Linux Distributions
Who among us hasn’t heard of Linux
yet? You know, that freely distributable ‘flavor’ of the Unix class of
operating systems? Not a lot, probably. But do you all know that Linux
comes in many distributions or ‘distros’ as the natives call it? Or, that, there are over a hundred of these ‘distros’ available online or otherwise?
That’s what I thought.
Well,
if you’re a novice, like me, or not-so-new to the field but would like
a memory jog, herein then is a quick tour of six of the most commonly
used (at least, in my own humble opinion) in web hosting servers that
are available under GNU-GPL, listed in alphabetical order.
Debian GNU/Linux is a free OS that uses the Linux kernel although most of its basic tools come from the GNU
project. There are three releases in active maintenance as of this
writing are: Version 3.0r2, codename: woody, (stable); codename: sarge
(testing) and codename: sid (unstable).
Mandrake Linux
was created in 1998 by MandrakeSoft, and takes a graphical approach to
both installation and system administration. Mandrakelinux™ 10.0 is the
latest release.
Red Hat Linux
is probably the most popular, although not necessarily the best, of the
lot. It was created in 1994 by Marc Ewing, developed by Red Hat
Software (now Red Hat Inc.), and has evolved into two main product
lines. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux was created in 2002 to become
(according to their site anyway) the corporate Linux standard, and its
latest release is version 3.0. The Fedora Project, introduced in 2003,
for developers and enthusiasts using Linux in non-critical computing
environments.
SuSE Linux
is the distribution produced by SuSE GmbH. The main selling point
emphasized by the company for its latest release, the SuSE Linux 9.0,
is the inclusion of of innovative technologies to facilitate system
migration for Linux newcomers. This, aside from all Internet, office,
images, audio, video and network applications you could possibly want
(or so their site says).
Slackware Linux
was originally developed by Patrick Volkerding and first released in
April 1993. It is a complete 32-bit multitasking UNIX-like system based
currently around the 2.4 Linux kernel series and the GNU C Library
version 2.3.2 (libc6). Its latest release is Slackware 9.1.
TurboLinux
is the leading Linux distribution in the Asia-Pacific. Its unique
clustering solution allows the construction of highly available and
scalable networks based on low-cost commodity components. Its latest
releases are the Turbolinux 10 Desktop, Turbolinux 8 Server and
Turbolinux Enterprise Server 8.
CentOS
is one of the free versions of the popular Red Hat Enterprise Linux,
arguably just as functional, and the major benifit of being completely
free.
White Box Linux is also another free clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
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