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Note: Our weird and wonderful niche Linux distros roundup has been fully updated. This feature was first published in December 2011.
Fed up with the bog-standard Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and so on? Looking for a distro that reflects your individuality? In this roundup weâve discovered no less than 13 of the best, oddest and most useful distributions that Linux has to offer.
They include one distro which is the official, sanctioned OS of North Korea, no less, along with a Satanic Edition of Ubuntu (yes, you read that correctly), and also a distro which is so light it will run on a PC from the mid-80s. That ancient 386 in the attic could still be useful, thenâŚ
Read on to find out more about each of these interesting distros â and why on earth youâd want to use them.
[ul]
[li]10 of the best Linux distros for privacy fiends and security buffs[/li][li]5 of the most popular Linux gaming distros[/li][li]10 best Linux distros: which one is right for you?[/li][li]Whatâs the best Linux distro for beginners?[/li][li]How to choose the best Linux distro for laptops[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]Linux Format is the number one magazine to boost your knowledge on Linux, open source developments, distro releases and much more. Subscribe to the print or digital version of Linux Format here[/li][/ul]
Never let it be said that the Democratic Peopleâs Republic of Korea is not a technologically forward-thinking nation. Ah, who are we kidding: the worldâs most isolationist country isnât exactly known for its computing advancements. But it is known for its technological oppression, which is why Kim Jong-il sanctioned the development of the official operating system of North Korea, Linux-based Red Star OS, which reports back on its usersâ actions and heavily restricts files and software.
Development continues under Kim Jong-un, we hear, although the latest release â version 3.0 â hit back in 2014 and gives the desktop (and installer) an OS X-like makeover. It works surprisingly well, although youâll need to learn Korean to have any chance of understanding whatâs going on.
Familiar apps have been renamed too â thereâs a notebook app called My Comrade, and Firefox is called My Country (perhaps fittingly, as North Korea has its own internet). We searched for âDemocracyâ in the default search engine, but nothing came up. If youâre desperate to try it for yourself, download the 2.5GB ISO from this website and try it in a VM. Donât install it on actual hardware, whatever you do.
[ul]
[li]Download Red Star OS here[/li][/ul]
The classically educated might be able to guess that MuLinux is a small distro â the Greek letter âmuâ being the SI designation for one millionth â possibly in the same vein as Puppy or Damn Small Linux. Youâd have difficulty, however, comprehending just how small it is. Originally developed to run from floppy disks, MuLinux requires 20MB hard disk space and 4MB RAM, and will run on an Intel 80386 processor or later.
Thatâs the same Intel 80386 processor that was released in 1985, meaning Mu will breathe life into even ancient hardware. Mu is no match for a modern system in terms of productivity, having been finished in 1998-99, but if you have a 25-year-old machine that you want to rescue from the scrapheap, itâs the distro for you.
[ul]
[li]Download MuLinux here[/li][/ul]
Ubuntu spin-offs are ten-a-penny, but we have to recognise that the makers of Ubuntu SE have gone beyond the ordinary in their quest to please The Dark One. The dark theme and collection of background images is the most obvious modification, and the sound effects and startup jingle have also been customised.
Ubuntuâs fondness for alliteration is still there (the last three releases of the OS were Luciferâs Legion, Microsoft Massacre and Necrophiliac Necromancer), but the version numbers have been modified to 666.8, 666.9 and 666.10 respectively. Sadly, development appears to have ceased, but if youâre a fan of the dark arts, free metal music (thereâs plenty included) and Gnome 2-based desktops, then Ubuntu SE may still appeal.
Oh, and it doesnât have live CDs; theyâre âundeadâ. Endearingly bonkers.
[ul]
[li]Download Ubuntu Satanic Edition here[/li][/ul]
This is one that will appeal to the techies out there â the thing that marks GoboLinux out from the rest is its filesystem layout. Most Linux distributions use an archaic non-arrangement wherein an applicationâs files are scattered around your hard drive in several different folders.
GoboLinux adopts an OS X-like approach (which Apple took from RISC OS), and stores all files associated with an application in a single folder in /Programs.
The most current version of GoboLinux is 016, released at the end of 2016, which includes further filesystem virtualisation tools in the form of Runner, and (if you can find it) a copy of NCSA Mosaic for a bit of old-school web browsing.
[ul]
[li]Download GoboLinux here[/li][/ul]
If you like software freedom, youâll love GNewSense. Itâs based on Ubuntu, but has had all non-free software removed, including those tricky non-free driver files that are loaded into the Linux kernel (known as binary blobs). Unfortunately, many of these blobs are drivers for wireless networking cards, so GNewSense may not be the best distro for laptops.
On the plus side, it has removed or renamed software that doesnât fit the Free Software Foundationâs definition of freedom (Firefox, for example, is renamed as Burning Dog), and it doesnât provide any links to non-free repositories, making it even more free than Debian.
Until we get the Hurd to replace the Linux kernel and create Gnu/Hurd, GNewSense â along with another Ubuntu-based distro by the name of Trisquel â is the closest weâll get to completely free.
[ul]
[li]Download GNewSense here[/li][/ul]
Do you love Linux? Do you really love it? Because youâre going to need to if you want to follow the Linux from Scratch program. Not (technically) a formal distro, LFS is more a set of tutorials and packages designed to help you set up your own completely bespoke Linux system. From scratch.
That means first creating a temporary system with which to compile the real thing, building your own partitions and file system, and installing every element of a functioning Linux system painstakingly by hand. Oh, and figuring out exactly why it isnât working.
The documentation comes in freely downloadable volumes, charmingly entitled âStableâ for the latest release and âDevelopmentâ if you want to check out the version that creator Gerard Beekmans and his team are working on at this very moment. Thereâs also a systemd version, which uses the latest in system initialisation techniques.
[ul]
[li]Download Linux from Scratch here[/li][/ul]
Yellow Dog was released in the late 90s for Apple computers using the PowerPC chip architecture, and found its niche among people who wanted an even more different way to think differently. All was good, but then Apple abandoned PowerPC in favour of Intel chips, which itâs still using today.
This left Yellow Dog out in the cold, but after a change of ownership it reinvented itself as an OS for high-performance multicore computing â most notably as the OS used on PlayStations hooked up to form cheap supercomputing grids.
[ul]
[li]Download Yellow Dog here[/li][/ul]
Linux is Linux is Linux, right? Well, no. There are loads of distributions built on a Linux core, but they all do things in a slightly different way. Ubuntu deals with PPAs, Gentoo builds its own packages with Portage, Arch keeps up to date with the latest packages in a timely manner, and so on.
Bedrock is designed to be an amalgamation of your choice of the best components from whichever distro you desire. By splitting up the virtual filesystem, youâre able to install packages from disparate distros and run them simultaneously without conflict. If something is currently broken in your favourite distro but working fine in another, run the one that works! Yes, this might take a bit of getting your head around, but Bedrock Linux could be the most solid distro going.
[ul]
[li]Download Bedrock Linux here[/li][/ul]
Are you a keyboard warrior? Youâre going to need to be if youâre sadistic enough to try Suicide-Linux, a distro which cunningly encourages perfect command inputs at all times. âJust a gimmicky idea that is of no practical use. An incredible waste of time that doesnât encourage or teach anything,â says SourceForge commenter evi1 â perfect for our list, then.
Basically, Suicide-Linux modifies the terminal portion of any Debian shell in such a way that a single misspelled or incorrect command typed into its shell immediately deletes every file and folder on your drive with a ârm -rf /â command. A fleeting distro, good for a chuckle or a practical joke, but not much more.
[ul]
[li]Download Suicide-Linux here[/li][/ul]
There still exists among our Windows-using cousins the risible idea that Linux isnât good enough to take over on the desktop â that the continued dominance of Microsoft on the desktop is inevitable, because Linux is not up to the job technically.
This can easily be refuted: the cleverest people on the planet â the scientists searching for clues about the beginning of the universe â use Scientific Linux at the CERN laboratories.
Itâs based on Red Hat, and anyone can download and install it on their machine. You donât even need a PhD in theoretical physics.
[ul]
[li]Download Scientific Linux here[/li][/ul]
Weâre sure that nobody runs this as their full-time operating system (if you do, get in touch and tell us why), because although itâs technically a distro, itâs best thought of as a specialist tool.
Parted Magic is a live distro that comes with all the tools you need to fix broken partitions. If something wonât boot, this is what you use to fix it, and that goes for both Linux and Windows machines.
It also allows for secure disk erasing (making sure that data is really nuked), benchmarking, and disk cloning among other features. As a troubleshooting aid, itâs indispensable, but it will cost you $9 (around ÂŁ7.20, AU$11.80) to download direct from the authorâs site.
[ul]
[li]Download Parted Magic here[/li][/ul]
Itâs drastically out-of-date and about as niche as they come, but HML â or Hannah Montana Linux â is the perfect desktop for fans of Miley Cyrusâ heady Nickelodeon days. Enjoy a pink Hannah Montana-themed KDE desktop, featuring Tux with the double-life teenage singerâs logo emblazoned on his belly. Thrill to the custom Hannah Montana boot screen. Get the youngsters involved in Linux!
Thereâs no reason to use HML unless youâre a diehard Hannah fan, but since itâs based on Kubuntu youâre not going to be short of packages to install, and you could (theoretically) upgrade it to the latest version with a simple apt-get dist-upgrade. Or just download the theme pack and slap it on top of your existing KDE install, if youâre really desperate.
[ul]
[li]Download HML here[/li][/ul]
If youâve spent a long time with Linux, you may have transcended, godlike, from the GUI and mastered the shell. Zeroshell laughs at your divine powers, because it doesnât have one, exactly as its name suggests. It doesnât actually have a GUI, either, at least in a traditional sense â you administer it entirely from a web interface, from afar.
Designed to run headless and look after your LAN, Zeroshell is actually a perfect solution in a lot of cases. If youâre looking to do away with your routerâs pathetic powers and install something more powerful to deal with assigning IP addresses and DHCP provision, give it a go; itâll also function as a proxy, a firewall, or just about any other network appliance.
[ul]
[li]Download Zeroshell Linux here[/li][/ul]
Continue readingâŚ
Fed up with the bog-standard Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and so on? Looking for a distro that reflects your individuality? In this roundup weâve discovered no less than 13 of the best, oddest and most useful distributions that Linux has to offer.
They include one distro which is the official, sanctioned OS of North Korea, no less, along with a Satanic Edition of Ubuntu (yes, you read that correctly), and also a distro which is so light it will run on a PC from the mid-80s. That ancient 386 in the attic could still be useful, thenâŚ
Read on to find out more about each of these interesting distros â and why on earth youâd want to use them.
[ul]
[li]10 of the best Linux distros for privacy fiends and security buffs[/li][li]5 of the most popular Linux gaming distros[/li][li]10 best Linux distros: which one is right for you?[/li][li]Whatâs the best Linux distro for beginners?[/li][li]How to choose the best Linux distro for laptops[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]Linux Format is the number one magazine to boost your knowledge on Linux, open source developments, distro releases and much more. Subscribe to the print or digital version of Linux Format here[/li][/ul]
Never let it be said that the Democratic Peopleâs Republic of Korea is not a technologically forward-thinking nation. Ah, who are we kidding: the worldâs most isolationist country isnât exactly known for its computing advancements. But it is known for its technological oppression, which is why Kim Jong-il sanctioned the development of the official operating system of North Korea, Linux-based Red Star OS, which reports back on its usersâ actions and heavily restricts files and software.
Development continues under Kim Jong-un, we hear, although the latest release â version 3.0 â hit back in 2014 and gives the desktop (and installer) an OS X-like makeover. It works surprisingly well, although youâll need to learn Korean to have any chance of understanding whatâs going on.
Familiar apps have been renamed too â thereâs a notebook app called My Comrade, and Firefox is called My Country (perhaps fittingly, as North Korea has its own internet). We searched for âDemocracyâ in the default search engine, but nothing came up. If youâre desperate to try it for yourself, download the 2.5GB ISO from this website and try it in a VM. Donât install it on actual hardware, whatever you do.
[ul]
[li]Download Red Star OS here[/li][/ul]
The classically educated might be able to guess that MuLinux is a small distro â the Greek letter âmuâ being the SI designation for one millionth â possibly in the same vein as Puppy or Damn Small Linux. Youâd have difficulty, however, comprehending just how small it is. Originally developed to run from floppy disks, MuLinux requires 20MB hard disk space and 4MB RAM, and will run on an Intel 80386 processor or later.
Thatâs the same Intel 80386 processor that was released in 1985, meaning Mu will breathe life into even ancient hardware. Mu is no match for a modern system in terms of productivity, having been finished in 1998-99, but if you have a 25-year-old machine that you want to rescue from the scrapheap, itâs the distro for you.
[ul]
[li]Download MuLinux here[/li][/ul]
Ubuntu spin-offs are ten-a-penny, but we have to recognise that the makers of Ubuntu SE have gone beyond the ordinary in their quest to please The Dark One. The dark theme and collection of background images is the most obvious modification, and the sound effects and startup jingle have also been customised.
Ubuntuâs fondness for alliteration is still there (the last three releases of the OS were Luciferâs Legion, Microsoft Massacre and Necrophiliac Necromancer), but the version numbers have been modified to 666.8, 666.9 and 666.10 respectively. Sadly, development appears to have ceased, but if youâre a fan of the dark arts, free metal music (thereâs plenty included) and Gnome 2-based desktops, then Ubuntu SE may still appeal.
Oh, and it doesnât have live CDs; theyâre âundeadâ. Endearingly bonkers.
[ul]
[li]Download Ubuntu Satanic Edition here[/li][/ul]
This is one that will appeal to the techies out there â the thing that marks GoboLinux out from the rest is its filesystem layout. Most Linux distributions use an archaic non-arrangement wherein an applicationâs files are scattered around your hard drive in several different folders.
GoboLinux adopts an OS X-like approach (which Apple took from RISC OS), and stores all files associated with an application in a single folder in /Programs.
The most current version of GoboLinux is 016, released at the end of 2016, which includes further filesystem virtualisation tools in the form of Runner, and (if you can find it) a copy of NCSA Mosaic for a bit of old-school web browsing.
[ul]
[li]Download GoboLinux here[/li][/ul]
If you like software freedom, youâll love GNewSense. Itâs based on Ubuntu, but has had all non-free software removed, including those tricky non-free driver files that are loaded into the Linux kernel (known as binary blobs). Unfortunately, many of these blobs are drivers for wireless networking cards, so GNewSense may not be the best distro for laptops.
On the plus side, it has removed or renamed software that doesnât fit the Free Software Foundationâs definition of freedom (Firefox, for example, is renamed as Burning Dog), and it doesnât provide any links to non-free repositories, making it even more free than Debian.
Until we get the Hurd to replace the Linux kernel and create Gnu/Hurd, GNewSense â along with another Ubuntu-based distro by the name of Trisquel â is the closest weâll get to completely free.
[ul]
[li]Download GNewSense here[/li][/ul]
Do you love Linux? Do you really love it? Because youâre going to need to if you want to follow the Linux from Scratch program. Not (technically) a formal distro, LFS is more a set of tutorials and packages designed to help you set up your own completely bespoke Linux system. From scratch.
That means first creating a temporary system with which to compile the real thing, building your own partitions and file system, and installing every element of a functioning Linux system painstakingly by hand. Oh, and figuring out exactly why it isnât working.
The documentation comes in freely downloadable volumes, charmingly entitled âStableâ for the latest release and âDevelopmentâ if you want to check out the version that creator Gerard Beekmans and his team are working on at this very moment. Thereâs also a systemd version, which uses the latest in system initialisation techniques.
[ul]
[li]Download Linux from Scratch here[/li][/ul]
Yellow Dog was released in the late 90s for Apple computers using the PowerPC chip architecture, and found its niche among people who wanted an even more different way to think differently. All was good, but then Apple abandoned PowerPC in favour of Intel chips, which itâs still using today.
This left Yellow Dog out in the cold, but after a change of ownership it reinvented itself as an OS for high-performance multicore computing â most notably as the OS used on PlayStations hooked up to form cheap supercomputing grids.
[ul]
[li]Download Yellow Dog here[/li][/ul]
Linux is Linux is Linux, right? Well, no. There are loads of distributions built on a Linux core, but they all do things in a slightly different way. Ubuntu deals with PPAs, Gentoo builds its own packages with Portage, Arch keeps up to date with the latest packages in a timely manner, and so on.
Bedrock is designed to be an amalgamation of your choice of the best components from whichever distro you desire. By splitting up the virtual filesystem, youâre able to install packages from disparate distros and run them simultaneously without conflict. If something is currently broken in your favourite distro but working fine in another, run the one that works! Yes, this might take a bit of getting your head around, but Bedrock Linux could be the most solid distro going.
[ul]
[li]Download Bedrock Linux here[/li][/ul]
Are you a keyboard warrior? Youâre going to need to be if youâre sadistic enough to try Suicide-Linux, a distro which cunningly encourages perfect command inputs at all times. âJust a gimmicky idea that is of no practical use. An incredible waste of time that doesnât encourage or teach anything,â says SourceForge commenter evi1 â perfect for our list, then.
Basically, Suicide-Linux modifies the terminal portion of any Debian shell in such a way that a single misspelled or incorrect command typed into its shell immediately deletes every file and folder on your drive with a ârm -rf /â command. A fleeting distro, good for a chuckle or a practical joke, but not much more.
[ul]
[li]Download Suicide-Linux here[/li][/ul]
There still exists among our Windows-using cousins the risible idea that Linux isnât good enough to take over on the desktop â that the continued dominance of Microsoft on the desktop is inevitable, because Linux is not up to the job technically.
This can easily be refuted: the cleverest people on the planet â the scientists searching for clues about the beginning of the universe â use Scientific Linux at the CERN laboratories.
Itâs based on Red Hat, and anyone can download and install it on their machine. You donât even need a PhD in theoretical physics.
[ul]
[li]Download Scientific Linux here[/li][/ul]
Weâre sure that nobody runs this as their full-time operating system (if you do, get in touch and tell us why), because although itâs technically a distro, itâs best thought of as a specialist tool.
Parted Magic is a live distro that comes with all the tools you need to fix broken partitions. If something wonât boot, this is what you use to fix it, and that goes for both Linux and Windows machines.
It also allows for secure disk erasing (making sure that data is really nuked), benchmarking, and disk cloning among other features. As a troubleshooting aid, itâs indispensable, but it will cost you $9 (around ÂŁ7.20, AU$11.80) to download direct from the authorâs site.
[ul]
[li]Download Parted Magic here[/li][/ul]
Itâs drastically out-of-date and about as niche as they come, but HML â or Hannah Montana Linux â is the perfect desktop for fans of Miley Cyrusâ heady Nickelodeon days. Enjoy a pink Hannah Montana-themed KDE desktop, featuring Tux with the double-life teenage singerâs logo emblazoned on his belly. Thrill to the custom Hannah Montana boot screen. Get the youngsters involved in Linux!
Thereâs no reason to use HML unless youâre a diehard Hannah fan, but since itâs based on Kubuntu youâre not going to be short of packages to install, and you could (theoretically) upgrade it to the latest version with a simple apt-get dist-upgrade. Or just download the theme pack and slap it on top of your existing KDE install, if youâre really desperate.
[ul]
[li]Download HML here[/li][/ul]
If youâve spent a long time with Linux, you may have transcended, godlike, from the GUI and mastered the shell. Zeroshell laughs at your divine powers, because it doesnât have one, exactly as its name suggests. It doesnât actually have a GUI, either, at least in a traditional sense â you administer it entirely from a web interface, from afar.
Designed to run headless and look after your LAN, Zeroshell is actually a perfect solution in a lot of cases. If youâre looking to do away with your routerâs pathetic powers and install something more powerful to deal with assigning IP addresses and DHCP provision, give it a go; itâll also function as a proxy, a firewall, or just about any other network appliance.
[ul]
[li]Download Zeroshell Linux here[/li][/ul]
Continue readingâŚ