General Linux and History

Richard Stallman started working on the GNU (GNU is Not UNIX) project, the GNU kernel called Hurd, which unfortunately never came to completion. The GNU General Public License (GPL), a free software license, was also created as a result of this.

The Kernel allows hardware to talk to software.

A Linux system is divided into 3 main parts:

  • Hardware - This includes all the hardware that your system runs on as well as memory, CPU, disks, etc.
  • Linux Kernel - As we discussed above, the kernel is the core of the operating system. It manages the hardware and tells it how to interact with the system.
  • User Space - This is where users like yourself will be directly interacting with the system.

Debian

Composed Entirely of free and open-source software.

3 branches

  • Stable
  • Testing (rolling)
  • Unstable (rolling)

rolling: any incremental changes will eventually become stable. Wont have to do a full OS install to get next OS release.

Package Management  

  • Every distro installs and manages packages differently and use different package management tools.

Configurability

  • Extremely stable
  • Good “Core” OS

Uses

  • Great OS for any platform

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Overview

  • RHEL
  • strict rules to restrict free re-distribution
  • provides source code for free

package management

  • RPM package manager

Uses

  • solid enterprise server OS

Ubuntu

Overview

  • releases its own desktop environment manager unity by default

Package Management

  • debian-based
  • developed by Canonical
  • core debian package management system

Uses

  • desktop, laptop, and servers

Fedora

Overview

  • Backed by red hat
  • community driven
  • open-source and free
  • upstream RHEL
  • RHEL will get updates from Fedora after testing and QA
  • Red Hat Back end

Package management

  • Red Hat package manager

Uses

  • free red hat
  • laptop and desktop

Linux Mint

  • Ubuntu Based
  • uses Ubuntus software repositories
  • Lighter than Ubuntu (less bloated)
  • Debian package manager
  • Desktop and laptop

Gentoo

  • great flexibility

  • For advanced users

  • uses Portage for package management

  • Portage is very modular and easy to maintain.

  • arch and gentoo are more difficult paths.

  • Desktop and laptop

Arch Linux

  • Lightweight and flexible
  • 100% community driven
  • Rolling release
  • complete and total control (if you get your hands dirty
  • Pacman package manager
  • desktop, laptop, and raspberry pie

OpenSUSE

  • created by openSUSE project

  • a community that is part of the free and open source software community

  • Second oldest distro

  • Shares base system with SUSE Linux Enterprise Products

  • RPM Package manager

  • great for new users

  • Yast and a tiday based system

  • OpenSUSE Leap for desktop