Confused about different Linux Live Distros?

Question

I've done a lot of reading about this already, but I'm still a bit confused about the differences between all the different linux live distros. I understand the different desktops such as gnome, kde, etc, but I'm still confused about other differences such as these examples.

1. What makes Linux Mint with LXDE (which is based on ubuntu), different than Lubuntu which is ubuntu with LXDE.
2. What would make Linux mint Debian with gnome, different than plain Debian with gnome.
3. What would make Zorin OS 5 with gnome, different than linux mint 12 with knome, vs ubuntu (which they are based off of).
4. What really makes ubuntu different than debian. Is the whole kernel, or actual linux programming code different? Are they completely different versions of linux?

Answer 1

1. I have never directly compared those 2 distro but would expect hardly any noticeable difference. Some people like linux mint and some people think ubuntu is a better distro for thier needs and this allows them both to have the option of using the LXDE desktop.



2. Linux mist in general is considered a more "user friendly" distro and will "hold your hand" as part of its philosophy. Everything is supposed to come with all the drivers installed and everything preconfigured. A no-brainer so to speak. Debian lets you do all the driver installs and configuration the way you want to do it not the way Debian thinks you should. It expects that the user will know how to configure everything. Debian is also very strictly an open source distribution and does not include any proprietary drivers (like the user friendly distros do). A poor analogy might be if you were going to bake a cake; if you use a one box source that has all the ingredients and you simply add water and bake (linux mint, ubuntu etc). If on the other hand you were to find out what ingredients you needed, measure them out, mix them, etc. that would be more like debian; and all the ingredients would be organic.

3. I am not familiar with zorin. Linux mint and ubuntu are extremely similar. Some people like one or the other because of the color scheme, or an install worked flawlessly on one but did not on the other. At the current time ubuntu have gone to gnome unity which is very different from the "old gnome" and those who do not like the new unity are moving away from ubuntu with gnome.

4. The kernels for all linux distros are very similar, so the kernel does not differentiate the distros. The difference between ubuntu and debian is as stated about linux mint: debian is fiercely open source and does not have any proprietary code. Ubuntu is extremely user friendly and has not problem with propietary codecs and drivers, etc. Ubuntu and linux mint use a large number of the same programs that debian has. They are both based on debian because they use the same package manager system, and have some of the same internal structure. The second link compares various distros.



The bottom line is users usually select the distro that they want to use based on the desktop, able to install with many stability problems, and depending on how much time they want to spend on maintaining it. Some of the bleeding edge distros can require a lot of time keeping everything stable and runing (like arch linux).

The best way to find out about the various distros is to get the live cd and try them out without installing.

Answer 2

Differences can arise from:



-being developed by a commercial enterprise rather than solely by a community

-how the releasers view proprietary software

-how big the surrounding community is and the resulting support

-custom scripts and tools and fonts/icons/colour schemes

-how far one distro deviates from the one it's based on and how that creates incompatibilities

-how a distro in an effort to push the envelope can make controversial changes from one release to the next over which other distros basing themselves upon said distro have no control

-how many device drivers are in the kernel, and what methods are made available to easily use hardware to its full potential

-how much work has gone into bug-testing and making sure everything actually works



These differences can make a big difference to the user experience, and sometimes have to be traded off against each other.

Answer 3

Linux use to be a touch beat more suitable complicated that abode windows for 2 motives i imagine: a million. it really is community depending application and the GUI, person pleasant and fee effective aspects are relative new evaluate to Linux life. Firsts Linux variations didn’t have very last customers in concepts and develop into more suitable an attempt than a commercial product. 2. abode windows customers are maximum folk of human beings that does no longer care too a lot on how the computer stuff works; with Linux, fairly, you want to understand few issues first and that’s probable why some Linux customers see their abode windows person opposite numbers as some type of inferior classification. immediately there are few Linux distributions with very last customers in concepts like: Suse, Mandrake, Ubunto and Gentoo