Distributions

The Linux kernel is the core of the operating system. A full Linux distribution consists of the kernel plus a number of other software tools for file-related operations, user management, and software package management

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Distribution Families

There are more than 200 distributions. The most commonly used can be categorized in three families:

  • Red Hat Family Systems (including CentOS and Fedora)
  • SUSE Family Systems (including openSUSE)
  • Debian Family Systems (including Ubuntu and Linux Mint).

Red Hat

Some of the key facts about the Red Hat distribution family are:

  • Fedora serves as an upstream testing platform for RHEL.
  • CentOS is a close clone of RHEL, while Oracle Linux is mostly a copy with some changes (in fact, CentOS has been part of Red Hat since 2014). CentOS 8 has reached end of life while CentOS 7 will do it in 2024
  • A heavily patched version 3.10 kernel is used in RHEL/CentOS 7, while version 4.18 is used in RHEL/CentOS 8.
  • It supports hardware platforms such as Intel x86, Arm, Itanium, PowerPC, and IBM System z.
  • It uses the yum and dnf RPM-based yum package managers to install, update, and remove packages in the system.
  • RHEL is widely used by enterprises which host their own systems.

SUSE

Some of the key facts about the SUSE family are listed below:

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is upstream for openSUSE.
  • Kernel version 4.12 is used in openSUSE Leap 15.
  • It uses the RPM-based zypper package manager to install, update, and remove packages in the system.
  • It includes the YaST (Yet Another Setup Tool) application for system administration purposes.
  • SLES is widely used in retail and many other sectors.

Debian

Some key facts about the Debian family are listed below:

  • The Debian family is upstream for Ubuntu, and Ubuntu is upstream for Linux Mint and others.
  • Kernel version 4.15 is used in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
  • It uses the DPKG-based APT package manager (using apt, apt-get, apt-cache, etc.) to install, update, and remove packages in the system.
  • Ubuntu has been widely used for cloud deployments.
  • While Ubuntu is built on top of Debian and is GNOME-based under the hood, it differs visually from the interface on standard Debian, as well as other distributions.