Xubuntu is a community-developed operating system based on Ubuntu. It comes with Xfce, which is a stable, light and configurable desktop environment.

Ubuntu Unity is a flavour of Ubuntu featuring the Unity desktop environment (the default desktop environment developed and used by Ubuntu from 2010 to 2017). Unity debuted in the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10.10; it was initially designed to make more efficient use of space given the limited screen size of netbooks, including a vertical application switcher called "the launcher" and a space-saving horizontal multipurpose top menu bar. Ubuntu switched from Unity to GNOME in 2017, but the desktop was resurrected again as an unofficial "Ubuntu Unity Remix" in 2020. It became an official flavour of Ubuntu during the development cycle of Ubuntu 22.10 in 2022.

An official variant of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Studio is a Linux-based operating system for creative individuals in the areas of audio production, video production, graphics design, photography and desktop publishing. It makes professional audio accessible on Linux; it uses the JACK sound server and a kernel built with a low-latency patch. Up until version 20.10 Ubuntu Studio shipped with the Xfce desktop environment, but this was replaced by KDE Plasma in October 2020.

Ubuntu Kylin is an official Ubuntu flavour whose primary goal is to create a variant of Ubuntu optimised for Chinese users (using the Simplified Chinese writing system), although it also supports other languages. The default desktop is called UKUI (Universal Kylin User Interface) which is based on MATE desktop and is developed with the Qt toolkit. UKUI strives to adhere to the friendly-and-simple design concept. The distribution also includes more than 20 applications developed in-house, including Kylin Assistant, Kylin Video, Kylin Screenshots and Software Center.

Ubuntu Cinnamon is an official flavour of the Ubuntu distribution featuring the Cinnamon desktop. The project strives to offer modern tools while providing a user-friendly desktop which will feel familiar for users coming from other operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows.

Ubuntu Budgie (previously budgie-remix) is an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the Budgie desktop, originally developed by the Solus project. Written from scratch and integrating tightly with the GNOME stack, Budgie focuses on simplicity and elegance, while also offering useful features, such as the Raven notification and customisation centre.

Lubuntu is a variant of Ubuntu that uses the LXQt desktop environment. (Versions prior to 18.10 shipped with the LXDE desktop.) It includes essential applications and services for daily use, including office suite, PDF reader, image editor and multimedia players. A distribution available for both 32-bit and 64-bit computers, Lubuntu is intended to be user-friendly, lightweight and energy efficient.

Kubuntu is a free, user-friendly Linux distribution based on KDE's desktop software and on the Ubuntu operating system. It has a biannual release cycle. Besides providing an up-to-date version of the KDE desktop at the time of the release, the project also releases updated KDE packages throughout the lifetime of each release.

Edubuntu is a partner project of Ubuntu, a distribution suitable for classroom use. The aim is that an educator with limited technical knowledge and skill will be able to set up a computer lab, or establish an on-line learning environment, in an hour or less, and then administer that environment without having to become a fully-fledged Linux geek.

Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. "Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

SmartOS is an open-source UNIX-like operating system based on illumos, a community fork of OpenSolaris. It features four technologies - ZFS (a combined file system and logical volume manager), DTrace (a dynamic tracing framework for troubleshooting kernel and application problems), Zones (a lightweight virtualisation solution), KVM and bhyve (two full virtualisation solutions for running a variety of guest operating systems, including Linux, Windows, BSD and Plan9). SmartOS is designed to be particularly suitable for building clouds and generating appliances.

ALT Linux was founded in 2001 by a merge of two large Russian free software projects. By the year 2008 it became a large organization developing and deploying free software, writing documentation and technical literature, supporting users, and developing custom products. ALT Linux produces different types of distributions for various purposes. There are desktop distributions for home and office computers and for corporate servers, universal distributions that include a wide variety of development tools and documentation, certified products, distributions specialized for educational institutions, and distributions for low-powered computers. ALT Linux has its own development infrastructure and repository called Sisyphus, which provides the base for all the different editions of ALT Linux.

Omarchy is an Arch-based Linux distribution featuring the Hyprland tiling window manager. It ships with what a modern software developer would need to be productive immediately, including Neovim, Spotify, Chromium, Typora, Alacritty, LibreOffice and Zoom. The distribution boots into a text-mode system installer that downloads the latest packages from the Arch Linux repositories during installation to build a complete Hyprland desktop.

Security Onion is a specialist, security-oriented Linux distribution based on Oracle Linux. It is a free and open platform for threat hunting, enterprise security monitoring and log management. It includes custom interfaces for alerting, dashboards, hunting, PCAP, detections and case management. It also includes other tools, such as osquery (a tool for exploring and monitoring operating system data with SQL queries), CyberChef (a web application for encryption, encoding, compression and data analysis), Elasticsearch (a data search engine), Logstash (a data collection and processing engine), Kibana (a data visualization plugin for Elasticsearch), Suricata (an intrusion detection and prevention system) and Zeek (a software network analysis framework).

PorteuX is a Linux distribution based on Slackware Linux, inspired by Slax and Porteus and available to the public for free. Its main goal is to be fast, small, portable (run from a thumb drive), modular and optionally immutable. It is pre-configured for basic usage, including lightweight applications for each one of the seven desktop environments (Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt, MATE and Xfce) available. No browser is included, but an app store is provided for downloading any of the most popular browsers, as well as other applications.

The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The product ships with several Internet applications, including web browser, IRC client, mail client and instant messenger, all pre-configured with security in mind and with all traffic anonymised. To achieve this, Incognito uses the Tor network to make Internet traffic very hard to trace.

Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose goal is to provide a classic desktop experience with many convenient, custom tools and optional out-of-the-box multimedia support. It also adds a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, and a web-based package installation interface. Linux Mint is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories. Besides its Ubuntu-based flavour, the project also produces a separate "Debian" edition (called LMDE), based on the latest stable Debian version.

Neptune is a GNU/Linux distribution for desktops. It is based on Debian's Stable branch, except for a newer kernel, some drivers and newer versions of popular applications, such as LibreOffice. It also ships with the latest version of the KDE desktop. The distribution's main goals are to provide a good-looking general-purpose desktop with pre-configured multimedia playback and to offer an easy-to-use USB installer with a persistence option.

DebLight OS is a French Linux distribution based on Linux Mint Debian Edition, which combines the user-friendliness of Linux Mint with the stability of the Debian's latest stable release. It uses the lightweight LXDE desktop environment. The project's goal is to develop a general-purpose operating system and a productive desktop which would be both light on resources and easy to use for even less experienced Linux users. DebLight OS comes in three editions: Old (a very light variant built for 32-bit processors), Classic (a relatively light variant with a selection of commonly used applications), and Studio (the most complete system with an extensive list of software for a variety of computing tasks).

Fedora Linux (formerly Fedora, formerly Fedora Core) is a Linux distribution developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and owned by Red Hat. Fedora Linux contains software distributed under a free and open-source license and aims to be on the leading edge of such technologies. Fedora has a reputation for focusing on innovation, integrating new technologies early on and working closely with upstream Linux communities. The default desktop in Fedora Linux is the GNOME desktop environment and the default interface is the GNOME Shell. Other desktop environments, including KDE, Xfce, LXDE, MATE and Cinnamon, are available. The Fedora project also distributes custom variations of Fedora called Fedora spins. These are built with specific sets of software packages, offering alternative desktop environments or targeting specific interests such as gaming, security, design, scientific computing and robotics.

SparkyLinux is a lightweight, fast and simple Linux distribution designed for both old and new computers featuring customised Enlightenment and LXDE desktops. It has been built on the "testing" branch of Debian GNU/Linux.

Ultimate Edition, first released in December 2006, was a fork of Ubuntu and Linux Mint though recent versions (starting in 2024) have been based on Arch Linux. The goal of the project is to create a complete, seamlessly integrated, visually stimulating, and easy-to-install operating system. Single-button upgrade is one of several special characteristics of this distribution. Other main features include custom desktop and theme with 3D effects, support for a wide range of networking options, including WiFi and Bluetooth, and integration of many extra applications and package repositories.

Mauna Linux is a Brazilian desktop Linux distribution based on Debian's "stable" branch. The project offers a set of live images with four desktop environments - Cinnamon, LXQt, MATE and Xfce, plus a separate "Christian Edition" which includes the Bible and various applications meant for use in churches. Some of the distribution's main features include the Calamares system installer, a software store with hundreds of applications maintained by Debian and Mauna Linux, a software manager and updater, and an out-of-the box support for the Portuguese language. The goal of Mauna Linux is to develop a distribution that is easy to use, practical and robust, and which would complement the existing Linux user communities in Brazil and abroad.

Gentoo Linux is a versatile and fast, completely free Linux distribution geared towards developers and network professionals. Unlike other distros, Gentoo Linux has an advanced package management system called Portage. Portage is a true ports system in the tradition of BSD ports, but is Python-based and sports a number of advanced features including dependencies, fine-grained package management, "fake" (OpenBSD-style) installs, safe unmerging, system profiles, virtual packages, config file management, and more.