same class of operating systems as other BSD-derived systems and Linux. It is based on the same UNIX ideals and APIs and shares ancestor code with other BSD operating systems. DragonFly provides an opportunity for the BSD base to grow in an entirely different direction from the one taken in the FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD series. DragonFly includes many useful features that differentiate it from other operating systems in the same class. The most prominent one is HAMMER, our modern high-performance filesystem with built-in mirroring and historic access functionality. Virtual kernels provide the ability to run a full-blown kernel as a user process for the purpose of managing resources or for accelerated kernel development and debugging.Starting Price: Free -
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openSUSE MicroOS
openSUSE
Microservice OS providing transactional (Atomic) updates upon a read-only btrfs root filesystem. Designed to host container workloads with automated administration & patching. Installing openSUSE MicroOS you get a quick, small environment for deploying containers, or any other workload that benefits from transactional updates. As rolling release distribution, the software is always up-to-date. MicroOS offers an offline image. The main difference between the offline and self-install/raw images is that the offline image has an installer. Raw and self-install allows for customization via combustion or manually in the image after it is written to the disk. There is an option for a real-time kernel. Try MicroOS in VMs running on either Xen or KVM. Using a Raspberry Pi or other system-on-chip hardware may use the preconfigured image together with the combustion functionality for the boot process.Starting Price: Free -
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eLxr
eLxr
Enterprise-Grade Linux for Edge-to-Cloud Deployments. Open-Source Collaborative Project, Debian-based Linux distribution tailored for edge to cloud use cases. Ensure consistent performance and stability, whether on device, on-prem, or in the cloud. eLxr provides a secure and stable distribution, with its foundation in opensource community innovation with predictable release and update cadence, fit for long lifecycles and long-term deployments. Cater to applications with stringent timing requirements, using preempt-rt kernel configurations to prioritize low-latency responses, ensuring that tasks are executed within precise time boundaries. Achieve better determinism and predictability compared to a standard Linux kernel. eLxr relies on a smaller footprint for better performance, optimized workloads, and smaller attack surface for resource usage efficiency. It provides all required features and attributes, considering best usage of system resources.Starting Price: Free -
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Security Onion
Security Onion
Security Onion is a comprehensive open source platform for intrusion detection, network security monitoring, and log management. It provides a set of powerful tools to help security professionals detect and respond to potential threats across an organization's network. Security Onion integrates various technologies, including Suricata, Zeek, and Elastic Stack, to collect, analyze, and visualize security data in real-time. Security Onion’s intuitive user interface allows for easy management and analysis of network traffic, security alerts, and system logs. It also includes built-in tools for threat hunting, alert triage, and forensic analysis, helping users identify potential security incidents quickly. Security Onion is designed for scalability, making it suitable for environments of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises.Starting Price: Free -
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Mbed OS
Arm
Arm Mbed OS is a free, open-source IoT operating system that includes all the necessary features to develop IoT products. The OS includes everything you need to develop smart, connected products on Arm Cortex-M based hardware, including machine learning capabilities, security, connectivity stacks, an RTOS kernel and drivers for sensors and I/O devices. Arm Mbed OS is designed for the Internet of Things. It is integrated with connectivity, machine learning, networking, and security stacks and is supported with software libraries, development hardware, tutorials and examples. From hardware to the cloud, Mbed OS supports more than 70 silicon, module, cloud, and OEM partners, optimizing your developer choice. By using the Mbed OS API, your application code can remain clean, portable, and simple, while taking advantage of security, communications and machine learning. The integrated solution reduces development cost, time, and risk. -
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Whether it’s an IoT sensor monitoring industrial devices or an edge system that must act instantly on external inputs, SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time is a real time operating system designed to reduce latency and increase the predictability and reliability of time-sensitive, business-critical applications. Banks, manufacturers, government agencies and others rely on time-dependent applications which must execute accurately and predictably all the time, every time. To act as a single unit, distributed systems need time accuracy not only within a server but across all servers. The Precision Time Protocol (PTP) synchronizes servers via the high-speed network, up to sub-microsecond accuracy. Includes support for device interrupt threads, enabling tuning at the device level, and hardware latency detectors to ensure predictability of application behavior. SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time gives you the time advantage you need to beat the competition.Starting Price: $2,199 per year
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VyOS
VyOS Networks
Democratizing how we access networks through a universal router and open source software. Our vision at VyOS is to dramatically change how we access networks so that we can all build the solutions we always dreamed of, without restrictions, limitations, or prohibitive costs. We fundamentally believe that internet access is as vital to our human development as air, food, water, and healthcare. Built by engineers for engineers, VyOS is an open source software company that democratizes how we access networks so that the many, not the few, benefit from building solutions without limitations and prohibitive fees. We do this as VyOS through our open source software and virtual platforms. Stateful firewalls, zone-based firewall, all types of source and destination NAT (one to one, one to many, many to many). The entire codebase and build toolchain are available to everyone for auditing, building customized images and contributing.Starting Price: $1000 -
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CloudLinux
CloudLinux
Stable servers reduce churn and allow you to increase density, and therefore magnify your profit. The CloudLinux OS stability features prevent resource spikes and make your servers rock-solid stable, even in the most stressful situations. CloudLinux OS protects your servers from attacks by virtualizing users’ file systems and prevent sensitive information disclosure. Our kernel-level technology prevents all known symbolic link attacks, which further enhances the security level of the servers. Secure the unsupported versions of PHP where, vulnerabilities, even if discovered, are not patched by the PHP.net community. Multiply the number of users on a more stable server with Cloudlinux OS and manage any resources limits for each customer. Troubleshooting performance problems with Detailed information on system bottlenecks, slow database queries, functions, or external calls.Starting Price: $7 per server per month -
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AlmaLinux
AlmaLinux
An open source, community-owned and governed, forever-free enterprise Linux distribution, focused on long-term stability, providing a robust production-grade platform. AlmaLinux OS is 1:1 binary compatible with RHEL® and pre-Stream CentOS. Our GitHub organization contains source code and tools used to build AlmaLinux OS and related infrastructure. Join our vibrant Reddit community, interact with other AlmaLinux OS users, receive updates, find and provide help. Join a real time discussion with other AlmaLinux OS community members, governance team and AlmaLinux OS developers. Ask questions, get answers and contribute community support to others in AlmaLinux OS community and developers alike. As a standalone, completely free OS, AlmaLinux OS enjoys $1M in annual sponsorship from CloudLinux Inc and support from other sponsors. Ongoing development efforts are governed by the members of the community. -
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EuroLinux Desktop
EuroLinux
EuroLinux Desktop is a breakthrough in the operating system market. It combines the aesthetic and functionality of Windows® and macOS® with the reliability and security of the Enterprise Linux distribution. EuroLinux Desktop introduces several changes to the Linux user interface, making it easy to use for those accustomed to Microsoft® or Apple® software. At the same time, it provides the highest security and stability, because it is built on the source code of Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 9, commonly used in the most demanding environments such as banks, telecommunications or public sectors. EuroLinux Desktop is designed for individuals and organizations that use Windows® or macOS® daily and are looking for a stable operating system that maintains the aesthetic of the Microsoft® and Apple® solutions and is covered by long-term technical support. EuroLinux Desktop is the answer to the needs of public administration, the financial sector, educational institutions, and normal users.Starting Price: Free -
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SONiC
NVIDIA Networking
NVIDIA offers pure SONiC, a community-developed, open-source, Linux-based network operating system that has been hardened in the data centers of some of the largest cloud service providers. Pure SONiC through NVIDIA removes distribution limitations and lets enterprises take full advantage of the benefits of open networking—as well as the NVIDIA expertise, experience, training, documentation, professional services, and support that best guarantee success. NVIDIA provides support for Free Range Routing (FRR), SONiC, Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI), systems, and application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC)—all in one place. Unlike a distribution, SONiC doesn’t require reliance upon a single vendor for roadmap additions, bug fixes, or security patches. With SONiC, you can achieve unified management with existing management tools across the data center. -
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Linspire
PC/OpenSystems LLC
Linspire is a 64 bit Linux based OS, that is geared towards the business, education and government worker. It has all the applications business users will need for work, research and deployment among very high end desktop systems. With Linspire you can host the entire line of legacy applications that may still be in use in your environment as well as facilities for deploying web apps. Linspire is certified in many states to run government intranet and web based applications. Linspire is the ONLY Debian and Ubuntu based system that is certified by Oracle and IBM to host and deploy their respective cloud technologies. Linspire is deployed by 4 out of 5 US military branches and is in use by the NOAA and the National Weather Service.Starting Price: $39.99 -
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Freespire
PC/OpenSystems LLC
The Freespire Operating System is the open source and free release of the commercial Linspire operating system. It contains many of the same software packages as Linspire with the exception of the software that requires us to purchase a license to redistribute. You are free to redistribute Freespire as you wish. Freespire requires an x86_64 bit processor, 4 gb of RAM and at least a 20 gb hard drive to run a basic productivity environment. For optimal performance we recommend at least 6 - 8 gb of RAM for users who want to run emulation software such as VMWare or VirtualBox. For users who need to run software like CAD programs, Video or Audio production we recommend at least 8 gb or more. You can also install Freespire as standalone or dual boot on Intel based Apple Macintoshes.Starting Price: Free -
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Stratodesk NoTouch
Stratodesk
Stratodesk NoTouch is the #1 Thin Client endpoint OS and management solution in the world. Comprised of both NoTouch OS and NoTouch Center, Stratodesk NoTouch lets you transform any PC, Thin Client, Laptop or Raspberry Pi device into a secure and centrally managed Thin Endpoint. You can also instantly deploy NoTouch OS onto thousands of devices and manage them from oStratodesk NoTouch is the #1 Thin Client endpoint OS and management solution in the world. Comprised of both NoTouch OS and NoTouch Center, Stratodesk NoTouch lets you transform any PC, Thin Client, Laptop or Raspberry Pi device into a secure and centrally managed Thin Endpoint. You can also instantly deploy NoTouch OS onto thousands of devices and manage them from one browser. NoTouch OS is the minimal footprint OS that installs from your server onto your PC, Laptop, Thin Client, or Raspberry Pi Device. NoTouch Center is the #1 endpoint management software for your VDI endpoints. -
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openSUSE Leap
openSUSE
A brand new way of building openSUSE and a new type of a hybrid Linux distribution. Leap uses source from SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), which gives Leap a level of stability unmatched by other Linux distributions, and combines that with community developments to give users, developers and sysadmins the best stable Linux experience available. If you’re already running openSUSE you can upgrade by booting from the DVD/USB and choosing upgrade, or carry out an ‘Online Upgrade’ in a few commands. Leap is a classic stable distribution approach, one release each year and in between security and bugfixes. This makes Leap very attractive as server operating system, but as well for Desktops since it requires little maintenance effort. openSUSE Leap is compatible with SUSE Linux Enterprise; this gives Leap a level of stability unmatched by other Linux distributions and provides users the ability to migrate to an enterprise offering. -
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Xfce
Xfce
Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly. In order to make Xfce shine a little more out of the box and to strengthen its visual identity we created new icons for all of our core applications and based them on a shared palette to ensure consistency. We also set some further (implicit) design constraints, loosely following Adwaita's principles. The Settings Manager itself received a visual refresh of its filter box, which can now be hidden permanently. At the same time the search capabilities of the filter box were improved by searching the descriptive 'Comments' part of each dialog's launcher (aka .desktop) file. This new dialog represents a merger between the previously available 'Mime Settings' and the 'Preferred Applications' dialogs. Consolidating both in one place means users have an easier time setting default applications to handle files. -
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Lubuntu
Lubuntu
Lubuntu is a fast and lightweight operating system with a clean and easy-to-use user interface. It is a Linux system, that uses the minimal desktop LXDE/LXQT, and a selection of light applications. Because of this, Lubuntu has very low hardware requirements. Lubuntu was founded by Mario Behling and has been grown for many years by Julien Lavergne. Please join us and install Lubuntu on your computer. The objective of the lubuntu project is to create a faster, more lightweight and energy saving variant of Ubuntu by using LXDE, The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment, as its default GUI. Members of the lubuntu team take care of LXDE and other packages that are part of the lubuntu installation. Contribute creating a lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient Linux Desktop. It is our goal to make Linux run on more cost-effective machines and MIDs besides Intel CPUs based on ARM and Mips. -
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Gentoo
Gentoo Foundation
Gentoo is a free operating system based on Linux that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme configurability, performance, and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience. Thanks to a technology called Portage, Gentoo can become an ideal secure server, development workstation, professional desktop, gaming system, embedded solution, or something else, whatever you need it to be. Because of its near-unlimited adaptability, we call Gentoo a metadistribution. Of course, Gentoo is more than just software. It is also a community around the distribution. Gentoo benefits from around 250 developers and thousands of users, many of which are experts in their fields. The distribution project provides the means for the users to enjoy Gentoo: documentation, infrastructure, release engineering, software porting, quality assurance, security followup, hardening, and more. -
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Fedora CoreOS
Fedora Project
Fedora CoreOS is an automatically-updating, minimal operating system for running containerized workloads securely and at scale. It is currently available on multiple platforms, with more coming soon. There are three Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) update streams available: stable, testing, and next. In general, you will want to use stable, but it is recommended to run some machines on testing and next as well and provide feedback. For automating Fedora CoreOS installations, it is expected that you will interact with stream metadata. While Fedora CoreOS does automatic in-place updates, it is generally a good practice to start provisioning new machines from the latest images. Fedora CoreOS does not have a separate install disk. Instead, every instance starts from a generic disk image which is customized on first boot via Ignition. Everything included is open source and free software, not only is it available at no cost to you, but you can share, remix, and modify. -
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BlackArch Linux
BlackArch Linux
BlackArch Linux is an Arch Linux-based penetration testing distribution for penetration testers and security researchers. You can install tools individually or in groups. BlackArch Linux is compatible with existing Arch installs. The BlackArch Full ISO contains multiple window managers. The BlackArch Slim ISO features XFCE Desktop Enviroment. The full ISO contains a complete, functional BlackArch Linux system with all the available tools in the repo at build time. The slim ISO contains a functional BlackArch Linux system with a selected set of common/well-known tools and system utilities for pentesting. The netinstall ISO is a lightweight image for bootstrapping machines with a minimal set of packages. BlackArch Linux is compatible with existing/normal Arch installations. It acts as an unofficial user repository. You can install BlackArch Linux using the Slim medium which features GUI installer. -
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Tizen
Tizen
Tizen is an open and flexible operating system built from the ground up to address the needs of all stakeholders of the mobile and connected device ecosystem, including device manufacturers, mobile operators, application developers and independent software vendors (ISVs). Tizen is developed by a community of developers, under open source governance, and is open to all members who wish to participate. Tizen operating system comes in multiple profiles to serve different industry requirements. The current Tizen profiles are Tizen IVI (in-vehicle infotainment), Tizen Mobile, Tizen TV, and Tizen Wearable. In addition to that, as of Tizen 3.0, all profiles are built on top of a common, shared infrastructure called Tizen Common. With Tizen, a device manufacturer can begin with one of these profiles and modify it to serve their own needs, or use Tizen Common base to develop a new profile to meet the memory, processing and power requirements of any device and quickly bring it to market. -
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Junos OS
Juniper Networks
Junos® OS automates network operations with streamlined precision, furthers operational efficiency, and frees up valuable time and resources for top-line growth opportunities. Built for reliability, security, and flexibility, Junos OS runs many of the world’s most sophisticated network deployments, giving operators an advantage over those who run competing network operating systems. Reduces the time and effort required to plan, deploy, and operate network infrastructure. Extends traditional disaggregation by creating a flexible consumption model for network applications and provides a highly scalable software that keeps pace with evolving requirements. Makes the insertion of line cards and the subsequent network OS upgrade a non-service impacting event. Cloud providers understand that operating a flexible, cost-effective network requires simplified operations across a highly scalable infrastructure.