Major Linux Distributions

There are six major Linux distributions, also called distros, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Red Hat Linux [  www.redhat.com  ]

Red Hat is well supported among operators and regulars alike. It is quite ubiquitous in the business world and has generally been of high quality, as long as you are not using a version that ends in .0. It uses RPM as its package manager. It is easy for newbies to install, but leaves the system pretty insecure upon installation.

Mandrake Linux [  www.mandrake.com  ]

Mandrake started as an enhanced version of Red Hat, but now it is a very nice and completely different distro. It also uses RPM as its package manager and knows different degrees of security upon installation. Ask The_Vox about it.

SuSE Linux [  www.suse.com  ]

SuSE is the only Linux distribution which needs purchase. A live evaluation can be downloaded for free though. It is a German distribution that also uses RPM as its package manager. Ask MistGhost or dreamd about it.

Debian GNU/Linux [  www.debian.org  ]

Debian is a completely non-commercial distro developed by the community from the ground up. It is well liked among many of the operators and seasoned Linux professionals, and is generally considered extremely stable. This also causes it to be behind other distros in terms of updated software. However, it also comes with more up to date versions, which are unstable though. It uses its own package manager which has a very nice front-end called apt.

Gentoo Linux [  www.gentoo.org  ]

Gentoo is based on sources, has a tool, called emerge, very similar to apt to get the sources, compile, and install them, and is very up-to-date, with configurability that allows you to choose bleeding edge, or stable.

Slackware Linux [  www.slackware.com  ]

Slackware is a difficult distro, but can teach you a lot. We do not mind helping Slack users, but understand that it is difficult to help with. Not many of us use it, generally because it is disliked.

Minor Linux Distributions

Furthermore, there are numerous minor Linux distributions. They are generally unknown to the #linuxhelp operators, but we will try and help you still with them.