Friday, February 1, 2013

Is there any other OS set of Linux software for download?

Q. Ubuntu is a set of Linux operating system software with the Linux OS that is distributed over the web. Is there any other set of Linux operating system software that is distributed over the web? Red Hat does provide Linux for download but it provides only the OS, I think.

A. Ubuntu, Red Hat and most other distros are complete, and often quite large downloads. There are some specialty distros that are smaller.

www.distrowatch.org lists 360+ distros. Check them out. Basically any of the main stream distros will be just as complete and can load pretty much the same software sets - with some (usually only) minor differences, if any.

If you get a distro DVD, you will get much more software than you would get with a Windoze installation. CDs because of size limitations don't have that quantity, but they should have links in the software to download as much as you would like once the program is set up and running.

where to download red hat Linux Enterprise?
Q. is red hat enterprice is free? where to download it? for learning purpose?

A. You should go to :
http://distrowatch.com/search.php
and use the search engine to filter which distro would be best for you. You can select a version for beginners, or multimedia, or a special purpose. They are all free to download. You can read reviews and articles about each distro. You can select a distro for ease of use, needs little ram or hard drive space, popularity, most software packages available, amount of customization,etc.

I would also suggest that you go to that distros website to read their documentation, especially if you are new to linux. They have tutorials on how to install, how to setup various hardware, and tips and tricks. I would also recommend using their forum to search/ask for info/help.

What's the difference between Linux operating systems?
Q. Linux has a lot of operating systems, I'm not even going to bother to list them. I was wondering, it there a difference between them? Does each type of Linux operating system hold a specific purpose? For example, Red Hat holds a different functionality to Ubuntu, or something like that.

A. Linux has many distros but all versions of Linux are the same OS.

Linux is extremely customizable. So much so that it'd be impossible for one person to do all the tweaks necessary to have what most people consider a polished and functional operating system. On top of that many Linux distros are heavily customized for specific purposes. Robotics, hardware appliance (routers for example), Real time OS (traffic lights, microwave ovens, unmanned aircraft), Music studios, Network security, Home theatre, Cash register, various industrial and scientific specialties, generic servers and so on.

There are also distros that are specialized to fit on a 1.44 floppy, thumb drives and a few distros specifically designed to run on CDs rather than be installed on a machine. There are distros that mimic other operating systems such as Mac OS and Windows so closely that at a glance you wouldn't know that you were not using those OS's. Other's are branded such as Dell's version of Ubuntu which is customized for Dell hardware.

There are also commercial versions of Linux. Red Hat Enterprise for example which is designed for high end servers and IBM's SUSE which has customizations for running on IBM virtual servers/being the host OS for the virtual servers, a desktop version which much of Europe's governments uses.

Distros often come with sub distros that are customized for various purposes. For example most major distros have a KDE and a Gnome version These are customized to people's favorite window managers and some distros support up to 5 or 6 window managers with sub-distros. Most support at least 2 or 3. Long term support, special purpose sub-distros like Ubuntu Studio which is geared for musicians are also common with widely used general distros.

The majority of distros however are shortcuts for Linux users to get what they want/need without spending the thousand of hours personally making those customizations. For example some like myself do too much customization and install too much software to upgrade a machine every 2 years. So long term support versions appeal heavily to me. I need and use a large variety of applications so it's important to have very large software repositories. Other people choose high performance bare bone distros. Some people want total control over their sytem and choose primitive distros that give you the bare min necessary, anything else the user installs themselves and customize as they see fit. (not recommended for anybody but an expert).

There are philosophical choices involved in choosing a distro. One big split for example is RH vrs Debian based systems. The RH fork (RHE, SUSE, Mandriva, CentOS) and Debian fork (Ubuntu, Debian) have some small differences in the way they are built. For example RH systems use YUM for software installation while Debian based systems use Apt-Get. You can install and use YUM on Debian systems and Apt-Get on RH systems. It's just a matter of defaults. Same with how root privileges are handled, and other minor details. The average user won't notice such subtle differences.

I've included a link to distro watch which gives details about specific distros as well as release cycles and where to download them.



Nec Projector Review

Plastic Shed Reviews

Ati Graphic Reviews

Nurse Uniforms Reviews

Cabochons Reviews

Inflatable Water Slides Reviews

Barcode Scanner Reviews

No comments:

Post a Comment