J
Josh Randall
A very brief tour of the distros I'm playing with right now:
Ubuntu. An offshoot of Debian, this is the rising star of the Linux world.
Always free and a huge database of programs.
Arch. You want to learn the innards of Linux and your box? Get this one and
have some fun. (if you have the time
Gentoo. Got MORE time? Then get this one. You gotta compile as you build
your system. Best docs around.
Fedora. Want to be a beta tester for Red Hat Enterprise? This is your baby.
Pretty good and IS Red Hat, btw.
Blag. Need the codecs to run your multi-media box? This Fedora based disto
has them. One ONE CD, no less. Good!
Slackware. Want to hang out with the big hitters? This is it. This distro
has a long history, and oldsters who cherish it.
What's the *real* differences? Well, all have GNU (i.e NOT Unix) That's the
major parts of the operating system written by Richard Stallman in the 90's.
ALL need the kernel to run it, though. The necessary kernel is either UNIX,
Linux, or NetBSD. Linux is the most popular (written at first by Linus T),
but Debian has a distro using BSD. Both are constantly in development, which
is the main reason for all the constant new versions of Linux.......Although
Slackware goes a LONG time in between. (a good thing if you don't like to
fool around with your OS, btw)
As a user, though, all you need to know to get you started is this: All the
Linux distros use the SAME kernel under the hood (with the exception noted).
What they have done is add a better/worse/graphic/bloated/ or friendly
installer. Most are pretty good nowadays. In addition, they use one of 2
major package managers. RPM based (Redhat, etc) or APT (Debian, Ubuntu,
etc). There are a few more specialty ones, but all are used to DL and
install/remove packages (programs and it's required files). If you use a
monster install like Fedora, you may never use it, btw. If you use a slimmer
one, you'll need it. Not that hard.
In addition, most distros take the GUI's (mostly GNOME and/or KDE) and tweak
them, and then copyright the package. There are a lot more GUI's you can use
though. Most people don't bother with the rest unless for specialty
purposes. So which one for you? Heck if I know! Since this a free software
NG, I suggest you search the sites and get or DL the ones that are free. One
caveat:
Documentation and support! Some are great, some are so-so. Most users use
the free forums and such. Big biz usually buys Red Hat and pays for it.
Bottom line: If you are thinking of unhooking from M$, now is a great time
to get started!
JR
Ubuntu. An offshoot of Debian, this is the rising star of the Linux world.
Always free and a huge database of programs.
Arch. You want to learn the innards of Linux and your box? Get this one and
have some fun. (if you have the time
Gentoo. Got MORE time? Then get this one. You gotta compile as you build
your system. Best docs around.
Fedora. Want to be a beta tester for Red Hat Enterprise? This is your baby.
Pretty good and IS Red Hat, btw.
Blag. Need the codecs to run your multi-media box? This Fedora based disto
has them. One ONE CD, no less. Good!
Slackware. Want to hang out with the big hitters? This is it. This distro
has a long history, and oldsters who cherish it.
What's the *real* differences? Well, all have GNU (i.e NOT Unix) That's the
major parts of the operating system written by Richard Stallman in the 90's.
ALL need the kernel to run it, though. The necessary kernel is either UNIX,
Linux, or NetBSD. Linux is the most popular (written at first by Linus T),
but Debian has a distro using BSD. Both are constantly in development, which
is the main reason for all the constant new versions of Linux.......Although
Slackware goes a LONG time in between. (a good thing if you don't like to
fool around with your OS, btw)
As a user, though, all you need to know to get you started is this: All the
Linux distros use the SAME kernel under the hood (with the exception noted).
What they have done is add a better/worse/graphic/bloated/ or friendly
installer. Most are pretty good nowadays. In addition, they use one of 2
major package managers. RPM based (Redhat, etc) or APT (Debian, Ubuntu,
etc). There are a few more specialty ones, but all are used to DL and
install/remove packages (programs and it's required files). If you use a
monster install like Fedora, you may never use it, btw. If you use a slimmer
one, you'll need it. Not that hard.
In addition, most distros take the GUI's (mostly GNOME and/or KDE) and tweak
them, and then copyright the package. There are a lot more GUI's you can use
though. Most people don't bother with the rest unless for specialty
purposes. So which one for you? Heck if I know! Since this a free software
NG, I suggest you search the sites and get or DL the ones that are free. One
caveat:
Documentation and support! Some are great, some are so-so. Most users use
the free forums and such. Big biz usually buys Red Hat and pays for it.
Bottom line: If you are thinking of unhooking from M$, now is a great time
to get started!
JR