this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What are the differences between linux distributions? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by majestic@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Hey guys! Trying to understand what developers actually do to create a yet another distro, or what are the differences between existing distros. Lets say we have ubuntu and fedora. What are the differences? Excluding DE, Installer, theme, installed packages/libs and package manager. They both are FHS compliant, both running systemd what else?

Just wondering if there could be a way to "simulate", lets say ubuntu on fedora. For example providing every program that should be present on ubuntu in fedora. Would it be enough to be able to run .deb packages on fedora? Im not gonna do that though, just curious about this question.

Thank you!

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[–] DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

The differences between distros are the things you mentioned. They all use the Linux kernel, so the differences are in the DE, installer, theme, default packages, and package manager. These changes come about from design choices: rolling vs versioned releases, stability goals, FOSS vs proprietary packages/repositories, things like systemd vs alternatives, and overall goals/use cases (lightweight, server, etc).

A distro can be as little as a theme change. The famous Hannah Montana Linux is KUbuntu with a custom theme, icon pack, and Hannah Montana as the background.

https://linuxreviews.org/Hannah_Montana_Linux

[–] majestic@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Hannah Montana Linux

Yeah, love it

[–] majestic@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So basically if i have all Voidlinux's programs installed on NixOS, i can have some decent amount of packages (that are not heavily depending on init systems or some other non trivial stuff) from Void repos running on NixOS?

[–] Dotdev@programming.dev 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't compare void and nix since both of them follow very different approaches. Void is more like a traditional distro while nixos on the other hand uses configurations for setup.

And no you can't use void on nix os as said above. Hannah Montana linux and kubuntu uses Ubuntu as the base that's what he meant.

[–] majestic@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Im not talking about comparing these distros, nor using void on NixOS. Im asking if i had all packages that are preinstalled on void, present on NixOS as well. Would i be able to run some packages from void linux repos on NixOS? If i make nix derivation with package from void repo and install it, would it work?

Looks like the answer is "Yes", but im not sure.

[–] Dotdev@programming.dev 1 points 11 months ago

If the same void package exists in the nix os repo then sure. You can't use a void package in nix os is the thing I would like to point out other than using distrobox.