Linux distros come in all forms and sizes, and you can make your own too. A dead easy way is to UCK Linux! You heard me, use the Ubuntu Customisation Kit. Here's how.

When it comes to Linux, users aren't spoiled for choice.

At heart, all Linux distributions feature the same essential components - the Linux kernel itself, a package manager for maintaining software and a graphical environment. Actually, the latter isn't even that essential particularly if you're installing Linux on a headless server.

The specific combinations of pre-installed applications and initial configurations make one Linux distro differ from another.

While the plethora of distributions might appear confusing to those coming from Microsoft Windows, Linux is Linux. You can write documents, send e-mail, browse the web, run a web server, run a network, or anything else you wish to do on any distribution.

The vast richness of Linux distributions available is actually a strength of the platform. Linux can be tailored to suit any purpose you could have.

That's why you might want to construct your own distribution. Perhaps you know exactly how a good Linux distro should be, and every time you install Linux you set up specific applications and settings. Set your own distro up and bingo, every time you load it onto a new machine it is exactly how you like it.

There are tutorials online how to roll your own Linux distro but here's a new tool which makes it dead simple to base something on the ever-popular Ubuntu.

The tool is tastefully called UCK - specifically, the Ubuntu Customisation Kit.

UCK works with ISO images of any of the four major Ubuntu flavours (specifically, the GNOME-based original, the KDE-based Kubuntu, Xfce-based Xubuntu and Edubuntu, itself tailored for education).

UCK will allow you to add or remove any applications - including language packs - from the stock image as well as tweak any other aspect of the distro you like.

You can add or remove modules that boot up and even change the order of the boot sequence.

Check the project out on SourceForge and UCK Linux for yourself!