Variants of LINUX

8/3/2019 Variants of LINUX

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Variants of LINUX

Submitted By: Vipin Viswanath

MCA09

Roll No: 37

Introduction



Developed by Linus Torvalds and further elaborated by a number of

developers throughout the world Linux is a freely available multitasking

and multi-user operating system. From the outset, Linux was placed under

General Public License (GPL). The system can be distributed, used and

expanded free of charge. In this way, developers have access to all thesource codes, thus being able to integrate new functions easily or to find

and eliminate programming bugs quickly. Thereby drivers for new

adapters (SCSI controller, graphics cards, etc.) can be integrated very

rapidly.

Linux may be obtained in two different ways. All the necessary

components can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet. This

means that an individual operating system can be assembled for almost

nothing. An alternative is to use a so-called Distribution, offered by

various companies and including a wide range of applications andinstallation programs that significantly simplify the installation of Linux.

Presently, Linux is successfully being used by several millions of users

worldwide. The composition of user groups varies from private users,

training companies, universities, research centres right through to

commercial users and companies, who view Linux as a real alternative to

other operating systems.

Major Variants

1. Debian

2. SUSE

3. Mandrake

4. Ubuntu

5. Red Hat

6. Fedora

1.Debian

Debian ( /ˈdɛbiən/) is a computer operating system composed of

software packages released as free and open source software primarily

under the GNU General Public License along with other free software

licenses.[3] Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and

Linux kernel,[4] is a popular and influential Linux distribution.[5] It is

distributed with access to repositories containing thousands of

software packages ready for installation and use. Debian is known for



relatively strict adherence to the philosophies of Unix and free

software[6] as well as using collaborative software development and

testing processes.[7] Debian can be used on a variety of hardware,

from NAS devices to phones, laptops, desktops and servers. It focuses

on stability and security and is used as a base for many otherdistributions.

2.SUSE Linux

SUSE Linux ( /ˈsuːsə/;[1] German: [ˈzuːzə]) is a computer operating

system. It is built on top of the open source Linux kernel and is distributed

with system and application software from other open source projects.

SUSE Linux is of German origin and mainly developed in Europe. The first

version appeared in early 1994, making SUSE the oldest existing

commercial distribution. It is known for its YaST configuration tool.

Novell bought the SuSE brands and trademarks in 2003. Novell, one of the

founding members of the Open Invention Network, decided to make the

community an important part of their development process by opening

widely the distribution development to outside contributors in 2005,

creating the openSUSE distribution and the openSUSE Project. Novell

employed over 500 developers working on SUSE in 2004.[2] On 27 April

2011, Novell (and SUSE) were acquired by Attachmate.[3]

2.1.1 openSUSE

openSUSE ( /ˌoʊpənˈsuːzə/) is a general purpose operating system built on

top of the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported openSUSE

Project and sponsored by SUSE. After Novell acquired SUSE Linux in

January 2004,[2] Novell decided to release the SUSE Linux Professional

product as a 100% open source project.[3]

The initial release of the community project was a beta version of SUSE

Linux 10.0, and as of November 16, 2011 the current stable release is

openSUSE 12.1.

3.Mandriva Linux

Mandriva Linux (result of fusion of the French distribution Mandrakelinux

or Mandrake Linux and the Brazilian distribution Conectiva Linux) is a

Linux distribution distributed by Mandriva. It uses the RPM Package

Manager. The product lifetime of Mandriva Linux releases is 18 months for

base updates (Linux, system software, etc.) and 12 months for desktop

updates (window managers, desktop environments, web browsers, etc.).



Server products receive full updates for at least 5 years after their

release.[4]

Features

The major features of Mandriva Linux are:

Installation, control and administration

Mandriva Linux contains the Mandriva Control Center, which eases

configuration of some settings. It has many programs known as Drakes or

Draks, collectively named drakxtools, to configure many different settings.

Examples include MouseDrake to set up a mouse, DiskDrake to set up disk

partitions and drakconnect to set up a network connection. They are

written using GTK+ and Perl, and most of them can run in both graphical

and text mode using the ncurses interface.

Desktops

The latest version of Mandriva Linux, 2011.0 officially supports only KDE

Plasma Desktop, whereas other desktop environments are available but

not supported. Older Mandriva versions used Plasma Desktop as standard

but others such as GNOME were also officially supported.

Themes

A unique theme provides consistency between applications and desktopenvironments. Galaxy debuted in version 9.1 and Galaxy II appeared in

10.0. A variant of Galaxy is "Galaxy Squared", which uses square window

buttons rather than round ones. A new default theme named "Ia Ora" was

introduced with the release of Mandriva Linux 2007, but "Galaxy" remains

available as an option for those who prefer it.

Package manager

Rpmdrake, Mandriva's graphical package manager

Mandriva Linux uses a package manager called urpmi, which functions as

a wrapper to the RPM package management system. It is similar to apt-

get or Yellow dog Updater, Modified in that it allows seamless installation

of a given software package by automatically installing the other

packages needed. It is also media-transparent due to its ability to retrieve

packages from various media, including network/Internet, CD/DVD and

local disk. Urpmi also has an easy-to-use graphical front-end called

rpmdrake, which is integrated into the Mandriva Control Center.

Remote sources for urpmi / rpmdrake can be added during the installation

of recent Mandriva Linux versions. After installation, they can be added



through an option in the Software Sources Manager, or by using console

commands generated either manually or by one of several helper sites

such as Easy URPMI. This functionality allows the user to choose some or

all of the various software repositories available for their version of

Mandriva Linux and can greatly expand the amount of software that theuser can install through the urpmi system. Instructions on adding

repositories and installing software can be found on the Mandriva Wiki.

Live USB

A Live USB of Mandriva Linux can be created manually or with UNetbootin.

[8]

Ubuntu

Ubuntu ( /ʊˈbʊntuː/ oo-boon-too)[7][8] is a computer operating system

based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open

source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of

Ubuntu ("humanity towards others").[9] Ubuntu is designed primarily for

use on personal computers, although a server edition also exists.

Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd., owned by

South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical generates

revenue by selling technical support and services related to Ubuntu, while

the operating system itself is entirely free of charge. The Ubuntu project is

committed to the principles of free software development; people are

encouraged to use free software, improve it, and pass it on.[10]

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a Linux-based operating system

developed by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market. Red

Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86, x86-64,Itanium, PowerPC and IBM System z, and desktop versions for x86 and

x86-64. All of Red Hat's official support and training and the Red Hat

Certification Program center around the Red Hat Enterprise Linux

platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is often abbreviated to RHEL, although

this is not an official designation.[3]

The first version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to bear the name originally

came onto the market as "Red Hat Linux Advanced Server". In 2003 Red

Hat rebranded Red Hat Linux Advanced Server to "Red Hat Enterprise

Linux AS", and added two more variants, Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES andRed Hat Enterprise Linux WS.



While Red Hat uses strict trademark rules to restrict free re-distribution of

their officially supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux,[4] Red Hat

freely provides the source code for the distribution's software, both for

free software whose license requires such publishing and open source

software where this is not mandatory. As a result, several distributorshave created re-branded and/or community-supported re-builds of Red

Hat Enterprise Linux that can legally be made available, without official

support from Red Hat.

Fedora

Fedora ( /fɨˈdɒr.ə/), formerly Fedora Core, is a RPM-based, general purpose

collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux

kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and

sponsored by Red Hat. The Fedora Project's mission is to lead theadvancement of free and open source software and content as a

collaborative community.[4]

One of Fedora's main objectives is not only to contain software distributed

under a free and open source license, but also to be on the leading edge

of such technologies.[5][6] Fedora developers prefer to make upstream

changes instead of applying fixes specifically for Fedora—this ensures that

their updates are available to all Linux distributions.[7]

Compared to more mainstream non-Linux operating systems, Fedora has

a short life cycle. Version X is maintained until one month after version

X+2 is released. With 6 months between releases, the maintenance

period is a very short 13 months for each version.[8] This can lead to

trouble should one wish to use a particular version of Fedora for product

development (i.e., embedded systems) where long term support is more

important than maintaining leading edge revisions of software.

In 2008, Linus Torvalds, author of the Linux kernel, stated that he usedFedora because it had fairly good support for the PowerPC processor

architecture, which he favored at the time.[9]

According to DistroWatch, Fedora is the third most popular Linux-based

operating system as of January 2012, behind Mint and Ubuntu, and it is

the most popular RPM-based Linux distribution.[10]

References



1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

2. http://www.distrowatch.com

3. http://www.computerhope.com/unix/linux.htm

Variants of LINUX

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