Twister OS (Twister for short) is a 32-bit Operating System created by Pi Labs for the Raspberry Pi single board computer originally, with a x86_64 PC version released a few months later. [1] [2] Twister is meant to be a general-purpose OS that is familiar or nostalgic to users. Twister is based on Raspberry Pi OS Lite and uses the XFCE desktop environment. [3] Twister OS also has a version called "Twister OS Armbian" designed for ARM SBCs with the RK3399 CPU. [1] There are four versions of the operating system, TwisterOS Full (for the Raspberry Pi 4), Twister OS Lite (a stripped-down version with only themes), Twister UI (For x86_64 PCs running Linux Mint or Xubuntu) and Twisters OS Armbian (for RK3399 CPUs) . [1]
TwisterOS has 7 main desktop themes, 5 out of those have dark modes. [4] Twister OS has its own theme called "Twister OS theme". The Twister 95, XP, 7, 10, and 11 themes are similar to the themes on the Windows 95, XP, 7, 10 and 11 operating systems. iTwister and iTwister Sur desktop themes are similar to the themes on macOS. [3]
Box86 is an emulator used to run x86 software and games on ARM systems. [5] [6]
Wine is a compatibility layer that lets the user to run Windows applications on non-Windows systems. [1] [3]
CommanderPi is a system monitoring and configuration tool designed to check system information and overclock the CPU. [7]
Twister OS Lite is for the Raspberry Pi as well. The Lite version only comes with the themes in Twister OS, as well as Box86 and Wine. [1]
Twister UI is very similar to Twister OS, the only difference is that Twister UI is used for non-single board computers. [1] [8] Twister UI is designed to be installed by running a setup script on an already running installation of Linux Mint (XFCE) or Xubuntu. [1] [8]
Twister OS Armbian is a version of Twister OS that can run on SBCs with RK3399 CPUs, like the Rock Pi 4B. [9] Twister OS Armbian also comes preinstalled on emmc chips inside the Rock Pi 4 Plus models. [10] Twister OS Armbian is based on the Armbian Linux operating system.
Xfce or XFCE is a free and open-source desktop environment for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.
IceWM is a stacking window manager for the X Window System, originally written by Marko Maček. It was written from scratch in C++ and is released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. It is customizable, relatively lightweight in terms of memory and CPU usage, and comes with themes that allow it to imitate the GUI of Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows 7, OS/2, Motif, and other graphical user interfaces.
In computing, cross-platform software is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software requires a separate build for each platform, but some can be directly run on any platform without special preparation, being written in an interpreted language or compiled to portable bytecode for which the interpreters or run-time packages are common or standard components of all supported platforms.
A light-weight Linux distribution a Linux distribution that uses lower memory and processor-speed requirements than a more "feature-rich" Linux distribution. The lower demands on hardware ideally result in a more responsive machine, and allow devices with fewer system resources to be used productively. The lower memory and processor-speed requirements are achieved by avoiding software bloat, i.e. by leaving out features that are perceived to have little or no practical use or advantage, or for which there is no or low demand.
Computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel are used in embedded systems such as consumer electronics, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), networking equipment, machine control, industrial automation, navigation equipment, spacecraft flight software, and medical instruments in general.
The Quick Emulator (QEMU) is a free and open-source emulator that uses dynamic binary translation to emulate a computer's processor; that is, it translates the emulated binary codes to an equivalent binary format which is executed by the machine. It provides a variety of hardware and device models for the virtual machine, enabling it to run different guest operating systems. QEMU can be used with a Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) to emulate hardware at near-native speeds. Additionally, it supports user-level processes, allowing applications compiled for one processor architecture to run on another.
A free and open-source graphics device driver is a software stack which controls computer-graphics hardware and supports graphics-rendering application programming interfaces (APIs) and is released under a free and open-source software license. Graphics device drivers are written for specific hardware to work within a specific operating system kernel and to support a range of APIs used by applications to access the graphics hardware. They may also control output to the display if the display driver is part of the graphics hardware. Most free and open-source graphics device drivers are developed by the Mesa project. The driver is made up of a compiler, a rendering API, and software which manages access to the graphics hardware.
Xubuntu is a Canonical-recognized, community-maintained derivative of the Ubuntu operating system. The name Xubuntu is a portmanteau of Xfce and Ubuntu, as it uses the Xfce desktop environment, instead of Ubuntu's customized GNOME desktop.
A desktop environment is a collection of software designed to give functionality and a certain look and feel to an operating system.
LXDE is a free desktop environment with comparatively low resource requirements. This makes it especially suitable for use on older or resource-constrained personal computers such as netbooks or system on a chip computers.
The Linutop is a small, light, environmentally friendly nettop computer containing a metal case and no moving parts, that runs the Linutop OS. It is sold by Linutop SAS of Paris, France. Linutop Kiosk software and Linutop Tv server offer a full Digital signage solution. A variety of QT applications oriented towards secure web browsing and digital signage are available in the Operating system. Linutop is multimedia-capable and offers line-out/mic-in for sound. The device can be configured easily into a LTSP thin client. Linutop is suited for use in internet cafés, public libraries and schools.
AmiKit is a compilation of 425 pre-installed and pre-configured Amiga programs running on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Amiga computers with a Vampire V2 card.
Arch Linux ARM is a port of Arch Linux for ARM processors. Its design philosophy is "simplicity and full control to the end user," and like its parent operating system Arch Linux, aims to be very Unix-like. This goal of minimalism and complete user control, however, can make it difficult for Linux beginners as it requires more knowledge of and responsibility for the operating system.
Kali Linux is a Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. It is maintained and funded by Offensive Security. The software is based on the Debian Testing branch: most packages Kali uses are imported from the Debian repositories. The tagline of Kali Linux and BackTrack is "The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear", which is displayed on some backgrounds, see this example.
The Xojo programming environment and programming language is developed and commercially marketed by Xojo, Inc. of Austin, Texas for software development targeting macOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, the Web and Raspberry Pi. Xojo uses a proprietary object-oriented language.
Raspberry Pi OS is a Unix-like operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution for the Raspberry Pi family of compact single-board computers. Raspbian was developed independently in 2012, became the primary operating system for these boards since 2013, was originally optimized for the Raspberry Pi 1 and distributed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. In 2020, the Raspberry Pi Foundation renamed Raspbian to Raspberry Pi OS.
Steam Link is a hardware and software product developed by Valve Corporation for streaming Steam content from a personal computer or Steam Machine wirelessly to a mobile device or other monitor. Steam Link was originally released as a hardware device alongside the debut of Steam Machines in November 2015. Valve discontinued the Steam Link hardware device in November 2018, in favor of supporting its software-based Steam Link application for mobile devices and smart televisions, as well as providing Steam Link as a software package for the Raspberry Pi microcomputer.
Zorin OS is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu with both free and paid versions. It uses a GNOME 3 and XFCE 4 desktop environment by default, although the desktop is heavily customized for users more familiar with Windows and macOS.
Armbian is a computing build framework that allows users to create system images with configurations for various single-board computers (SBCs). Armbian's objective is to unify the experience across ARM single-board computers, while maintaining performance with hardware-specific optimizations.
Pine Store Limited, doing business as Pine64, is a Hong Kong-based organization that designs, manufactures, and sells single-board computers, notebook computers, as well as smartwatch/smartphones. Its name was inspired by the mathematical constants π and e with a reference to 64-bit computing power.