I'm semi new to Linux and find myself getting into it quite a bit now. I just don't understand the difference between some of the main distros. I hear a lot of people talking about freeBSD and unbuntu (not sure of spelling). I currently only use Fedora and RedHat. Could anyone enlighten me about what the main differences are between the RedHat family and things like FreeBSD.

Many thanks

Rookie.

Simply, FreeBSD is not linux.
It's a posix unix-like open-source operating system, like linux, but the kernel of freeBSD has nothing in common with the linux kernel.

It's a bit like the differences in cars. You have a basic functionality and a set of common features that allows people to build accessories. But, many things are different. As with cars, you will not likely look at ALL the choices before making a selection.

The analogy, of course, breaks down rapidly. In Linux, there are many utilities that are pretty much common across all distros. Some of these--developed under the GNU project--actually pre-date the Linux kernel. (The purists a quick to remind us, that we are really using **GNU Linux**).

I think differences in distros fall into two broad classes: features and configuration. Configuration refers only to how the GUI is set up, where config files are stored, etc. Features are substantive differences in capability.

Out of curiousity, why RedHat AND Fedora??

I use RedHat at Uni (in Labs) and I use Fedora at home.