What are the differences between the distros

[eeaoeuaoeu]

I'm new to Linux, and I'm learning it, and I have a question. The way it looks is determined by desktop environments, like Gnome or KDE plasma. What are the differences between the linuxes? For example, isn't OpenSUSE Gnome the same as the Fedora Gnome environment? What's the differences between the distros except for the file formats, like .deb or .rpm.

 

[dos2unix]

To me, mostly the package managers. rpm vs deb, vs pacman, etc...
But also LTS (long term support) vs rolling releases. (continuously updating).

To me, those are the biggest differences.

 

[tpkusr]

Some distro's are design to run well on old hardware like porteus Linux or puppy Linux. And some distro's are design to run well in newer hardware like Ubuntu or Mint.

 

[Brickwizard]

You can divide distributions in several ways, first is by the base distribution, of which Debian is the biggest, the others are RHEL [Red Hat] Arch, SUSE and Slackware, you can divide them by which desktop they use, also by which package manage and several other ways
or as an analogy if we take a sports car then the Linux kernel is the engine, the base distributions are the Major components that make it run, and the desktop is the body and paint

 

[dos2unix]

I would also say, you can divide up by purpose, desktop workstation or server.

Debian/Ubuntu/Mint/Fedora are popular desktop editions.
Redhat/Rocky/Alma are popular server editions.

 

[Rob]

To me, mostly the package managers. rpm vs deb, vs pacman, etc...

Same here. You the majority of the distros based off:

• Red Hat (rpm) (Centos, Fedora, Rocky, etc..)
• Debian (deb) (Ubuntu, Mint, PopOS, etc..)

Some are aimed at servers, some at desktops, some specifically at security or ease of use.. some as minimal, some as kitchen sink.

You can install any popular desktop env on any of them for the most part.

Back in the day, Slackware was an outlier.. nowadays you have a few others that went their own way, esp w/ their own package managers (Arch for example).

For instance:

• Someone wants to install Kali Linux because they want all the cool hacker tools
• That someone can install a minimal Ubuntu, then install all of the same tools that come pre-packaged on Kali.

Or

• Someone wants XFCE so they go with Xubuntu
• They can install Ubuntu, then the XFCE desktop.

The draw to a lot of these other distros are that you install it and you've already got it set up how you want it. In the future, you may make your own eeaoeuaoeu distro that has everything set up the way you want it.

There are no wrong answers in this thread, lol.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

You can also divide distros based on who makes them and based on what policies a distro team pursues, it's not always everything in software, there is also people behind a distro as well as country of origin etc.

 

[gvisoc]

Welcome @eeaoeuaoeu

Soon after joining the forum I wrote this answer to a similar question! I hope it can be a starting point

 

[kc1di]

Hello @eeaoeuaoeu
Welcome to the Linux.org forum, enjoy!
You have received some good replys don't know that I could add to them. But have fun.