Activity - Introduction

Now that you have an overview of what Linux is and what a Linux Distribution or distro is, have
a look around to see what distro’s are out there and why Ubuntu is a great general purpose
server and desktop build.

This activity is not graded and is provided solely so you can put what you’ve learned into
practice.

Part 1 - Looking at the most popular distro’s and their pro’s and con’s.

Go to https://www.distrowatch.com and click on Major Distributions on the menu in the upper

right of the page.

The primary focus is on Desktop releases, but what are some of the most popular at the time
you’re doing it?

1. ___________________________________

2. ___________________________________

3. ___________________________________

What are some of the pro’s and con’s of each? (Don’t worry if you don’t have enough pro’s and
con’s to fill in each).
Distro 1.

Pro #1 __________________________

Pro #2 __________________________

Con #1__________________________

Con #2__________________________

Distro 2.

Pro #1 __________________________

Pro #2 __________________________

Con #1__________________________

Con #2__________________________

Distro 3.

Pro #1 __________________________

Pro #2 __________________________

Con #1__________________________

Con #2__________________________

Here’s an example for Linux Mint from the day I created this lesson (1 July 2018).

Pro #1 Many “minty” tools developed in house.

Pro #2 Hundreds of user-friendly enhancements.

Con #1 Alternative “community” editions don’t always include the latest features.

Con #2 The project does not issue security advisories.

You can do this for any distro you’re interested in.

Part 2 - Looking at the most popular Server distro’s.

The focus so far has been on desktops. Let’s take a look at what server distro’s are most
popular right now.

In the search box that says “Type Distribution Name” in the upper left of the DistroWatch.com
web page, type server and click on Go.

You’ll now see the server distro’s that are most popular. At the time of this search, Ubuntu is
number one.
You can click on the distro name to learn more about it.

Just for fun, in the “Type Distribution Name” search box, type Alpine and click Go.

What are some of the things Alpine Linux is designed for?

Wrapping Up.

Great work! You now know a popular, organized place to check out Linux distributions. You
can, of course, simply do a web search for any distro you’re interested in, or for what’s popular
in the category of server or desktop OS you’re interested in. DistroWatch is a tried and true
place to learn about Linux, Unix, and BSD though.

Enjoy the next lessons!