Linux distributions

Linux offers a lot of choice and the same is in the case of choosing your distribution or distros in linux lingo. different distros provide different features.. this blog is based on an article in a british computers magazine - pc world.

1. fedora (formerly redhat desktop)
redhat has been the most popular distro with lots of software. its main selling point is its ease of use. most of the major tasks are very easy to configure with custom gui's. another winner is the easy os installation process and rpm's which are installation files. but this distro is a little restrictive and "simple" for real gurus. basically now redhat only provides support and sells the enterprise series os os'es. fedora is open/free to install and works totally on community support rather than previous corporate power. good solution for a newbie.

2. lindows
a relatively new entrant, is a little different. it has no free download. you have to buy the os. they have an automatic server update feature by which you can get the latest app versions, which is cool as there are so many new releases everytime. they bank on the name.. and lots of legal stuff going on.

3. debian
this is more of a geek/guru distro. nothing comes easy in deb. installation is text-based and i guess the kernel module selection part isn't what i am fully ready for right now. they have a different package management system APT, which figures out dependencies much better than rpm of redhat. this distro is more customizable, and slightly difficult as they assume yur not a dumb redhat guy.

3. gentoo
now if debian scared you, hold tight!! these guys don believe in compiling source.and hence great optimization, better performance. i noticed that they have installations for the mac as well. they have some packecge management called portgage. installation is also text-based. this according to the mag is - strictly for linux experts!!

other distros are xandros, lycoris, mandrake and suse which are more like fedora/redhat. caldera was another co, which later became the infamous SCO. i,ve also heard of slackware but have no info...

some distros have liveCD, which is basically a runnable os on a cd, no installation. gentoo, knoppix are some. its really amazing the way knoppix runs and finds out the system hardware at runtime.

so which distro are you going to graduate to??