Friday, May 24, 2013

Linux distributions


Linux is one of the leading open source projects in the world, but what is Linux, we have many "Linuxes" - red hat, blue cat, ubuntu, suse so what does it means that all of them are Linux. well, Linux is a standard there are set of rules that if you wish to be Linux you have to satisfy, these rules are in two different standards - POSIX and GNU, POSIX talk about rules for the core of the operating system mainly the kernel and stands for portable operating system interface and GNU stands for gnu not Unix specify applications that complete the Unix standard. Every distribution has to implement these standards so it can be called Linux.
One of the rules is the license of Linux that should be open source and free to download. And usually each Linux distribution builds from a Linux program. The distributers download the code and then add and modify the code for a new Linux, this new version usually called Linux distribution.
I would like to present some of the popular distribution of Linux:

Ubuntu: Ubuntu is distributions that focus on the user and try to provide him easy interface for his work, many feature like plug & play and easy installation are provided in ubuntu. 
Today many users that wish to work at home with Linux work with Ubuntu and it became real (small) competitor for windows.

Red Hat: The biggest distribution for enterprise Linux, the main advantage of the red hat distribution is application called RPM that allow you to update software automatically and in very easy way. the red hat is of course free of charge but if you wish you can be connected to the red hat servers and update your Linux automatically for money. this is highly important feature for enterprise companies who has large number of servers and need to maintain them constantly and be up to date as soon as possible due to critical systems that run on these Linux servers.

Suse: also well known large distributer of Linux, developed by novel and consider to be very reliable and effective Linux distribution. One of the major advantages of Suse Linux is the interoperability with Windows and Microsoft technology so working in this hybrid environment becomes much easy.

Blue cat: this Linux distribution is used for embedded and real-time system it allows you to configure your kernel and customize it to be suitable for embedded systems, remove the mouse and keyboard from the kernel. 

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