Minor and distribution releases - DistroWatch

SmartOS is an open-source UNIX-like operating system based on illumos, a community fork of OpenSolaris. It features four technologies - ZFS (a combined file system and logical volume manager), DTrace (a dynamic tracing framework for troubleshooting kernel and application problems), Zones (a lightweight virtualisation solution), KVM and bhyve (two full virtualisation solutions for running a variety of guest operating systems, including Linux, Windows, BSD and Plan9). SmartOS is designed to be particularly suitable for building clouds and generating appliances.

CalamaroOS is a Gentoo-based Linux distribution for the desktop, using either KDE Plasma or Xfce desktop environment. It features the Calamares system installer, out-of-the-box support for Flatpak packages, support for BTRFS, XFS and F2FS filesystems, and the systemd software suite for system and service management. The project's goal is to bring the power of Gentoo Linux to an average user by eliminating the complex and time-consuming process associated with the classic Gentoo install method.

CatOS is a Chinese Linux distribution based on Arch Linux and featuring a customised KDE Plasma desktop. Its main characteristics include out-of-the-box support for simplified Chinese input method, Calamares system installer, custom software repositories, and support for virtualization. It also provides a choice of Linux kernels, including the long-term supported variant, as well as mainline, Zen and hardened kernels. CatOS intends to be a user-friendly Linux distribution, especially for Chinese-speaking users.

ML4W OS is an Arch Linux-based distribution featuring a heavily customised Hyprland tiling compositor. The project specialises primarily in creating advanced configuration for Hyprland, so called "dotfiles", which are available for installation on several other Arch-based distributions, as well as Fedora and openSUSE. However, the live ML4W OS ISO image is a standalone, full-featured Linux distribution with all Hyprland configuration files, applications, icons, themes and wallpapers included. It can be installed to a hard disk using a custom text-mode system installer. The project also provides extensive documentation about setting up and configuring Hyprland.

Tribblix is a general-purpose operating system derived from OpenSolaris, OpenIndiana and illumos. The base kernel and commands come from illumos, with everything else rebuilt from scratch. It is a traditional system where software is distributed as SVR4 packages and lightweight window managers are preferred over heavy desktop environments. Xfce is the primary desktop option, with MATE, Enlightenment and various window managers also available for installation. While Tribblix inherits many of the key illumos technologies, such as ZFS, zones, DTrace and SMF, it uses its own build and packaging system.

AlterOS is a Russian, general-purpose Linux distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is developed by ALMI PARTNER, a Russian software development company, and available for personal and professional workstations and servers. Some of the features of AlterOS include optimisation of the Linux kernel and the core libraries for modern hardware, the Cinnamon desktop environment, and pre-installed certificates from the Russian Ministry of Digital Development to ensure integration with government systems and compliance with cybersecurity requirements.

Soplos Linux is a set of desktop-oriented Linux distributions based on Debian's "Testing" featuring several popular desktop environments. It offers rolling updates, up-to-date software, a relatively lightweight and customisable desktop, compatibility with older hardware, and various speed and performance optimisation features. The distribution ships with a number of custom applications, such as Soplos Theme Manager, Soplos Plymouth Manager, Soplos Docklike (for adding and removing applications in the dock) and Soplos GRUB Editor.

openKylin is a Chinese desktop Linux distribution which runs the Kylin and UKUI desktop environments. Both Wayland and X11 sessions are available out of the box. The project is a member of the Debian family and can use APT package management tools. It also features a custom package format which is combined with a software centre. openKylin is also a proving ground for custom utilities which assist the user in managing the operating system.

GNOME OS is an experimental, immutable Linux distribution that ships the latest in-development GNOME desktop, core applications and stack. It serves as a reference for developers and testers. It is designed around the modern systemd and GNU-based userland built from the Freedesktop SDK. Initially, GNOME OS used a library and set of utilities called OSTree to deploy the root filesystem and manage updates, but later migrated to "systemd-sysupdate" which offers enhanced immutability, auto-updating, adaptability, factory reset, uniformity and other modernised security properties. GNOME OS can be loaded as a live image in Boxes, VirtualBox, QEMU and other virtualisation software, but it can also be installed on a standard x86_64 hardware. The distribution does not support traditional package management; however, additional software applications can be installed via the Flatpak utility which is supported out of the box.

The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The product ships with several Internet applications, including web browser, IRC client, mail client and instant messenger, all pre-configured with security in mind and with all traffic anonymised. To achieve this, Incognito uses the Tor network to make Internet traffic very hard to trace.

Talos is a specialist Linux-based operating system for running Kubernetes, an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling and management of containerised applications. Minimal, immutable and hardened, it does not offer any shell or interactive console; instead, all system management is done via remote Application Programming Interface (API) calls, where messages sent from a client application are protected with mutual Transport Layer Security TLS (mTLS) authentication. Talos also delivers atomic updates, thus maintaining the Linux and Kubernetes versions up-to-date. Talos is developed in the USA by Sidero Labs, Inc.

starkOS is an independently-developed GNU/Linux distribution designed for experienced Linux users. It uses a ports system and the stark package manager to install and update software from source code. The project provides a lightweight live image with Sway Wayland compositor and some basic software on it. The live system does not include an installer; however, starkOS can be installed to a hard disk using one of the rootfs filesystems (with a choice of runit, s6 or SysV init software) provided separately. The project's goal is to develop a Linux distribution that is simple, lightweight, up-to-date and extensible.