Feren OS, a linux distro focused in customization. Started as a Linux Mint derivative, is now based on Ubuntu and/or Debian (I'm not really sure)
Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Sabayon Linux. I'm not sure if it's still releasing updates, the main website is dead. It was based on Gentoo and later funtoo, but had a package manager of precompiled binaries. You could still use emerge if you wanted to. Definitely a weird and interesting distro
Blend OS is trying to do the declarative nixos thing but with an arch base. That's pretty cool.
ClearOS was Intel's attempt at an immutable os. From what I remember it was really fast.
Edit: actually it clear Linux not clearOS. Edit: also clear Linux is stateless. I don't know, there's a lot about it I don't understand
There was this distro that stuffs everything of a package in one folder, instead of /usr/lib & co. What was it called again?
If being usable is a metric, Slackware
Hardly obscure.
One of the coolest distros, ever. It's like a mix of Alpine Linux and Slackware without dangerous firmware payloads.
I used to run Reborn OS at around 2017 for a few years. It used Cnchi installer, just like Antergos, and when Antergos died, I saw Reborn as its successor. But the title went to Endeavour (why?) and Reborn never got popularity.
Of those I'be personally tried, certainly chimera linux or mageia
2 days ago my friend found an old SATA hard drive and gave it to me to check what's on it, and me, not having a disk station or anything, and against all better judgment, I just swapped the disk in my laptop for my friend's, and instead of my laptop being fried it turned out the disk was running something called Crunchbang Linux
Shark Linux
Limiting to those I have used daily and treated as Linux (used the terminal for example) probably Maemo. I used to carry my Nokia Internet Tablet 770, and then my N800 everywhere with me.
Maemo is also an ancestor of both Tizen and Sailfish OS
No one mentioned Bunsenlabs or Crunchbang Linux here, but they aren't really that obscure.
Archbang maybe more?
I see no one has mentioned Bedrock Linux yet. Not sure though how others would rate its 'obscurity' though. It's definitely a standout among distros.
SLiTaz
It's an obscure originally live usage oriented distro that you could also install. It was the first *Nix I ever used.
it was for a time a distro i was really big on on account of how small it could be on live media. absolutely fantastic for very old pcs and netbooks, too
Wow, I just realized it was the first Linux I ever used
Oh jeez. I forgot about that. I had that running on my DS back in the day from a GBA flashcart with a big-ass CompactFlash card sticking out the bottom. Good times.
hyperbola
they have a wiki with insane nonsens about why they don't package certain things. Example:
pam Package has different security-issues and is not oriented on the way of technical emancipation as Hyperbola is trying to adapt lightweight implementations.
https://wiki.hyperbola.info/doku.php?id=en:philosophy:incompatible_packages
Wait... they're militant enough about Free Software to refuse to package anything even slightly non-Free, but their "final goal" is to switch the kernel to BSD (i.e. away from copyleft)? WTF?
but their “final goal” is to switch the kernel to BSD (i.e. away from copyleft)?
HyperbolaBSD is a hard fork, that relicenses the OpenBSD kernel as GPL (as permitted by permissive licenses.)
HyperbolaBSD has already dug into the OpenBSD source tree and discovered numerous licensing issues.
HyperbolaBSD will be a truly libre distro that takes advantage of copyleft, while moving away from the major issues Linux is stepping into too.
Ah, that's different then!
Hmm...
From https://wiki.hyperbola.info/doku.php?id=en:manual:contrib:hyperbolabsd_faq:
HyperbolaBSD is under a progressive migration by replacing all non GPL-compatible code. It will be replaced with new compatible code under Simplified BSD License. We do this in order to incorporate GPL code from other projects such as ReactOS, as well new code from scratch.
It's not clear to me that relicensing the existing code to GPL is what they're planning on doing; it sounds more like they're going to mix in GPL code but not change the existing files to GPL en masse after they finish harmonizing them to two-clause BSD.
Frankly, IMO that's too bad: I'd love to see them make the whole shebang GPLv3-or-later
Related question: is all Linux kernel code required to be licensed GPLv2-only, or are individual contributions allowed to be GPLv2-or-later? I'd be nice to see if that project (and stuff like HURD and ReactOS) could benefit from at least some Linux contributions, even if they can't copy it wholesale.
It's an ancient divide in parts of the FOSS community that believes copyleft licenses are not "free" because they force you to license contributions under the same license.
Yeah, I know, but I would've expected a distro that describes itself as "GNU/Linux-libre" would fall on the other side of it!
No one thinks this. Even permissively licensed BSD operating systems package GPL software and accept it as Free Software.
Certain things? Fucking luddite idiots don't package 99.9% of software.
AIX Unix from the 1980s is literally more useful than that heap of garbage
Why so much rage?
Yes, Hyperbola is very ideological and super strict, but it was always meant to be that way - to provide a system that works in some way and at the same time is as ethical and "clean" as possible. Some people value it over anything, and for them, Hyperbola is a good pick.
Wow, you weren’t kidding.
Jarro Negro. Made by Mexican students. And as far as I know, it's independent, not based on another distro.