Linux Distributions (Distros) and Competitors - Oakton

[Pages:14]Linux Distributions (Distros) and Competitors

Pick your poison

By Lineage

? Redhat Tree: RHEL, Fedora, Centos, Mandrake (Mandriva) ? Debian tree: Debian, Ubuntu and it's variants, LinuxMint, Knoppix ? Gentoo ? (Open)Suse: Novell and Europe ? Slackware ? Open/FreeBSD: USL based ? (Open) Solaris: USL based

By Package Management

Package Manager

Package file suffix

Per-package tool

Dependency tool

Red Hat .rpm rpm yum

Debian .deb dpkg apt-get

Other software management options

? "make" and "tarballs" ? "txz packages (Slackware) ? "tbz" BSD based ? Pre-packaged source (Gentoo) ? Specialized USL ? Solaris, HP-UX, AIX

RedHat Family

? Most widely used software distro.

? Most distros use .rpm binaries even if not actually based on Redhat

? RedHat Enterprise LINUX (RHEL): - Premier, most widely used commercial LINUX server distro - Expensive, but good support. Lots of Internet support - Software administration sometimes problematic

? Mandrake (Mandriva): - Excellent desktop variant - User group and support is scattered

? Fedora (formerly a separate organization): - Server oriented RedHat Beta(s), usually 2x per year - Free, but flaky. Bleeding edge. - Download distribution media of variable quality. - Newer features and utilities lack stability.

? Centos: - Server oriented RHEL variant usually 6-12 months behind current release - Free, stable, not current in features. - Widely used in commercial network devices

Debian Family

? Second most widely used distro

? Distros use .deb binaries

? Debian - Oldest distro outside of Slackware - Plenty of packages and support - Server oriented - 100+ variants - Announced two code base options: LINUX and OpenBSD!!!!!!!

? Ubuntu: - Desktop oriented but server is coming on.

? LINUX MINT: - Ubuntu variant, mainly desktop with improved usability features

? Knoppix: - "Live CD" only. - Used for system backup/recovery.

Others

? (Open)Suse: - Novell Netware LINUX from Europe. Now Attachmate and Microsoft. - Primarily server version, OES replacement for native Netware OS. - Desktop is "bloated", difficult. - Future questionable as a commercial offering. Time will tell.

? PCLinuxOS: - For Windows users, a lot of Mandrake type support tools - Limited development and support, esp. for foreign languages and (lack of) 64 bit

? Gentoo: - Server oriented - Difficult software admin - Scattered Internet support - Lots of platforms

? Slackware: - Oldest distro. Dedicated hardcore users. - Very server oriented, - "stripped down" used as basis of a lot of "utility" distros. - Primitive, line oriented administration. - Aging, losing Internet support as time goes on.

Others (USL)

? Commercial USLs: - HP-UX (HP) - AIX (IBM) - Solaris (SUN) - and others.... frozen in time, and the USL.

? SCO: - Not LINUX. The original PC based UNIX - Thought they'd bought the USL from Novell. - Requisat in Pace

? OpenSolaris: - Not LINUX, based on UNIX Source Code License (USL). - Inter, Sparc - Lots of original software (NFS, NIS, Java) came from this OS - Widely used commercial OS version for database (and bought by Oracle), but losing ground to LINUX - Free UNIX version (not variant) on AMD, Intel, Sparc

? Open/FreeBSD - Not LINUX, based on UNIX Source Code License (USL) free academic version. Still evolving - The basis for MacOSX - Primarily Intel at this point but DEC Alpha, Sparc platforms supported. - Stripped down versions the basis for network security devices and "secure" OSes - The main LINUX competitor. Widely used freeware UNIX version (not variant) preferred by "LINUX haters".

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