LinuxDoors.com
| LinuxDoors.com | |
|---|---|
| Type of site | Linux distribution project site |
| Created by | Stan Switaj |
| URL | linuxdoors.com |
| OS family | Linux From Scratch + BLFS |
| Init system | systemd |
| Default desktop | XFCE4 |
| Kernel | Linux kernel 7.2 |
| Latest release | v1.11.1 (2026) |
| Packages | 525 |
| Current status | Active |
LinuxDoors.com is the website of LinuxDoors, an independent Linux distribution built from Linux From Scratch (systemd edition) and Beyond Linux From Scratch, compiled by hand package by package rather than derived from an existing distribution. The distribution, its build tooling, its package manager, the website and its branding were developed by Stan Switaj, who programmed the project with AI-assisted programming. The current release is v1.11.1, and the site carries the tagline Doors of Opportunity.
Unlike distributions assembled from another project's binary packages, every component of LinuxDoors is compiled from real upstream source on the project's own build machines, with each package's build script and pinned source tarball kept alongside the finished binary. That choice is what makes the distribution's defining feature possible: any package can be installed either as a small prebuilt archive or compiled from source on the user's own computer, from the identical script.
The distribution
LinuxDoors is distributed as linuxdoors.iso, a 4.19 GB hybrid BIOS and UEFI image published with a SHA-256 checksum. It boots to a working XFCE4 desktop with networking, an editor and two full web browsers built from source — Firefox on the extended support release track and ungoogled-chromium — and a MATE desktop is also present on the image, selectable at the login screen.
The foundation is compiled from upstream source with no binary components carried over from another distribution: the Linux kernel 7.2, configured and built from real kernel source with boot-critical drivers built in and the rest modular, including working sched_ext support with two BPF CPU schedulers; systemd as PID 1 providing service management, udev, logind and networkd; and a full X11, Mesa and GTK desktop stack.
Two further desktops are available as package sets rather than on the ISO. GNOME 48 is offered as about forty packages — GNOME Shell and Mutter 48.5, GJS, gnome-session, gnome-keyring and Evolution Data Server on GTK 4 and libadwaita — adding both Wayland and Xorg sessions to the login screen. KDE Plasma 6.7.4 is offered as roughly thirty packages compiled against the distribution's own Qt 6.11 and KDE Frameworks 6.29, adding a Plasma X11 session; its Wayland compositor is not yet built, because KWin's Vulkan backend requires a newer GCC toolchain than the distribution has moved to.
Packages and the dual install model
The site's package browser lists 525 built packages across categories including Core System, Toolchain, Libraries, Desktop, Development, Networking, Graphics, Multimedia, Audio, Databases, Editor, Browser, Office and System, searchable and sortable by name, download count or size.
Every package is available two ways. The default is a prebuilt archive: the finished, already-compiled files, ready to install. Toggling source mode installs the same package by compiling its real upstream source on the user's own machine, using the same Linux From Scratch and BLFS build script the project itself used — and the from-scratch GCC, Clang and Rust toolchains those scripts rely on were themselves built the same way. The project states that the prebuilt archive is the captured output of running that same script, so both paths produce the same files.
Source builds run entirely on the user's computer. The machine requests a short-lived, single-use token from the site over ordinary HTTPS, uses it to download that package's build script and pinned source, and compiles it locally inside a sandboxed unprivileged build account, with root required only for the final step that copies the finished files into place. Because sources are never discarded after a build, any package can be rebuilt, pinned to an older version, or read line by line against its upstream, and every file on an installed system traces back to a named source tarball and an exact list of commands.
Installation is available from the desktop as well as the terminal. The LinuxDoors Package Manager lists every package with live upgrade notifications, offers the same precompiled-or-from-source choice, and uninstalls exactly the files an install placed. A pkg command mirrors it from a terminal, with pkg update and pkg upgrade.
The package manager also bridges into Debian's own archive, giving access to far more software than LinuxDoors builds natively: users can search Debian's live index from the desktop application or with deb search and deb install from a terminal, and a package that has not yet been staged on linuxdoors.com is fetched and staged automatically as part of the same request, remaining available to every later install. The project describes this as best-effort by nature, since LinuxDoors is a from-scratch build rather than a Debian derivative.
AppImage Store
The site hosts a LinuxDoors AppImage Store, a curated collection of AppImage applications — single self-contained executables that carry their own runtime and require no installation, and that run on other Linux distributions as well. Some are the project's own builds; others are trusted upstream builds mirrored unmodified, each published with a SHA-256 checksum that can be verified against the originating project, and each labelled with who made it and where it came from.
The store also documents a recommended per-user layout for keeping AppImages: one folder per user at ~/AppImages/, a single images/ subfolder holding each application's icon, and a desktop launcher per application whose command calls the distribution's own AppImage runner.
Notable packages
Among the applications built for the distribution are LinuxUltraOffice, a LibreOffice-derived productivity suite rebranded for the system; x2goserver and x2goclient, which turn a LinuxDoors machine into a remote desktop reachable over an SSH-tunnelled X11 link — the client carrying the project's own Qt 6 port of upstream x2goclient, a patch of roughly 3,800 lines against the real source, since upstream remains Qt 5 only; and FlashScp, a two-pane file transfer program written for LinuxDoors by Stan Switaj that copies with scp over SSH in the manner of FlashFXP, distributed free both as an installable package and as an AppImage.
The distribution's ungoogled-chromium build is maintained against current Chromium releases, and the site publishes the security content of each update, including named CVEs for critical sandbox-escape flaws. Its Firefox package tracks the official Mozilla extended support release, built from source.
The website
The site is itself a piece of the project rather than a storefront bolted on. It is written as plain Python CGI backed by a PostgreSQL catalogue holding every package's real metadata and on-disk size, with no web framework, and the project describes it as modelled on the same author's EaglePress. It runs on nginx with fcgiwrap, sharing a host with sibling projects.
When the distribution's own Firefox visits — identifying itself with a custom user-agent string — package rows change from Download to Install and hand off to the desktop package manager, so software can be installed straight from the website with no terminal and no configuration. Every download link is a lightweight counting redirect, so the site's most downloaded ordering reflects real activity.
Alongside the package browser the site publishes a download page with the ISO and its checksum, a components page describing what the system is built from, an AppImage store, and a people page.
Release history
The site publishes a version history of the distribution. Recent milestones include v1.10.7, which tracked ten base-system packages up to the Linux From Scratch 13.1 package set; v1.10.8, rebuilding the bundled Firefox to the current extended support release; v1.10.9, which made the GRUB menu legible by loading a font before switching to graphical mode and rewrote the installer's disk preparation to wipe a target disk fully and lay down a GPT layout, so drives larger than 2 TB are used in full; v1.11.0, which added a real software OpenGL renderer through Mesa's llvmpipe so machines without working hardware acceleration can run a modern desktop, together with login-screen fixes; and v1.11.1, which added the KDE Plasma 6.7.4 desktop package set.
Releases are boot-tested under KVM, and the project reports the state of the running system — that the graphical target is active with no failed units — as part of each release note.
Development
LinuxDoors is the work of one person. The project's people page names Stan Switaj as its creator and programmer, credited with building the entire distribution from Linux From Scratch and BLFS with AI-assisted programming, package by package, together with the custom build tooling that drives it, the website and the branding. The project reports building on a 24-core build machine, on which a full Chromium compile of roughly 56,000 targets completes in under three hours.
See also
External links
- LinuxDoors.com — official website
- Package browser
- AppImage Store
