Something that when I arrived at ambient Linux cost me put on his head was this:

Everybody in Linux speaks of "the distro." That distro this, that this distro another, that this distro is better than another distro, that this distro is little girl, that this distro is for men.

As you use Windows would not know what was meant by "Distro", but is not so difficult to understand.

Let us start by the essentials
To begin to say "Distro" is a term and informal means "distribution". Admittedly, GNU / Linux is the world's most nerd freak and that there is, so to install GNU / Linux on a PC in those early years of the era of the penguin, when nobody knew that there was this, we need to be a teacher install computer to achieve this. At that time no one gave even in the event that Linux might have some popularity.

When the group began to grow linuxeros, realized the potential he had and that Linux should begin to be a "usable" on the computer of a normal human being who could not spend several days compiling the kernel and many other things that needed for the new system could begin to be used minimally. When they realized such a thing, namely that it was not just a big waste of time for the typical user, but also was highly unlikely that users come to understand the process well enough to do so by means decided simplify these processes.

Already between 1992 and 1993 began to appear facilities GNU / Linux pre-installed in order to process an assistant and a few commands, eye, it was not plain sailing, has yet to know exactly what were doing in order to go forward. Hence arose "distributions" as: SLS, TAMU, Yggdrasil Linux, among others.

To go recapitulating, a Linux distribution is a sort of pack GNU / Linux designed to settle with some simplicity.

After what was happening history is known, people began to move that Linux installations were as simple as that offered Windows, visual environment "nice", with assistant (Next, next, next) and also designed to meet Certain functions, in a certain way. "Distros" were no longer just a simpler way to install Linux, now choosing a Linux distribution meant also decided by a working method.

Differences between the "distros"

What is surely intuit that the deductible or "distros" are different from each other, now understand that these are mechanisms that help a user to deploy Linux a better way. The big problem is that when they started designed "distros" linuxeros never sought to reach agreement, hence, how to operate the "distro pepoX" (a name invented), is not the same (and is up somewhat inconsistent) with how to use the "distro ubuntuntún."

Examples.

The distros distinguish between the user-friendly but less configurable and difficult to use but more customizable. Only I will show some:

Ubuntu is easy to install, so can be installed as Windows program, and has a method to install programs known. Deb (who invented its predecessor "Debian"). His facility has made one of the most popular distros.

Another thing is to Gentoo, a distro difficult to install and manage, many may try to install it several times without Accordingly, the amount "knobs" that we must move, but according to its users, once list, is a very distribution fast and made to the extent of the computer you're using.

Perhaps one of the distros imperfect analogy might be to say that XP would be a distro Windows 98 otherwise, Vista and other well, but the Linux distros unlike versions of Windows are parallel or contemporary, not an evolution over time but rather different methods of working with the system.

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