A Linux "Distribution" represents a somewhat
integrated installation package that typically provides
such components as:
-
Utilities to help set
things up to install
Linux. Since Linux can run (even just in the
IA-32 "world") on
a wide variety of hardware of varied
configuration, there are a number of ways to
install it.
This typically includes
boot options such as:
and then searching
for installation files on:
-
CD-ROM,
-
An MS-DOS
partition on a local disk,
-
A remote
computer using FTP (File Transfer
Protocol),
-
A remote
computer using
NFS.
-
Various software
organized into packages,
along with utilities used to
install,deinstall and upgrade the software.
More modern distributions have increasingly
sophisticated tools for these purposes that
allow software to be safely upgrade, almost
always with no need to reboot anything, use
cryptographic protocols to validate that
nobody has "hacked" with the software,
allow the binary package to be rebuilt from
original source code, and enforce
dependancies between packages (you can't
very well use a C library without a C
compiler).
A set of
"base"
packages is required to have a minimal
functioning system, normally including
the kernel, system libraries, and some
file and network utilities. It is
possible to run a
really
stripped-down system off a single floppy.
But usually the default "base" includes quite a
lot of packages so that you get a system
that can do quite a lot of useful
things.
Linux distributions
typically come with a wide
variety of additional packages not all of which
will be of interest to any one person in
particular. Packages included include such
things as:
-
Printing utilities, such as the
Ghostscript Postscript emulator,
and a variety of print job management
utilities...
-
Network
applications, such as
news readers,
mail readers,
web browsers,
web servers,
IRC clients/servers, commonly with
several choices available...
-
A bunch of
games...
-
X Window System servers for various
graphics cards, installation utilities,
fonts, various
window managers, utilities,
and"toys"...
-
Document management tools,
including file manipulation tools,
document formatting languages (
TeX ,
LaTeX , *ROFF, Lout...),
bibliographic and other utilities for
each...
-
Programming
languages, including compilers for
C ,
C++,
LISP , and
Scheme, and interpreters for
Perl ,
TCL ,
Python, and
Java , just to name a
few...
-
Programming
utilities including
source code management systems,
profilers, debuggers,
lots of
libraries...
-
Compiler
construction tools including as flex,
yacc, bison, just to name a
few...
-
Numerical analysis tools including
some Matlab "clones," statistical
software, graphing
packages...
-
Database
management software, including
"text database
stuff"
SQL relational databases,
nonrelational databases,
...
-
Lots, lots,
lots, lots more. Common distributions
have hundreds
of packages available; it's not
uncommon for vendors to sell
distributions that have multiple CDs
containing supplementary packages.
Debian offers upwards of 8000,
that's eight
thousand
packages.
-
There are typically
configuration utilities to assist novices
through the complexities of configuring things
like network services and the X
Window system. They're also helpful to the
"expert" as they cut
the time and mental effort required, and let
you get to using the system more
quickly. I'd rather use Debian's pppconfig to configure my PPP
connection than fight with config files myself,
given a choice.
I first installed Linux from a
1993 version of the Infomagic Linux Developers CDROM
set, using the Slackware
distribution. In theold days, there were only 2 CDs
in the set. Things sure have changed since
then.
These days, I am mostly running
Debian.
There are a whole lot of
distributions, including a lot of variations/relations
to one another.
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