Lunar Linux

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The Lunar Linux logo; a stylized Rockhopper Penguin.

Lunar Linux is a source based Linux distribution. It is built entirely by compiling source code, using custom optimizations.

It installs a complete bootstrap development system first. After telling the Lunar package manager which software will be required, it builds the entire system by downloading current source code and locally compiling an optimized system tailored toward the users specific needs. This should result in a lean and optimized operating system. On the downside, compiling a whole distribution from scratch may be time-consuming and complicate the task of keeping the packages up to date.

Currently, Lunar only supports the x86 and x86 64 architecture, but due to its hardware-independent nature, has been implemented by users on sparc64 and ppc. No install support is planned for non-x86* architectures at the moment.

Lunar Linux itself was forked from Sorcerer GNU/Linux by a small team of people lead by Chuck Mead; another distribution derived from Sorcerer Linux is Source Mage GNU/Linux. The distribution leadership for Lunar Linux was handed over to Auke Kok on April 22, 2004.

Other source based Linux distributions include Gentoo Linux and Onebase Linux.