Alpine Linux
Alpine Linux is a Linux distribution that uses musl, BusyBox, and OpenRC instead of glibc, GNU Core Utilities, and systemd, respectively. This makes Alpine one of few Linux distributions not to be based on the latter. For security, Alpine compiles all user-space binaries as position-independent executables with stack-smashing protection. Because of its small size and rapid startup, it is commonly used in containers providing quick boot-up times, on virtual machines as well as on real hardware in embedded devices, such as routers, servers and NAS.
History
Originally, Alpine Linux began as an embedded-first distribution for devices such as wireless routers, based on Gentoo Linux, inspired by and the Bering-uClibc branch of the LEAF Project. Founder Natanael Copa has said that the name was chosen as a backronym for "A Linux-Powered Network Engine" or some such similar phrase, but that the exact phrase has since been forgotten.Alpine's package management system, the Alpine Package Keeper, was originally a collection of shell scripts but was later rewritten in C.
In 2014, Alpine Linux switched from uClibc to musl as its C standard library.