There is no single distribution of the Linux software. Instead, there are many such distributions, available both via anonymous FTP and mail order on floppy, tape, or CD-ROM. This document is an attempt to present information on many of the available distributions of Linux. This document also contains information on many miscellaneous services and goods available for Linux, ranging from consulting and support to T-shirts.
The purpose of this document is to provide short summaries of the many Linux distributions and mail-order services, and to provide pointers for the reader to find more information.
The information presented here is far from complete; there are many more Linux distributions and services than are listed here. Unfortunately, we have not received submissions from many of the organizations providing these services. Please see Submissions To This Document near the end of this document for information on making a submission. It's easy and will take less then five minutes.
Disclaimer: We make absolutely no guarantee as to the correctness of the information, prices, and ordering details given in this document. Check the last-modified field of each to get an idea of its currency. Furthermore, unless otherwise stated the Linux software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
Your editor tries to stick to facts in most of this HOWTO, but he has some opinions on the state of the Linux market. If you care what they are, you can read them under Editorial Recommendations.
Disclosure: I (esr) have no financial connection to any Linux vendor, nor have I accepted any renumeration or perquisites from any vendor other than free product for review (and one T-shirt from Red Hat).
This document will be posted monthly to the newsgroups
comp.os.linux.answers . The document is archived on a number
of Linux FTP sites, including sunsite.unc.edu in
pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO.
You can also view the latest version of this on the World Wide Web via the URL http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/Distribution-HOWTO.html.
Feel free to mail any questions or comments about this HOWTO to
Eric S. Raymond, esr@snark.thyrsus.com. Please do not
send me general Linux questions or requests for help in
choosing a distribution unless you're willing to hire me at
normal consulting rates; I don't have time to deal with them,
and I try to put everything I know about choosing a
distribution in this document.
Network distributions like the original Slackware no longer seem to be Linux's most important vector. Accordingly the General Information section and this HOWTO as a whole now focuses more on commercial CD distributions.
I have dropped the section on Linux mail-order resellers (Spheric Microsystems, Takelap, Lasermoon). You can't turn around in a computer store, computer hobbyist fair, or even large mainstream bookstore any more without tripping over a pile of Linux books and CD-ROMs available cheap. So tracking these resellers is no longer a service to readers worth the work it costs me.
NOTE: I am planning on dropping the section on International Distributions for reasons discussed there. If you are appropriately multilingual and are concerned about the quality of that section's information, please volunteer either to (a) maintain a International Distributions HOWTO, or (b) act as part of my international spy network, sending me regular updates I can use.
In the beginning (say, 1993), a Linux distribution was something you downloaded off the Internet onto floppies. Installation was a laborious process and repeated frustrations due to bad media were common.
Then came cheap CD-ROM drives and the CD-ROM, a medium ideally suited for shipping large volumes of operating-system software cheaply. There's a whole mini-industry now built around commercial CD-ROM Linuxes, and (because the vendors have actual cash flow to fund support and marketing) they increasingly dominate the Linux world. Debian is now the only significant non-commercial release, and even it seems to be propagated largely by shovelware CD-ROMs.
Most of the CD-ROM distributions (including Slackware, Yggdrasil and Red Hat) are still available for FTP from the home sites of their developers. But if you have a CD-ROM drive and a few dollars, you will have many more distributions and more support options to choose from (and you'll usually get some useful paper documentation). For more on the details of installation, see the Linux Installation HOWTO, http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO.html.
There are three tiers in the Linux CD-ROM market. The top tier consists of primary distribution builders (such as Yggdrasil, Red Hat, WGS, and Craftworks). These people add substantial value to Linux, often including custom administration/installation tools, bound documentation, and availability of technical support contracts.
The bottom tier consists or redistributors and publishers who simply shovel Slackware or some other network-available distribution onto a CD-ROM and re-sell it with zero or minimal documentation and support.
The middle tier is harder to define; it consists of re-packagers who add some value without actually building and maintaining their own primary distributions.
One thing that does not distinguish these tiers much is price. Prices for CD-ROM distributions of Intel Linuxes start at $20 and top out at a whole $50 (and the extra few dollars can buy real value). Many vendors sell subscription deals that will lower your cost-per-CD for regular updates over the subscription period.
In October 1996 price correlates with features and quality pretty well (as one would expect in a very competitive market). Your editor recommends paying the few extra dollars for a top-drawer CD-ROM distribution; this will pay off in fewer installation and administration hassles down the road.
Last section, the facts. In this section, my opinions (for whatever they're worth -- and remember the caveat about free advice). There is no substitute for doing your own evaluation based on experience and the data in this guide, and these are intended more to illuminate my possible biases than as a guide to what you should do.
From the beginnings of the Linux CD-ROM industry in 1993 to Fall 1995, Yggdrasil was the king of the hill -- it essentially founded the CD-ROM market and then set the standard for everybody else. I used Yggdrasil, and I recommended over commercial System V versions for their superior documentation, large collection of applications, and enlightened policy of sending free releases to freeware authors and dedicating part of the price of each CD-ROM to financially supporting free software. But Yggdrasil hasn't issued a new release in 1996 (it's December as I write) and they've perhaps been left behind by the market.
I now run Red Hat Linux and am quite satisfied with it. Red Hat's RPM technology currently gives it, IMO, a technical edge over any other vendor. They've made most of the right moves at the right times and I consider them the current market leader.
However, these opinions should not be interpreted as an unconditional endorsement; different Linux distributions are optimized for different needs, and yours may well be best served by some other distribution (especially if, unlike me, you're mainly a DOS user and are looking for a distribution tuned for dual-boot systems and being launched from DOS).
Furthermore, industry standing is volatile. By the time you read this, Red Hat may well have fallen off its game and been displaced by a hungrier newcomer.