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Special Purpose/Mini Linux Distributions |
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| All the
distributions listed in this category are specialized for
a particular task. Most of them are small, since limiting
the functionally can also limit the size. However there
are some Special Purpose distributions listed here that
are not small.
Audio
Bookshelf
http://www.etc-edu.com/
Including the Enigma Audio Bookshelf could be stretching
the definition of a Linux distribution more than a
little. But this is a bootable CD product, which
contains enough of a Linux operating system to turn a PC
into a book reader. Any PC meeting the requirements can
be turned into a Linux based book reader, regardless of
the OS installed on the hard drive. Read the book
yourself, or have the computer read to you.
BlackRhino
GNU/Linux
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=home
BlackRhino is a free Debian-based GNU/Linux software
distribution for the Sony PlayStation 2. It contains
over 1,200 software packages to aid in using and
creating programs for the Sony PlayStation 2 Linux kit.
The programs range in functionality from simple games,
to text editors, compilers, web servers, windowing
systems, database systems, graphics packages, mail
servers and a variety of other tools and utilities.
Version 1.0 was released March 4, 2003.
BRaiLleSPEAK
http://www.audiobraille.org/blinux/brlspeak.html
http://freshmeat.net/projects/brlspeak/
BRLSPEAK is a Braille and Speech oriented
mini-distribution of Linux for the visually impaired.
Support for English, French, and Dutch (Netherlands).
ChainSaw
Linux
http://www.chainsawlinux.com/
ChainSaw Linux had video production, but as of May 4,
2002, the original Editing Edition is seen as "the
ultimate goal for ChainSaw Linux."
Circle
MUDLinux
http://mujweb.cz/www/vladon
MUDLinux is minidistribution of Linux containing a
running Circle MUDServer.
CLIC
http://clic.mandrakesoft.com/index-en.html
MandrakeSoft, Bull and INPG/INRIA, a Grenoble Research
Group created CLIC, a Linux Clustering Distribution. The
first CLIC version, released October 30, 2002, features
rapid deployment, auto-configuration, MPICH, LAM and PVM
support, a large number of mathematical libraries, and
Netjuggler (a parallelized virtual reality 3D engine).
Debian-Med
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-med/
Debian-Med is an internal Debian project to support
tasks of people in medical care. The goal of Debian-Med
is to build a a complete system for all tasks in medical
care, using only free software.
DeMuDi Agnula
http://www.demudi.org/
The DeMuDi Agnula Project aims to create a Debian-based
distribution for multi-media work. This is not a
mini-distribution, but it is special purpose. The first
official release, DeMuDi Agnula 0.9, is due out in
November 2002 [as of July 10, 2002].
FireCast
http://www.wirespring.com/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/firecast/
FireCast is a Linux-based software suite for building
and managing interactive kiosk networks. It is designed
for use with standard PC hardware, and bundles a
tamper-resistant kiosk environment, customizable user
interface, Web browser, and full multimedia support with
a plug- and-play Linux operating system. It also
includes a complete set of Web- based remote management
and advertising control tools for scheduling content,
monitoring device status, and creating and tracking ad
campaigns. It requires no prior knowledge of Linux, and
uses a familiar graphical interface for all
administrative functions. This is a proprietary package,
with a free trial. Version 2.0 was released August 31,
2002.
freevix
http://www.freevix.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/freevix/
freevix is a tiny GNU/Linux distribution designed to
provide a complete but small foot print environment for
people wanting to build a media player system with
Freevo. Initial version 0.2 was released March 12, 2003.
GENDIST
http://www.bablokb.de/gendist/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/gendist/
GENDIST (the Linux Distribution Generator) allows you to
create your own special mini-distribution. It creates a
makefile-based build system for your distribution, and
helps you to automate the following three tasks:
maintaining your root filesystem, maintaining your
"CD filesystem" (in case you create a bootable
CD), and packaging everything on media. GENDIST 1.4.7
(Stable) was released December 29, 2002.
HA
Linux
http://www.mcg.mot.com/cfm/templates/swdetail.cfm?
PageID=682&PageTypeID=10&SoftwareID=6&ProductID=202
Motorola Computer Group's Advanced High Availability
Software for Linux. Runs on Motorola platforms,
naturally.
IceLinux
http://www.icelinux.com/
IceLinux is trying to build the Linux Gaming Platform of
the future using Red Hat 7.1 as a base.
Keeper Linux
http://www.keeper.org.uk/
Keeper Linux fits on two floppy disks. It is designed
for use in specific application areas, such as dedicated
network gateways, firewalls and the administration of
remote systems. Release 1.1a came out March 14, 2002.
Version KLX-2.01, released April 23, 2002, boots
directly from CDROM with its root filing system in
ramdisk (no hard disk required).
Mindi
Linux
http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/mindi/index.html
http://freshmeat.net/projects/mindi/
Mindi builds boot/root disk images using your existing
kernel, modules, tools and libraries. Version
0.71_20021109 was released November 10, 2002. Version
0.82 was released February 24, 2003.
MoviX
http://movix.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/movix/
MoviX is a CD-ready tiny (~5MB) Slackware-based Linux
distribution containing all you need to boot a PC from
CD (using syslinux) and automagically play all the avi
files you put in the CD root with mplayer through the
framebuffer. You can use it to play all your movies,
even on a diskless PC. MoviX2 is a related distribution
aimed at transforming your PC into a powerful multimedia
box. The initial release of MoviX, version 0.2, was
announced September 16, 2002. Version 0.8.0pre3 was
released March 16, 2003. MoviX2 v0.3.0pre2 was released
March 29, 2003. eMoviX is another branch, a micro (7MB)
Linux distro meant to be embedded in a CD together with
all the video/audio files you want. eMoviX version
0.8.0pre6 was released March 13, 2003.
MSC.Linux
http://www.msclinux.com/
MSC.Software makes this distribution, designed for
high-performance, high-availability, cluster computing.
Itanium 2-based MSC.Linux V2002 is available, as is
MSC.Linux IA-64 2002 (July) for the HP zx1 chipset.
Mulimidix
http://www.sysconfig.info/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/mulimidix/
Mulimidix is a mini Linux distribution for building a
PC-based set-top box and multimedia player system with
digital TV, MP3, DivX, etc. support, using VDR, Freevo
and other tools. It is currently optimized for i686.
Initial version 0.1 was released April 4, 2003.
NPACI Rocks
Cluster Distribution
http://www.rocksclusters.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/rocksclusters/
The folks at NPACI have built a cluster distribution
that emphasizes ease of management, configurability and
security. Red Hat Linux 7.3 forms the base of this
special purpose distribution, which is being used by a
number of educational and commercial organizations. The
distribution is not OSCAR-based, and it has some
significant advantages over the OSCAR
methodology/implementation. Version 2.3.2 was released
April 1, 2003.
Recovery
Is Possible! (RIP)
http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/recoveryispossible/
RIP is a CD or floppy boot/rescue/backup system. It has
support for a lot of filesystem types (Reiserfs, ext2/3,
iso9660, UDF, XFS, JFS, UFS, HPFS, MINIX, MS DOS, NTFS,
UMSDOS, and VFAT) and contains a bunch of utilities for
system recovery. It might also be possible to install
and boot it from a LS-120 floppy drive. It has been
designed for non-networked stand-alone home PC hard
drive booting and rescue. Only the CD version has UDF/HPFS/MINIX/XFS/JFS
filesystem support. V51 was released March 21, 2002.
RedHawk
Linux
http://www.ccur.com/realtime/sys_rdhwklnx.html
Concurrent Computer Corporation's RedHawk Linux is not a
mini-distribution, but as a full featured real-time
distribution, it is somewhat specialized. It's an
industry-standard, POSIX-compliant, real-time version of
Linux, based on the Red Hat Linux distribution. RedHawk
features high I/O throughput, fast response to external
events, and optimized interprocess communication.
RUNT
http://www.ncsu.edu/resnet/runt/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/runt/
RUNT (ResNet USB Network Tester) is Slackware Linux
designed to run off of a 128 MB USB pen drive. It
consists of a boot floppy image and a zip file, similar
to zipslack. It is intended to be a fairly complete
Linux installation for use as a testing tool capable of
booting on any x86 computer with a USB port and a
bootable floppy drive. RUNT 0.92, the initial version,
was released November 27, 2002. Version 1.10 was
released February 7, 2003.
Scyld Beowulf
http://www.scyld.com/
The Scyld Beowulf Cluster Operating System software
distribution is the second generation of Beowulf
clustering. The system advances clustering technology,
providing significant benefits over existing systems.
Trinux
http://trinux.sourceforge.net/
Trinux is a ramdisk-based Linux distribution that boots
from a single floppy or CD-ROM, loads it packages from
an HTTP/FTP server, a FAT/NTFS/ISO filesystem, or
additional floppies. Trinux contains network security
tools as well as support for Perl, PHP, and Python
scripting languages. Remote Trinux boxes can be managed
securely with OpenSSH. Version 0.80rc2 was released
February 4, 2002.
Warewulf
http://warewulf-cluster.org/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/warewulf/
Warewulf is a unique Linux distribution for cluster
nodes. It facilitates a central administration model for
all nodes and includes tools needed to build
configuration files, monitor, and control the nodes. It
is totally customizable and can be adapted to just about
any type of cluster. The node distributions are built
from a virtual node filesystem residing on the master,
transfered to the nodes either by Etherboot or CDROM
images, and run from RAM. Administration is scalable and
easy. It was originally designed for Beowulf, but can be
used in other environments as well. The initial version,
0.3, was released March 11, 2002. Version 1.10 was
released March 19, 2003.
xbox-linux
http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/xbox-linux/
The Xbox Linux project aims to create a version of
GNU/Linux that runs on the Microsoft Xbox gaming
console. Initial version 0.1 was released August 17,
2002. Version 0.2 was released August 26, 2002. Version
11-01-2003 was released January 17, 2003.
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