Opensourceinfo

Annvix is a secure Linux server distribution based on Mandriva Linux. The goal is to provide an easy-to-use server distribution with high security features including a secure kernel, gcc with SPP stack protection patches, and secure defaults for all services. It also includes unique features such as running all services under runit and auditing tools such as rsec (msec's baby brother), tripwire, snort, and chkrootkit. It uses urpmi for package management.

DesktopBSD aims at being a stable and powerful operating system for desktop users. DesktopBSD combines the stability of FreeBSD, the usability and functionality of KDE and the simplicity of specially developed software to provide a system that's easy to use and install.

DragonFly is an operating system and environment designed to be the logical continuation of the FreeBSD-4.x OS series. These operating systems belong in the same class as Linux in that they are based on UNIX ideals and APIs. DragonFly is a fork in the path, so to speak, giving the BSD base an opportunity to grow in an entirely new direction from the one taken in the FreeBSD-5 series.

FreeBSD is an advanced operating system for x86 compatible (including Pentium® and Athlon ™), amd64 compatible (including Opteron ™, Athlon 64, and EM64T), Alpha/AXP, IA-64, PC-98 and UltraSPARC® architectures. It is derived from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It is developed and maintained by a large team of individuals.

FreeNAS is a free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) server, supporting: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, RSYNC protocols, local user authentication, Software RAID (0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 16MB once installed on Compact Flash, hard drive or USB key.

FreeSBIE is a live system on CD, or an operating system that is able to load directly from a bootable CD, without any installation process, without any hard disk. It's based on the FreeBSD operating system. FreeSBIE project goals are mainly two: to develop a suite of programs to be used to create your own CD, with all the personalisations you like, and to make various ISO images available, maybe each one with different goals and possible uses. The project is developed by the main Italian FreeBSD User Group: GUFI.

Frenzy is a portable system administrator toolkit LiveCD based on FreeBSD. It generally contains software for hardware tests, file system check, security check, and network setup and analysis.

Linux Netwosix is a powerful, optimized GNU/Linux distribution for servers and Network Security related jobs. It can be also used for special operations as penetration test with its big collection of softwares and sources security oriented. It's a ligh distribution created for the requirements of every SysAdmin and it's very portable and highly configurable. Our philosophy is to give a big liberty of configuration to the SysAdmin. Only in this way he/she can configure a powerful and stable server machine. Linux Netwosix have also a powerful ports system (Nepote) similar to the xBSD systems but more flexible and usable.

m0n0wall is a project aimed at creating a complete, embedded firewall software package that, when used together with an embedded PC, provides all the important features of commercial firewall boxes (including ease of use) at a fraction of the price (free software). m0n0wall is based on a bare-bones version of FreeBSD, along with a web server, PHP and a few other utilities. The entire system configuration is stored in one single XML text file to keep things transparent.

MirOS targets small servers and developers' workstations (although it _does_ come with KDE or GNOME on request); it's a pretty small, very secure operating system, totally freely licenced. MirOS BSD is derived from OpenBSD and NetBSD and currently runs on i386 and SPARC - PPC to follow.

NetBSD is a free, secure, and highly portable Unix-like Open Source operating system available for many platforms, from 64-bit Opteron machines and desktop systems to handheld and embedded devices. Its clean design and advanced features make it excellent in both production and research environments, and it is user-supported with complete source. Many applications are easily available through The NetBSD Packages Collection.

NetSecL (previously known as ISlack) is a security-focused Linux distribution. It includes Grsecurity by default. Most of the numerous security-related software is suited for penetration testing of your network. There are also security tools for testing your local security and IDSs for monitoring. The configuration of NetSecL is hardened by default: (listening for connection) services are turned off, and incoming ports are closed.

Network Security Toolkit (NST) is a bootable live CD based on Fedora Core. The toolkit was designed to provide easy access to best-of-breed open source network security applications and should run on most x86 platforms. The main intent of developing this toolkit was to provide the network security administrator with a comprehensive set of open source network security tools. What we find rather fascinating with NST is that we can transform most x86 systems (Pentium II and above) into a system designed for network traffic analysis, intrusion detection, network packet generation, wireless network monitoring, a virtual system service server, or a sophisticated network/host scanner.

The OpenBSD project produces a FREE, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system. There efforts emphasize portability, standardization, correctness, proactive security and integrated cryptography. OpenBSD supports binary emulation of most programs from SVR4 (Solaris), FreeBSD, Linux, BSD/OS, SunOS and HP-UX.

Owl (Openwall GNU/*/Linux) is a security-enhanced server operating system with Linux and GNU software as its core. It includes a complete build environment capable of rebuilding the entire system from source, supports multiple architectures (x86, SPARC, and Alpha), and offers some compatibility for packages developed for other major Linux distributions. The primary approach to security is proactive source code review, but several other approaches are used as well.

PC-BSD has as its goal to be an easy to install and use desktop OS, which is built on the FreeBSD operating system. To accomplish this, it currently has a graphical installation, which will enable even UNIX novices to easily install and get up and running. The system comes loaded with the "K" Desktop Environment (KDE), which lets users immediately sit down to a familiar interface. Also developed exclusively for PC-BSD is the PBI system, which lets users download and install their applications in a self-extracting & installing format, similar to InstallShield® on Windows®.

Pentoo is a penetration testing LiveCD distribution based on Gentoo. It features a lot of tools for auditing and testing a network, from scanning and discovering to exploiting vulnerabilities.

pfSense is a open source firewall derived from the m0n0wall operating system platform with radically different goals such as using OpenBSD's ported Packet Filter, FreeBSD ALTQ (HFSC) for excellent packet queueing and finally an integrated package management system for extending the environment with new features.

TrueBSD is a LiveCD operation system based on FreeBSD. It includes Xfce and many other useful applications. All open programs will keep working even when you eject LiveCD (using command cdcontrol eject) in order to get some data from your own CDs. Just don't forget to insert the LiveCD again before starting any other programs.