To date, the ability to customize, test and deploy a tailored OS for a specific use or device has been slow, expensive and complicated. Furthermore, you customize at your own risk because the process often results in the loss of vendor support.

Fortunately this is changing. IT departments are starting to tailor OSs to gain agility, drive down support costs and enhance security. This is particularly true in the Linux environment, where new tools are making the promise of a tailored, fully supported Linux a reality.

Historically, major OS distributions have been notorious for their bulk and complexity. The time, effort and resources required to install, maintain and upgrade a complete OS are substantial. Operating systems are designed to support every possible software function, yet most applications require only a fraction of the capabilities. The extra, unused assets become a liability from a security and management perspective.

A better approach is to create an environment using only the OS resources needed for a particular application set. This is known as JeOS (just enough operating system). The question is: How do we move to a JeOS environment?

Customizing Linux