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| Comparison of Distributions: |
The only thing unique about any distribution is the software they choose to
bundle in a distribution, the versions of each software package, the
installation program, configuration tools and the
directory layout. It is important that the versions of the compiler, libraries
and the kernel work together bug free. This is also important for the bundled
software packages. Once the compiler, library and kernel
versions are chosen, the other software packages are chosen, compiled and
bundled together. This is evident when comparing S.u.S.E., Debian, Slackware
and Red Hat.
Each bundle their distributions with different (their own) applications,
different versions of the applications if common and their own installation and
configuration programs.
The distribution also chooses a directory layout and script configuration.
For example, Red Hat chooses to use a UNIX System V init script style and
directory tree while Slackware chooses to use a Berkeley style layout.
Some distributions choose to base their CD's on an existing distribution with
changes made in the default settings or packages they bundle.
The differences in the choice of libraries and
directory layouts can cause incompatibilities
with software designed to be installed on one distribution but then installed on
another.
The lead in popularity with UNIX administrators in the USA is
held by
Red Hat based distributions. (This includes RHEL, Fedora, Lineox,
Centos and many other equally popular distributions.)
S.u.S.E. is a European distribution (bought by Novell) and is popular
on that side of the Atlantic. S.u.S.E. is also popular with MS/Windows
dominated IT
departments due to their love of the S.u.S.E. Yast configuration tool
and some of the extra bundled applications like qps, kdiff3 and ksysguard.
Both Red Hat and S.u.S.E. are RPM based distributions and the only
major difference is the location of desktop applications and the
configuration management GUI tools. S.u.S.E. separates the desktop and
applications from the rest of the OS in the /opt directory
(i.e. /opt/gnome and /opt/kde).
Tubo Linux is dominant in Asia. Debian has a very slick update feature set
which allows one to upgrade over the internet.
(ap-get update followed by ap-get dist-upgrade will search the
internet for the latest packages, resolve dependencies and install.)
Linspire (was Lindows) has a slick commercial desktop/laptop version of the Debian distribution. Ubuntu is a very popular Debian based distribution due to its pace of development and popular support on the desktop.
While Red Hat does have the up2date and yum
command, it is not designed to update across releases.
Red Hat has chosen to only sell a Linux version with paid support called
Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
A free clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is now available from White Box Linux, Centos, Lineox or Tao Linux.
Future releases will be based upon The Fedora Project, an RPM based distribution with Red Hat involvement which will
have more current software releases and thus have more updates than the fairly
static RHEL.
S.u.S.E. has also adopted a paid "supported" version of Linux called
S.u.S.E. Enterprise Linux. The free unsupported "professional" version is
still available under the S.u.S.E. brand and is updated more often.
Gentoo uses a BSD style of distribution which relies on updating source code
and then compiling locally to obtain the resulting binaries.
This is slow to update due
to the time it takes to compile everything and more disk drive resources are
used to store source code. The upside is that everything is compatible with
the compilers and libraries on your system as it was compiled with it.
The local compilation will allow targeted platform optimization rather than
using the lowest common denominator I386 binary releases which are common with
other Linux distributions.
When choosing a distribution for "classified" US DoD environments, I have
only seen one which have been approved for use, Red Hat.
It works with Snare and can be configured to meet DoD auditing and logging requirements.
TrinityOS: Comparison of distributions
| Distribution |
Description |
I-32 |
x86_64 |
I-64 |
MIPS |
PPC |
SPARC |
| Andrew-Linux |
Carnegie Mellon |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| ArchLinux |
i686 (PentiumII +) tar.gz based distro. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| ASLinux |
Intel-32/Debian Sarge based Spanish |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Bad Penguin |
Italian |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Bastille |
security emphasis |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| BearOps |
Fully configured KDE desktop. Strong desktop/workstation application focus. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| BlueCat Linux from LynuxWorks |
Embedded real-time |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| BRLSPEAK Linux Mini-distro |
A Braille and Speech Mini-Distribution of Linux for the blind |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Centos Linux |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux compatable distribution. |
* |
* |
* |
- |
* |
* |
| Chaos Linux |
openMosix cluster, single system image (SSI), minimal (6Mb) 586 distribution. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Conectiva Linux |
Brazilian. Uses RPM aware version of Debian apt-get (Synaptic) |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Coyote Linux |
based on the Linux Router Project (single floppy) |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Cyrillic |
Russian |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
 Debian/GNU |
GNU |
* |
- |
* |
* |
* |
* |
| Engarde Secure Linux |
Internet server with a security emphasis. Includes
intrusion alert capabilities, improved authentication and access
control, and complete SSL secure web-based administration. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Esware Linux |
Spanish version - KDE |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| EtLinux |
Compact for reduced requirements |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
 Fedora |
Red Hat Fedora (Red Hat's free version) |
* |
* |
- |
- |
* |
- |
| WireSpring: FireCast |
Public Kiosk |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Gentoo |
Source based Linux made to look like BSD. Uses Portage package management system.
Support for native XFS with V1.0+. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Helix |
Knoppix Live based Linux. Bootable live CD with applications dedicated to Incident Response and Forensics.
From e-fense.com. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| MontaVista |
Carrier grade, MobiLinux real-time, embedded, ... Linux. Also cross development for MIPS. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| HispaFuentes |
Spanish distribution. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Knoppix |
Lightweight. Good for a Linux demo and rescue disk. Debian/KDE based. German distribution. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Leetnux |
Nothing is auto configured. User specifies all. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Lineox |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clone. |
* |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Linspire |
This distribution was formerly known as Lindows. It is
Debian/KDE based with a fully configured desktop. Strong desktop/laptop
application focus. A "Warehouse" of free and commercial applications
are accessible from CNR, their GUI/internet based deb package
management tool. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| LoopLinux |
Can be installed on and run from a dos system, i.e.
msdos, pcdos, drdos and win9x in dos mode. No need to repartition, the
linux system will just be a file or directory on your current dos/win9x
system, and act like it was on it's own partition. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
 Mandriva |
Mandriva = Mandrake + Connectiva + Lycoris. Result of the merging of three distros. Desktop emphasis.
MandrivaExpert.com - support |
* |
* |
* |
- |
* |
* |
| Mastodon |
Slackware+ |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
* |
| Mepis |
Debian based Linux with an emphasis on the desktop using KDE. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| MontaVista |
Embeded systems development edition, Carrier Grade edition and Mobile. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
* |
| NCSU Linux |
North Carolina State University - Based on Redhat |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Nimblex Linux |
Based on Slackware and KDE. Lean 100Mb and 200Mb versions. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| NSA: Security-Enhanced Linux |
From the National Security Agency (NSA). Features now available as SELinux in Red Hat and Fedora. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| OWL |
Security enhanced Linux. Source based with Red Hat compatibility. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Phat Linux |
Installs in directory on Windows system C: drive. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Quantian Linux |
Knoppix-clusterKnoppic/Debian variant tailored to numerical and quantitative analysis. OpenMosix enabled. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Red Hat |
Supported (RHEL) and free (Fedora) |
* |
* |
* |
- |
- |
- |
| Red Hawk Linux |
Concurrent Computer Corp true deterministic and preemptive real-time Linux OS. Red Hat compatable. . |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Rocklinux |
Known as the most dificult to install. This distro has NO gui's and you must compile everything!! Not for wimps. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
* |
- |
| Royal Linux |
Embedded Systems (ARM, MIPS, Motorola PPC) |
- |
- |
- |
* |
* |
- |
| Scyld Computing |
Linux for Beowulf clusters. ClusterWare HPC. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
 Slackware |
One of the first.
Support for native XFS with V8.1+
See LinuxMafia.net for Slackware resources. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Small Linux |
Small Kernel Project: Distro for console based 386 laptops with 2Mb ram and 40Mb of disk. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| SOL |
Server Optimized Linux. Independent of other distros. XML based configuration and boot.. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Stampede |
optimized. Nothing new since 2.4 kernel. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
 Novell S.u.S.E. |
Commercially supported. Known for bundeling lots of software. Support for native XFS with V8.0+ |
* |
* |
* |
- |
* |
* |
| TimeSys LinuxLink |
Real-time Linux |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Tomahawk Desktop |
Desktop, laptop and multimedia centric Linux. Singapore. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Trustix |
Secure Linux for servers. Small, stable with easy updating. Text console based interface. Swup package manager uses GnuPG. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| TurboLinux |
US and Japanese |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| White Box Enterprise Linux |
A clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Built from RHEL source RPM's |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Ubuntu |
Debian based Linux with new package releases every six months. |
* |
* |
* |
- |
* |
* |
| Vector Linux |
Based on Slackware. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Vyatta |
Commercial open source Linux router, BGP, VPN, firewall, ... |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Win4Lin |
Microsoft desktop application friendly. MS applications running on MS/Windows OS running on virtual machine on Linux. |
* |
- |
- |
- |
* |
- |
| Yellow Dog |
Apple PPC based hardware |
- |
- |
- |
- |
* |
- |
| YesLinux |
YES Linux is a turnkey distribution that is specifically targeted to the SOHO (Small Office/Home Office). Web administration. Sourceforge page |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| ZeroShell |
ZeroShell Linux is a small CD distribution for servers
and embedded devices that is specifically targeted to provide network
services such as Kerberos, LDAP, RADIUS, DNS, DHCP, VLAN, VPN, .... |
* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| SGI MIPS Linux |
For SGI MIPS based hardware |
- |
- |
- |
* |
- |
- |
Linux from scratch -
How to create a Linux system from the basic ingredients.
Linux Base spec - attempt to define a Linux standard base for distributions.
Unixersal Rosetta Stone - Side by side comparison of 17 Unix'es from a sysAdmin point of view.
| Links to more distribution lists: |
|
