Linux distribution

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A Linux distribution is a version of a Unix-like operating system comprised of the Linux kernel, all or part of the GNU operating system, and assorted other software. Linux distributions take a variety of forms, from fully-featured desktop and server operating systems to minimal environments.

To provide a Unix-like environment, Linux distributions contain a set of Unix-like utilities and the libraries needed to support them. In full-featured distributions these are generally taken from the GNU operating system. Distributions optimized for size tend to use more compact alternatives like busybox and uclibc.

There are several commercially-backed distributions, such as Fedora Core (Red Hat), SUSE Linux (Novell), Ubuntu (Canonical Ltd.) and Mandriva Linux. These distributions and community projects such as Debian and Gentoo, assemble and test the software before releasing their distribution. There are currently over three hundred Linux distribution projects in active development, constantly revising and improving their respective distributions.

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