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Venom Linux RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Venom Linux

Venom Linux


Last Update: 2026-03-22 00:20 UTC

Venom Linux is an independently-developed, rolling-release distribution inspired by CRUX. It targets experienced Linux users. Venom uses SysV init as the main init system and BSD-like ports as software packages which are managed by a custom package management tool called scratchpkg (written in compliance with POSIX standards). The distribution offers a simple graphical desktop built around the Openbox window manager and a text-mode system installer.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 245 (56), 6 months: 231 (69), 3 months: 179 (97), 4 weeks: 76 (223), 1 week: 74 (241)

Average visitor rating: 9.6/10 from 9 review(s).

Venom Summary
Distribution Venom Linux
Home Page https://venomlinux.org/
Mailing Lists --
User Forums --
Alternative User Forums
Documentation https://venomlinux.org/wiki
Screenshots DistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors https://sourceforge.net/projects/venomlinux/files/
Bug Tracker https://sourceforge.net/p/venomlinux/tickets/
Related Websites GitHub
Reviews 2021: DistroWatch
Where To Donate, Buy or Try PayPal • Buy Me a Coffee •

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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Feature ports 20260301 20250108 20230509 4.0 2.1
Release Date 2026-03-22 2026-03-02 2025-01-08 2023-05-09 2022-09-13 2021-06-08
End Of Life            
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free Free
Image Size (MB) -- 2000-2100 1900-2000 1400-1500 1400-1500 1200-1300
Free Download ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO
Installation -- Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode
Default Desktop   Fluxbox, labwc, Sway, Xfce Sway Openbox Openbox Openbox
Default Browser   Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox
Package Format            
Package Management scratchpkg scratchpkg scratchpkg scratchpkg scratchpkg scratchpkg
Release Model Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling
Office Suite -- -- -- -- -- --
Processor Architecture x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64
Init Software s6, SysV SysV s6, SysV SysV SysV SysV
Journaled File Systems            
Multilingual en en en en en en
Full Package List ports 20260301 20250108 20230509 4.0 2.1
Package ports 20260301 20250108 20230509 4.0 2.1
alsa-lib (1.2.15.3) 1.2.15.3 1.2.15.3 1.2.13 1.2.9 1.2.7.2 1.2.5
amdgpu (25.0.0) 25.0.0 25.0.0 -- 23.0.0 22.0.0 19.1.0
apparmor (4.1.7) 4.1.7 -- -- -- -- --
apt (3.1.16) -- -- -- -- -- --
bash (5.3) 5.3 5.3 5.2.37 5.2.15 5.1.16 5.1
bind (9.20.20) 9.20.16 -- -- -- -- --
chromium (146.0.7680.153) 146.0.7680.80 -- -- -- -- --
cinnamon (6.6.7) -- -- -- -- -- --
cups (2.4.16) 2.4.16 -- -- -- -- --
e2fsprogs (1.47.4) 1.47.4 1.47.3 1.47.2 1.47.0 1.46.5 1.46.2
ffmpeg (8.1) 8.1 8.0.1 7.1 6.0 5.1.1 4.4
firefox (148.0.2) 148.0.2 148.0 134.0 112.0.2 104.0.2 89.0
flatpak (1.16.3) -- -- -- -- -- --
freetype (2.14.2) 2.14.2 2.14.1 2.13.3 2.13.0 2.12.1 2.10.4
gcc (15.2.0) 15.2.0 15.2.0 14.2.0 13.1.0 12.2.0 10.3.0
gimp (3.2.0) 3.2.0 -- -- -- -- --
git (2.53.0) 2.53.0 2.53.0 2.47.1 2.40.1 2.37.3 --
glibc (2.43) 2.43 2.43 2.40 2.37 2.36 2.33
gnome-shell (50.0) -- -- -- -- -- --
grub (2.14) 2.14 2.14 2.12 2.06 2.06 2.04
gtk (4.22.1) 4.22.1 4.20.3 3.24.43 3.24.37 3.24.34 3.24.29
httpd (2.4.66) 2.4.66 -- -- -- -- --
inkscape (1.4.3) 1.4.3 -- -- -- -- --
kmod (34.2) 34.2 34.2 33 30 30 29
krita (5.2.16) -- -- -- -- -- --
LibreOffice (26.2.1) 26.2.1 -- -- -- -- --
Package ports 20260301 20250108 20230509 4.0 2.1
libselinux (3.10) -- -- -- -- -- --
linux (6.19.9) 6.19.9 6.19.5 6.12.8 6.3.1 5.15.67 5.10.33
mariadb (12.2.2) 12.2.2 -- -- -- -- --
mate-desktop (1.28.2) 1.28.2 -- -- -- -- --
mesa (26.0.3) 26.0.3 26.0.1 24.3.3 23.0.3 22.1.7 21.1.2
mysql (9.6.0) -- -- -- -- -- --
nautilus (50.0) -- -- -- -- -- --
NVIDIA (590.48.01) 595.45.04 -- -- -- -- --
openjdk (26) 25.0.1 -- -- -- -- --
openssh (10.2p1) 10.2p1 10.2p1 9.9p1 9.3p1 9.0p1 8.6p1
openssl (3.6.1) 3.6.1 3.6.1 3.4.0 3.1.0 1.1.1q 1.1.1k
perl (5.42.1) 5.42.1 5.42.0 5.40.0 5.36.1 5.36.0 5.32.1
php (8.5.4) 8.5.4 -- -- -- -- --
plasma-desktop (6.6.3) 6.6.3 -- -- -- -- --
postfix (3.11.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
postgresql (18.3) -- -- -- -- -- --
Python (3.14.3) 3.14.3 3.14.2 3.13.1 3.11.3 3.10.6 3.9.1
qt (6.10.2) 6.10.2 -- -- -- -- --
samba (4.24.0) 4.24.0 -- -- -- -- --
systemd (260) -- -- -- -- -- --
thunderbird (148.0.1) 148.0.1 -- -- -- -- --
vim (9.2) 9.2 9.2 9.1 9.0 9.0 8.2
vlc (3.0.23) 3.0.23 -- -- -- -- --
wayland (1.25.0) 1.25.0 1.24.0 1.23.1 -- -- --
xfdesktop (4.20.1) 4.20.1 4.20.1 -- -- -- --
xorg-server (21.1.21) 21.1.21 21.1.21 -- 21.1.8 21.1.4 1.20.11

Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for Venom Linux

Average rating
9.6
from 9 review(s)


Version: 20250108
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-02-17
Votes: 2


 Great distro with a very helpful Telegram group. Been my desktop system now for a couple of years and while I often check out other distro's (usually in Virtualbox) none have pleased me as much as Venom. As others have mentioned the scratchpkg package manager is great. ATM I run Openbox on Wayland but have also used X11and xfce4 with no problems. Lots of applications in the repo's covering mainly open source but also some closed source (eg. Bitwarden).
Give it a go, you will be impressed too
BJA
Version: 4.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-12-09
Votes: 1


 i have used venom in a VM i did try installing on bare metal but for some reason the installer wouldn't pick up my partition like the VM did. Anyways, this review is about scratchpkg itself. I've adopted it as my package manager on a LFS install. I will say this is on par with kiss linux's package manager. I absolutely love it and how it functionss. I've been recommending it to everyone that I know that runs linux. The creator is very helpful and active but its on a telegram channel. The community is great as well
Version: 20210312
Rating: 6
Date: 2021-05-11
Votes: 6


 I would give it a good score if i could find decent documentation..
Only thing i can say is that installation went fine and it seems to be really responsive.

See all 9 reader reviews of Venom Linux...


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