Linux Distro Page
From SatlugWiki
Contents |
Linux Disto Page
This page is for reviews of Linux Distros. Let others know of the strengths and weaknesses of different distros.
Ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/ Ubuntu is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". Ubuntu also means "I am what I am because of who we all are". The Ubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world. http://www.ubuntu.com/
Fedora
Fedora is a collection of community projects sponsored by RedHat, Inc. The central project is known as Fedora Core, a freely available Linux distribution. Fedora Core is also used as the "beta" for the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases (which require a subscription to Red Hat Network in order to receive updates). Fedora Core attempts to integrate the latest versions of stable open source software at the time of its release, and updates are made available freely through the "yum" package management system.
Red Hat is currently transitioning control of the Fedora Project to an independant community effort in order to allow more outside contributions to the project. The Fedora Project endorses the Fedora Forum, one of the best sources of support for the new or experienced user. It is a community driven international forum that is free to all.
SuSe
SuSe is a distro that is now owned by Novell, Inc. The current version is 10.0. SuSe Linux works well with the Netgear WG311t wifi card and should work well with all cards with the Atheros chipset because the Netgear card is based on an Atheros chipset.
Slackware
Slackware is a free Linux distribution which has been around since 1993. Although it does not contain many of the bells and whistles that other distributions do, the development of slackware has been focused on stability and security. Novices may find this distro a little hard to setup at first, but the site does have a good amount of documentation to assist you in the installation and configuration. Although I really like running slackware, I have been spoiled by other distro's like Redhat, Mandriva and Debian with their package management software. Sometimes you have time to get deep into a shell prompt, and sometimes you don't. But this distro does offer the opportunity to learn a great deal about linux administration if you choose to do it. Slackware is a Registered Trademark of Slackware Linux, Inc.
Despite its minor difficulty with installing packages, Slackware is considered one of the most stable distributions out there. There is no urgency on the part of developer Patrick Volkerding to rush "bleeding-edge" packages to Slackware users. All packages,though not the most current, are thoroughly tested and reliable. Once past the learning curve, a user can easily customize a system to his/her exact needs by either selecting packages from the Slackware repository or from LinuxPackages which, though not quite as rock solid, makes up for the lack of selection at Slackware. Though the 2.4 kernel is still the default, upgrading to 2.6 is a snap. Another plus is that Slackware does not continually send out updates, which with many distros tend to cause dependency issues and extreme bloat. This is great because once a release is installed and customized, it is not necessary to touch it for at least a year when the next release can be expected. Very cool for the user who values productivity over maintenance.
Please feel free to correct any mistakes.
Debian
Debian GNU/Linux is a community project whose intent is to provide a free (as in speech) operating system using GNU system software and the Linux kernel as its foundation, spread across as many hardware platforms as possible. Beside the strong emphasis on Free and Open Source software, Debian users enjoy its easy-to-use package management utilities (dpkg and apt), its wide selection of software packages, Debian's long release cycle of the "stable" distribution, and rapid security updates for the included software. The downsides to using Debian include a perception that it's not very newbie friendly and that users are forced to use the "testing" or "unstable" trees in order to obtain the latest versions of software through the packaging system.
In order to address those shortcomings, other distributions based on Debian have been created, the most popular of which is Ubuntu Linux.
Knoppix
Knoppix is a special Linux distribution that can run directly off of a CD without intalling or modifying the hard-drive of a computer. The Knoppix distribution will autoconfigure to your PC's settings and start up in a GUI interface from which you can run some of the many included programs or open a command prompt. Since starting the computer using this CD never touches the present Operating System the user is granted administrator privledges even if this was not granted before. By carrying a Knoppix CD with you, you can run Linux on any computer that can boot to CD wothout replacing the existing Operating System. Knoppix is also useful to try out Linux without installing it and can also be used as an emergency disk in case certain unstable Operating Systems crash on you. Knoppix is not meant to be installed on a hard drive so this is highly discouraged due to possible bugs arising from it running on a hard drive instead of a CDROM.
Gentoo
According to their website, "Gentoo Linux is a special flavor of Linux that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme performance, configurability and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience." A version of Gentoo can run on a properly configured XBox video game system.
Source Mage
Source Mage GNU/Linux is a distribution dedicated to returning control to System Administratos that the wizards and maintainers of modern distributions have steadily chipped away. This is primarily accomplished through a source-based, interactive package management system, written in bash called Sorcery, which uses a metaphor of "casting" and "dispelling" programs, which we refer to as spells.
I run this because I like the amount of control I have over the system. I know exactly what's on the system and what's not. I have no extra services that I don't need. Also, everything is compiled to my architecture, which can provide a bit of a speed boost. - David Kowis
Linux From Scratch
Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a project that provides you with step-by-step instructions for building your own custom Linux system, entirely from source code.
CentOS
CentOS is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor (*cough*RedHat*cough). CentOS conforms fully with the upstream vendors redistribution policy and aims to be 100% binary compatible. (CentOS mainly changes packages to remove upstream vendor branding and artwork.) CentOS is free.
I run it because I like using stable Red Hat Enterprise-based software, but I don't need commercial support. There are other distributions out there that you can check out at distrowatch.com. -Daniel Villarreal
Scientific Linux
Similar in background to CentOS, Scientific Linux is maintained at Fermilab in collaboration with similar organizations like CERN to provide an enterprise level distro upon which to build tools. Like CentOS, Scientific Linux is free.
I run the current version of Scientific Linux to host development RDBMS and applications servers in preparation for migrating our databases and applications to fully licensed commercial Linux servers. One thing I've noticed on 32 bit Intel smp platforms with at least a gigabyte of RAM is the tendency for grub to default to hugemem smp kernels. This is only needed for installs with at least 16GB of RAM, so /root/grub/grub.conf can be edited to default to normal smp kernels instead. -Al Castanoli
Cooperative Linux
coLinux is a special distribution of Linux that runs within Windows as if it were a regular windows program. It therefore does not require a deinstallation of Windows or repartitioning in order to run. Windows programs will not be affected and Linux programs will run under the modified Linux kernel present in coLinux. The coLinux process acts like a separate computer when it is running and can run its own processes and even has its own virtual network card. Windows Internet Connection Sharing can be used to get the Virtual Linux machine on the internet. The default settings boot into a command prompt but can be configured to give a GUI interface. This is not for beginners as it requires a bit of work to configure it as such.
PCLinuxOS
PCLinuxOS is a distribution based on Mandrake (now Mandriva) that offers an installable live CD. Easy to install and maintain, PCLinuxOs is a great choice for the Linux novice. The wiki provides extensive documentation and the forum can always be used to address more difficult issues. The distro offers not only the full-featured release "Big Daddy", but also the "Mini-Me", a bare bones release that can be customized to the user's needs. RPM packages are easily updated and installed through Synaptic and dependency issues are rare.
Originating in Texas and maintained by the enigmatic yet omnipresent TexStar, PCLinuxOS has risen quickly to Distrowatch's top ten and promises to be around for quite some time.
