So, what is Linux?
Linux, simply is an alternative operating system to the traditional MS Windows or Mac OS. In a nut shell, it gives you a third mainstream alternative for desktop and server environments.
But while simply explained as an alternative, there is a lot more to Linux that meets they eye, and this is where the confusion stems from.
Unlike Windows or Mac OS, Linux is not driven by a single company or entity. Linux uses GPL, GNU General Public License. Simply put, instead of trying to prevent anyone from looking at your code and making everything proprietary and closed, Linux is an open system where anyone can take the code, modify it, tweak it, and then re-release it, as long as the keep it under the GPL. This has caused for many different versions (generally called distros, but sometimes referred to as flavors) of Linux to creep up over the years. This has caused there to be a distro count over over 250 currently. So why so many distros? What's the point of them, why have so many people tweaked a simple operating system so much?
With such a variety of distros out there, it is important to start to understand the ethos behind some of these distros to understand why there are so many distros.
| Distro | Ethos |
| Ubuntu | Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers. |
| Red Hat | Built for the modern datacenter. To put your enterprise in a position to win, you have to break down the barriers that hold you back. With Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®, a platform with unparalleled stability and flexibility, you can reallocate your resources toward meeting the next challenges instead of just maintaining the status quo. |
| CentOS | The CentOS Linux distribution is a stable, predictable, manageable and reproducible platform derived from the sources of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). |
| Fedora | Freedom. Friends. Features. First. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It is built and used by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project. |
| SLES | The Advanced Foundation for Your Success |
| openSuse | openSUSE is a free and Linux-based operating system for your PC, Laptop or Server. You can surf the web, manage your e-mails and photos, do office work, play videos or music and have a lot of fun! |
Here we see a few of the major lead contenders in the Linux world. From these, we can see that the purpose of these myriad distros is widespread. You have Red Hat and SLES which focus more on corporate customers, and they make money through support contracts. In order to keep within the GPL, they have their opensource alternatives, CentOS/Fedora and openSuse respectively.
CentOS focuses more on business stability and very closely mirrors RHEL. Fedora, while still based on RHEL is more focused on being more bleeding edge, and is somewhat of a testing ground for future RHEL features, drivers, and other enhancements.
There are always pros and cons to the different distros, and when selecting which distro to run it is important to determine beforehand what it is that you want to do. For desktop environments, openSuse, Fedora, or Ubuntu might be the better choices. For server grade without paying a subscription, CentOS or Ubuntu are great choices. For Enterprise Level support in conjunction with Linux, SLES or Red Hat are great choices.
And with all of these, there are still other distros based on them that may make great choices, such as Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint.
While there is much more to Linux to be learned about, that will be covered in the future as we investigate how to install, configure, and other uses for different distros.
Next time we will go into how to install Ubuntu, openSuse, CentOS, and Fedora.
~SLT
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