hi guys,

i'm confused. if all distro uses the same kernel how come there are other distro that claim they have "enterprise" quality distribution? what are te main difference between the enterprise quality and just an ordinary distro if both uses the same package?

confused,
jag

You should ask those distro providers who claim "enterprise quality distribution." That can be just a buzz word, which might not mean anything to some people ... such as myself.

And to qualify, all distros do not use the same kernel. Slackware's Pat Volkerding compiles kernels with options he selects, but he gets the source from http://kernel.org and doesn't modify it.

Some distros hack the kernel so much that it is barely recognizable from the source when they get through. Debian, SuSE, Mandrivia, Fedora, etc. are examples. Usually the "commercial distributions" do that so they have control over how the OS works. Especially those companies who provide support for their users.

Slackware is more interested in leaving control in the hands of the user.

That is how I would answer this question, but other's may see it differently. Hopefully they'll show up.

Yessir, "enterprise" means nothing. Advertising BS

thanks. now i understand. i was just confused wethere to continue using slackware as my server or to use the what they claim "enterprise" quality distro.

thanks again,
jag

You won't find a distro with better quality than Slackware. It's the oldest Linux distro, and quite stable. Just ask in the Slackware forum how well it performs for servers, or anything, and you'll get some guys who use it in the workplace to give you answers I'm sure.

ya I agree the whole "enterprise quality distribution" is b.s.

Slackware is an "Enterprise Quality Distribution".
Slackware is a "Desktop Quality Distribution"
Slackware is an "User Quality Distribution"

Slackware is anything you want or make it to be.
The words are marketing tools, except one.

Slackware is just plain old "Quality"

Enterprise really does mean something:
-1- paid support is available
-2- commercial software is certified to run on these distros.

slack is something more than all enterpriceing linuxes. u wil feel it - for that use it - be proud of it

"Enterprise Linux" is not just a buzzword or BS. Most enterprise distributions have three characteristics:

- Long release cycles, e.g. RHEL has an 18 month release cycle.
- Long support times, e.g. Red Hat provides security updates for seven years for their enterprise distributions.
- Backporting. When a security problem is found, a package is not updated (e.g. like it happens in Slack most of the time), but the security fix is backported.

For mission-critical applications this is often useful. The upgrade cycle is long, an operating system can safely be deployed for a long time. Besides that backporting is done to keep full binary compatibility, allowing vendors like Oracle and VMWare to guarantee that their software works on Red Hat or SUSE version so and so.

At some places Linux just has to work, and enterprise distributions are good for that. The disadvantage is that you have to pay $$$, unless you use something like CentOS.