Linux’s popularity and extensibility brought about by its open source design has brought many application providers to configure linux distributions that include an integrated and pre-configured versions of their applications. Also because of the nature of open source culture, it may not be necessary that the original developers of the application will be the one to “bring out” this particular distribution. Such is the case of the AstLinux Project.

AstLinux is a custom linux distribution that is built with the main purpose of running the Asterisk PBX, although the project page also says that you can easily configure other VOIP applications such as OpenSER on top of it. AstLinux is designed to address the need for embedded and commercial solutions for Asterisk, but with adept linux configuration knowledge, can be customized to suit other situations.

AstLinux can be run on multiple processor architectures and has special images for the SC100 series of single board computers. This includes machines from Soekris Engineering and PC Engines.
Because AstLinux is Linux, it can be configured to run on a wide variety of hardware platforms that the generic Linux distribution supports. Because of this, AstLinux’s generic form (or image) will run on pretty much any standard PC.

The installed AstLinux distribution occupies only 40MB, and though it has been designed to be run from Compact Flash memory, it’s perfectly fine to install it on regular hard disks. The only requirement is that it has a disk space of not less than 64MB.

Using AstLinux compared to running Asterisk on top of an un-optimized general-purpose Linux distribution gives a more efficient Asterisk PBX that requires minimal memory footprint and hardware power. Also, with the design consideration that the target machine where AstLinux will be used is a network appliance, a more efficient Linux version is included in the distribution. Eliminating unnecessary packages and components, and optimizing operations for compact flash memory which has a limited number writes and rewrites.

AstLinux looks like a good technology tool that you can include in your offered Asterisk VOIP solution.

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