What is the LEAF project? The LEAF project is a collaboration between LRP derivative designers, and is designed to increase cooperation between the different LRP derivative developers. The two main LRP derived distributions are Oxygen and Dachstein (the successor to Eigerstein and Eigerstein2Beta).
There are many kernels, packages, and disk images released by various developers under the LEAF project. There is also extensive documentation. All are available at http://leaf-project.org/.
If you choose to develop for a LEAF distribution, the problem becomes which one — or will you develop for all distributions? Will you develop for LRP also?
LRP is the original distribution, though it is not a LEAF distribution. In the past, LRP has been slated for obsolescence in favor of a new project by the main developer, Dave Cinege. LRP is not a LEAF project.
Dachstein is the successor to Eigerstein. Dachstein is known for:
Easy setup
Large number of novice and professional users
Dachstein is the brainchild of Charles Steinkuehler.
Oxygen is the newest, and is much less like LRP than Dachstein is. Oxygen has these features:
Load multiple packages from multiple sources, including networking and floppies.
Uses the Openwall kernel patch for security.
Updated packages — which includes many security updates.
More available commands — and more like standard UNIX.
No need to specify packages to load: automatically loads all packages on disk.
Advanced package management: more bullet-proof, load packages from disk or network, save packages without worrying about running out of disk space without warning, and more!
Oxygen is being developed by David Douthitt <n9ubh@callsign.net>
who is also the original author of this document.