Linux Distributions (Distros) and Competitors Pick your poison
By Lineage Redhat Tree: RHEL, Fedora, Centos, Mandrake (Mandriva) Debian tree: Debian, Ubuntu and it s variants, LinuxMint, Knoppix Gentoo (Open)Suse: Novell and Europe Slackware Open/FreeBSD: USL based (Open) Solaris: USL based
By Package Management Package Manager Package file suffix Per-package tool Dependency tool Red Hat.rpm rpm yum Debian.deb dpkg apt-get
Other software management options make and tarballs txz packages (Slackware) tbz BSD based Pre-packaged source (Gentoo) Specialized USL Solaris, HP-UX, AIX
RedHat Family Most widely used software distro. Most distros use.rpm binaries even if not actually based on Redhat RedHat Enterprise LINUX (RHEL): - Premier, most widely used commercial LINUX server distro - Expensive, but good support. Lots of Internet support - Software administration sometimes problematic Mandrake (Mandriva): - Excellent desktop variant - User group and support is scattered Fedora (formerly a separate organization): - Server oriented RedHat Beta(s), usually 2x per year - Free, but flaky. Bleeding edge. - Download distribution media of variable quality. - Newer features and utilities lack stability. Centos: - Server oriented RHEL variant usually 6-12 months behind current release - Free, stable, not current in features. - Widely used in commercial network devices
Debian Family Second most widely used distro Distros use.deb binaries Debian - Oldest distro outside of Slackware - Plenty of packages and support - Server oriented - 100+ variants - Announced two code base options: LINUX and OpenBSD!!!!!!! Ubuntu: - Desktop oriented but server is coming on. LINUX MINT: - Ubuntu variant, mainly desktop with improved usability features Knoppix: - Live CD only. - Used for system backup/recovery.
Others (Open)Suse: - Novell Netware LINUX from Europe. Now Attachmate and Microsoft. - Primarily server version, OES replacement for native Netware OS. - Desktop is bloated, difficult. - Future questionable as a commercial offering. Time will tell. PCLinuxOS: - For Windows users, a lot of Mandrake type support tools - Limited development and support, esp. for foreign languages and (lack of) 64 bit Gentoo: - Server oriented - Difficult software admin - Scattered Internet support - Lots of platforms Slackware: - Oldest distro. Dedicated hardcore users. - Very server oriented, - stripped down used as basis of a lot of utility distros. - Primitive, line oriented administration. - Aging, losing Internet support as time goes on.
Others (USL) Commercial USLs: - HP-UX (HP) - AIX (IBM) - Solaris (SUN) - and others. frozen in time, and the USL. SCO: - Not LINUX. The original PC based UNIX - Thought they d bought the USL from Novell. - Requisat in Pace OpenSolaris: - Not LINUX, based on UNIX Source Code License (USL). - Inter, Sparc - Lots of original software (NFS, NIS, Java) came from this OS - Widely used commercial OS version for database (and bought by Oracle), but losing ground to LINUX - Free UNIX version (not variant) on AMD, Intel, Sparc Open/FreeBSD - Not LINUX, based on UNIX Source Code License (USL) free academic version. Still evolving - The basis for MacOSX - Primarily Intel at this point but DEC Alpha, Sparc platforms supported. - Stripped down versions the basis for network security devices and secure OSes - The main LINUX competitor. Widely used freeware UNIX version (not variant) preferred by LINUX haters.
Utility distros Knoppix: General Live CD distro for backup, recovery. Easy IDS: Prepackaged Snort IDS distro CoLINUX Self contained virtualized LINUX subsystem for Windows, supports multiple LINUX distros. Backtrack: Security analysis, usually Live CD Coyote LINUX Micro OS firewall distro Tiny Core LINUX specialized micro OS Damn Small LINUX specialized micro OS
Internet Resources FedoraProject Sourceforge http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major (Top 10 comparison) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/comparison_of_linux_distributions (technical specifications) www.distrowatch.com (Current list) www.distrowatch.net (Current list)
Intel, AMD: x86, IA64/AMD64. What can I say? The future (hardware/platforms) Sparc from Sun: widely used but declining rapidly Power PC: Formerly Motorola, used to be the basis for MAC and IBM network devices. Declining, almost gone. PA-Risc: HP specific; going away. S390: IBM support for mainframe OS and LINUX under VM. Still crazy after all these years. MIPS: Requisat in Pace DEC Alpha: Requisat in Pace ARM: Theoretically the most widely used chip in the world for intelligent devices phones, tablets. Lower power chip for end user devices. Used by most handheld device Oses. Solid-state drives: Will eventually do away with spinning disk device overhead. Storage = memory (temporary) or SSD (permanent); same/saem. Increasing speed on internal, external interfaces: USB 3.0, Parallel ATA Memory is cheap and getting cheaper. Storage density is increasing all the time. Raw CPU cycles being replaced by multi-core implementations; even for low power end-user systems.
The future (end user) To the cloud: Software as a Service (SaaS). Web orientation, browser interface for E-mail, IM, SMS, data storage, document sharing, basic word-processing and spreadsheeting as a commodity. Personal computer use declining as a specialized end-user devices. Specialized OS Windows, LINUX or Mac requiring expensive support. Inexpensive browser based devices increasing: phones, tablets, game systems, DVRs, intelligent TVs and anything in between. Throw it away, keep the SIM card (or whatever) and buy a new one. Simplified device OSes: (Apple) IOS versus (Google LINUX variant) Android versus (Microsoft) Windows 7 Mobile. Also mini (instant-on) OSes usually LINUX variants made possible by SSDs. (Google) Chrome OS. Will it fly, especially versus Android. Virtualized desktops. Usually for proprietary applications.
The future (servers) Still trying to drive a stake thru IBM mainframes (see COBOL); but don t count on it.. Mostly outsourced as proprietary technology. Mainframe emulation under LINUX (Hercules). Windows future? Who knows? Could be like mainframes; still hanging around on servers for a long time. UNIX stable but slowly declining. The code is basically frozen for 25 years. USL ownership (Attachmate? Microsoft?) and continuing patent litigation is a problem: - SCO is dead - Solaris is open-source. Now owned by Oracle as DB frontend - Commercial versions AIX, HP-UX, Solaris pretty much frozen with the USL. - Open/FreeBSD the only one still showing any life - UNIX year 2038 32-bit clock issue MacOSX (server/workstation) is really just an operating environment on top of UNIX (OpenBSD) OSes seem to be going to LINUX and it s variants Increasing virtualization for power, economy, scalability.
The future (network) Smarter clients, smarter servers, more client/server traffic, more downloadable code (e.g. Java VM, IOS apps, Android apps and the like). More canned applications. The App Store for specific vendors/services. Hardwire technologies still leading, but fading. DSL, cable are starting to exceed the bandwidth requirements for end-user hand-held devices. Hardline phones are fading rapidly; especially with the younger crowd. Wireless technologies - bandwidth is critical; both locally (WiFi) and broadband (3G/4G). For increasing virtualization, SaaS, multimedia and storage requirements. Notice: Apple tablets have no hardwire connections. Plus wireless infrastructure costs are lower than hardline technologies encouraging more widespread use in lower density population areas or areas without infrastructure as in 3 rd world countries. Security: Are static encryption algorithms dead? Quantum encryption? Viruses, malware on new OSes. Same old song, different verse (see Google Android Apps removal).