|
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of distributions of the Linux operating system.
The tables specifically do not include subjective viewpoints on the merits of each operating system. For this kind of information, please see operating system advocacy.
To compare Linux distributions with other operating systems, please see: Comparison of operating systems.
General
Basic general information about the distributions: creator/company, license/price etc.
|
| Creator
| First public release date
| Predecessor
| Stable version
| Cost (US Dollars)
| Preferred License2
| Target Audience
|
| Arch Linux
| Judd Vinet
| 03/11/2002
| CRUX
| 0.7
| Free
| GPL
| Enthusiast
|
| Debian
| Debian Project
| August 1993
| None
| 3.0r4 (woody)
| Free
| any DFSG-free
| Base for other Distributions, Administrated Environments, Server, Workstation, Enthusiast
|
| Fedora Core
| Fedora Project
| November 2003
| Red Hat Linux
| 3
| Free
| GPL
| RedHat Enterprise Development Base, Workstation,
|
| Ubuntu
| Canonical Ltd.
| October 2004
| based on Debian
| 4.10
| Free
| GPL
| Mostly Home Desktop
|
| Gentoo
| Gentoo Foundation, Inc
| March 2002
| Enoch
| 2004.3
| Free
| GPL
| Server, Workstation Desktop, Enthusiast
|
| Mandrakelinux
| Mandrakesoft
| July 1998
| Red Hat Linux
| 10.1
| Free (Download edition)
| GPL
| Home Desktop, Workstation Desktop, Enthusiast
|
| MEPIS
| Warren Woodford
| September 2003
| based on Debian
| SimplyMEPIS 2004.06
| Free (Download edition)
| GPL
| Server, Home Desktop, Workstation Desktop, Enthusiast
|
| Slackware Linux
| Patrick Volkerding
| July 1993
| SLS
| 10.1
| Free
| GPL
| Server, Workstation Desktop, Enthusiast
|
| SUSE Linux
| SUSE
| March 1994
| Slackware
| 9.2
| $59.95 Professional, Free Personal
| GPL
| Server, Home Desktop, Workstation Desktop, Enthusiast
|
|
| Creator
| First public release date
| Predecessor
| Stable version
| Cost (US Dollars)
| Preferred License2
| Target Audience
|
Technical
Information on technical aspects of the distributions.
|
| Default file system
| Other major file systems supported
| Architectural support
(first, primary platform)
| Default online OS update tool
| Default package management/
software installation tool
| Main API and language
for GUI applications
| Main API and language
for textual/CLI applications
|
| Arch Linux
| ext3
| ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS
| x86 (i686)
| Pacman
| Pacman
| Various (no default)
| pre-LSB with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
| Debian
| ext3/ext2
| ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS
| x86, IA64, PPC, SPARC, SPARC64, Alpha, MIPS, ARM, PA-RISC, Mac/VME 68k, S/390
| APT
| dpkg and APT
| Various (no default)
| pre-LSB with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
| Fedora Core
| ext3
| ext2, ReiserFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS
| x86, x86-64, experimental PowerPC
| up2date
| RPM, yum
| Various (no default)
| LSB with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
| Gentoo
| User Determined
| ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS
| x86, x86-64, PPC, PowerPC 970, SPARC, SPARC64, Alpha, MIPS
| emerge
| Portage
| Various (no default)
| ?
|
| Mandrakelinux
| ext3
| ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS
| x86 (i586), x86-64, PPC
| urpmi
| RPM
| Various (no default)
| LSB with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
| MEPIS
| ReiserFS/ext3
| ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS
| x86 (i586)
| APT
| dpkg and APT
| Various (no default)
| LSB with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
| Slackware
| ReiserFS, ext3/ext2
| ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS
| x86, IA64, S/390
| Swaret, Slaptget, many other not official
| installpkg and upgradepkg
| Various (no default)
| LSB with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
| SUSE Linux
| ReiserFS
| ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS
| x86, IA64, x86-64, PPC
| YaST2
| RPM, YAST
| Various (no default)
| LSB with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
|
| Default file system
| Other major file systems supported
| Architectural support
(first, primary platform)
| Default online OS update tool
| Default package management/
software installation tool
| Main API and language
for GUI applications
| Main API and language
for textual/CLI applications
|
Features
Information on features in the distributions.
Reference
See also
|
