this questions came after my said that all off the linux distributions are came with the same thing all distro are the same they just have difference on packages and support on some the commercial distributions.....also my friend telling it just about taste......
is that true?
doesn't linux distributions has some basic diffirences except about packages,style and support?

thanx in advance

linux is linux.

that is it in a nutshell.

to make it longer visit linux iso and read up on the different distros. they are ALL Linux, but each to his own and comfort level. i started with RH9 and now prefer Debian, but do have a CentOS box at the house.

No.

when building linux millions of configuration issues and what version you can get working with what
other versions of things and junk come up. Some distributions do their own patching of software even some (roll eyes) patch the kernel. I have observed some of the distributions use some really questionable patches to get things to compile with no appearent knwledge of what they are doing at all. I have also observed some really amazingly good linux builders with some distributions. Some distributions add in some cool utilities for administration they write or whatever. Distributions use vastly different installers. Different distributions do different levels of testing and with different goals in mind. Some distributions take a more lean and resource conserving track while others act as if no amount of configuration redundancy and wasted RAM on fancy script functions and lack of library sharing is too much. So yes Linux is Linux but that does not discount the fact that some distributions really suck and can even be unstable while others suck less. Another factor is the organisational structure of the distribution itself and if it is desentralized like Linux should be or corporate.

All of the Linux distributions are built using the same basic code-base, but the difference between "distros" lies in what the distributors do for you... to get you from that common starting-point to a complete system that you can actually install and use on your computer.

For an illustration of what I mean, consider Linux From Scratch. That project is exactly what it says: you build a complete Linux system, entirely from scratch, entirely from source-code. An extremely informative exercise, an education par excellence that I think every "Linux head" ought to do at some time or another, but also very tedious. But when you're done, by gawd, you know exactly what is on your computer because you, and you alone, put it there. Yes, you can create an entire Linux distribution that fits on two floppy disks.

Now consider the "LFS LiveCD." This is a bootable CD that is built from LFS, that is used to build LFS. As usual, this is not only a useful tool, but an exercise in showing you how it was all done. Stuff you need to know if you plan to build a "distro" for yourself. Again, very useful and informative, but do you, right now, in order to get your system going, actually want to (have to) construct the CD that you will then boot? Probably not. So someone out there, acting in the role of "a distributor," built the disk-image so that you can simply load it and use it. The first and most basic step of any "distro maker." They've saved you about five hours of compiling and futzing.

Above that is Gentoo, which is also an entirely source-based distribution in that you actually compile everything on your system from scratch, although under the automated control of their emerge system. Getting your system "up" that way is also the work of several days, probably, and you're going to have to know a lot of technical answers.

Then we have the Slackwares and such, which emphasize pre-compiled binaries but basically present system-management to you as an exercise of loading and updating "packages." You have the ability to fine-tune with source, but not the obligation.

On a completely different track, we have the system administrator's power-tool, Knoppix, which puts a complete bootable distribution onto a CD-ROM that can run independently from the host. The primary customer here is the sysadmin who has a (Linux or Windows) dead goose on his hands.

Zoom up a few levels and you have the likes of Debian and Red Hat. These folks are selling to corporate clients, and to end-users like those that are the bread-and-butter of Microsoft, and they're basically doing everything. Put CD#1 (or the DVD) into your drive, select options, wait a little while for a bunch of pre-compiled binaries to be loaded, sign up for their automated-update service (yum! ), and you don't have to think about the details. Source is available, but many customers never load it. Also, there are some components of the system, such as those in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which are proprietary.

(I haven't listed them all. But DistroWatch does.)

Different roles, to serve different customers. The core system may be the same, but each one has done something very different with it. And of course, the difference between two flowers lies with the petals, not the stem.

minor or major correction depenging on the way you look at it
Debian isn't selling anything to anybody - never has - never will !!