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Please note that we have put together a series of common search results for people looking for distributions that are beginner friendly, offer UEFI support, Secure Boot support, do not use systemd or that have a Raspberry Pi edition. Clicking any of the above links will take you immediately to the appropriate search results.
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| Package search |
Search the DistroWatch database for distributions using a particular package. If you are looking for a distribution with the latest kernel, select "linux" from the drop-down box below and type the version number into the text box next to it. Please note that the best way to obtain the GNOME version is by searching for "nautilus", while KDE Plasma is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package. Apache 2.x is listed as "httpd". As for versioning, if no version number is provided, this page will return any recent versions of the selected package. It is also possible to perform searches for distributions which do not contain a specific package. This returns a list of distributions where the given package is not present on the installation media.
The package version search offers the ability to search for packages which are close
to a specific version, exactly equal to a specific version, greater than or less than
a given version. The second field in the search form allows visitors to switch between
these relations. Most people will probably want to use the like option as it will
search for packages close to a given version. When no version is specified, like
finds packages close to the latest version.
Have fun and let us know how we can improve the search engine!
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| Search by Distribution Criteria (Simple Search Form) |
This section allows you to search for a particular distribution based on certain criteria. Select the criteria from the drop-down and check boxes below and hit the Submit Query button to get a list of known distributions that match your choice.
The following distributions match your criteria (sorted by popularity):
1. Kali Linux (17)
Kali Linux (formerly known as BackTrack) is a Debian-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools. It features timely security updates, support for the ARM architecture, a choice of four popular desktop environments, and seamless upgrades to newer versions.
2. Tails (39)
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The product ships with several Internet applications, including web browser, IRC client, mail client and instant messenger, all pre-configured with security in mind and with all traffic anonymised. To achieve this, Incognito uses the Tor network to make Internet traffic very hard to trace.
3. Parrot (42)
Parrot (formerly Parrot Security OS) is a Debian-based, security-oriented distribution featuring a collection of utilities designed for penetration testing, computer forensics, reverse engineering, hacking, privacy, anonymity and cryptography. The product, developed by Frozenbox, comes with MATE as the default desktop environment.
4. Alpine Linux (53)
Alpine Linux is a community developed operating system designed for x86 routers, firewalls, VPNs, VoIP boxes and servers. It was designed with security in mind; it has proactive security features like PaX and SSP that prevent security holes in the software to be exploited. The C library used is musl and the base tools are all in BusyBox. Those are normally found in embedded systems and are smaller than the tools found in GNU/Linux systems.
5. ClearOS (62)
ClearOS is a small business server operating system with server, networking, and gateway functions. It is designed primarily for homes, small, medium, and distributed environments. It is managed from a web based user interface, but can also be completely managed and tuned from the command line. ClearOS is available in a free Community Edition, which includes available open source updates and patches from its upstream sources. ClearOS is also offered in a Home and Business Edition which receives additional testing of updates and only uses tested code for updates. Professional tech-support is also available. Currently ClearOS offers around 100+ different features which can be installed through the onboard ClearOS Marketplace.
6. BlackArch Linux (79)
BlackArch Linux is an Arch Linux-based distribution designed for penetration testers and security researchers. It is supplied as a live DVD image that comes with several lightweight window managers, including Fluxbox, Openbox, Awesome and spectrwm. It ships with over a thousand specialist tools for penetration testing and forensic analysis.
7. BackBox Linux (82)
BackBox Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution developed to perform penetration tests and security assessments. It is designed to be fast and easy to use. It provides a minimal yet complete desktop environment, thanks to its own software repositories, which are always updated to the latest stable versions of the most often used and best-known ethical hacking tools.
8. OpenBSD (87)
The OpenBSD project produces a free, multi-platform BSD 4.4-based UNIX-like operating system. Its efforts emphasize portability, standardisation, correctness, proactive security and integrated cryptography. The project also develops the widely-used and popular OpenSSH (OpenBSD Secure Shell) software, which provides encrypted communication sessions over a computer network using the SSH protocol.
9. Qubes OS (90)
Qubes OS is a security-oriented, Fedora-based desktop Linux distribution whose main concept is "security by isolation" by using domains implemented as lightweight Xen virtual machines. It attempts to combine two contradictory goals: how to make the isolation between domains as strong as possible, mainly due to clever architecture that minimises the amount of trusted code, and how to make this isolation as seamless and easy as possible.
10. Linux Kodachi (109)
Linux Kodachi is a Debian-based distribution which can be run from a DVD or USB thumb drive. The distribution filters all network traffic through a VPN and the Tor network, obscuring the user's network location. The distribution attempts to clean up after itself, removing traces of its use from the computer.
11. ALT Linux (124)
ALT Linux was founded in 2001 by a merge of two large Russian free software projects. By the year 2008 it became a large organization developing and deploying free software, writing documentation and technical literature, supporting users, and developing custom products. ALT Linux produces different types of distributions for various purposes. There are desktop distributions for home and office computers and for corporate servers, universal distributions that include a wide variety of development tools and documentation, certified products, distributions specialized for educational institutions, and distributions for low-powered computers. ALT Linux has its own development infrastructure and repository called Sisyphus, which provides the base for all the different editions of ALT Linux.
12. HardenedBSD (146)
Founded in 2014 by Oliver Pinter and Shawn Webb, HardenedBSD is a security-enhanced fork of FreeBSD. The HardenedBSD Project is implementing many exploit mitigation and security technologies on top of FreeBSD. The project started with Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) as an initial focal point and is now implementing further exploit mitigation techniques.
13. Network Security Toolkit (161)
Network Security Toolkit (NST) is a bootable live CD based on the Fedora distribution. The toolkit was designed to provide easy access to best-of-breed open source network security applications and should run on most x86 platforms. The main intent of developing this toolkit was to provide the network security administrator with a comprehensive set of open source network security tools. What we find rather fascinating with NST is that we can transform most x86 systems (Pentium II and above) into a system designed for network traffic analysis, intrusion detection, network packet generation, wireless network monitoring, a virtual system service server, or a sophisticated network/host scanner.
14. heads (171)
heads is a privacy-focused Linux distribution designed to make it easy for users to access the Internet anonymously using the Tor network. heads is based on Devuan and features only free (libre) software. The Linux kernel has had non-free blobs removed.
15. Wifislax (183)
Wifislax is a Slackware-based live CD containing a variety of security and forensics tools. The distribution's main claim to fame is the integration of various unofficial network drivers into the Linux kernel, thus providing out-of-the-box support for a large number of wired and wireless network cards.
16. Whonix (194)
Whonix is an operating system focused on anonymity, privacy and security. It is based on the Tor anonymity network, Debian GNU/Linux and security by isolation. Whonix consists of two parts: One solely runs Tor and acts as a gateway, which is called Whonix-Gateway. The other, which is called Whonix-Workstation, is on a completely isolated network. Only connections through Tor are possible. With Whonix, you can use applications and run servers anonymously over the Internet. DNS leaks are impossible, and even malware with root privileges cannot find out the user's real IP.
17. Subgraph OS (199)
Subgraph OS is a Debian-based Linux distribution which provides several security, anonymous web browsing and hardening features. Subgraph OS uses a hardened Linux kernel, application firewall to block specific executables from accessing the network and forces all Internet traffic through the Tor network. The distribution's file manager features tools to remove meta-data from files and integrates with the OnionShare file sharing application. The Icedove e-mail client is set up to automatically work with Enigmail for encrypting e-mails.
18. Trusted End Node Security (208)
Trusted End Node Security (TENS), previously called Lightweight Portable Security (LPS), is a Linux-based live CD with a goal of allowing users to work on a computer without the risk of exposing their credentials and private data to malware, key loggers and other Internet-era ills. It includes a minimal set of applications and utilities, such as the Firefox web browser or an encryption wizard for encrypting and decrypting personal files. The live CD is a product produced by the United States of America's Department of Defence and is part of that organization's Software Protection Initiative.
19. MirOS BSD (216)
MirOS is an operating system based on OpenBSD and synchronised with the ongoing development of its parent. The most important differences between OpenBSD and MirOS include a completely rewritten bootloader and boot manager, a slim base system without NIS, Kerberos, BIND and i18n, binary security updates for stable releases, and current versions of the GNU developer toolchain.
20. Pentoo (226)
Pentoo is a Gentoo-based Linux live CD with a selection of applications and tools designed to perform penetration testing.
21. Secure-K OS (228)
Secure-K OS is a Debian-based distribution which runs from a live USB. The distribution is designed to provide secure communication and anonymous web browsing using applications such as the Tox messaging client and Tor Web Browser. Secure-K features the GNOME Shell desktop environment and is developed by the Mon-K organization.
22. Zentyal Server (241)
Zentyal Server (formerly eBox Platform) is a commercial unified network server that offers easy and efficient computer network administration for small and medium-size businesses. It can act as a gateway, an infrastructure manager, a unified threat manager, an office server, a unified communication server or a combination of them. These functionalities are tightly integrated, automating most tasks, avoiding mistakes and saving time for system administrators. Zentyal is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and runs on top of Ubuntu.
23. Openwall GNU/*/Linux (285)
Openwall GNU/*/Linux (or Owl for short) is a small security-enhanced Linux distribution for servers, appliances, and virtual appliances. Owl live CDs with remote SSH access are also good for recovering or installing systems (whether with Owl or not). Another secondary use is for operating systems and/or computer security courses, which benefit from the simple structure of Owl and from the inclusion of the complete build environment.
24. SELKS (286)
SELKS, a product of Stamus Networks, is a Debian-based live distribution designed for network security management. It provides a complete and ready-to-use Suricata IDS/IPS ecosystem with its own graphic rule manager. The system also includes Kibana IDS/NSM dashboards (for visualising logs and other time-stamped data) a Scirius (a rules management interface for Suricata). SELKS is released under the GNU GPLv3 licence.
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| Search by Distribution Criteria (Advanced Search Form) |
The advanced search form allows you to fine tune your search criteria by including multiple items in your search. Once completed, it will also allow you to display the result either as a list of all matching distributions with their descriptions, or in a sorted tabular format.
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