Byzantine Roads

Technical Support for New Writers

Debian, Ubuntu, Mint and More

One recipe, many flavors of the the popular linux distribution

One of the reasons Newcomers to Linux are scared off is the sheer number of choice-Ubuntu, Fedora, SUSE, Arch, Debian, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS…And all the variants and forks and amateur releases and specialties and on and on…

So Let’s take a look at one popular branch and see if we an figure some stuff out-

Debian- Our tour starts with Debian. The new release, Debian 5.0 was just released as of this writing, so it’s a good place to start.

Linux distributions are built around certain core projects- They have a charter to provide a certain experience.The Debian Project seems to focus on stability. They update their distribution once in a blue moon. Debian seems to be known for they’re extensive packages-25,000 and more everyday, and that none of them are the latest and greatest. Debian is Unix-y. Like most Major projects its available on a wide variety of systems- 13 different processors actually.

The ability of these Core Distributions to be all things for everybody means they’re really not for casual users- Installation can be tricky, with lot’s of strange decisions to be made, any one of which could render your machine unusable( Although to be fair, Debian allows you to choose an installer that makes it a lot easier. So, Over time, other projects have cropped up to try to build consumer systems from these projects. Things Like–

Ubunutu- comes from Canonical and wants to be a universal, free operating system. Ubuntu starts with Debian, and makes a lot of the hard decisions that you can’t because you don’t have a computer degree. For example, Ubuntu only works on three different computer architectures instead of 13. That means some packages from Debian aren’t used, but Ubuntu can add some extra that they determine work well enough on their supported platforms.

Ubuntu also makes installation a breeze. It comes on a live CD, which means you can try it without installing anything. It has WUBI, the Windows installer which puts it on your drive with windows, giving you access to both. And finally, if you do decide to do a full install, it asks only a few basic set up questions before taking over and doing it itself.

Ubuntu also tries to be user friendly. It does away with root accounts, has the Mac like GNOME desktop, and has lots of little tweaks  and behind the scenes goings on to make it work well out of the box. True Linux geeks hate all this hand holding, but hey..Who listens to them?

Ubuntu has been an extremely popular distibution for a while now. It’s well supported- Type” Ubuntu” and your problem in Google and chances are you’re answer will pop right up.

But still… There’s more we can do. See, Debian and Ubuntu are free, and customizable. Take either, and we can create and distribute our own Linux systems that have what we want. This is where the power and flexibility of Linux start to show. It goes beyond just changing startup sounds and backgrounds. Any User can literally create whatever operating system works for them:

Xubuntu- Replaces GNome with the Lightweight XFCE Desktop.This Means You give up some Flash, some usability for a faster, more responsive system

ElBuntu- Replaces GNOME with the lighter, experimental E17 Desktop. This means you get to keep the flash, get the performance boost, but lose some stability.

Kubuntu- Replaces the Mac look of Gnome for the Windows look of KDE. Although KDE itself is being transformed into something else entirely…

Edubuntu- Designed for School and classroom use. With Educational packages and user management

All Of the above packages still look and feel a lot like Ubuntu- most of the changes are cosmetic. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take what they’ve built on and go even farther:

gOS- A pared down version of Ubuntu for Netbooks and “cloud” Computing. Designed to use online applications and widgets as integral to the operating system.

LinuxMint- Mint originally was designed to add multimedia codecs to the Ubuntu distribution that the original lacks due to legal/philosophical problems. However, their clean, well designed interface won raves and is what sets them apart the most now.(note: These codecs are available as part of the restricted set of packages off the regular Ubuntu repos)

So,  really, It’s not that hard. I started experimenting about a year ago, picked up a couple of different Distributions, and taught myself what to, how to use common terminal commands and simple scripts. And You Know what? My computer is still Running.

See, the thing is, Linux is the Kernel, not the operating system. They all run the same commands the same way. All the differences? Those are just personal choices. Skins. Packages, applications. What you like and what works for you. That’s how to grok Linux. It’s not about the choices. It’s about what works for you.

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