ANIX

The ORL Anonymous Information Computing System (or “ANIX”) is an experimental operating system being developed by the AMI Operations Research Laboratories. It is being developed expressly for the infosec market, developers, and Linux powerusers.

It foremost will be a pentesting OS, rigged up with all sorts of fun essential tools that every script kiddie and aspiring professional should have, that you can boot from a keydrive. It will also be a secure everyday OS that you can install to your laptop or home computer. Its spirit will be expressed with a sleek minimalist interface geared towards professionals who want to get things done quickly without software bloat and clunky design getting in the way.

ANIX currently only exists in prototypical “Research ANIX” form. Some components like the GUI are already being distributed, whereas other components are still bound to their owner's local machines. Other parts, such as an installer or RISC-V port, are still completely theoretical.

In order to further the development of ANIX, the Anonymous Military Institute is currently running the Research ANIX program. By following (and field testing) the Single ANIX Specification, you too can build it you own “ANIX-Spec” operating system at home.

ANIX was the collision of several ongoing off-campus projects by several AMI faculty members and various independent AnonOps cells. In order to fulfill their myriad job, hacking & security needs, they all began developing homebrew solutions based on the vast open-source software library of the UNIX/BSD/Linux-world.

By the end of 2024, they had all realized that the sum total of their independent efforts comprised nearly an entire operating system, and one which could rival more bloated distros like Kali Linux and Parrot OS. All that remained was to put the pieces together in the storied halls of the Anonymous Military Institute - A 501©(3)(pending) non-profit scientific & educational organization.

While ANIX cannot yet be downloaded, you can build your own flavor of Research ANIX - and we encourage you to! When you are done, you will have a lean and mean operating system that is geared for professionals. ANIX is going to make infosec fun again.

“But Professor, how will I build an operating system by myself?” Easier than you think! This is because ANIX is built on Debian, which provides for a clean stable base. It also gives you easy access to the rest of the components, as many of them are in the stock Debian package manager, and many of the others can be poached from the Debian-based Mint, Ubuntu, Kali & Parrot distros.

This provides an excellent opportunity for those looking to improve their Linux and command-line skills, as building Research ANIX will take you through the basics of how Linux works. And, by building your own custom Linux install, you will be following in the tradition of America's trade schools which have historically made students build their own toolboxes as a graduating rite-of-passage.

All students and research staff developing their own Research ANIX builds are required to submit their code and ANIX modifictions to AMI staff for inspection. Whatever team comes together in the process of this will be responsible for consolidating the best parts of everyone's Research ANIX builds into ANIX Version 1.0.

All participants who complete a Research ANIX build are welcome to fork ANIX at this point and market their own ANIX-derivative.

Research ANIX is a Linux distribution, and like all Linux distributions it is composed of many tiny software packages. ANIX veers towards simplicity, preferring simple packages with minimal dependencies. Those who have used Linux for a long time may find ANIX is more akin to the “old way” of doing things, though it still takes advantage of a modern Debian base.

The following list of packages is a guideline. It is not a complete set of step-by-step instructions! You should be at least somewhat-familiar with Linux before attempting to do this.

This specification will be updated periodically as Research ANIX becomes a more cohesive product. This heading will be re-signed as it is updated. — Humphrey Boa-Gart 2025/01/04 22:34