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IntroductiontolinuxBog'liq introductiontolinux| 9
Redhat – Redhat is known for it’s RPM
(Redhat Package Manager)
installation system, and for their
goal to provide a stable,
supported, and viable alternative to
Microsoft Server operating systems. Offering
paid-for support packages with its operating
systems, Redhat makes for an attractive
desktop and server platform for business.
Redhat was originally available for free with
support packages being an optional extra
for those that required it, but has now
become a pay-for only product. Redhat are
allowed to continue this practice as long as
(un-compiled) source code remains freely
available.
Today, Redhat finds its home in various
businesses, education establishments, and
government facilities.
Two major forks sprang from this restriction
on the availability of Redhat:
CentOS – focusing on creating a free
‘Redhat Server’ based OS to
use on dedicated server
hardware. When Redhat
became a pay-for product, CentOS
became a very popular OS among the
desktop Redhat community.
Fedora – ‘Redhat Desktop’ based OS,
designed to run on all desktop
and mobile machines. Upon the
move to a pay-for scheme, many
Redhat users moved to Fedora, allowing
them to retain their familiarity with the OS,
and the support for their pre-written
configuration files and installation files.
Other Distributions – There are lots and lots
of Linux distributions out there. The best
way to find out about each and every distro
is to visit the homepages for each one, and
read up on their features and benefits.
The important thing to remember; is that all
Linux distributions are more or less the same
underneath. The commands you will learn in
this introduction can be used with any of the
above distros with the same affect. Some
distros have proprietary commands that only
work in that distro (such as ‘rpm’ and ‘dpkg’
etc), however these are clearly documented
by the creators.
With so many distros, the trick is to find the
one that works for you, and stick with it.
Here in the ISG, we recommend Ubuntu for
Desktops, and Debian for servers, however
the reasoning behind your choice of OS
will be different from ours. Linux gives you
freedom by giving you choice.
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