Porteus is a portable live distribution built from Slackware and engineered for speed above almost everything: it boots in seconds from USB media, runs from RAM, and keeps its footprint tiny by shipping a compact core plus optional pieces. Software arrives as modules, compressed bundles that activate or deactivate instantly instead of installing, which makes assembling a personal toolkit unusually clean; changes can be written back to the media so the system persists between machines. Users pick a desktop at download time from a broad menu that has included Xfce, LXQt, MATE, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, GNOME, and Openbox. A sibling project, Porteus Kiosk, applies the same technology to locked-down single-purpose browser terminals. Porteus rewards people who like carrying a fast, private system in a pocket. Loading it into an OpenFactory browser VM previews the modular design with zero preparation.
Select a version of Porteus Linux to try online:
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| 5.01: | |
| 5.0: |
Need Porteus Linux for more than a quick browser preview?
The buttons above launch an ephemeral browser VM, perfect for kicking the tires. Paid plans unlock the things you'd actually use it for:
- ✓Persistent VMs you can SSH into and customize
- ✓Snapshots, your own packages, a downloadable ISO
- ✓Fleet deployment to your own machines (on-prem or cloud)