Different versions of Linux

[Guest_imported]

Someone was telling me about the different versions of Linux that are available. One that he mentioned was called, "BSD," or something like that, which he said was the Berkeley version of Linux. My question is where can you get that version?

Thanks

 

[Karl Blessing]

BSD and FreeBSD are not Linux distributions, they are an actual genre of Unix OS all in themselves

linux distributions are the same OS different kernels, and packages, to name a few of good ones I know of (the top two being equally my favorite)

Mandrake 7.2
Suse Linux 7.0 Professional
RedHat 6.*
Debian Linux
Turbo Linux
and many many more.

The different distributions have different things, like either the latest Kernel (the core of linux) , different styles of instalations, different packages, Xwindows, etc.

it's sort of like this, imagine if windows were opensource, and very configuratble, you would see several versions of windows, it looks like windows and such, but set up different, comming with lots of different software bundles and games and such.

so basically when you see a distribution, it's just packaged differently. Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Guest_imported]

Thanks for the answer.
So how would you recommend that I go about learning linux?
And which of the distributions uses a GUI and which is command line only??

Thanks

 

[Karl Blessing]

Most of the ones I listed (especially the topmost) all comes with XWindows , the actual Linux itself is the console.

to go about learning it, you could experiment , or read online documentation, linux is free, but if you buy either Mandrake 7.2 PowerPack or Suse 7.0 Professional package, you get extra CDs, tech support, and books (The Suse I Got came with 2 books, one 600 pages, the other 200 pages), check linux-mandrake.com (if not that then it's mandrake-linux.com) for mandrake info, and I Belive suse is simply suse.com

The big distributions I mentioned, will come with Xwindows since it is a popular choice by people, the only ones I Can think of that are console only, and very small is LOAF (and others like it) , LOAF meaning "Linux on a Floppy", the actual Linux OS is tiny, depending on how you configure it, it can be rather tiny (good for dianostics) Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}