Turnkey Linux is an open source project developing a free virtual appliances library that features the very best server-oriented open source software. Each virtual appliance is optimized for ease of use and can be deployed in just a few minutes on bare metal, a virtual machine and in the cloud.
Why Virtual Appliances?
Packaging a solution as a virtual appliance can be extremely advantageous. It enables you to utilize expert integration skills to create ready-to-use systems. Often referred to as turnkey solutions, which operate seamlessly right out of the box with minimal or no setup required.
TurnKey Linux is a library of Debian-based virtual appliances. It seamlessly combines some of the finest open-source software into ready-to-use solutions. Each virtual appliance is designed for optimal user-friendliness. Therefore can be deployed in just a few minutes, on bare metal, or a virtual machine.
An array of virtual appliances is now available, each offered as either a CD image or a virtual machine image. This diverse collection includes popular platforms such as Bugzilla, Django, and Drupal; content management systems like Joomla, Magento, and WordPress; as well as various tools for file management and collaboration, including File Server, Mantis, MediaWiki, and MoinMoin. Additionally, you’ll find educational platforms like Moodle, development frameworks such as Rails, database management systems including MySQL and PostgreSQL, and project management tools like ProjectPier and Trac. Also included are technologies like Apache Tomcat, StatusNet, phpBB, and vtiger, alongside utility applications such as Revision Control and Torrent Server. Overall, this comprehensive selection caters to a wide range of needs and use cases.
Why Turnkey Linux?
- 100+ ready-to-use solutions: discover and leverage the best free software. Deploy solutions quickly on bare metal, virtual appliances, or in the cloud.
- Free as in speech: free software with full source code and a powerful build system. Free of hidden backdoors, free from restrictive licensing and free to learn from, modify and distribute.
- Secure and easy to maintain: auto-updated daily with latest security patches.
- 1-click backup and restore: smart backup software saves changes to files, databases and package management to encrypted storage which servers can be automatically restored from.
- It just works: designed for ease of use, built and tested collaboratively by the community.
- Based on Debian 8 (“Jessie”): with automatic security updates for over 37,500 packages.
TurnKey GNU/Linux is licensed under the same terms as Debian. In other words, you are free to download, use, distribute and modify any solution or component for any purpose.
- Easy to use: includes a web management interface, web shell, and simple configuration console (screenshots).
- Lightweight (starting from 150MB): each solution is carefully built from the ground up with the minimum components needed to serve its role with maximum efficiency and security.
- Assured integrity: solutions are built from verifiably unmodified Debian binaries, except for a few custom components for which full source code is available. Releases are cryptographically signed. See the FAQ.
About Turnkey Linux
Founded by engineers from an Israeli startup in mid-2008, the project aimed to create a community-driven open source initiative. It focused on enabling users to build turnkey solutions using components from major Linux distributions.
The project commenced in September 2008 with the introduction of three prototype appliances designed for Drupal, Joomla, and LAMP, all based on Ubuntu 8.04.1. Over the ensuing months, significant enhancements were made to usability, leading to the release of a dozen additional appliances, including those for Ruby on Rails, MediaWiki, and Django. Initially, TurnKey’s virtual appliances utilized a streamlined Debian bootstrap (pre-v12.0 based on Ubuntu). Subsequently, the TurnKey Core was integrated, providing essential features common to all the project’s virtual appliances.
- di-live: a live installer, derived from debian-installer.
- A configuration console: developed in Python for the project to allow users to perform basic configuration tasks (for example, networking configuration, reboots)
- An automatic mechanism that installs security patches on a daily basis.
- Web administration interface based on Webmin which includes a selection of generic add-on control and configuration modules.
- Web browser based shell
- TKLBAM (TurnKey Linux Backup And Migration) – a custom TKL backup/migration application/service that uses Duplicity as a backend. By default TKLBAM uses Amazon S3 for storage, but can also be configured to use any other storage medium supported by Duplicity. As of version 1.4 TKLBAM is available for non-TKL Linux OS.
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