Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What are the differences between the 'base' of various Linux distributions? (self.linux)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by Sunny to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I've been using linux desktop for a year or so now. One noteable thing i keep seeing is that one person will say I dont like XYZ distrobution because of its base. But I am still a little unsure what is meant by it. I am assuming the main difference between each base is the choice of package management(?). But what other factors/aspects that are important for the average user to know about each 'base'? This is probably quite a broad question to a rather technical answer, but appriciate any answers, and i'll try my best to understand and read up :)

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[–] herrcaptain@lemmy.ca 24 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Great comment, but something I'd disagree on:

As an example, Mint is built on the Ubuntu base, Bunsen is built on Debian, etc. These are often called flavors as they're not considered distros but rather something built on top of a distro.

From my understanding, those would generally still be referred to as distros in their own right. I've always understood a flavour to be a variant of a specific distro. For example, kubuntu is the KDE flavour of Ubuntu.

[–] Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 5 months ago

Correct, they are derivative distributions.