# DARK HORSE LINUX

A General Purpose Linux Operating System

## Introduction

The Dark Horse Linux Project (DHLP) provides to you a Linux distribution designed to prioritize user freedom and functionality amidst unwanted supply chain interference by self-interested megalithic entities more concerned with user control than user freedom.

## The Problem

The modern Linux ecosystem has drifted from its roots. Major distributions now ship with telemetry enabled by default, push snap packages that phone home, force GNOME desktop on users regardless of preference, and accept patches blindly from corporations whose interests don't align with their users. Upstream projects increasingly make decisions that prioritize enterprise contracts over individual freedom. The result is an operating system that works for vendors first and users second.

## Our Approach

By harnessing carefully chosen components, Dark Horse Linux delivers a transparent computing experience, staying true to the original essence of the Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) movement. Every package is selected on merit alone. Every patch is publicly auditable. Every build is reproducible. We don't accept contributions based on who submits them—only on whether they serve the user's interests.

## Technical Philosophy

DHLP maintains parent leaf status: we are not based on another distribution. There is no upstream project to inherit politics from, no vendor relationship to maintain, no corporate sponsor to appease. We build from source using a fully auditable toolchain. You get a complete Linux/GNU environment—SystemD, glibc, GCC—without the baggage that comes from derivative distributions beholden to upstream decisions.

## Who This Is For

Dark Horse Linux serves developers and security professionals and enthusiasts who want to understand their entire stack, system administrators tired of fighting their own operating system, privacy-conscious users who refuse default telemetry, and anyone who remembers when Linux meant freedom—not just "free as in beer" but free as in sovereignty over your own machine.

It also benefits systems experts who want to deploy minimal containers with minimal OS runtimes that they have full stack control over for throughput and orchestrative optimization. It's up to you what you deploy, not your OS vendor.

## Join Us

Join a growing, tenacious community committed to preserving an open and user-centric approach. We're not building the next trendy desktop. We're building the operating system that should have existed all along.

### Documentation

Contribute to and consume the DHLP documentation.

### Philosophy

Guiding principles of the project.

### Download Images

Download the latest Dark Horse Linux iso images / live cd's.

### Mailing List

Join the developer mailing list for project updates.

### Package Manager

DPM - the Dark Horse Linux package manager.

### Build Custom Images

Pyrois - build automation framework for custom images.