ClearOS Community For Linux

ClearOS Community (formerly ClarkConnect) is an open source operating system based on the CentOS Linux server distribution and designed for small organizations and distributed environments.  It provides users with a very powerful cloud-connected server, gateway and network OS.

Key features include integrated LDAP for user and group management, user security certificate manager, multi-WAN, VPN - PPTP, IPsec, OpenVPN, DMZ and 1-to-1 NAT, stateful firewall, local DHCP, as well as DNS servers.

Among its gateway functionality, we can mention anti-malware, anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-spyware, anti-spam, bandwidth management, intrusion protection, intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, protocol filtering, content filter, web proxy, and access control.

The operating system is distributed free of charge as an installable-only CD ISO image that supports the 64-bit (x86_64) hardware platform. It can be used to install a fresh copy or upgrade an existing system, install the operating system with basic video drivers or with small screen (800x600), rescue a broken OS, boot from the local drive or perform a memory test.

The latest version can also be downloaded as virtual appliance archives, which have been designed to run on the VMware Enterprise, VMware Basic, Oralce VirtualBox and VirtualPC virtualization technologies, supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit instruction set architectures.

To install the distribution, the user must choose a language, select between basic and specialized storage devices, choose a hostname and timezone, set up the root (system administrator) password, as well as to select an installation type and install the boot loader. A graphical installer is provided for the entire installation process.

After installation, a welcome screen will prompt users to configure the network interfaces, as well as to offer them instructions on how to connect to the web-based interface. Supported web browsers include Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Summing up, ClearOS Community proves to be a really great, stable, reliable and easy-to-setup-and-install server oriented Linux distribution that uses some of the best Linux technologies from the CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems.