Redhat vs Debian

[wdhpr]

I have been playing around with Linux for a couple of years now. I found that there were 4 or 5 popular types.
Redhat and Debian are 2 that are very popular.

Excerpt: from Debian vs Red Hat.

Looking briefly at DistroWatch, I notice that five of the top ten distros are based on Debian. Two or three are based on Red Hat (depending on whether SuSE counts), and the remaining two are Slackware and Gentoo. Why are so many successful distros based on debian?

Interesting read. A bit technical for me. But I understood the gist of the article. I wonder what the rest of you think about it?

Cheers
Wdhpr

[Anupam]

Interesting read indeed. But, the article is of 2005, and it says that most of the issues have been fixed. So, I don't know how much relevance the article holds in present times.

[wdhpr]

Yea I was aware it was dated.
Most of the articles on the subject I found were rather old.
I was aware that one of the biggest differances where with the package managers. I found this comment from the site Superusers

here are two major flavors of linux distro's out there. Debian and Red Hat based distributions account for a large percentage of the distributions out there.

The major difference between them is the package management. If they are debian based the most likely use the dpkg& apt/deb system, if its a Red Hat system it most likely uses yum/rpm. A lot of distros pop up because someone was unsatisifed with the package management so most will have some form of graphical interface that is different, but the underlying system is the same.

If you learn how to use apt-get and yum, you'll cover 80% of the distro's out there, and 99% of the systems you'll most likely encounter.

Each distro will do something a little different with the window manager. Most major distro's choose between KDE and Gnome, with Gnome seeming to be the popular one at the moment. The great thing about linux though, is that you can change the window manager if you like (go windowmaker!).

If you learn the command line there is not "much" of a difference, but the GUI changes between distro's will definitely sway you're choice. Also, some distro's ship with divers that will make it easy for certain hardware like video cards.

For more detailed information of the two package managers can be found at Ubuntu Documentation

From my brief experience with Mandriva Linux I was not able to see much difference (because I was a newbie). Mepis turned out to work better with my hardware. Debian also has more software packages to choose from.
Although die hard Redhat users swear by their distro's

Cheers
Wdhpr

[freedog96150]

You whetted my curiosity about Linux genealogy, so I hunted around and found this PNG that has a pretty interesting layout. Amazing to see how the majority of our current distros are forks off of Debian, Redhat, Slackware, and small selection of others I have never heard about. Debian has the most forks and that is no surprise to me.

What was a total surprise was seeing that darling of some, Puppy, is its own beast. It just starts and does not look like a fork of anything. Maybe it was originally a Linux from Scratch project and that is why it is so mean and lean.

To contribute to the war, I absolutely love RHEL and its forks (mainly CentOS) for servers but do not like the desktop versions - too boring. Did I mention that when you purchase server class hardware, you can always find RH drivers? Ubuntu and its forks are my go to desktop distros. I have mentioned in other threads that my current fav is Mint and the shine has not tarnished yet. I am not that big of a fan of Ubuntu server or other "server" forks off Debian. They are simply too heavy when you install them and you spend too much time uninstalling unnecessary apps. I aim that comment at Debian forks and hold Debian itself separate from that comment.

As to package managers...meh...all the same. Yum or Apt - if you know how to use them and modify repos, you can load whatever you want. Anyone ever need help locating pre-compiled packages, drop me a PM and I will give you some places to hunt. There are a ton of private repos out there for the using.

[wdhpr]

That PNG is incredible. I didn't expect the breath of all the off shoots. This will take me some time. Cause its late. I will spend more time tomorrow
This is the sort of thing I was curious about.
Thanks

Cheers
Wdhpr

[MidnightCowboy]

@freedog96150

Maybe I've already tried to twist your arm in this direction [I do respond to "go away" but you might have to ask me twice ] but we really do need some extra help on site developing the Linux category, especially with reviews of the various distros. Jojo, Rik and others have already made some great contributions but they are mainly tied up with doing a zillion other things here. Any chance you might have some time to help out?

[freedog96150]

@MC
Thanks. I sent you an email in response. I'm pretty much monitoring the site and forums on a daily basis and will contribute when I feel I have relevant answers. So far, it seems like I have avoided offending anyone, so that is good. Wish I could say the same for one of my other forums I participate in.

Just want to clarify that I am not really a desktop Linux expert. Want to talk about server class hardware running CentOS, RHEL, or Debian installed with no GUI, I am there. Desktops with their attendant peripherals, sound, web cams, scanners, etc., are definitely a weak point for me in Linux. I am learning more about desktop Linux here than I am preaching. It's great.

Looking forward to more!

[wdhpr]

What was a total surprise was seeing that darling of some, Puppy, is its own beast. It just starts and does not look like a fork of anything. Maybe it was originally a Linux from Scratch project and that is why it is so mean and lean.

Puppy is a favorite of mine. Fits nicely on my 1gig usb stick. Take it with me when visiting friends and family. I just plug it in and boot straight to it. People just marvel at it. Makes me look like a linux genius "LOL"

Spent some time checking out that Linux family tree (png) Truly is amazing. I was surprised to see so many Slackware off shoots.
I guess the the one thing I would like to see between the major types is a little easier way to convert an RPM package to a DEB package.

Cheers
Wdhpr

[lonny]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

I guess the the one thing I would like to see between the major types is a little easier way to convert an RPM package to a DEB package.

Cheers
Wdhpr

you can try this:

http://packages.debian.org/lenny/alien

[wdhpr]

Thanks lonny

Just installed Alien
Its a command line tool. But it looks straight forward enough. The author says it still has bugs but has also been used successfully for years. Sure beats the alternative

Cheers
Wdhpr