Best Operating Systems in 2026
Updated
45 operating systems ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
45ranked
1free plans on this page
4 Oct 2026last checked
Operating Systems, ranked on how quickly a newcomer can get going. 1 of the 20 on this page can be tried for free.
- 26 NetBSD
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 27 OpenIndiana
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 28 Photon OS
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 29 Qubes OS
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 30 Solus
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 31 Ubuntu Touch
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 32 Void Linux
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 33 Xubuntu
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 34 Zorin OS
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 35 Alpine Linux
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 36 Apache NuttX
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 37 FreeRTOS
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 38 Kali LinuxFree plan
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: yes
- 39 Lubuntu
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 40 Oracle Solaris
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 41 Tizen
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 42 KaiOS
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 43 Sailfish OS
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 44 QNX Neutrino RTOS
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
- 45 OpenWrt
- Free to practise on: not on record
- Free trial: not on record
- Well documented: not on record
- Runs where you work: not on record
Compare all 20 in a table
| # | Platform | Score | Free plan | From | Free plan | Paid from | Device types | CPU architectures |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | NetBSD | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | Servers, desktop systems, embedded devices, handheld devices, legacy hardware, and emulators | amd64, arm, mips, powerpc, i386, sparc64, alpha, hppa, m68k, sh3, vax, and others |
| 27 | OpenIndiana | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | x86 PCs; workstations; servers | 64-bit x86; SPARC is not currently available for Hipster |
| 28 | Photon OS | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | Bare-metal systems, virtual machines, Raspberry Pi, cloud instances | x86_64, ARM64/aarch64 |
| 29 | Qubes OS | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | Computers with compatible 64-bit Intel or AMD CPUs and required virtualization features | x86_64 (64-bit Intel or AMD; Intel 64/AMD64) |
| 30 | Solus | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | Personal computers (desktop and laptop hardware) | x86-64 (64-bit) |
| 31 | Ubuntu Touch | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | Phones, tablets, desktop PCs, Raspberry Pi, Pinebook | — |
| 32 | Void Linux | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | PCs and laptops; ARM devices including Raspberry Pi, Pinebook Pro, Lenovo ThinkPad X13s, and Apple Silicon; containers | x86_64, i686, aarch64, armv7l, armv6l |
| 33 | Xubuntu | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | desktop computers | x86_64 (Intel or AMD 64-bit) |
| 34 | Zorin OS | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | Desktop and laptop computers; Intel-based Mac computers; supported Chromebook models | 64-bit x86 Intel or AMD CPUs |
| 35 | Alpine Linux | 5.7 | No | — | Yes | — | Physical computers, Raspberry Pi, routers, servers, virtual machines, cloud images, containers and chroots | aarch64, armhf, armv7, loongarch64, ppc64le, riscv64, s390x, x86, x86_64 |
| 36 | Apache NuttX | 5.7 | No | — | Yes | — | Development boards and embedded devices; simulator targets are also documented | ARM, ARM64, AVR, AVR32, 8051, CEVA, ESP32 Xtensa, Intel x86/x86_64, MIPS, m68k, RISC-V, SPARC, SuperH, TriCore, Xtensa, Z80 |
| 37 | FreeRTOS | 5.7 | No | — | Yes | — | Microcontrollers and small microprocessors | 40+ processor architectures, including RISC-V and ARMv8-M |
| 38 | Kali Linux | 5.7 | Free plan | Free | Yes | — | — | — |
| 39 | Lubuntu | 5.7 | No | — | Yes | — | Desktop PCs and laptops; project homepage also mentions Raspberry Pi | — |
| 40 | Oracle Solaris | 5.7 | No | — | Yes | — | Servers and enterprise systems | SPARC and x86 |
| 41 | Tizen | 5.7 | No | — | Yes | — | IoT, TV, mobile, wearable | ARMv7l, AArch64, x86_64 (reference build artifacts) |
| 42 | KaiOS | 5.6 | No | — | — | — | Smart feature phones; non-touch mobile phones | — |
| 43 | Sailfish OS | 5.5 | No | — | No | — | Smartphones; tablets; embedded devices | ARMv7 (armv7hl); ARM64 (aarch64); x86 (i486) SDK targets |
| 44 | QNX Neutrino RTOS | 5.4 | No | — | No | — | Embedded systems; supported applications include medical instruments, routers, telematics devices, process-control systems and air-traffic-control systems | MIPS, PowerPC, SH-4, ARM, StrongARM, XScale, x86 |
| 45 | OpenWrt | 5.3 | No | — | — | — | — | — |
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