LinuxDevCenter.com: What Is a Linux Distribution

Choosing a Linux Distribution
The choice of which Linux distribution to use is a topic that attracts heated discussion. Ask a Linux distro-junkie which distribution is best, and he‘ll tell you that it‘s the one he‘s running. In addition to mainstream distributions, there‘s a vast constellation of special-purpose distributions focusing on a particular area; for example, education or embedded use. Perhaps the best flavor of Linux to run is the one you feel you‘ll have the most support for.
The Major Distributions
Red Hat: One of the earliest players in the game, Red Hat now position itself strongly in thebusiness market. It has created a community-supported distribution,Fedora Core, which is the choice of many enthusiasts for desktop use.
Debian: The most popular community-created distribution. Debian‘s flexibility and reliability have given it strong acceptance with users, despite there being no commercial entity behind it. On the desktop, Debian can be a little rough, but is an excellent choice for server environments. Debian has also been used as the base for many specialist distributions. (See "Installing Debian" for a tutorial that walks through a typical installation.)
Ubuntu: A relative latecomer to the game, Ubuntu has shot to fame for focusing on immediate usability on the desktop. Taglined "Linux for human beings," this Debian-derived distribution is probably the best place for complete newcomers to start.
SUSE: Novell‘s answer to Red Hat, SUSE also comes in a business-strengthenterprise flavor and a community-based solution,OpenSUSE.
Gentoo: Like Debian, a completely community-created distribution, Gentoo‘s unique aspect is that all software is compiled from source on installation. For this flexibility, among other reasons, Gentoo has become popular among enthusiasts.
Although these are the biggest Linux distributions, there are many other distributions worth looking at, especially if you‘ve got a friend who already uses one of them. One notable distribution not mentioned above isMandriva, which has a good reputation for being easy to use by beginners. Also of historical significance isSlackware, which although without the bells and whistles of modern distributions, gave many people their first taste of Linux.
Specialist Distributions
One beauty of free software is the ability to create derivative works, and many specialist distributions have sprung up to meet particular needs. Here are a few highlights from this ever-growing genre:
Knoppix: Based on Debian, Knoppix is most well known for its ability to run from a CD: a good way to perform rescue missions on a computer, or to check out how well a PC is supported under Linux.
CentOS: A community-created "enterprise" Linux, intended to provide the features of commercial offerings such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux without the hefty price tag.
Skolelinux: A Linux distribution intended for use in schools. Based on Debian and tailored for the needs of school networks.
GNU/LinEx: A Spanish Debian-derived distribution created by Spain‘s Extremadura regional government, designed as part of a program to bring IT and communications facilities and skills to schools and the public.
Puppy Linux: Designed to be fast, small, and friendly, Puppy Linux will fit on devices as small as a 64MB memory stick.
iPodLinux: Yes, a version of Linux for the iPod. It will let you play free music formats such as Flac and Ogg files, as well as do daft things such asplaying Doom.
Useful Jargon
With some of the more user-friendly distributions, the amount of jargon you need to know is mercifully small, but here are a few terms that will help when starting out.
Distro: Short for "distribution," as in "Linux distribution."
Boot loader: A small piece of software that loads the operating system into your computer. The most common are GRUB and LILO. Dual-boot users will use the boot loader menu to choose whether to run Linux or Windows.
Package: The way software applications are bundled up for installation on a Linux system. Different distributions use different packaging mechanisms, the most popular being RPM (Fedora, SUSE) and DEB (Debian, Ubuntu).
Service: A program always running in the background that provides functionality to local or remote users; for example, a web server.
X Window System: The basic graphical user interface, normally used in conjunction with a desktop environment such asGNOME orKDE.
File system: A scheme for organizing files on the disk. Windows users will be familiar with the NTFS and FAT32 file systems. Generally, Linux uses ext3. Specialist users may wish to use file systems optimized for their uses.
Finding Out More
The links in this article should give you some good jumping-off points to get started. Practically every Linux distribution has a CD download you can use to take your first steps, and several distributions now have "live CDs" you can use without installing anything at all.
For dedicated observers, theDistroWatch website covers the gamut of Linux distributions, and is well worth visiting just to appreciate the massive ecosystem Linux has spawned. Distrowatch also has a greattop 100 distribution chart compiled from its web server statistics.