Linux Distributions - An Easy Guide

If you have read my previous article and are still confused on how are Linux Distros different and which one should you select to install it on your system, then this is a easy guide for you.

In any distribution, the fundamentals stay the same:

• There is always a Linux Kernel (the core component of the Linux operating system)
• The default GNU software (tools like ls, rm, etc)
• General software to be expected of a Linux distribution (text editors, etc)

What differs from distribution to distribution is usually:

• Installation Software (for installing software, or the operating system)
• General software: (Office Apps, Prog. Languages, Games, Web Software etc)
• Documentation and Manuals (Quality of, Lack of, Quantity of)
• Cost – whether you pay nothing, a little, or a lot for a distribution depends on what you need from it and the business model the distributor works to.
• Quality of software (buggy or not buggy software, latest versions of software)
• Whether it is up to date or not
• Whether the distributor offers a good channel of support or not
• How easy it is to use overall.

You get Linux, whatever distribution you choose. You may get a better range of options with distribution X over distribution Y, The choice is for you to decide, and because of Linux’s excellent Copying/Licensing properties, you can often download a distribution from the net, or have a copy made for free by a friend without having to part with any cash.

Bundled Software with your Linux distribution

When you buy a mac, or a Windows PC you will find you get a nominal amount of software with it, made (usually) by either Microsoft or Apple. If you buy the PC from a vendor such as HP, you might get some extra tools as well like Multimedia software, but what you will undoubtedly notice is that you have to buy or download most of the software you want to use on your system. With a Linux distribution, you generally find that it comes with some important softwares already pre-installed. Some large software like office suites (OpenOffice.org) to smaller but powerful tools like DVD/movie software such as VLC.

Small guide on 'Live' Distributions

In today's time, so called ‘Live’ distributions have become very popular, because it let’s you try out a Linux distribution without even installing it onto your hard disk. This is great because you don’t have to repartition the disk (will be referred in next article) or install it over your Windows/Mac OS software. You can simply drop the CD or USB for a Live Distro into your CD Drive or USB Port and start up your computer from that. You usually get most of the main functionality of the distribution so you can really evaluate if the distribution is for you before you choose to install it for real. Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux has a great installer that has an option to install Ubuntu on the same disk partition as your Windows XP or Vista setup using an installer called the ‘wubi installer’. It runs a tiny bit slower than normal Linux, but it’s a very easy way to install Linux alongside Windows if you want to test it first. Also Live Linux can be used when you want to operate your HDD when you have forgotten your Windows user account password. There are many more uses which we will discuss in my upcoming articles.

Why should you buy Linux even when it is available for Free?

Buying Linux often provides us with extra benefits that downloaded-free versions do not provide, such as:

• Physical manuals (SuSE & Red Hat Enterprise Linux are particularly good) to help you out when you need a complete reference.
• Vendor support for a particular period of time
• Distributions like Red-Hat Enterprise give corporations a guaranteed Service Level Response
• Sometimes you may get more software than with other distributions (eg extra DVDs instead of downloads).
• Commercial software titles can be included (as it is non-free), these can include copyrighted or patented technologies such as DVD and MP3 players, as well as commercial software like Adobe Flash Player and so forth.

Which distribution to choose? 

Below are some opinions which will help you choose your Linux distro.

• Red Hat Enterprise (RHEL) - You are a manager and you want a good support contract.
• CentOS - You want Red Hat without the support contract from Red Hat.
• Fedora - You want Red Hat on your laptop/desktop.
• Linux Mint - You want a personal graphical desktop to play movies, music and games.
• Debian - Some people's personal favorite for servers, laptops, and any other device.
• Ubuntu - Very popular, based on Debian.
• Kali - You want a g hacking interface.
• Others - Advanced users may prefer Arch, Gentoo, OpenSUSE, Scientific, ...

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Different Linux Distros

Now that you know what makes a Linux distribution, you may be wondering where to start looking. For those looking to branch out, there are hundreds of distros out there, and it can be pretty overwhelming. Choosing between hundreds is a hard task to do. But here, I will provide you a short article which will make you clear the basics and let you choose between.

NOTE : There are only few main Distros. Other Distros are simply made taking any one distribution as a base.

Ubuntu : 

If you have tried Linux before, you might be aware about Ubuntu. But if not, here is a small guide on it. The original aim of Ubuntu was to make Linux easier for the average user, and it did a pretty good job - it's a great beginner's distribution. It's fairly simple to use, updates every six months, and now contains its own Unity interface, which is specific to Ubuntu, featuring things like a dock instead of a taskbar, an App Store-like interface for its package manager, a dashboard for easy searching of the OS, and more. Ubuntu comes with a pretty standard set of apps, including Firefox, Thunderbird, Empathy for instant messaging, Transmission for downloading torrents, and more. It has a ton of programs available in the repositories, or online as packaged DEB files for one-click installations. Rarely will you have to build a program from source (compile to form setup using code available).

Linux Mint :

Linux Mint is actually based off Ubuntu, but I thought to include it here because it has become even more popular with Ubuntu's shift toward the unpopular Unity interface. Mint aims to be as easy as possible for users unfamiliar with Linux: the installation is pain-free, the menus are familiar and easy to use, and unlike other distros, it doesn't commit itself to providing only free and open source software, i.e. it comes with things like Adobe Flash, MP3 support, and some proprietary hardware drivers preinstalled. In other distros, you usually have to download these separately. It uses the same package management system as Ubuntu, so all the programs available for Ubuntu also runs on Mint. If you are new to Linux, I highly recommend you to use Mint.

Fedora :

Fedora aims to be a bit more on the cutting edge of all its software. Updates come out every six months, just like Ubuntu and Mint, but they aren't supported for very long. It's expected that users update regularly and as soon as possible. Programs like Firefox will be updated as soon as Mozilla releases an update, unlike Ubuntu, which will usually wait to make Ubuntu-specific changes to the code and release things later on. This can result in a bit more instability, but is great for those that always want the latest and greatest software on their system. It also updated to the GNOME 3 Shell very quickly, and is the most popular Linux distribution currently using it. Fedora uses the somewhat slower but easier to use Yum package manager, instead of Ubuntu and Mint's APT. It doesn't have all the softwares available that the others do, but you can still find most of what you need in the repositories or online in a single-click installer. Fedora also has great security and enterprise features, if you're looking to use Linux in a more professional environment.

Redhat/CentOS :

RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) is the non-free Enterprise version offering of Fedora distribution. It comes with full telephone based support and is backed by rigorous testing. CentOS is the free version which is derived from RHEL but usually trails behind it and of course does not come with enterprise support.

Debian :

Debian, in many ways, is the opposite of Fedora. Its goal is to be as stable and bug-free as possible, which it does very well. It means that your system is rarely up-to-date with the latest versions of software. New releases come out every 1 to 3 years. However, if you're looking for something as stable as a rock, and don't care about always having the latest version of a piece of software, Debian is for you. Debian also uses the same package management structure as Ubutnu and Mint, so it has more programs available than you can shake a stick at - both in the repositories and online as DEB files. It also supports many processor architectures, which is great if you have a particularly old build.

OpenSUSE :

OpenSUSE is a general-purpose Linux distribution that has a very helpful community. Its main draw over other distributions is its level of configuration. KDE is the default desktop (which in my experience is one of the most easily configurable), though it lets you choose between KDE, GNOME, LXDE and XFCE during the installation, which is pretty cool. It also has a very nicely done system administration utility and package manager, known as YaST, as well as great documentation and (as previously stated) a good community behind it. OpenSUSE is a good distro to try, since it gives you a lot of configuration options without the need to go into the command line.

 Arch Linux :

Arch Linux is special. Arch doesn't have many of its own characteristics, since when you install it you're installing it from scratch. All you have when you install it is a command line, from which you build up your desktop environment, drivers, preferred applications, and more. Essentially, you're creating your own super customized distro. It can be as minimal or heavy as you want, and while it takes a lot of work, the end result is fantastic (plus you'll learn a ton about how Linux works in the process). Arch uses the incredibly easy and powerful Pacman package manager, and there are no "official" releases - you're always installing the latest version of whatever packages are included. Arch also contains the Arch User Repository (AUR). It essentially allows the community to create easily installable versions of any program, so even if it isn't in the official Arch repos, you can use an AUR helper to install all those programs as if they were normal packages in the repositories.

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Linux Distro - Introduction

Before we start installaton of Linux, we must choose from its different distributions available according to our requirement. So, here I am going to tell you about Linux Distributions.

If you’ve heard anything at all about Linux, you’ve probably heard of Linux distributions – often shortened to “Linux distros.” When deciding to use Linux – on a desktop computer or server – you’ll first need to choose a distro.

For many people, Ubuntu has become synonymous with Linux. But Ubuntu is one of many distros (and not the Linux itself), and you have a lot of choice when it comes to Linux.

What Is a Linux Distro?

A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection, which is based upon the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one of the Linux distributions, which are available for a wide variety of systems.

Linux isn’t like Windows or Mac OS X. Microsoft combines all the bits of Windows internally to produce each new release of Windows and distributes it as a single package. If you want Windows, you’ll need to choose one of the versions Microsoft is offering.

Linux works differently. The Linux operating system isn’t produced by a single organization. Different organizations and people work on different parts. There’s the Linux kernel (the core of the operating system), the GNU shell utilities (the terminal interface and many of the commands you use), the X server (which produces a graphical desktop), the desktop environment (which runs on the X server to provide a graphical desktop), and more. System services, graphical programs, terminal commands – many are developed independently from another. They’re all open-source software distributed in source code form.

If you wanted to, you could grab the source code for the Linux kernel, GNU shell utilities, Xorg X server, and every other program on a Linux system, assembling it all yourself. However, compiling the software would take a lot of time – not to mention the work involved with making all the different programs work properly together.

Linux distributions do the hard work for you, taking all the code from the open-source projects and compiling it for you, combining it into a single operating system you can boot up and install. They also make choices for you, such as choosing the default desktop environment, browser, and other software. Most distributions add their own finishing touches, such as themes and custom software – the Unity desktop environment Ubuntu provides, for example.

When you want to install new software or update to new versions of software with important security updates, your Linux distribution provides them in precompiled, packaged form. These packages are fast and easy to install, saving you from doing the hard work yourself.

In short, Linux Distro is an OS made by combination of group of packages. These packages are not system softwares but are used for a specific purpose. In windows, we have a single package which does all the work but as Linux is developed by different organisations, it is compromised of different packages installed according to the purpose of the developer. Here, they take the source code of a package and complie it, get it installed on the system. A Linux Distro is an OS and every distribution differs from other by the set of packages available and its purpose.

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