If you are considering the mighty migration from Windows to try out Linux that you hear is so popular, you might expect there to be a few types to choose from.\u00a0 You might not quite expect that \u201ca few\u201d numbers in the hundreds!\u00a0 Linux’s open source nature has made it a serious programmer’s playground.<\/p>\n
With such a large number we obviously cannot go into all of them.\u00a0 What we will do instead is to focus on a few of the biggest ones.\u00a0 In doing so, it’s important to remember that for this type of operating system (ie, open-source), users are building on each other’s work.\u00a0 This creates a tree of variants, some of which are major branching points.\u00a0 The Linux Tree has three major nodes that most of the rest of the distributions branch out from.\u00a0 Let’s look at each of them.<\/p>\n
Slackware<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Linux as an operating system is based on ideas ported over from UNIX.\u00a0 Different Linux distributions vary from their UNIX origins by different degrees.\u00a0 Of the three major Linux nodes, Slackware is the variant that aims to be the most UNIX-like.\u00a0 Relatedly, it attempts to emulate UNIX’s goals of simplicity.<\/p>\n Note that for this case, though \u201csimplicity\u201d refers to simplicity of design, not necessarily of use.\u00a0 This means that unless you have some UNIX experience or understand the general approach of command line interfaces, this may not be the best starting point for Linux beginners.\u00a0 If you do, you might sink right into this one.<\/p>\n Note also that the word \u201cSlackware\u201d was not a joke.\u00a0 Or rather, it was one: it was meant to refer to the fact that this was originally a side project not intended to go anywhere.\u00a0 As a result, it is the most decentralized of all of the three major branches, with only a loose \u201cteam\u201d associated with it.\u00a0 This means that you’re not going to have much of any official project to go to for information, though there are still large user communities that can help you.\u00a0 Don’t misconstrue all of these warnings though: it is still a popular Linux variant with many loyal adherents.<\/p>\n There aren’t many very popular Slackware children (there’s a joke in there somewhere), but there are a few minor deviations to mention:<\/p>\n Debian<\/strong><\/p>\n Debian is also heavily UNIX based, and is designed around the philosophies of open-source, collaborative design and testing.\u00a0 It also aims to be a secure, stable system, and as such is the basis for more Linux variants than either of the other two major branches listed here.\u00a0 In fact, one of its sub-branches, Ubuntu, has about as many children variants as does all of Slackware.<\/p>\n Debian’s construct is about half-way between the chaotic approach of Slackware and the business model of Red Hat below.\u00a0 It is still open-source, but has a well organized community supporting it.\u00a0 When Debian was initially released, it was built around a set of core principles: the \u201cDebian Social Contract\u201d.\u00a0 From that the Debian Project was formed with its own constitution and organizational structure.<\/p>\n No list of sub-branches of Debian could start with anything but:<\/p>\n Red Hat<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Linux is an open-source operating system on the whole, but that doesn’t mean that all of its development is non-profit.\u00a0 Red Hat represents the business model wing of the Linux family.<\/p>\n That doesn’t mean that they’ve taken this work and gone proprietary.\u00a0 Red Hat operates on the \u201cprofessional open-source\u201d model.\u00a0 This means that the code itself remains free and alterable, but the company offers paid services of various kinds related to it, such as training and support.\u00a0 So far this has worked for them, as this year they look to be hitting $1 billion in revenue for the first time.<\/p>\n The point of this isn’t to discuss economics, though, but technology, so we mention this to point out that the company is putting out a quality product that, from all we can tell, remains popular in the Linux community.\u00a0 Thus, Red Hat might be a good start for the user who can probably handle most of the technical side themselves, but would like a professional set of hands to fall back on when they need it.<\/p>\n Red Hat Linux itself is no longer supported, but has instead been split into the following two sub-branches:<\/p>\n More even than most of our articles, this is one that you are definitely going to want to get community feedback on.\u00a0 There is way too much about even one operating system to squeeze into an article of this size.\u00a0 Use this as a guide, and then ask around for opinions from people who have used them.\u00a0 There are enough people who have put a lot of time into their use for you to get the solid information you need to join the world of Linux.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you are considering the mighty migration from Windows to try out Linux that you hear is so popular, you might expect there to be a few types to choose…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,25,3107,61,411,3104,3106,1664,567],"class_list":["post-2682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-stuff","tag-debian","tag-fedora","tag-knoppix","tag-linux","tag-red-hat","tag-slackware","tag-slax","tag-ubuntu","tag-unix"],"views":138,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n