Linux DistributionsNormally when asked what type of computer you have, people expect to hear "Mac" or "PC". For a long time desktop users have been faced with the decision to pick either the Macintosh or Microsoft operating systems when they purchased new computers. In about 1998 I was introduced to an operating system called Linux. I happened to be in a programming class in high school where one of my classmates told me that if I liked programming that I should try out Linux because "if you didn't like something you could rewrite the code and change it to how you like it" essentially making it my own operating system. He gave me two different distributions to try out, Red Hat 5.2 and SuSE 5.0, and I started to teach myself what this was all about. After many late nights and a very steep learning curve I had it installed and (hold your breath) I had X11 running with a GUI! Note: GUI stands for Graphical User Interface and X11 is the software that GUIs use to display the graphics. When I started with Linux the installation was all from a command line and there were no pretty menus and auto detecting of hardware. I had to know all the specifications of my hardware before I installed and tell Linux what I had. Now, there is very little to do if you want a nice GUI that feels more like home if you've been using a Macintosh or MS Windows based computer. From high school until my freshman year at college in 2000 I was mainly just tinkering and playing with Linux, seeing what I could do with it. But my first semester at university I lost 4 papers to the "Blue Screen of Death" in Windows 98. By the fourth paper I was so fed up with Windows that I then installed Linux onto my second hard drive and made it into a dual boot. (I couldn't give up StarCaft and yes it was my own fault for not saving periodically.) Since my freshman year, Linux has become my preferred choice of operating system on all of my computers. I say Linux in general because I've used several different distributions over the years. And at this point in time I prefer Ubuntu for my desktop machines and openSuSE for my servers. What types are there?A more complete list of current popular distributions can be found at http://www.linux.com/distributions/. Even though it's a more complete list it is by no means a full list. Also below is a list of some common Linux distributions that I'm familiar with.
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