Alpine Linux
Tiny, musl-based and security-minded. Lives happily in containers and routers; as a desktop it is a hobby.
Facts
- Family
- alpine
- Based on
- independent, musl
- Release model
- Release about every six months, plus edge
- Current
- 3.x / edge
- Init system
- OpenRC
- Default desktop
- None
- NVIDIA
- No proprietary driver on musl; nouveau only.
- Systemd-free
- Yes
- 32-bit support
- No
- As of
- 2026-10-09
How the chooser scores it
Scores run from 1 to 5, and 5 is best for the user. They are opinion with a spreadsheet.
- StabilityStability: 4 out of 5
- Easy installEasy install: 2 out of 5
- Daily comfortDaily comfort: 1 out of 5
- Docs and helpDocs and help: 2 out of 5
- Fresh softwareFresh software: 3 out of 5
- GamingGaming: 1 out of 5
- DevelopmentDevelopment: 3 out of 5
- Old hardwareOld hardware: 5 out of 5
- ControlControl: 5 out of 5
- LightnessLightness: 5 out of 5
- NVIDIA, recent cardsNVIDIA, recent cards: 1 out of 5
- NVIDIA, older cardsNVIDIA, older cards: 1 out of 5
Caveats
- musl instead of glibc means some prebuilt programs will not run.
- No proprietary NVIDIA driver.
Community
Rate this distro and read what other people think of it.
Fetching opinions from the void...