Linux Flavors

Click the name of a distribution for more information.

Heavy Hitters

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Homepage: http://www.redhat.com/rhel/
USSG Mirror: ftp://iu-unix.ussg.iu.edu/rhel (Accessible from IU Campus Only)
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the leading platform for open source computing. It is sold by subscription, delivers continuous value and is certified by top enterprise hardware and software vendors. From the desktop to the datacenter, Enterprise Linux couples the innovation of open source technology and the stability of a true enterprise-class platform."

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop/Server 10

Homepage: http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/
USSG Mirror: ftp://iu-unix.ussg.iu.edu/suse/10 (Accessible from IU Campus Only)
"You need a cost-effective, easy-to-use, secure desktop— and you need choice. SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop is the first enterprise Linux desktop that meets these needs and works with your existing systems."

Staff Favorites

Ubuntu

Homepage: http://www.ubuntu.com/
USSG Mirror: ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/ubuntu-releases/HEADER.html
Ubuntu is a complete Linux-based operating system, freely available with both community and professional support.

Debian GNU\Linux

Homepage: http://www.us.debian.org/
USSG Mirror: ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/debian/README.html
"The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system. This operating system that we have created is called Debian GNU/Linux, or simply Debian for short. Debian comes with over 15490 packages (precompiled software that is bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine) — all of it free. "

Gentoo Linux

Homepage: http://www.gentoo.org/
USSG Mirror: ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/gentoo/releases/
"We produce Gentoo Linux, a special flavor of Linux that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme performance, configurability and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience."

Damn Small Linux

Homepage: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
USSG Mirror: ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/damnsmall/current/
"DSL was originally developed as an experiment to see how many usable desktop applications can fit inside a 50MB live CD. It was at first just a personal tool/toy. But over time Damn Small Linux grew into a community project with hundreds of development hours put into refinements including a fully automated remote and local application installation system and a very versatile backup and restore system which may be used with any writable media including a hard drive, a floppy drive, or a USB device."

Other Linux Distributions

	Knoppix Homepage: http://www.knoppix.org/ USSG Mirror: ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/knoppix "Knoppix is a bootable Live system on CD or DVD, consisting of a representative collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a productive Linux system for the desktop, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it (over 8GB on the DVD "Maxi" edition)."
	OpenSUSE Homepage: http://www.opensuse.org/ USSG Mirror: ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/opensuse/distribution/10.2/iso "The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, this program provides free, easy access to openSUSE, a complete Linux distribution. The openSUSE project has three main goals: make openSUSE the easiest Linux for anyone to obtain and the most widely used Linux distribution; leverage open source collaboration to make openSUSE the world's most usable Linux distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux users; dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux developers and software vendors."
	Fedora Core Homepage: http://fedoraproject.org/ USSG Mirror: ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/fedora/linux/core/6 "The Fedora Project is an openly-developed project designed by Red Hat, open for general participation, led by a meritocracy, following a set of project objectives. The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from open source software. Development will be done in a public forum. The project will produce time-based releases of Fedora Core about 2-3 times a year, with a public release schedule. The Red Hat engineering team will continue to participate in building Fedora Core and will invite and encourage more outside participation than in past releases. By using this more open process, we hope to provide an operating system more in line with the ideals of free software and more appealing to the open source community."
	Mephis Homepage: http://www.mepis.org/ USSG Mirror: ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/mepis/released "MEPIS Linux is a desktop Linux system that is also easy to configure as a dedicated server. It is designed for both personal and business purposes. It includes cutting-edge features such as a live/installation/recovery CD, automatic hardware configuration, NTFS partition resizing, ACPI power management, WiFi support, anti-aliased TrueType fonts, a personal firewall, KDE, and much more."
	Slackware Homepage: http://www.slackware.com/ USSG Mirror: ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/slackware/slackware-current/ "The Official Release of Slackware Linux by Patrick Volkerding is an advanced Linux operating system, designed with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities. Including the latest popular software while retaining a sense of tradition, providing simplicity and ease of use alongside flexibility and power, Slackware brings the best of all worlds to the table. Slackware Linux provides new and experienced users alike with a fully-featured system, equipped to serve in any capacity from desktop workstation to machine-room server."
	PCLinuxOS Homepage: http://www.pclinuxos.com/ USSG Mirror: ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/pclinuxos "PCLinuxOS is an English only live CD initially based on Mandrake Linux that runs entirely from a bootable CD. Data on the CD is uncompressed on the fly, allowing up to 2GB of programs on one CD including a complete X server, KDE desktop, OpenOffice.org and many more applications all ready to use. In addition to the live CD, you can also install PCLinuxOS to your hard drive with an easy-to-use livecd-installer. Additional applications can be added or removed from your hard drive using a friendly apt-get front end via Synaptic."