Linux Distros for Everyone: Community, Desktop, Hardcore Geek...

July 10, 2007
By

Bruce Byfield

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Browse the full list of Linux distributions, or jump to the category based on the following list: Commercial, Community, Compact, Desktop, Graphics and Music, Hardcore Geek, Hardware Oriented, Live, Education, Philosophically Free, Security, Miscellaneous.

Graphics and Music Oriented Distros

Some graphic artists and musicians claim that GNU/Linux isn't ready for professional work. However, that's a debatable point. At the very least, such disparaging comments do nothing to discourage efforts to make it so. Of all the specialty distros, few have more examples than those for art and music.

Musix GNU + Linux: As the name suggests, this distribution tries to include only free software. Like many these days, it's a live CD for multimedia.

dyne:bolic: Another live multi-media CD, dyne:bolic is also a compact distro that requires only 64 megabytes of RAM. Its home page describe the distribution as "shaped on the needs of media activists, artists and creatives." It includes tools to record, edit, encode and stream both sound and video, and supports a wide range of hardware devices and peripherals.

Grafpup: Taking Puppy Linux as its starting point, Grafpup is a compact distribution for graphic artists that includes color management for all software that supports it. Like Puppy Linux, it runs from a RAM disk for enhanced performance.

JackLab: An off-shoot of OpenSUSE, JackLab has the goal of providing a distribution optimized for musicians and artists that is easy to configure and administer. One of its specific goals is to offer tutorials to users.