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Linux Operating Systems | View information about Linux Operating Systems within our Technology Website Directory section by reviewing this area of our website. We provide a wealth of information online to help our visitors become better informed about Computer Buzz. |
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Linux Operating Systems
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Linux is not really and truly an OS. It's a software kernel (written by University of Helsinki undergraduate student Linus Torvalds in 1991) bundled with GNU userland libraries (written mostly by Richard Stallman of MIT in the mid- to late 1980s) which can be used as the basis for UNIX-like operating systems.
Linux's international mascot is Tux the penguin (shown here).
At present, there are more than 600 nominal Linux OSs available, most of them totally free because Torvalds has made his copyrighted Linux code available under the GNU Public License (GPL). In practice, this means that Linux is an open source piece of software, and anyone can use it and/or modify it without paying for it. But that double-edge sword cuts both ways if you publish your own knockoff version of Linux, you are not allowed to charge anybody else for it either. And so, Linux's greatest strength is, at once, its most abysmal and debilitating weakness.
It has a reputation for stability, and so is popularly used in web servers of all kinds. Just in recent years, it has gained remarkable popularity as a desktop OS for PCs. Many flavors of Linux are also compiled for older PowerPC Macs, although Apple's decision to go exclusively with Intel CPUs has pretty well put the kabosh on that practice.
There are three main branches of Linux at this time: Debian, Red Hat/RPM, and Slackware. Let's have a quick look at them.
(Adjacent image shows "Tux," the official Linux mascot.)
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Debian Linux
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Debian is one of the two largest and most popular of the major branches of the Linux OS family tree. It is highly respected and is maintained and developed by more than 1000 volunteer programmers worldwide.
You can use Debian (for free) as it is, or you can use one of the scores of free Debian derivative OSs. It has a very large repository of packages (application programs, most of them free) and a reputation for rock-solid stability.
But it is not generally recommended for first-time Linux users because of its size and complexity. If you're a Linux newbie, you can get most of the benefits of Debian in a simpler and easier form by going with one of its clones, such as Ubuntu, MEPIS, Kubuntu, Mint, Xubuntu, or any number of others.
Debian Official Website:www.Debian.org
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux/RPM
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Red Hat/RPM is currently one of the two largest and most popular branches of the Linux family tree. RPM stands for "Redhat Package Manager," the part of the OS that finds, retrieves, installs, updates, and deletes the application programs that you use with it. And it is really the package management software that allows us differentiate the huge number of Linux distributions into branches or sub-categories.
If we had to go with only one single Linux branch for the rest of our lives, we would probably have to choose the Linux distros that are contained in Red Hat/RPM instead of Debian. It would be a hard decision, and we can not prove that Debian is less popular, but Red Hat/RPM is a little bit simpler to use, and it seems to be better supported by the development community.
Major distros belonging to this branch include: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, Lineox, Scientific Linux, CentOS, et al.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Official Website:www.RedHat.com
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Slackware/SLS Linux
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Slackware is the third most popular branch of the Linux tree. Originating in the early to mid-1990s, it was the first big 900-pound Linux gorilla, and for almost a decade it was the only way to go. It was based on a very early Linux distro known as SLS, but when SLS fell by the wayside, Slackware lent its name to the movement and soldiered on.
Today Slackware is getting rather long in the tooth and has been overtaken by Debian and Red Hat/RPM. It still has its nostalgic proponents, and it and its clones will be around for quite a while, but Slackware no longer represents the future of Linux.
In addition to the eponymous Slackware, other similarly based distros are: SUSE Enterprise Linux, openSUSE, Zenwalk, GoblinX, SLAX, and Slackintosh (for PowerPC computers). SUSE is considered to be the most secure flavor of Linux available, and it is used by the US miliary in such sensitive areas as South Korea.
Slackware Official Website:www.Slackware.com
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Gentoo Linux
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At one time Gentoo Linux almost qualified as a fourth "major" branch of Linux, but it has stumbled badly in the last couple of years, and its future is very much in doubt. We include it here only as an honorable mention.
If Slackware is the oldest branch of Linux, then Gentoo is the youngest. Named for the fast-swimming Gentoo penguin, this OS and its derivatives install software, including itself, in a manner that is completely different from any other form of Linux. It starts out with only the source code, and then it compiles it into executable files while you watch and wait (and wait, and wait, and ...). Consequently, initial installation takes quite a long time, sometimes as long as a day or two unless you have a very fast CPU.
The claimed advantage of Gentoo is that the source code can be (and presumably is) optimized for the particular hardware on which you are running it; you get a customized installation that runs as fast as a Gentoo penguin can swim. In our Computer Buzz Labs in Dallas, we have been unable to quantify any significant speed advantage over Linux distros from other branches.
Moreover, there haven't been many new Gentoo-based distros coming out the last year or two, and it appears to us that Gentoo is fading in popularity. Some notable Gentoo distros are: Sabayon (far and away the most popular), Pentoo, GentooX, and VidaLinux.
Because of its slow and complex manner of installation, Gentoo is often favored by the propeller-heads who like play with the guts of their software, but Computer Buzz does NOT recommended it for Linux first-timers.
Gentoo Official Website:www.Gentoo.org
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