Linux Distributions

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This book deals with Red Hat Linux. However, there are a number of other brand names associated with Linux. It is important that you know the similarities and differences between these brands. To begin with, they are usually referred to as distributions. These distributions have much more in common than they have differences. The various desktops (such as KDE and GNOME), shells, commands, and administrative tasks that you will learn in this book apply to all Linux distributions.

You may be wondering what is different about them. Each distribution, while still distributing Linux, creates its own installation routine and decides what additional programs will be bundled with it. In other words, the real difference between distributions amounts to the installation process and the different applications that will be installed with the operating system. Red Hat Linux, for example, ships with the popular graphics program GIMP, a complete office suite, and a plethora of other applications.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that the actual operating system is the same for all distributions. That means that what you learn in this book will carry over into other Linux distributions such as SuSE, Debian, and Mandrake.

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