Choosing a distro
Twelve distributions, from tiny Alpine to the Enterprise Linux family — what each is like and which to pick.
MSL runs twelve distributions. Each has its own colour and symbol everywhere in the app, so you can tell them apart at a glance.
| Distro | In the app | Installs software with | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine | "Tiny and fast. The default." | apk add | Small, quick shells; it's what MSL picks first. |
| Debian | "Stable and familiar." | apt install | Things that should just keep working. |
| Ubuntu | "Debian, with more batteries." | apt install | Following tutorials, which mostly assume Ubuntu. |
| Kali | "Debian, with security tooling." | apt install | Security and penetration-testing tools. |
| Arch | "Rolling release, current packages." | pacman -S | The newest versions of everything. |
| Fedora | "Recent kernels and toolchains." | dnf install | Up-to-date compilers and developer tools. |
| Rocky | "Enterprise Linux, community-built." | dnf install | Matching servers that run Red Hat Enterprise Linux. |
| AlmaLinux | "Enterprise Linux, forever free." | dnf install | The same, from a different community. |
| CentOS Stream | "Where Enterprise Linux is made." | dnf install | Seeing what the next Enterprise Linux release will contain. |
| Oracle Linux | "Enterprise Linux from Oracle." | dnf install | Oracle's database and cloud tooling. |
| openSUSE | "SUSE's community release." | zypper install | SUSE's packages and conventions. |
| Nix | "Nix packages on a Debian base." | nix profile install | Environments you can rebuild exactly. |
Which releases#
The current images are Alpine 3.24, Debian 13, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Kali (rolling), Arch Linux ARM (rolling), Fedora 44, Rocky Linux 10, AlmaLinux 10, CentOS Stream 10, Oracle Linux 10 and openSUSE Leap 16.0. Nix is the Nix package manager on Debian 13.
If you're not sure#
- For Linux GUI apps, Debian or Ubuntu have the widest choice of desktop programs.
- For a quick shell and command-line tools, Alpine is tiny and starts fastest.
- For the latest versions of things, Arch or Fedora.
- For matching a Red Hat Enterprise Linux server, Rocky or AlmaLinux.
You aren't stuck with the choice: make another instance with a different distro any time. Different distros can run side by side; instances of the same distro can't.