DistroDB Logo

DistroDB

KaOS screenshot

KaOS

KaOS is a desktop Linux distribution that features the latest version of the Noctalia desktop environment, the Calligra office suite, and other popular software applications that use the Qt toolkit. It was inspired by Arch Linux, but the developers build their own packages which are available from in-house repositories.

VS
SmartOS screenshot

SmartOS

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).

Technical Specs Comparison
KaOSSmartOS
IndependentBaseSolaris
pacman / pkgPackage Managerpkgsrc
systemdInit Systemother
Rolling ReleaseRelease ModelFixed Release
2026.02Latest Version
IntermediateDifficultyIntermediate
February 15, 2026Release DateJune 11, 2026
x86_64
Architecture
x86_64
niriNoctaliaNo Desktop
Desktops
niriNoctaliaNo Desktop