Datasheet

Choosing a Linux Distribution

At the time that this book is being written, there are well over 300 Linux distributions in use around the

world, and that number is growing almost daily. Since most (if not all) of the software shipped in the

average Linux distribution is covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL), literally anyone can

take that software and package it for themselves into their own distribution. This encourages initiative

and experimentation, but it would also quickly lead to an unmanageable support nightmare for those

who decided to package software for use by those with the 300 different distributions in use.

Fortunately for you as a software developer, most of the Linux users you will need to support are using

a mere handful of popular Linux distributions. Those who are not apparently using one of these well-

known distributions may well have a distribution that is based upon one. It’s very common for newer

distributions to be built upon the niche requirements of a subset of existing users. Obviously, it stands to

reason that the 100 people using a particular specialist Linux distribution may not necessarily receive the

same level of support as the many hundreds of thousands of people who use another.

Here are 10 of the more popular Linux distributions available today:

❑ Debian GNU/Linux

❑ Fedora (previously known as Fedora Core)

❑ Gentoo Linux

❑ Mandriva Linux

❑ Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

❑ Slackware Linux

❑ OpenSuSE

❑ SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)

❑ Ubuntu

Linux Distributions from Red Hat

Red Hat once produced a version of Linux known as Red Hat Linux (RHL). This was available up until

release 9.0, at which point the commercial product became known as Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Around

the same time, the Fedora community Linux distribution became available for those who would prefer

an entirely open source version without commercial support. Fedora is very popular with desktop users

and enthusiasts and is widely used by Free Software developers, as well as commercial vendors—who

will later need to test and certify their software against the Enterprise release as a separate endeavor.

For more information about Red Hat, see

www.redhat.com. The Fedora project has a separate website,

www.fedoraproject.org.

Linux Distributions from Novell

Novell bought SuSE in 2004 and gained full control over SuSE Linux. At around the same time, a variety

of marketing and branding decisions affected the future naming of Linux products from Novell. Like

Red Hat, Novell provide a community release of their operating system — known as OpenSUSE. It is

maintained by a growing community of users, who help to cultivate new technologies that may

Chapter 1: Working with Linux

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