What is the Significance of Distributions

edwin11 · 12-22-2005, 09:04 PM

Hi all, got another n00b question here... something that i don't fully understand, or may have understood wrongly...

What is the significance of the different Linux distros? Or rather, what is the concept of distros? What is the difference/similarity across two different distros?

What i had previously (and wrongly) thought was that a distro is a collection of a kernel, and a default set of libraries (or packages), and default customized configurations for some of the packages. So the difference between the distros is that one distro could probably "bundle" one set of libraries with this default configuration, while another would bundle a different set with some different configuration, and maybe the kernel versions may be different.

And my wrong thinking extended to: Packages (libraries) are universal, so to install a package, you just have to apt-get (or its equivalent) the package and its dependencies.

All my wrong thinking were challenged on two occasions:

1. I found that the Firefox that came "bundled" with my Ubuntu 5.10 installation was a "Ubuntu-specific build (of ver 1.0.7)". Nevertheless, i could still download the "generic" version 1.5 of Firefox from the Mozilla website and use.

2. Gaim seems to have specific builds for Fedora Core, Mandriva, among others. In fact, it has different builds for FC1, FC2, FC3 and FC4, no less.

So, all my previous understanding of distros was thrown way out of the window.

What is the concept of distros really all about?

TIA and Regards,
Edwin

reddazz · 12-22-2005, 09:26 PM

Distibutions are bundlings of the Linux kernel, gnu tools, supporting software and libraries as well as vendor specific tools. Each distribution uses the Linux kernel, but the version of the kernel and patches applied to it may not necessarily be the same in each distro. Also distros tend to do things differently e.g. in terms of package management, paths where packages are installed and scipts they use to boot up. Think of distros as operating systems that are very similar but with subtle differences.

rshaw · 12-23-2005, 12:10 PM

moving to distros