10 Weird Versions of Linux that ACTUALLY Exist

[Elijah Horner]

Linux has always been challenging with knowing how to get started. Which distro should you use? What about one with Hannah Montana? Well Today Linus investigates some of the weirdest Linux ISO’s we have come across! Warning, we probably dont pick your favorite Distro, so let us know which one we should look at next!

 

List of Distros in order of Apperance:

LinuxFX: https://lmg.gg/5KtrI
Justin Bieber Linux: https://lmg.gg/zRnoJ
Hannah Montana: https://lmg.gg/LfmAm
Vinux: https://lmg.gg/T5S5K
Edubuntu: https://lmg.gg/FxLhE
RedstarOS: https://lmg.gg/W56x2
UnAlive Linux: https://lmg.gg/vxNzj
TinyCore: https://lmg.gg/8KXyG
SystemRescueCD: https://lmg.gg/JNJfV
UwUntu: https://lmg.gg/bRXoZ
 

 

[ahuckphin]

I kinda of wonder how the video would perform if it was split into 2. 

[SorryBella]

Going onto #1 and im already heavily skeezed out. LinuxFX developer are a bunch of sore arseholes with severe overconfident dev complex. If you follow their reskinning attempt called Wubuntu, there are a lot of skeletons in the closet on this distro. If you are reading this from watching the youtube video, skip this distro and go for either Mint, or Fedora Linux. Those 2 would give you a more sleek experience ala windows, but far more original.

 

Atleast looking at the preview, the rest of the recommendations are either entertaining niche i had heard before or actual useful things i have tried.

 

[HarlequinSec]

Very interesting Video @Elijah Horner.
Just a Note to "Redstar OS": There are actually 2 separate ISOs you need to have it running properly (in a VM as well). One must be the "signed" ISO of RedStarOS (e.g. I have a Version 3.0) and then you need an additional "Red Star Software ISO" which contains additional Installations (like the Software ISO from Debian).
From what it seems, you had not installed the 2nd ISO in your Version.

Also you can change the System Language to English via File Modification in the ISO, the System itself will then be ~ 90% English with only a few specific Apps still in Korean.

 

Also if you maybe plan a follow-up, I would recommend you take a look at Whonix (which is a VERY Privacy Forward Linux Tor Distro) and maybe Seanux, the Linux Distro of the "Syrian Electronic Army" (I have the ISOs for both 1.0 and 2.0 "The Night Warrior" if you want them).

[WereCat]

I think you should do:

 

TrustMeBro Linux

 

packed fully with tracking and merch advertising

[merspieler]

If there's a 2nd video like this, I'd love to see NixOS on it cause its so totally different from the common distros with it's declarative approach.

[visitor2015]

With the existing amount of different Linux distributions LTT can make this a series where they simply show 10 distros at a time and talk about them.

I really would like to see more LInux content on this channel. It is always refrehsing to see that there are more options to Windows or MacOS than one might know.

Worth mentioning would also be DSL (Damn Small Linux). It also can be run natively under Windows using a bundled Quemu hypervisor.

Russia also has its own distro named Astra Linux.

I have installed Siduction on many machines and also use Linux at work.

 

[nanopone]

logged into my forum account for the first time in a while just to say:

DO NOT USE LINUXFX (or any affiliated distro like wubuntu)

 

they are known for stealing code and assets, logging users, having extremely poor security practices, and breaking software licenses. not only that, but they have the balls to sell a "professional" license key

 

"familiar", it is not. linuxfx is just a freely available windows-like theme on top of kde plasma (a common desktop environment) with some janky windows-like software included

 

if you want something genuinely windows-like, look at any distro that comes with kde plasma or cinnamon, namely, ultramarine linux or linux mint, which are both rock solid and use the typical windows-like taskbar paradigm

 

i'm honestly disappointed about this being at the start of the video, before even the intro plays, or even being included in the video in the first place. it's even more irresponsible than when ltt recommended atlasos. i expected more research and responsible reporting, especially after the controversy in august

[Tideroo]

Really hope there's a part 2 to this ! IMO There are many more obscure distros that can be talked about (like GalliumOS - KolibriOS too perhaps)

ReactOS would also fit well in the list, it's definitely an usual/weird distro (while still being great) and the latest LTT video about it is ~4 years old 

[nanopone]

i know my previous reply to this thread was pretty negative, but i watched the rest of the video and i want to answer the question at the end of the video, since i do actually have hope for the future of linux videos on ltt.

 

i actually do have a favourite distro that i ABSOLUTELY want ltt to check out in a linux video in the future. ultramarine linux. it is specifically designed to NOT be terminal centric or require a masters degree in computer science to use and being completely user-friendly and very modern, having all of the latest technology, while also being almost completely vanilla. it's based on fedora and is designed to be 100% compatible with it, meaning the base is rock solid and almost 20 years mature. it comes with almost everything you need to get started, including nvidia graphics drivers and media codecs (unlike fedora) and using it fully graphically without touching a terminal is directly intended. i'm very passionate about it and i'm also friends with some members of the team behind it and feel like they need a big boost from a big name like ltt.

 

not only that, but coming from a user experience nutcase like me, all of the messing about with unfriendly distros like ubuntu and manjaro on ltt over the years was getting really irritating to watch. the stereotype of linux being something you can't use without interacting with the terminal every day, something the majority of us would like to leave in the past in favour of friendly graphical environments, has been historically propelled by ltt's coverage of linux over the years (that video with wendell has aged horribly...). it would be a gigantic breath of fresh air from the linux community to see ltt shine some positive light on an actually user friendly distro that isn't drowning in controversy or ux problems.

[Beerzerker]

I can suggest Peppermint (Ubuntu based) as a "User Friendly" platform.
It's much like Mint in that way, behaves and works alot like Windows for those looking to make the move to Linux as their OS and I've been using it over the past 5 years with nothing bad to say about it.

Just know:
I'm absolutely NOT a Linux guru in any way or even know how to "Sudo"/"Bash" Linux but since I've been able to use it for as long as I have and still using it today, that says alot about it. I install it and it works which is what I and probrably the vast majority wants too.

[MauritsV]

IMO the only two features you need in LinusLinux is flatpak/flathub and distrobox. The former gives you 90% of the apps you daily use and the latter gives you a way to easily run the remaining 10% in whatever distro the developer tested on.

[QOBRA]

LTT Distro? Dont know if this is going to be just for the video or a serious project, but if this is gonna be serious distro you should make it stable and user friendly distro just like Linux Mint with minimum use for terminal and KDE Plasma as desktop environment since Valve is using it for SteamOS and Steam deck users are familiar with it

[Ultraforce]

2 hours ago, Tideroo said:

Really hope there's a part 2 to this ! IMO There are many more obscure distros that can be talked about (like GalliumOS - KolibriOS too perhaps)

ReactOS would also fit well in the list, it's definitely an usual/weird distro (while still being great) and the latest LTT video about it is ~4 years old 

ReactOS is explicitly though not a Linux OS, it's a NT-like kernel.

[Tideroo]

27 minutes ago, Ultraforce said:

ReactOS is explicitly though not a Linux OS, it's a NT-like kernel.

You're right my bad, I got confused for a moment because of its GNU license. KolibriOS isnt a linux distro as well if I'm being honest with you Still, I think it would be interesting to talk about both. They definitely fit in the "weird OS" theme of the video

[Caroline]

Gyus where's Lesbian Linux?

[JT_1401]

I am a visually impaired user and I struggle to get Linux running on my servers due to poor or cumbersome screen reader support or the distro not supporting the sound card during the installation process. I was hoping Vinux would have been a more polished tool as it could have helped with deploying our small server cluster.

[dogwitch]

ltt

drop os!

[Bitter]

A little surprised no Qubes but meh not surprised. Also no mention of the easy to use but low min spec versions of Ubuntu like X and L Ubuntu.

[WeetHet]

IMO, linus really needs to check out NixOS with impermanence. Wiping out all your data except what's explicitly specified is super cool, as no logs/clutter is built up

[darknessblade]

LTT distro....

 

Feature suggestion: When moving a app/icon it randomly drops to the bottom of the screen

[Ultraforce]

11 hours ago, JT_1401 said:

I am a visually impaired user and I struggle to get Linux running on my servers due to poor or cumbersome screen reader support or the distro not supporting the sound card during the installation process. I was hoping Vinux would have been a more polished tool as it could have helped with deploying our small server cluster.

Someone who is basically fully blind recommended Slint as far as a distribution purpose made for the blind. Though I know accessibility is very much a work that progress still needs to be done on with some of the biggest desktops getting grants to help improve their accessibility, with KDE Plasma 6 being apparently a big improvement over 5.

[jebuswankel]

I'm a long time Linux user. The idea of an LTT Distro inspired me to write up a blog post of things I'd like in a distro.

 

Some of it would require some modest custom development, so I'll admit it's a bit much for LTT compared to just picking some default packages and themes, but here it is anyway.

grub-btrfs

I love the idea that if I screw something up, I can simply reboot to roll it back. AFAICT, I can’t retrofit this to my current Arch install, so I think this is a good thing to bake by default into the installer.

Also related to btrfs, the GUI tools snapper and timeshift can integrate into btrfs, but by default they rely on a certain conventional btrfs subvolume structure that I don’t have since my Arch install was just the default arch_install script, so fix that.

I like the idea of immutable OSes but in practice having to reboot after doing an install isn’t worth it. If I’m worried about screwing things up by installing something new, I’ll do it in a toolbox. So install that by default.

Also let’s install etckeeper by default. And I’d like a GUI that unifies all btrfs snapshots, timeshift/duplicity style backups, and etckeeper commits into one place so if I have an issue that I’m unsure about, I can see a timeline of changes and make a guess about what might have broken based on roughly when I think the breakage started.

WPS

I love the convenience of using WPS to set up my WiFi. I think the installer should nudge the user to use this since it creates the best case experience.

Repository Mirrors

I like to detect the closest/faster repository mirror near me and use that. I like how easy Ubuntu makes it. I think it’s worth making it part of the installation process since it can be a single click, skippable step that can really speed things up.

Net-install by default

I like net-install ISOs since they result in a totally up-to-date installation on first boot.

find-the-command

I like how when you try to run a program that you don’t have installed in Ubuntu, it tries to figure out what package provides that executable and recommends you install it. I have find-the-command installed in Arch, but it doesn’t work as well as in Ubuntu, at least as I have it set up right now.

Personalizations

Just stuff I like installed by default

• fish shell
• system-load-indicator
• nushell
• podman and podman-desktop
• gnome-boxes
• micro text editor
• unifont and noto fonts for Unicode coverage to avoid seeing �s
• tree
• ncdu

Pre-configured software sources

If you use flatpak, 99% of the time you’re downloading the flatpaks from Flathub. If you use podman, 99% of the time you’re downloading the container images from Dockerhub. It’s annoying to have to do an extra step to configure these sources the first time. Just be real and configure them by default, or make it a single click affair to set them up.

Base

I currently use Arch, so that’s my top pick for a base. I really just like that with AUR and the popularity of Arch, Arch seems to give the best experience when I try to install whatever random new little project I find on Hacker News. And I’m happy with the rolling release model.

[AndreiArgeanu]

If you ever need more random linux distros to look into, look at this wikipedia SVG that lists most linux distros. SnakeOil OS is an interesting one I just hapenned to find that is designed to listen to music. https://www.snakeoil-os.net/ . Or bedrock linux that claims to be compatible with everything. Or Damn Vulnerable Linux that apparently was made to teach security at some point.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg

[Dragonwinged]

So for a followup on testing distros, I'd like you to go through as many gaming distros as you can. (and see how long it takes for linus to break them.) 

 

Also, not a distro itself, but an application that the linux login shell recognizes as a viable desktop environment. Kodi is a program designed to organize local media on your computer. Its default theme is perfectly designed for gamepads and remotes, while still being usable with mouse and keyboard.