Linux distros

Jorn Barger November 2002

popular, Nov2002: [cite]

Mandrake     Turbolinux   Icepack      CLE           Holon
Red Hat      LFS          Red Flag     MURIX         MIZI
Gentoo       EvilEntity   Yellow Dog   Cosix         KRUD
Debian       SCO          ROCK         OEone         PLD
Sorcerer     Lunar        Vector       e-smith       Trustix
SuSE         Arch         WinBi        Xteam         TA
Slackware    ELX          Voodoo       Eridani       ESware
Lycoris      Antomic      Conectiva    CaixaMagica   NuxOne
KNOPPIX      Skolelinux   LinEx        Miracle       Omoikane
Lindows      Peanut       WOW          Gelecek       Hancom
Vine         LRs          Blue         Immunix       IDMS
United       ASP          Red Office   Merdeka       Media Lab
Xandros      K12LTSP      Dynasoft     Chinese2000   Plamo
Beehive      Thiz         SoL          EnGarde       Haydar
Alt          Linpus       BYO          MSC.Linux     LASER5
Libranet     Demudi       Linuxin      Madeinlinux   kmLinux
ROOT         UHU          Ayrsoft      SOT           OpenNA
SourceMage   Core         Tech         Openwall      TFM
CRUX         JAMD         Spectra      Definity

overview: multi

minimal base packages: kernel, system libraries, and some file and network utilities

options include: X-windows, games, web-browser, newsreader, programming languages, databases

timeline

1992: adoption of CD-ROM standard makes convenient distribution of Unix-sized codebases possible (Yggdrasil offers Linux)

1992: NetBSD forks from 386BSD [cite] FreeBSD project turns NetBSD into distro

1993: Jul: Patrick Volkerding's Slackware (USA) [info] KDE, KOffice

1993: Aug: Ian Murdock's Debian distro (global) [info] [links] [Slashdot news] 8000 packages, Gnome, KOffice

1994: Apr: SuSE (German, originally based on Slackware) [info] [FAQ] KDE, KOffice, OpenOffice

"pronounced soo'-suh, comes from the German acronym, Software und Systementwicklung (Software and System Development)"

1994: Bob Young and Marc Ewing begin the Red Hat distro (USA) [info] [more] Gnome desktop, KOffice, OpenOffice

1997? Caldera/SCO (USA, $99) [info] KDE, KOffice, StarOffice

1998: 16Jun: TurboLinux (Japan/SF-CA, based on Red Hat, $100+) [info] business, 586, KDE, KOffice

1998: 23Jul? Mandrake (France, based on Red Hat) [info] (ease of use) KDE, KOffice, OpenOffice

1999: 17May: Vine (Japan) [info] Gnome, KOffice

2000: Lycoris (USA-WA-Redmond) [info] KDE, KOffice (Desktop/LX, simplified desktop)

2001? Beehive (USA) [info] for sysadmins w/686, KDE, KOffice

2001? Libranet (Canada, $55) [info] Ice, KOffice, OpenOffice

2001: Sep? Alt (Russia) [info] 586, KDE, KOffice

2001? Crux (Sweden) [info] experts, 686, WMaker

2002: 03Jan: Sorceror source-based (USA) [info]

2002: 31Mar: Gentoo (USA-NM-Abq) [info] [ceo] Python-based package-management system 'Portage'

2002: Root (Sweden) [info] experts, 586, KOffice

2002? Michael Robertson's Lindows (USA, $99) [info] LindowsOS, Click-N-Run, KDE, KOffice, OpenOffice, StarOffice

2002: Sep? United Linux (SCO/Caldera, Conectiva, SuSE, Turbolinux) {info] KDE; business-oriented

2002: Oct: Xandros (Canada, Corel, $99) [info] KDE, OpenOffice

2002: Nov? Knoppix (German) [info] [Slashdot] bootable-CD, KDE, KOffice, OpenOffice

2003? SourceMage [info] role-playing

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Related pages:
Linux/Unix: timeline theory kernel distros installing
Timelines: Microsoft 80386
Early Unix-like OSes for micros timeline
Internet Timelines Project: XML-theory
Regular expressions resources
DecentOS design ideas
FirstCut parser design ideas

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