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What is a Linux Distribution

A Linux distribution is when different companies and developers take a kernel and add on top of it a set of programs: shells, compilers, drivers, and everything else. This becomes a complete operating system and each of these builds has its own name.

The number of Linux distributions is enormous: about 500 more or less known ones and countless different builds for different tasks.

Every person can build his or her own Linux distribution after spending half a day reading the documentation and formulating his or her goal-for example, for an old computer, for learning, stuffed with games or for web development.

Fun Facts about Distributions

Debian

One of the most famous distributions, which has given rise to many projects. It is the largest non-commercial distribution known for its stability (including stable release delays) and security. On August 15, 2013, Debian turned twenty years old. The name of the distribution is derived from the names of its creator, Ian Murdock, and his friend Debra. The releases are named after characters from the cartoon Toy Story, the unstable release sid is named after a child who regularly broke toys. Version 1.0 was not released due to a bug on the CD, so 1.1 is considered the first release.

Fedora

The Fedora Linux project (formerly Fedora Core), supported by volunteers, originated at the University of Hawaii in 2002 with the goal of providing a single repository with Red Hat Linux. But the official date of birth is September 22, 2003, when Red Hat announced the separation of the distribution into two sub-projects, the community-supported Fedora Linux and the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux. That is, Fedora turned ten years old this year, and today it is a platform for testing new technologies, which are then integrated into RHEL. The distribution contains only free software.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu turned nine years old on October 20. The distribution was created as a temporary offshoot of Debian, providing a regular release of new versions every six months. The name Ubuntu means “humanity” in Zulu, and the distribution’s logo symbolizes the circle of friends. The name of the release consists of a number (the year and month of the release) and a code name consisting of two English words: an adjective and the name of an animal, starting with the same letter. Every fourth release receives LTS (long term support) status. More than 600 Canonical employees work in ~200 cities in 30 countries. The company has offices in six cities: London, Boston, Montreal, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, and Taipei. Ubuntu runs 8.2% of the total number of Internet sites.