Let's try to understand Linux distributions.
Because of the open source nature, when working with Linux there are many choices to be made, choices for the packages
that you are going to use. And that is because different open source projects exist to provide solutions for anything.
And as a result there are many editors, graphical interfaces, package managers and so much more.
The primary purpose of a distribution is to make a choice between all these different components and make it
easy to install so that you don't have to worry about which editor and so on to use anymore.
Distributions may also choose to offer additional features as well as support.
Now, currently there's hundreds of distributions and I can imagine
that you're worried about similarities and differences between the distributions.
There are differences, but more important is that at least 90% of all software in a distribution is the same everywhere.
That is because all the distributions like using the core GNU utilities that provide the basic commands.
Also they are all using the kernel, even if distributions may patch and tweak the kernel a little bit.
And you will find common utilities for managing permissions, processes, files and more are the same as well.
Systemd is the most commonly used manager of everything. You use it to start services and so much more.
Some areas have their own specific solutions and you will find these specific solutions
in the distribution installer, in software package management as well as in network configuration.
Now let me make a drawing so that I can tell you about the main Linux distributions and how they relate to one another.
Okay, so let's talk about Linux distributions.
It all started with gnu. GNU is all this open source software, but you
don't want to compose all the software yourself and that's why we have distributions.
When we talk about main distributions, there are two developments to follow.
The first development is Debian and the other development is Red Hat.
They are both distributions that started in the beginning. 1994 is the year that we were talking about.
Debian came from educational backgrounds. Red Hat from the start was a company that wanted to offer support.
Now Red Hat has been a very successful distribution. It's probably the
most successful distribution at the moment with their Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
We call it RHEL for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Now all of this is open source and because it is open source, it
is easy to create a new distribution that is based on another distribution.
And that is what was the beginning of the CentOS distribution, which is Community Enterprise operating system.
Why does it exist? Well, because Red Hat Enterprise Linux requires a license
and CentOS is open source software that that doesn't require a license.
Red Hat didn't like that very much. So what did they do? They integrated CentOS and
CentOS is now a part of the Red Hat family and it is called centos Stream.
Centos Stream is the development platform that is used as the input for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux still is the flagship Linux distribution from red hat.
Now CentOS stream needs to be developed itself as well. And that is why there is also the Red Hat sponsored
community distribution which is called Fedora. Fedora is what you would install on your laptop if you want to learn Linux.
Fedora is for the latest and greatest software and Based on Fedora, CentOS Stream is composed and
once software has stabilized the CentOS Stream, it will find its way into Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
But still the story hasn't changed.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is still a very successful Linux distribution and that
is why different distributions have been derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Like Oracle Linux, like Rocky
Linux and like Elma Linux.
All of these are using the source code in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. They are compiling it
with small modifications and their own logos. And the result is that this is all the same.
And that is why all the distributions in here and some that
I haven't even mentioned here are referred to as Red Hat family.
It doesn't really matter which one you are using because it's the same anyways.
Now there is a different line of distributions that we should talk about and that is derived from Debian.
It's called Ubuntu.
Ubuntu was also created in the mid-1990s and the focus on Ubuntu was on a usable desktop.
The focus was to make Ubuntu as easy as it can be.
Ubuntu has a desktop version, Ubuntu has a server version
and it is currently very, very popular, mainly amongst developers.
According to the people behind Ubuntu from the company canonical, at
least 60% of all the developers are using Ubuntu Linux.
That's a number that's very hard to verify, but it might be true. And likewise,
at least 60% of business users are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux or family.
Now in Ubuntu we have two mainstream versions. We have the LTS version. LTS is
long term support and on LTS you get at least five years support with an
option to buy two additional years. There's also the releases that happen every six months.
These six month releases are limited support if you really want to have something that
is supported for a long time. Ubuntu LTS is where you should be looking at.