What is Based in Linux distro?
 

Hello guys, good evening.

Just want to ask this, I noticed this before. When we say "Ubuntu Based", "Debian Based", "Redhat Based", "Fedora Based", "openSUSE Based", and so on. What does it mean? Does it mean, it talks about the commands(the commands are based on?) or the applications(applications are based on?)? or Any additional informations I need to know about this thing?

Thanks and God bless.

"Ubuntu Based", "Debian Based", "Redhat Based", "Fedora Based", "openSUSE Based", means a distro has been adapted in some way from those original distros. For example: Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian; Fedora is based on Redhat, etc.

Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat, Fedora etc... are all separate "distributions" (distros) of Linux where they made choices about what should and shouldn't be there and or created it for specific purposes.

When you say it is "based" typically you mean that the distro you were talking about was originally based on another distro. Ubuntu for example is actually a Debian based distro but now there is Kubuntu which is an Ubuntu based distro. Due to that you can call Kubuntu a Debian based distro as well.

The distro it is based on is called the "upstream" distro. Often the distro doesn't get updated until the upstream distro does. For example CentOS is a binary compile of RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) sources so it is RHEL Based and doesn't get updated unless RHEL has been updated. (Of course there are separate repositories that are NOT RHEL based that can be used in CentOS that don't follow this but in general the reason people use CentOS is have something that looks and feels as much like RHEL as possible (e.g. for a Lab environment where they don't want to pay for a RHEL subscription.)

Sometimes however it just means that is where it started. Both RHEL and Fedora started from RedHat Linux (RedHat's Linux before RHEL.) Fedora however is a bleeding edge distro so has newer packages than RHEL. RedHat (company) supports the Fedora project and some of what is first done in Fedora will end up in later RHEL versions. In that light you might say Fedora is RedHat based and RHEL is Fedora based but most people would disagree with the latter.

As you can see "based" can be rather subjective but hopefully the above gives you a good idea of how the term is commonly used.

There are several big families in Linux like Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, Suse and Mandriva.

Ubuntu was derived from the Debian family and shares much of its features. However due to Ubuntu's popularity it also forms the bases of many other distros and can possibly be regarded one of the main forces in Linux. It is certainly the one with the best support.

Fedora is the free version of Red Hat and has robust features to work a servers.

This shows what we mean:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/wp-con...meline-7.2.png

The only thing certain there is that it is your opinion.

RHEL is the one that most commercial applications are built for and it is supported by its maker and is the one chosen by IBM for their iSeries stuff so I'd argue that it is the one that has the best support.

Ubuntu certainly has many fans but that doesn't make it "best". From my view I see more of the home user/hobbyist using Ubuntu and more of the professionals using RHEL.

I smell smoke. Must be a flame-war brewing. :)

Hi,

I like this version of 'Linux Distro Timeline'. Easier to read and scroll through.
:hattip:

Nice.

I didn't start playing with Linux until 96/97 and then it seemed like main distros were Slack and RedHat so it was a surprise to me to see that Debian is older than RedHat by a year. Maybe Debian was more prevalent in Europe? At work we were using Caldera back then.

Interestingly it only goes through 2007 so has missed some newer things such as Oracle Enterprise Linux (RHEL based) which was release around that time.