Malaysian Open Source Centre

A Linux distribution (also called GNU/Linux by distributions such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Mandriva and Gentoo) is a member of the Linux family of Unix-like software distributions. Such distributions (often called distros for short) consist of a Linux operating system and a collection of applications. 

While there are too many Linux distributions for us to include them all, here are some of the most popular Linux distros, along with their download pages.

Debian
The Debian distribution and Debian Project are governed by a social contract that requires that OSes produced by Debian will be 100% "free," as determined by the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG).

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Fedora
Fedora, formerly known as Fedora Core, is a Linux distribution sponsored primarily by Red Hat, with significant community participation. The Fedora Linux distro produced by the Fedora Project was based on the original Red Hat Linux distribution and is made up entirely of free and open source software.

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Mandriva Linux
Mandriva Linux, formerly known as MandrakeLinux, is an RPM-based distro that was originally designed to be binary compatible with Red Hat Linux. Mandriva produces versions of its Linux distribution for consumer desktops, corporate servers, and for high performance clusters. Some, but not all, versions of Mandriva are free to download.

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Knoppix
Knoppix is one of the most popular live CD Linux distros.

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openSUSE
The openSUSE project is sponsored by Novell to create a base for the SUSE Linux distribution it sells and supports. The openSUSE distribution is worked on by Novell employees and community members, and is suitable for desktop and server use.

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PCLinuxOS
PCLinuxOS is a popular Linux distribution distributed as a live CD that can be installed to your hard drive. Originally based on Mandriva, PCLinuxOS is now a solid distro in its own right that uses APT and Synaptic to manage packages, and some of the original Mandriva administration tools.

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Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a popular community-developed Linux distribution for laptops and desktop machines, and is also gaining popularity on servers. Ubuntu is based on Debian GNU/Linux, and also serves as the foundation for several other Linux distributions in its own right.

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Freespire
Freespire is the community-oriented version of Linspire.

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Linux Mint
Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution that comes in two main CD versions. The Light Edition avoids non-free patented software. The Full Edition includes proprietary plugins and codecs. Both use the GNOME desktop environment by default. You can also download a KDE Community Edition DVD or miniKDE Community Edition CD, or an XFCE Community Edition CD.

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CentOS - The Community Enterprise Operating System
CentOS is a distribution based on source RPMs from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and strives to be 100% binary compatible with RHEL.

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Puppy Linux
Puppy Linux was written from scratch with two goals in mind: speed and ease of use. At boot time the entire system loads into RAM and runs from there, which significantly boosts the system's overall speed, and lets you run Puppy on a diskless workstation or thin client. It downloads in only 90MB, and can run as a live CD. It also comes with a remastering script for creating derivative distros, which other developers have used to build Puppy-based distros (called puplets), including NOP, GrafPup, and EduPup.

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Damn Small Linux
Damn Small Linux is a live CD distribution that fits on a business card CD and is light enough to run on a 486 computer with as little as 16MB of RAM.

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Gentoo
Gentoo is a source-based distribution, meaning all of its programs can be compiled from source code rather than installed as binary packages. That makes it highly configurable. Because the operating system and all of its applications can be compiled for the specific machine architecture it's installed on, Gentoo can perform extremely well. Gentoo is available for at least eight 32- and 64-bit hardware platforms. The distribution is more complicated to install than many others, but an active user community can help those who wish to tackle it.

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Slackware
Slackware Linux is the world's oldest surviving Linux distribution.

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