What is a Linux Distribution
A Linux distribution also called as Linux distro is a set of packages that together make up a operating system. Each of the package provides a specific function to the system. Example of packages include: Linux Kernel: provides operating system features for example memory management, process management, multitasking etc X Server and the desktop environment GNU Shell Utilities: the terminal Others include : System Libraries, web servers, databases, e-mail utilities and more. There are different distros for different purposes. Desktop Environment: Ubuntu, Fedora Server: Red Hat Embedded Systems: Buildroot, OpenWRT Installing software in these distros varies as each of them uses a different packaging mechanism. For example, software in ubuntu comes in <sw>.deb and installing it uses dpkg package manager. deb stands for debian.