Fedora is an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. One of Fedora's main objectives is not only to contain software distributed under a free and open source license, but also to be on the leading edge of such technologies. With 6 months between releases, Fedora has a comparatively short life cycle, and the maintenance period is also short with 13 month. According to DistroWatch, Fedora is the second most popular Linux-based operating system as of July 2010, behind Ubuntu. It uses the RPM package manager and the Yum command-line package-management utility. The default user interface is Gnome. Fedora is available for 32- and 64-bit environments and many Spins here.
The Fedora Security Lab provides a safe test environment to work on security auditing, forensics, system rescue and teaching security testing methodologies in universities and other organizations. The Spin comes with the clean and fast LXDE Desktop Environment and a customized menu that provides all the instruments needed to follow a proper test path for security testing or to rescue a broken system. It is available for download here.
OpenSUSE is a Novell sponsored general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux kernel. Like most Linux distributions, openSUSE includes both a default graphical user interface (GUI) and a command line interface option. During installation, users can choose between the KDE, Gnome, Lxde and Xfce interfaces. OpenSUSE uses the RPM Package Manager and the YaST setup and configuration tool. YaST offers package management functionality through the open source ZYpp project. The distribution is available for 32- and 64- bit desktop and server environments here.
Ubuntu, originally based on Debian GNU/Linux, is perhaps the most widely used Linux distribution. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu "humanity towards others." Former Debian developer and the world's second space tourist Mark Shuttleworth is the driving force behind the Ubuntu Foundation and Canonical Ltd., the company that develops Ubuntu. Several derivates including Kubuntu, Ebuntu, previously known as the Ubuntu Education Edition, Xubuntu, Mythbuntu, and Ubuntu Studio are available for 32- and 64-bit processors.
The Ubuntu Server edition is also available for SPARC processors. Ubuntu has a 6-month release schedule; with an occasional Long Term Support (LTS) release that receives security updates for 3 - 5 years. The Ubuntu Desktop edition is available for download here, and the Ubuntu Server edition can be downloaded here. The Ubuntu Server edition can be used to deploy a corporate infrastructure on Amazon’s EC2 public cloud or an Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC). More information is available here.
eyeOS is a web operating system mainly written in PHP, XML, and JavaScript and geared towards the desktop environment. It looks and feels like a regular OS, but it can be accessed from anywhere through a web browser after installing the software on a Linux server. First released on August 1, 2005, the latest release comes with dozens of applications and system utilities including an interface for the iPhone and support for POP3 and IMAP servers. A set of libraries and functions called the eyeOS Toolkit allows developers to write their own applications. The OS is available in 35 languages and includes a Word Processor, Calendar, Mail Client, Spreadsheets and Files Manager. Users can easily collaborate and work simultaneously on the same document from different locations. eyeOS is available for download here,.
Jolicloud is a cloud based Operating System built on top of Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Edition. It is geared towards netbooks and older hardware with limited disk storage, memory, and screen size. The latest release features a HTML5 based web centric interface, a universal file system and social stream features. It supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G connectivity. Over 700 free applications are available to extend the capabilities of Jolicloud. The OS supports touch screens on many devices and automatically keeps all installations synchronized. A list of compatible netbooks and mobile devices is available here, the OS can be downloaded here.
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