Alpine

Updated: 09/12/2023 by Computer Hope

Alpine may refer to any of the following:

Alpine Linux Logo

1. Alpine Linux, a Linux variant which focuses on a lightweight footprint and a high level of security. While Alpine Linux can be used as a desktop operating system, it is primarily designed for use in servers, firewalls, and routers.

Features of Alpine Linux

  • Tiny base system size — less than 5 MB, excluding the kernel.
  • Has its own package management system, called apk-tools.
  • To conserve disk space, it uses the uClibc C standard library rather than glibc.
  • It can run exclusively from RAM (Random-Access Memory).

2. First released in 2007, Alpine is also a free, console-based e-mail client that was developed based on Pine. Alpine can run from the command line and natively supports the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), POP (Post office Protocol), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol), and LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) protocols. It does not support composing HTML (HyperText Markup Language) e-mail, but it can display their content in text form. It utilizes the Pico editor for composing mail, but users may configure a text editor for use as well.

Linux, Mail client, Operating System terms, Protocol