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sudo Sergeant 02: Which Distributions are Important?

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sudo Sergeant
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In this edition of sudo Sergeant, Felix scratches the surface of a few popular distributions of Linux. He goes over the roots of Linux for historical reference, discusses Debian which brings you Ubuntu and Raspbian, Red Hat which brings you Fedora, mentions Slackware, and closes with Arch Linux.

 

 

Felix goes over the roots of the Linux family tree. He traces the Linux line of succession all the way down to LS or Soft Landing Linux and MCC which comes to you via the Manchester Computer Center. He can't speak to it other than as a historical reference, nor is he aware of whether either one of them is being maintained. There are so many branches of Linux that it would be impossible for anyone to go over all of them in a short segment. However, Felix can and does mention the ones that he finds important.

 

The first distribution he goes over is the Debian. It's a great distribution to own but you have to be aware that its been adapted and branched out into many different distributions. The one that most people are aware of is Ubuntu and for many people, it's their introduction to Linux and GNU. Another Debian distribution, most people that are aware of because of its association with Raspberry Pi, is the Raspbian distribution. Raspbian is great because it's designed for the Raspberry Pi and very well supported by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

 

Slackware is another important distribution of Linux that's been getting some interest these days. Slackware has a shorter lineage than Debian but isn't something that Felix can speak to because he's never installed it or used it for anything.  The next distribution of Linux that Felix goes over is Red Hat. Red Hat is developed by a multinational software company that provides open-source solutions to the enterprise community. Red Hat has been influential in setting standards for Linux computing through the industry. Fedora, a very popular distribution of Linux, is brought to you by Red Hat Company. Fedora is the community edition of Red Hat so you know its awesome.

 

The Final distribution that Felix goes over is Arch Linux. The importance of the Arch Linux distribution lies in the fact that it's different than the other distributions. If you've ever been interested in the inner workings of an operating system, this is something that you can learn after installing it a few times. What makes it cool is that it enables a person to customize an entire operating system the way a person would like it to be.  All of this is just scratching the service.  In a future sudo Sergeant, Felix will go over which distribution to use for your particular application!

Do you have a particular flavor of Linux that you prefer to use?

Let us know in the comments below!

Anonymous
  • in reply to mrwampler

    The animation was made with proprietary software.

  • in reply to DAB

    You are spot on.  Check this out, I was traveling and needed to use a computer for some reason, so I found a public library.  I did whatever it was that I needed, and just as I was logging off I realized that the operating system was not Windows.  I investigated and it was a distribution named Groovix.

  • Very useful overview. Short but extremely interesting. And really well presented!!

  • As a teacher,  I'd love to know what you used for that linux family visualization....

  • Very good overview Felix.

     

    Your chart highlights one of the great failings of Linux for general use.  There are just TOO many variations available to write software safely for broad distribution.

    Twenty years ago I was involved in a new product development in an environment where UNIX was the dominant OS.

    We did a study that showed that the significant problems in maintaining product installation over a wide range of users made it simpler to target the product to Microsoft Windows.

    While there were some performance issues with Windows, we were able to successfully deploy the product to hundreds of users across the world without needing to adjust the source code.

     

    There was a big meeting in Washington DC and we were congratulated by one of the product development Scientist at the University of Arizona who stated that they had gone the UNIX route and had nothing but problems trying to support the copious versions of UNIX across the University spectrum.

     

    I fully understand the efficiency advantages of UNIX and LINUX, but if you want to target a broad spectrum of users you need all of them to agree to just one flavor.  Which is like trying to herd cats!

     

    By keeping the RPi limited to just a few flavors of LINUX, the product has been very successful for newbies as they just load it and use it.

     

    For those who are much more advanced they can go beyond the basics, but then they lose some of the ability to run products made by others.

     

    Their is no simple answer and each user needs to choose wisely.

     

    DAB

  • I've used Red Hat as my first - for at least a decade. Then played with Mandrake, Fedora, and lately Mint & Raspian most of the time.

  • I've done alot of "distro-hopping" - I started with Ubuntu, then went to some Ubuntu derivatives, then Fedora then Arch Linux.  My current favorite is a new distro called Solus.  It is not based on any other distribution but is designed from the ground up to be it's own thing.  It uses the Budgie desktop environment (They also have Gnome and Mate available as well).  It is going through alot of changes as the founder, Ikey Doherty has transitioned from working on Solus in his free time to it becoming a full time job.

     

    I really love this distro.  It is a "rolling" release - I like to call it "rolling stable" as the updates have been flawless, but not as frequent as other distros. The Budgie desktop is easy to use. 

     

    More information can be found here: https://solus-project.com/