Distropedia: Linux, BSD, OpenSolaris distro information source.

Pardus is a Turkish distro, written from scratch and developed by the Turkish Institute of Science and Cryptology.

It uses KDE, is very user-friendly, has excellent hardware support out-of-the-box, and contains a number of novel features compared to other distros.These include:

* Rewritten boot-process in python (Mudur init). Makes for a very fast boot up.

* The PiSi package handler (stands for 'Packages Install Successfully as Intended') uses the PiSi package format (rather than deb or rpm), which is unique to Pardus. PiSi is beneficial, since it installs and updates only those parts of a package that need updating; but at the moment the update process can be fairly slow, and the repositories are quite small compared to other distros. (Apparently, PiSi is also a Turkish word for a way of 'calling a cat' - an in-joke, given that Pardus is based on the cat theme).

* Comar (pronounced 'chow-mar'). A configuration manager that apparently offers the efficient management of applications. Unfortunately there is nothing available on this in English. Comar also offers a new security model, allowing users with administrative rights to manage the system from a GUI without having to enter their password (although this is still required from the terminal).

* An easy-to-use configuration centre called TASMA, similar to that used by Mandriva and PCLinuxOS.

Pardus comes in a separate LiveCD and Installer format, so you cannot install from the LiveCD. The installation process uses YALI ('Yet Another Linux Installer') and is also very easy. There are detailed instructions and screenshots of the entire process on the Pardus homepage. The installer also gives the option to install grub onto a separate partition rather than the mbr, allowing users to keep their existing grub and copy over the stanzas manually.

The English Pardus homepage is at http://www.pardus.org.tr/eng/index.html

Reviews from:
Linux.com (http://www.linux.com/articles/59677)
PolishLinux (http://polishlinux.org/linux/pardus-a-penguin-from-turkey/)