Best Operating Systems for Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Enhanced security features, a wider array of packages, and cutting-edge tools are all part of your open-source ecosystem, spanning from cloud to edge. Safeguard your open-source applications by ensuring comprehensive patching from the kernel to libraries and applications for CVE compliance. Both governments and auditors have verified Ubuntu for compliance with FedRAMP, FISMA, and HITECH standards. It's time to reconsider the potential of Linux and open-source technology. Organizations partner with Canonical to reduce costs associated with open-source operating systems. Streamline your processes by automating everything, including multi-cloud operations, bare metal provisioning, edge clusters, and IoT devices. Ubuntu serves as the perfect platform for a wide range of professionals, including mobile app developers, engineering managers, video editors, and financial analysts working with complex models. This operating system is favored by countless development teams globally for its adaptability, stability, continuous updates, and robust libraries for developers. With its strong community support and commitment to innovation, Ubuntu remains a leading choice in the open-source landscape.

Arm Mbed OS is an open-source operating system tailored for IoT applications, providing all the essential tools for creating IoT devices. This robust OS is equipped to support smart and connected products built on Arm Cortex-M architecture, offering features such as machine learning, secure connectivity stacks, an RTOS kernel, and drivers for various sensors and I/O devices. Specifically designed for the Internet of Things, Arm Mbed OS integrates capabilities in connectivity, machine learning, networking, and security, complemented by a wealth of software libraries, development boards, tutorials, and practical examples. It fosters collaboration across a vast ecosystem, supporting over 70 partners in silicon, modules, cloud services, and OEMs, thereby enhancing choices for developers. By leveraging the Mbed OS API, developers can maintain clean, portable, and straightforward application code while benefiting from advanced security, communication, and machine learning functionalities. This cohesive solution ultimately streamlines the development process, significantly lowering costs, minimizing time investment, and reducing associated risks. Furthermore, Mbed OS empowers innovation, enabling developers to rapidly prototype and deploy IoT solutions with confidence.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time serves as a real-time operating system that minimizes latency and enhances the predictability and reliability of time-sensitive, essential applications, whether it’s an IoT sensor keeping tabs on industrial equipment or an edge system that requires immediate responses to external stimuli. Various sectors, including banks, manufacturers, and government entities, depend on applications that must function with precision and reliability under all circumstances. For distributed systems to operate cohesively, they require time synchronization not just within individual servers but also among all interconnected servers. The Precision Time Protocol (PTP) achieves this by synchronizing servers over high-speed networks, boasting accuracy down to sub-microsecond levels. It also features support for device interrupt threads, allowing for optimization at the device level, along with hardware latency detectors to maintain consistent application behavior. With SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time, you gain a crucial competitive edge in timing efficiency, ensuring your applications run smoothly and reliably. This ensures that your business can respond agilely to market demands while maintaining high standards of performance.

Open source software and a universal router are key to democratizing the way we access networks. VyOS' vision is to revolutionize how we access networks, so that everyone can build the solutions they have always wanted, without limitations, restrictions, or prohibitive prices. We believe that internet access is just as important to human development as food, water, air, and healthcare. VyOS was founded by engineers for engineers. It is an open-source software company that makes it possible to access networks without restrictions or prohibitive fees. Through our open-source software and virtual platforms, we do this as VyOS. Stateful firewalls, zone based firewall, all types source and destination NAT (one-to-one, one-to many, many to many). For auditing, creating customized images and contributing, everyone has access to the entire codebase and build toolchain.

AlmaLinux OS is a free, community-driven enterprise Linux distribution that emphasizes long-term stability and serves as a reliable platform for production environments. It is designed to be fully compatible with RHEL® and pre-Stream CentOS, allowing users to transition seamlessly between systems. The source code and various tools necessary for building AlmaLinux OS can be accessed through our GitHub organization. Engage with a lively community on Reddit, where you can interact with fellow users, stay informed on the latest developments, and both offer and seek assistance. Participate in real-time discussions with other members, including the governance team and developers, to ask questions and share knowledge. As a fully independent operating system, AlmaLinux OS benefits from $1M in annual support from CloudLinux Inc, along with contributions from additional sponsors, ensuring ongoing development is driven by community involvement. This collaborative approach allows for a more resilient and adaptable OS that meets the needs of its users.

Fedora CoreOS is a minimal operating system that updates automatically and is designed for securely running containerized workloads at scale. It is accessible on various platforms, with more options anticipated in the near future. There are three distinct update streams for Fedora CoreOS (FCOS): stable, testing, and next. Typically, it is advisable to utilize the stable stream, but running some machines on the testing and next streams is encouraged to contribute feedback. When automating the installation of Fedora CoreOS, you will need to engage with stream metadata. Although Fedora CoreOS performs automatic in-place updates, it is a best practice to provision new machines using the latest available images. Notably, Fedora CoreOS does not provide a separate installation disk; instead, each instance is created from a general disk image that is tailored during the first boot using Ignition. Everything offered within this operating system is open source and free software, meaning not only can you use it without charge, but you also have the freedom to share, modify, and remix it according to your needs. This flexibility makes Fedora CoreOS an appealing option for developers and organizations looking for a robust and adaptable solution.

SUSE Linux Micro is a streamlined, container-focused Linux operating system specifically tailored for edge computing and microservices applications. With its minimal size, it is optimized for security and performance, making it ideal for deploying applications within containers. This platform facilitates rapid, scalable, and economical cloud-native development, particularly in environments with limited resources. Featuring integrated automation tools and full compatibility with Kubernetes, SUSE Linux Micro ensures seamless integration into contemporary containerized systems. Its design caters to the needs of developers and IT operations teams, allowing them to efficiently deploy and oversee applications across diverse distributed environments. Additionally, its lightweight nature and robust capabilities make it an excellent choice for organizations looking to enhance their container strategies.

The advent of container-based infrastructure represented a significant transformation in technology. A Linux distribution specifically optimized for containers serves as the ideal groundwork for a cloud-native setup. This streamlined operating system image consists solely of the essential tools needed for container execution. By omitting a package manager, it prevents any potential for configuration drift. The use of an immutable filesystem for the OS effectively mitigates a range of security vulnerabilities. Additionally, automated atomic updates ensure that you consistently receive the most current security patches and open-source technology advancements. Flatcar Container Linux is purpose-built from the ground up to support container workloads effectively. It fully embraces the container philosophy by incorporating only the necessary components for running containers. In a world of immutable infrastructure, it is crucial to have an equally immutable Linux operating system. With Flatcar Container Linux, your focus shifts from configuration management to effectively overseeing your infrastructure, allowing for a more efficient and secure operational environment. Embracing this approach revolutionizes how organizations manage their cloud-native applications and services.

Kali Linux is a Debian-based, open-source distribution designed specifically for a variety of information security activities, including penetration testing, security research, computer forensics, and reverse engineering. While it's possible to take any Linux distribution and manually install penetration testing tools, this requires considerable setup and configuration efforts. Kali Linux is tailored to minimize this workload, enabling professionals to focus on their tasks right away. You can access a version of Kali from virtually anywhere, whether on mobile devices, Docker, ARM architectures, Amazon Web Services, the Windows Subsystem for Linux, virtual machines, or even bare metal installations. Thanks to metapackages that cater to specific security tasks and a user-friendly ISO customization process that is well-documented, creating an optimized version of Kali to suit your particular needs is straightforward. This makes it a versatile choice for both experienced users and newcomers alike, as comprehensive documentation ensures that everyone can find the guidance they require. Additionally, the active community surrounding Kali Linux continuously contributes to its improvement, further enhancing the resources available to users.

CIQ empowers people to do amazing things by providing innovative and stable software infrastructure solutions for all computing needs. From the base operating system, through containers, orchestration, provisioning, computing, and cloud applications, CIQ works with every part of the technology stack to drive solutions for customers and communities with stable, scalable, secure production environments. CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux, and the creator of the next generation federated computing stack.

KubeSphere serves as a distributed operating system designed for managing cloud-native applications, utilizing Kubernetes as its core. Its architecture is modular, enabling the easy integration of third-party applications into its framework. KubeSphere stands out as a multi-tenant, enterprise-level, open-source platform for Kubernetes, equipped with comprehensive automated IT operations and efficient DevOps processes. The platform features a user-friendly wizard-driven web interface, which empowers businesses to enhance their Kubernetes environments with essential tools and capabilities necessary for effective enterprise strategies. Recognized as a CNCF-certified Kubernetes platform, it is entirely open-source and thrives on community contributions for ongoing enhancements. KubeSphere can be implemented on pre-existing Kubernetes clusters or Linux servers and offers options for both online and air-gapped installations. This unified platform effectively delivers a range of functionalities, including DevOps support, service mesh integration, observability, application oversight, multi-tenancy, as well as storage and network management solutions, making it a comprehensive choice for organizations looking to optimize their cloud-native operations. Furthermore, KubeSphere's flexibility allows teams to tailor their workflows to meet specific needs, fostering innovation and collaboration throughout the development process.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is a powerful and secure operating system tailored for enterprises and organizations, providing a scalable and reliable foundation for critical workloads and applications across diverse environments, whether physical, virtual, or cloud-based. This operating system boasts advanced capabilities like high availability, virtualization, and seamless cloud integration, making it well-suited for the deployment of sophisticated IT infrastructures. Renowned for its stability and long-term support, SLES ensures that organizations can maintain a secure and consistent operational environment over extended periods. Moreover, SUSE's management tools facilitate efficient configuration and automation, which greatly simplifies server deployment and ongoing maintenance tasks. It accommodates a variety of hardware architectures, including x86_64, ARM, and IBM Power, thus offering the necessary flexibility to meet differing business demands. Additionally, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is designed for optimal performance and comes equipped with robust security features to protect valuable data and resources. With its comprehensive support and innovative features, SLES stands out as an exceptional choice for businesses aiming to enhance their IT capabilities.

Utilize a high-performance and security-centric Linux platform for all your cloud and enterprise applications. Amazon Linux 2 is a Linux operating system offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), designed to deliver a stable, security-focused, and high-performance environment for developing and deploying cloud applications. It is provided free of charge, and AWS ensures continuous security and maintenance updates for this operating system. This version includes support for the latest capabilities of Amazon EC2 instances, optimized for improved performance, and contains packages that facilitate integration with other AWS services. Furthermore, Amazon Linux 2 guarantees long-term support, providing developers, IT administrators, and independent software vendors (ISVs) with the predictability and stability of a Long Term Support (LTS) release while still allowing access to the most recent versions of widely-used software packages. This blend of features makes it an ideal choice for enterprises looking to enhance their cloud infrastructure.