Best Operating Systems for Linux - Page 3
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Compare the Top Operating Systems for Linux as of June 2025 - Page 3
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Mageia
Mageia
Mageia is a GNU/Linux-based, Free Software operating system. It is a community project, supported by a nonprofit organization of elected contributors. Beyond just delivering a secure, stable and sustainable operating system, the goal is also to become and maintain a credible and recognized community in the free software world. Mageia is a Free Software operating system of the GNU/Linux family, which can be installed on computers either as the main operating system, or as an alternative system to one or several pre-installed systems (dual boot). It is a community project supported by the non-profit Mageia.Org organization of elected contributors. Mageia is developed by and for its community of users, and is suitable for all kinds of users, from first-time GNU/Linux users to advanced developers or system administrators. The software packages that are included in Mageia sit in three different repositories/media, depending on the type of license applied to each package. -
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Xubuntu
Xubuntu
Xubuntu is a community developed operating system that combines elegance and ease of use. Xubuntu is an elegant and easy to use operating system. Xubuntu comes with Xfce, which is a stable, light and configurable desktop environment. Xubuntu is perfect for those who want the most out of their desktops, laptops and netbooks with a modern look and enough features for efficient, daily usage. It works well on older hardware too. Xubuntu is built around lightweight software with a lot of consideration for usability. Whether you have a high-end computer or even a moderately older machine, Xubuntu is able to provide you with a smooth and usable desktop experience. Benefiting of the Ubuntu hardware support, Xubuntu is able to work wonderfully with a wide variety of devices out of the box. Plug in your device, chances are it will work! Xubuntu has enough applications preinstalled for you to deal with daily tasks without having to install additional software. -
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Scientific Linux
Scientific Linux
Scientific Linux is a Fermilab sponsored project. Our primary user base is within the High Energy and High Intensity Physics community. However, our users come from a wide variety of industries with various use cases all over the globe, and sometimes off of it! Scientific Linux is a rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (property of Red Hat Inc NYSE:RHT). We informally call them “The Upstream Vendor” or “TUV”. Our references to TUV are intended to make it clear that Scientific Linux is in no way affiliated, supported, or sanctioned by upstream. By not using their name we hope to make this distinction as clear as possible. Provides a stable, scalable, and extensible operating system for scientific computing. Supports scientific research by providing methods and procedures for enabling the integration of scientific applications with the operating environment. Use the free exchange of ideas, designs, and implementations to prepare a computing platform for the next generation of computing. -
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Kubuntu
Kubuntu
Quickly find that important document, photo, or video. Split View, Editable Location, a built-in Terminal and many other useful features. Dolphin makes connecting your USB flash drives, SD cards, and your phone super easy! Images are an important part of modern life. Kubuntu has applications that make it easy to browse, share, and enhance your photos. Open PDF, Dejavu, PS, DVI, and more, annotate documents and fill in forms and even read eBooks with Okular, the universal document viewer. untu comes built-in with a music and a movie player that are simple to use. Simply select a song or a movie and Kubuntu will take care of the rest. Kubuntu plays most music and video formats out the box; restricted formats such as MP3 are installed with two clicks when needed, usually during the installation process. -
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Solus
Solus
Solus is an operating system that is designed for home computing. Every tweak enables us to deliver a cohesive computing experience. Solus provides a multitude of experiences that enable you to get the most out of your hardware. From our flagship Budgie experience for modern devices to the more traditional MATE experience for lower-end devices, Solus aims to provide the best experience for your device. Solus ships with a variety of software out of the box so you can get going without a lot of setup fuss. Easily manage all your documents, music, photos, videos, and more with Files. We ship with Mozilla Firefox, a fast and secure web browser. Pop some popcorn and sit down to your favorite digital content via GNOME MPV. Play and manage your music and podcasts, as well as tune into online radio with Rhythmbox. No more hunting around for apps! Install and manage them right from our Software Center. -
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Raspberry Pi OS
Raspberry Pi Foundation
Raspberry Pi Imager is the quick and easy way to install Raspberry Pi OS and other operating systems to a microSD card, ready to use with your Raspberry Pi. Watch our 45-second video to learn how to install an operating system using Raspberry Pi Imager. Download and install Raspberry Pi Imager to a computer with an SD card reader. Put the SD card you'll use with your Raspberry Pi into the reader and run Raspberry Pi Imager. Browse a range of operating systems provided by Raspberry Pi and by other organisations, and download them to install manually. -
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HPE OpenVMS
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
With HPE OpenVMS, get a platform that is proven to deliver. OpenVMS is a general-purpose, multi-user Operating system that offers immunity to both planned and unplanned downtime with proven continuous computing, including disaster-tolerant, multisite clusters at an open system price. While most enterprise IT environments measure uptime in days or weeks, OpenVMS customers characterize uptime in terms of years. You can depend on OpenVMS for uncompromising reliability, availability, scalability, and security. HPE provides a high performance development and production environment on OpenVMS. HPE OpenVMS Cluster software is an integral part of the OpenVMS operating system, providing the basis for many of the key capabilities used by OpenVMS enterprise solutions. HPE OpenVMS provides a full range of security products and services from HPE and our partners designed to protect a company's vital assets. -
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LXLE
LXLE
Light on resources, Heavy on functions. Always based on Ubuntu/Lubuntu LTS. LXLE ses an optimized LXDE user interface, it is a simple, elegant and familiar desktop UI. Prudent full featured Apps preinstalled. Latest stable versions of all major apps. Added PPAs extends available software. Expose, Aero Snap, Quick Launch apps, etc. Random and interval wallpaper changer, and theme consistency throughout the system. 100 gorgeous wallpapers preinstalled, and numerous other tweaks/additions available. Both 32 and 64 bit OS versions available. Boot and it's online and ready in less than 1 minute. LXLE is based on Lubuntu which is an Ubuntu OS using the LXDE desktop environment. It is designed to be a drop-in and go OS, primarily for aging computers. Its intention is to be able to install it on any computer and be relatively done after install. At times removing unwanted programs or features is easier than configuring for a day. -
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Neptune OS
Neptune
Neptune is a GNU/Linux Distribution for desktops based fully upon Debian Stable ('Buster'), except for a newer kernel and some drivers. It ships with a modern KDE Plasma Desktop with its main view on a good looking multimedia system which allows for getting work done. It also is a system which is flexible and very useful on usb sticks. Therefore we developed easy to use applications like USB Installer as well as a Persistent Creator that allows you to store changes to your system on your live usb stick. The Debian repository is the major base for getting updates and new software. Furthermore Neptune ships with its own software repository to update our own applications. Neptune tries to get the BeOS message of a fully supported multimedia OS to a next generation of users. Neptunes focuses on providing an elegant out of the box experience for the users. Therefore we ship a nice and simple overall look and feel as well as a whole bunch of multimedia tools, like codecs, flash player, etc. -
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SUSE Linux Micro
SUSE
SUSE Linux Micro is a lightweight, container-optimized Linux operating system designed for edge computing and microservices environments. It offers a small footprint with security and performance optimized for deploying containerized applications. The platform enables fast, scalable, and cost-efficient cloud-native development, especially in resource-constrained environments. With built-in automation tools and compatibility with Kubernetes, SUSE Linux Micro supports seamless integration into modern containerized infrastructures. It is ideal for developers and IT operations teams who need to deploy and manage applications across distributed environments efficiently. -
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BackBox Linux
BackBox
BackBox is more than an operating system, it is a Free Open Source Community Project with the aim of promoting the culture of security in IT environment and give its contribution to make it better and safer. All this using exclusively Free Open Source Software, demonstrating the potential and power of the Community. If you’d like to know more feel free to navigate in our web site and get in touch with us. Designed to be fast, easy to use and provide a minimal yet complete desktop environment, thanks to its own software repositories that are constantly updated to the latest stable version of the most popular and best known ethical hacking tools. BackBox.org offers a range of Penetration Testing services to simulate an attack on your network or application. If you are interested in our services, please contact us and we will provide you with further information as well as an initial consultation. -
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PureOS
PureOS
A user friendly, secure and freedom respecting OS for your daily usage. With PureOS, you are the only one in control of your digital life. We've created a new, more stable version of PureOS, with the same great privacy protecting features and software but with a more solid foundation. Greater stability through following a stable upstream. New security and update software channels. New tooling for managing older versions of TPM chips. Changes to make the Librem Key work out of the box. Lots of bug fixes and the healing of paper cuts. Whether you are a technology enthusiast, someone looking to protect the digital life of your family, or an enterprise IT/security department, you can use PureOS freely for any purpose, study and share its source code, and adapt it to your needs. PureOS is a fully auditable operating system, you don’t have to trust our word that it respects and protects you, it is independently verifiable by security experts and software developers around the world. -
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Slackel
Slackel
Slackel is a Linux distribution based on Slackware and Salix. It is fully compatible with Slackware but the difference is that it includes the current version of Slackware. So Slackware users can benefit from Slackel repositories. It is available in three editions, KDE, Openbox and MATE. Slackel disc images can be used in two different forms, Installation disc image and Live disc image. Slackel provides one application per task rationale. It is fully backwards compatible with Slackware. Optimized for desktop usage, with Salix and Slackel tools to assist system management, high quality package repositories with dependency support. It includes a fully configured desktop environment with a complete selection of applications to fit the needs of most people, including office related software, multimedia applications, Internet applications, all the Slackel system configuration tools and more. -
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Wind River Linux
Wind River Systems
Wind River Linux enables you to build and deploy secure Linux-based devices and systems without the risk and development efforts associated with roll-your-own (RYO) in-house efforts. Let Wind River keep your code base up to date, track and fix defects, apply security patches, customize your runtime to adhere to strict market specifications and certifications, facilitate your IP and export compliance, and significantly reduce your costs. Accelerate time-to-market by getting started today, building your Linux distribution with freely available Yocto Project source code, with assurance that you can easily move to one of our flexible subscription offers later. Rely on fully validated, maintained, and supported source code with access to a team of Linux experts to help you tackle all your development lifecycle needs. Calculate your TCO. Wind River Linux allows you to build your own Linux operating system with a variety of service options to help you with that process. -
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Netvisor ONE
Pluribus Networks
Moving to Open Networking bare metal switches brings significant operational and financial benefits to build next-generation networks. These switches provide the capacity needed to achieve cloud-scale, agility, elasticity, and adaptability. As you move to a disaggregated open networking strategy, selecting the right Network Operating System (OS) is a critical success factor. Why? The Network OS deployed unlocks the performance, functionality, and services from Open Networking switches to realize the most value. Netvisor® ONE is an open, secure, and programable next-generation Network OS that is purpose-built to optimize the power and performance of bare metal Open Networking hardware. Deployment-proven in production mission-critical enterprise and carrier networks, Netvisor ONE operating system meets the most stringent performance requirements and delivers the maximum levels of reliability and flexibility at scale, and without compromise. -
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OpenMandriva
OpenMandriva
OpenMandriva Lx is a unique and independent distribution and direct descendant of Mandriva Linux. The OpenMandriva Association's goal is to develop a pragmatic distribution that provides the best user experience for everyone, from newbies to developers. We will achieve our objectives for the best balance between the most modern features and stability. Our roots are in Mandrake and its traditions, we are a worldwide community of people who are passionate about free software working together and take our technical and strategic decisions in a collaborative manner. We do not just build a Linux distro, we exchange knowledge and make new friends. Welcome to OpenMandriva Community! Click here to know who are us and what we are doing. A free Desktop Operating System which aims to stimulate and interest first time and advanced users alike. It has the breadth and depth of an advanced system but is designed to be simple and straightforward in use. -
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Ubuntu Server
Ubuntu
Ubuntu Server brings economic and technical scalability to your datacentre, public or private. Whether you want to deploy an OpenStack cloud, a Kubernetes cluster or a 50,000-node render farm, Ubuntu Server delivers the best value scale-out performance available. It doesn’t matter whether you want to deploy a NoSQL database, web farm or cloud. Certified by leading hardware OEMs and with comprehensive deployment tools, so you can get the most from your infrastructure. Our regular release cycle means access to the latest and most performant open source. A lean initial installation and integrated deployment and application modelling technologies make Ubuntu Server a great solution for simple deployment and management at scale. -
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Ubuntu for Raspberry Pi
Ubuntu
When your invention turns into a product, the Raspberry Pi compute module is a hardened, industrial grade system-on-module that provides the brain for a range of hardware from robots to racks. Open source is the new normal for software innovation - from cloud to edge, containers to IoT, from AI/ML to robotics, from self-driving cars to nanosats, the biggest companies in the world are building on open source and making it better too. The Raspberry Pi is an ARM instruction set computer, just like your Android or iOS phone, and the next generation Mac. This feels just like Ubuntu on a PC, but under the hood you have a whole new approach to architecture and devices.Starting Price: $25 one-time payment -
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Designed for mixed environments and includes a complete suite of required business applications to support employees’ productivity. SLE Desktop shares the core of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and is equipped with enhanced security providing unparalleled protection of valuable enterprise data. A flexible and highly secure desktop operating system suitable for environments where reliability, ease of maintenance and updates are key. Includes dozens of leading applications, including web browser, email client, collaboration tools – all required to enable employees’ productivity. Security features, such as application security system, integrated VPN and antivirus tools, deliver bullet-proof security and protection against virus and malware attacks. Comes with enterprise-grade support and maintenance services from SUSE. Provides users a high degree of customization to meet their business requirements.
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Slax
Slax
Slax is a modern, portable, small and fast Linux operating system with modular approach and outstanding design. It runs directly from your USB flash drive without installing, so you can carry it everywhere you go in your pocket. Despite its small size, Slax provides nice graphical user interface and wise selection of pre-installed programs, such as a Web browser, Terminal, and more. Slax is now based on Debian, which gives you the ability to benefit from its entire ecosystem. Tens of thousands of prebuilt packages with applications, all within reach thanks to apt command. Major milestones for next Slax versions are tracked and funded through Patreon website and you can accelerate their development with a financial contribution. I am updating Slax regularly on my own to keep it up to date, but some features requested by users are implemented only after they are backed by sufficient amount of patrons.Starting Price: $29.95 one-time payment -
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Arista EOS
Arista Networks
Arista Extensible Operating System (EOS®) is the core of Arista cloud networking solutions for next-generation data centers and cloud networks. Cloud architectures built with Arista EOS scale to hundreds of thousands of compute and storage nodes with management and provisioning capabilities that work at scale. Through its programmability, EOS enables a set of software applications that deliver workflow automation, high availability, unprecedented network visibility and analytics and rapid integration with a wide range of third-party applications for virtualization, management, automation and orchestration services. Arista EOS is a fully programmable and highly modular, Linux-based network operation system, using familiar industry standard CLI and runs a single binary software image across the Arista switching family. -
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Pica8 PICOS
Pica8
The one-of-a-kind PICOS open NOS with tightly coupled control planes gives network operators surgical, non-disruptive control of their enterprise applications, deep and dynamic traffic monitoring, and even attack mitigation, all in real time. There’s no better way to implement zero-trust networking and software-defined perimeters than PICOS. Our flagship open network operating system installs on 1G- to 100G-interface open switches from a broad array of Tier 1 manufacturers. This fully featured license offers the most comprehensive support for enterprise features on the market. It includes the Debian Linux distribution, with an unmodified kernel for maximum DevOps programmability. Enterprise Edition also includes AmpCon, an Ansible-based automation framework that couples Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) with the Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) to simplify installation and operation of open network switches across the enterprise. -
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NVIDIA Cumulus Linux
NVIDIA Networking
Reduce complexities and benefit from complete interoperability across your entire data center with Linux. Get additional levels of security, exclusive to Cumulus Linux, in addition to industry-standard security features. Use the existing Linux-based management tools and talent, and benefit from the ability to assign more switches per engineer. Easily leverage native integration and best-of-breed tools for automation, monitoring, analytics, and more. Run multiple network paths without the need for multiple switches, giving you traffic isolation and network segmentation for multiple devices. Efficiently go from whiteboard to physical cable. With PTM, you can program your data center to verify connections and resolve issues faster. Realize blazing fast speeds and the lowest latencies with RoCE implementation that’s ready with just one line of code. -
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Sabayon Linux
Sabayon
Sabayon is a beginner-friendly Gentoo-based open-source Linux distribution. We aim to deliver the best "out of the box" user experience by providing the latest open source technologies in an elegant format. In Sabayon everything should just work. We offer a bleeding edge operating system that is both stable and reliable. Fast and optimized for your hardware! It’s up to you whether you turn a fresh Sabayon installation into a geeky Gentoo ~arch system or simply enjoy the power of our binary package manager. From testing to Community Repositories. Install just once, you can upgrade everytime you wish to the latest release. Just start it, everything should be already in place. Daily and Monthly images available. Multiple Desktop Environment, KDE, Gnome, Mate, and XFCE. Build your own Sabayon spin easily! It can even be built with Docker! Support for Raspberry Pi 2⁄3, Odroid X2, U2/3 C2 and more. -
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Flatcar Container Linux
Kinvolk
The introduction of container-based infrastructure was a paradigm shift. A Container-optimized Linux distribution is the best foundation for cloud native infrastructure. A minimal OS image only includes the tools needed to run containers. No package manager, no configuration drift. Delivering the OS on an immutable filesystem eliminates a whole category of security vulnerabilities. Automated atomic updates mean you get the latest security updates and open source technologies. Flatcar Container Linux is designed from the ground up for running container workloads. It fully embraces the container paradigm, including only what is required to run containers. Your immutable infrastructure deserves an immutable Linux OS. With Flatcar Container Linux, you manage your infrastructure, not your configuration. -
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iMin OS
iMin Technology
Settings and preferences menu immediately appears when the device is powered on. Configure settings quickly and conveniently. iMin UI is an operating system based on the in-depth optimisation of the android system, tailored for intelligent commercial equipment. It is optimised from interactive experience and actual application for best system performance. Launch private mode to prevent applications from running without the system navigation bar, and block other notifications. The user manual troubleshoots product usage problems. If you face any issues regarding the product itself, kindly refer to the user manual which will provide you quick and direct solutions. Using the remote control function, the technician can remotely help the user with any issues. It is as convenient as operating directly on devices locally. The hardware butler provides clear understanding of the device status at one glance. -
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Rocket EOS 360
Rocket
Simply providing access to reports and data on the mainframe is no longer enough for today’s stakeholders. Your users, whether they’re employees, partners, or customers, increasingly expect a more modern digital experience and efficient workflows. And with more regulation and restrictions across the world impacting data security, you’re expected to protect all data, regardless of platform. Rocket® EOS 360 integrates with mainframe environments to capture output from applications, manage the storage of that data and provide fast and secure access for users. Rocket EOS 360 allows you to allocate precious MSUs to business-critical applications, improving the efficiency of your output management system. Rocket EOS 360 centralizes your data and provides a single, secure point of access to ensure you stay in compliance with any regulations and minimize the risk of a data security leak. -
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Kali Linux
Kali
Kali Linux is an open-source, Debian-based Linux distribution geared towards various information security tasks, such as Penetration Testing, Security Research, Computer Forensics and Reverse Engineering. You can take any Linux and install pentesting tools on it, but you have to set the tools up manually and configure them. Kali is optimized to reduce the amount of work, so a professional can just sit down and go. A version of Kali is always close to you, no matter where you need it. Mobile devices, Docker, ARM, Amazon Web Services, Windows Subsystem for Linux, Virtual Machine, bare metal, and others are all available. With the use of metapackages, optimized for the specific tasks of a security professional, and a highly accessible and well documented ISO customization process, it's always easy to generate an optimized version of Kali for your specific needs. Whether you are a seasoned veteran or a novice, our documentation will have all the information you will need to know. -
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Mobian
Mobian
Mobian aims to integrate the standard Debian distribution with the Phone Shell (phosh) project in a package that works on certain mobile phones, such as the Pinephone. Over time, the idea is to minimize the Mobian specific pieces by “upstreaming” customization to the original projects. Mobian comes with Phosh, the Phone Shell by Purism. It is based on well known modern Gnome technology like GTK, GSettings and DBus running on a wlroots based wayland compositor called phoc. Mobian aims to integrate the standard Debian distribution with Phone-specific projects and modifications in a distribution that works on certain mobile phones and tablets, such as the Pinephone, the Pinetab and the Librem 5. The idea is to minimize the Mobian specific pieces by “upstreaming” changes to the original projects as much as possible. To achieve this, we tread a delicate balance between carrying customized patches and packages that are required to make Mobian run well on its supported devices. -
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Rocky Linux
Ctrl IQ, Inc.
CIQ empowers people to do amazing things by providing innovative and stable software infrastructure solutions for all computing needs. From the base operating system, through containers, orchestration, provisioning, computing, and cloud applications, CIQ works with every part of the technology stack to drive solutions for customers and communities with stable, scalable, secure production environments. CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux, and the creator of the next generation federated computing stack. - Rocky Linux, open, Secure Enterprise Linux - Apptainer, application Containers for High Performance Computing - Warewulf, cluster Management and Operating System Provisioning - HPC2.0, the Next Generation of High Performance Computing, a Cloud Native Federated Computing Platform - Traditional HPC, turnkey computing stack for traditional HPC