There are several Linux distributions that we could call "mother distros", such as Debian, Arch, Slackware, Fedora, etc., from which many others derive. You already know most of them, since we have talked about them in this blog. Nevertheless, recently new distro projects have been born that are interesting and it seems that they could give a lot to talk about. That is why in this article we show you these novelties in the GNU/Linux world so that you can discover them and have a complementary list to our top distros 2022.
vanilla OS
One of the Linux distributions on our list is vanilla OS. A quite promising and ambitious project that you should know about. This distro is based on Ubuntu, but it is immutable, that is, most of its file system is read-only and updates do not overwrite the file system. This way, if something goes wrong with the update, it can be downloaded and automatically reverted to the original version, so you always have a stable operating system. However, the partition structure for this to be possible is quite complex.
Another notable aspect of Vanilla OS is that integrates Distrobox. This is a tool that allows you to create containers of Linux distributions within others, that is, as if you had Windows WSL, but in your Vanilla OS distro. That way you can install and run apps natively on any other distro you want without leaving Vanilla OS as the base system.
It is also important to say that Vanilla OS is a distro with a own package manager called Apx, and that it is compatible with the three universal package systems (Snap, Flatpak and AppImage), so the number of apps available for this distribution is quite large. And all of that in a pure GNOME environment, without the custom changes and plugins that Ubuntu adds, so it's more like the Fedora experience.
Nobara Project
Next on the list of our young distros is Nobara Project. This project has been released in 2023, and it is a modified version of Fedora with some modifications to make it more user-friendly. Of course, it is not an official spin or flavor of Fedora, but a totally independent project. In addition, it has three editions: GNOME (custom), GNOME (standard) and KDE Plasma.
To make things a lot easier for this “Fedora”, everything has been done so that users just have to click and enjoy a very easy experience. That is, the users they don't have to open the terminal and work in text mode for almost nothing. Of course, it has also made it easier to install additional packages such as Steam, Lutris, Wine, OBS Studio, multimedia codecs, official GPU drivers, etc., as well as enable repositories such as RPM Fusion and FlatHub by default.
RisiOS
RisiOS It is another of the relatively young distributions and also based on Fedora. In this case he was born in the American Pacific Northwest, specifically in Seattle. This operating system is able to offer the latest cutting-edge features without breaking anything during release cycles like other distros, so you can expect a system with the latest, but very stable.
On the other hand, RisiOS also inherits from Fedora some of its features, such as being based on the Wayland graphical server, for a more modern environment, the btrfs file system, or the famous Pipewire project, among many other interesting features. And, of course, as a desktop environment it keeps GNOME as in its parent distro.
Kumander Linux
Kumander Linux is a distro that pays homage to the old Commodore computers. However, they have also looked for a touch of inspiration in the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system. In fact, when you take a first look at the desktop environment of this distro you may think that you are in the Redmond system, although it is not. So.
The objective set by its developers is to offer a very easy to use environment for those people coming from windows, so they don't get lost in the early going in the Linux world. In addition to this, another of the objectives is to bring back the colorful icons and beautiful wallpapers.
On a technical level, this distro is based on Debian, so you can expect a robust and stable environment, in addition to opting for the XFCE desktop environment (modified) to offer a lightweight system that can be installed on computers with fewer resources or laptops. On the other hand, this distro should appear throughout this year in its final version, since for now only a Release Candidate 1 is available...
exodia OS
In 2022 another of the distributions based on Arch Linux was launched, in this case its name is exodia OS. Unlike other projects derived from Arch that do not bring much new, in this case we do have great news, such as an ultra-light desktop environment based on the BSPWM window manager and EWW widgets. In addition, it is focused on cybersecurity experts, offering a good number of applications for them to perform pentesting.
Also, it is extremely customizable. Your default shell is ZSH, instead of being Bash as in most distributions. And if that's not enough for you, it also includes the Microsoft Powershell shell pre-installed. And, as an additional curiosity, note that it offers a specific version for Acer Predator series laptops.
XeroLinux
Last but not least, we also have the distribution XeroLinux. This distro is developed in Lebanon and is based on Arch Linux. It is created with the ArcoLinux ALCI scripts. It also has built-in support for AUR repositories and also for Flatpak packages.
Some of its features include its KDE Plasma desktop environment, Calamares installer, XFS file system, Pamac GUI Storefront, Dolphin file manager, Konsole as a terminal, and the System76 power management tool. To all this we must add that XeroLinux also comes with quite striking custom themes for the desktop environment, and even custom themes for GRUB.
Nobara Project has existed since the beginning of 2022, not 2023.