1.4. Pick your distribution.
In this section we are listing some Linux distributions so let you
pick, remember it's your taste, it's your decision
to pick what ever Linux flavor you like,
don't let any one tell you which to use.
Make sure you get a recent distribution, if it's older than one year
then I consider it obsolute (eventhough it's still supported and active),
debian-unstable is updated each week!! other distributions get released 3 times
a year, more stable (in th sense of changes rate) released every couple of year.
Section quotes:
- "It's like buying orange juice. Usually, it is made with pretty
good stuff no matter what company name is on the label.
Few people know, or care, where the components (or orange juice
concentrate) came from."
-- Hank Dietz, about completely different subject on Linux Parallel Processing HOWTO.
- "This is probably the first and last time I will openly agree for someone
to tell me were to go, and do it ;-)."
-- Andre Hedrick on Linux Kernel Mailing Lists
- "Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it."
-- found on 'fortune-mod'
- "Fool-proof tool: All parameters are hard-coded, you have no choice."
-- found on 'fortune-mod'
Section content:
1.4.1. Introduction.
Choosing the distribution is no more than self taste
as Isam Bayasidi says it's like fruit flavors, all distribitions
have the same kernle, same GNU tools,and maybe same KDE and GNOME,
some distributions has the same package format or even the installation
program, for example 'anaconda' the installation program of RedHat is
free and could be used in other distributions like Hancom Linux.
distributions differs by versions, patches and distribution specific tools.
Some distributions are designed for a special purpose but most of them is
general. Distributions differs by philosophy for example some distribution
is made for critical servers like RHEL from RedHat and Debian stable
those has very old packages (maybe 4 years old) that are heavily patched so they are
very very robust and secure,some is made to meet it's community
needs (latest full featured software - even if they are not that much tested)
like Fedora from RedHat or even Debian Sid (updated weekly) , and some is made
to be very easy it's installations program ask many too easy questions
and gives very simple help like Mandrake for example some installation
help messages in 9.0 says "if you don't know select MBR." ,
If you have never used Linux start with a Live-CD distribution or Mandrake.
The main source of information about Linux distrbutions
is distrowatch.com site,
where you could find any information about any distribution including:
it's main features, it's main site, it's download page, versions of each
package it includes and many more. Categorized list of
Linux distributions could be found at Linux online
www.Linux.org/dist/,
you could search for a distribution given it's architecture (platform)
or human languages it support.
www.LinuxISO.org
offers CD image downloads for almost all downloadable distributions.
1.4.2. Major Linux distributions.
Red Hat
The open source leading copmany, it has a good share of the market,
most books talks about it's distributions, commercial developers consider it
as the official Linux for testing compatibility of their products with Linux.
Red Hat gives Red Hat Certifications
that is widly acceptable. Because of American Intellectul Property laws
forbid reverse engineering and recoginze exclusive patents on algorithms
and software idea patents, and because Red Hat lawers are very paranoid (actually this is a Red Hat policy, being paranoid)
you can't not play MP3 and access NTFS
(you may download plugins from servers outside USA
like freshrpms.net
, how legal is this if you are in USA ? ) .
Red Hat public FTP server is http://ftp.redhat.com/pub/
has many RPM packages but there are many more sites for.
Red Hat has two types of users: it's community (usually home users),
they want the latest full featured beautiful new versions,
some them may call support for 'How to change the desktop wallpaper ?' ,
on the other hand the giant companies customers that use Linux
for critical jobs, they need robust packages even if they are
very old and with fewer features.
Red Hat has split Red Hat Linux
into two projects one is community driven and for free download
but no phone support this is called Fedora Core see
http://fedora.redhat.com,
Fedora is updated frequently (3 or 2 times a year a new version is released)
and supported by the community see www.FedoraForum.org.
The other project is RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
it's very expensive to normal home users (there is a cheap educational version)
but the price is for support service, this distribution is targeted to
giant companies and critical missions, RHEL is released each one and half years.
Both projects are open source (according to OSD).
Mandriva Linux (formerly known as Mandrake Linux)
Mandrake (some times called Mandy) is renmed to be Mandriva is a french company
that makes MandrivaLinux (formerly called MandrakeLinux) distribution
one of the most easy and beautiful one, I like it and many others do,
it has simple installation program (DrakeX)
and a nice and easy to use configaration tool called Mandrake Control Center (mcc),
the urpmi package managment tool is another reason that people loves Mandrake.
if you want more packages you may see
http://ftp.du.se/pub/os/mandrakelinux/
and plf.zarb.org.
Mandrake has other producs like MandrakeMove which is a live CD that
works without installation, just put the CD and reboot.
SuSE
SuSE is a large European company
that offer commercial support for Linux,
It's community disappeared when SuSE had stoped the free downloadable version!
and replace it with a Live-CD for evolution. SuSE now is back and there is
a downloadable version of SuSE that you can install.
SuSE is a user-friendely distribution for desktop users,
it's most important feature is YaST contiguration tool.
1.4.3. Expert-friendely distributions.
Debian
It's a nonprofitable organization has made a 'Social Contract' with the Community
that "promise to keep the Debian GNU/Linux Distribution entirely free software".
About a thousand of active volunteers (Debian repository contains more than 50,000 package)
and it supports many architectures (see www.debian.org/ports/),
and even many operating systems (other than GNU/Linux) like Debian GNU/Hurd
and Debian FreeBSD! It's preferred by professionals in homes and very
large companies, Debian has three stages (three parallel projects),
the first is stable this is very robust distribution that has heavily patched
very old packages that never get updated
unless there is a security update, no new packages is added, no new features
added, even for years, it's almost imposible to find a bug or a hole in it.
It's not suitable for a small office or home.
The second one is 'testing' it's really robust but new packages added
and new features added frequently this is why it's not called stable
becuase it's changing it's good for a small office or home.
The last one is 'unstable' or 'Sid' this is the freshest one,
no one has ever test it other than each package developer,
It's for people like to be on the bleeding edge, trying every
new package. currently stable (is called Woody) is 6 CDs,
testing (is called Sarge) is 13 CDs (with more than 14000 packages) !!
it's expected to enter freezing stage just before becoming the new stable
then woody goes to archive, and a new testing and unstable is released.
if you don't know what is the latest one first made you mind about
which one do you want 'stable', 'testing' ,or 'unstable' then
choose a folder called current.
Debian is one of the biggest Linux poles, it has it's own personality
it uses package format called 'deb' and intellegent tool called 'apt'
that can get packages and handle dependancy automatically
(it can be configured to search for packages on Debian repositories on the internet),
you may find what ever package you want on Debian repository www.debian.org/distrib/packages
for what ever architecture you want !
Slackware
It's lazy BSD-like distribution, it's makers did not try to put any
tool on it, the installing and those few reconfiguring tools are just
a smart shell script!! they has made a packaging format but it's just
a normal tarball (tar'ed and gzip'ed files), their site is just like
a white screen with black writings on it,
even the Slackware logo is just the word Slackware!
Other logos are contributed by Slackware fans.
You are wondering why people loves it, thats because the famous words
'simple is good, simple is secure.' you don't need to wast memory while
installing with colored wallpaper, you don't want to wast it in drawing
buttons when you are configaring a server.
If you wantt to test you UNIX skills try this one.
Slackware is one of the first Linux distributions.
1.4.4. Live-CD distributions.
Knoppix
Knoppix (see www.knoppix.org)
is a special purpose distribution, it's aimed to let people know
what Linux is, without missing with their hard drive, it is a Live-CD that
work without being installed, you may run it even if you don't have a hard drive,
just put the single CD and then reboot, all devices will be recognized automatically.
It also could be used as a rescue CD.
Knoppix is an easy-to-use distribution with KDE
with all the power of Debian.
Almost all live CDs are based on it, you could use it as a kit to build
your own Live distribution.
Morphix
Morphix (see www.Morphix.org)
a Live-CD based on Knoppix, but with GNOME desktop.
MEPIS
A very easy-to-use Live-CD Linux distribution and it could be installed,
see www.mepis.org
Dynebolic
Dynebolic (see www.dynebolic.org)
is a Linux Multimedia studio on Live CD.
With many Easy-to-use expert-level serious multimedia creation and editing applications,
with very light desktop (currentely WindowMaker) work on even an old Pentium I with 64MB of RAM.
It supports Supercomputer clustering for best performence.
1.4.5. Building kits and Source-based distributions.
Linux From Scratch
Make it yourself distribution, with your own '/dev/hands',
for fun, education, extreme obtimization or security (if you don't trust any body make it yourself),
visit www.LinuxFromScrtch.org for details.
It's 4 Books (parts): 'Linux from scratch' it gives you instruction on how
to build gcc (statically so it can be run by itself)
then use it to build minimum system (kernel and static shell) then boot it
then use the static gcc to build the libraries then rebuild every things dynamiclly
then add most GNU tools and usual packages and servers.
'Byond Linux from scratch' here we build KDE and GNOME and
make our distribution as any master distribution.
'Linux from scratch hints' some hints on it like making a booting CD
beautifying the boot loader.
'Automated Linux from scratch' is a project aimed to let you make
your own distribution automatically that it issue commands by it self
in sequance by a shell script.
gentoo
The next generation distributioin, many people have moved to 'gentoo'
when it just appeared. It's aimed to be the fastest distribution
that is optimized for your own CPU, this is done by having the source
code of each and every package those packages are built
on the installation process, like 'Automated Linux from scratch'
but it is not for education or fun it's a high quality master distribution.
You will notice better speed and performance if you have an AMD CPU (athlon or other)
since gcc will optimize each program to use all the special machine instructions
of the AMD CPU. Installation process will take more time than other distributions
that just copy binary files, but we just install Linux once.
Rock Linux
A distribution for builing you own distribution automatically,
you could specify the optimization level you like.
It supports many architectures.
Unlike other source-based distributions, it support clustering so
that building process will take shorter time by using the power of
many computers in the network cluster, see www.rocklinux.org for details.
1.4.6. Special purpose distributions.
There are many special purpose distributions like Linux-Router which is a single
floppy that if you boot an old computer with some ethernet cards it become
a router! (router is an expensive network hardware).
Other are to support some language like Resala Core Linux (http://resala.linux-egypt.org),
some are designed for embedded systems like game consoles (eg. Playstation2 and Xbox)
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