Nate Drake dives into SysLinuxOS to find whether its reputation as the dream OS for system administrators is well deserved.
Not to be confused with SysLinux, a bootloader for Linux that can run on Windows partitions, SysLinuxOS is a Debian-based GNU/Linux live distribution primarily designed for network administrators and system integrators.
Visitors to the main website are offered a choice between versions of SysLinuxOS running the MATE and Gnome desktop environments. The latest release (12.2) is based on Debian 12 Bookworm.
The website also boasts that there’s a “Swiss army knife” of tools, such that integrators and administrators have no need to install anything extra. After downloading the 4.5GB ISO, we took the Gnome version of SysLinuxOS for a test drive.
Upon first boot, we saw that the heavily-sized ISO was justified. Tools in the dock include administration stalwarts such as Terminator, PuTTy, Team Viewer and Packet Tracer.
The main website also mentioned that SysLinuxOS supports “all the major VPNs”, so we were keen to put this to the test. But running a search via the Activities window, we only discovered software for RiseUP VPN.
We fired up the Firefox ESR browser to check if any VPN extensions had been preinstalled, but had no joy. When checking network settings, however, we found the configuration manager supported a number of protocols, including IPSec/IKEv2 and Fortinet SSL VPN SSTP, so assume that the developer meant that SysLinuxOS supports all major VPN protocols out of the box. The one notable exception was Wireguard, which while listed on the SysLinuxOS website, didn’t appear in Network Settings.
The developer’s claim that the OS supports “several remote control clients” was much easier to verify as apps such as TeamViewer and AnyDesk can be launched directly from the dock. Remmina, Zoom and Skype also come preinstalled.
If you do take the time to explore the installed applications, you’ll see that SysLinuxOS helpfully groups the wide array of programs into categories such as Firewall, Internet and Netwo
