September 15, 2008
A Linux family is made up of many distributions or distros numbering to hundreds that are in active development. They are constantly being revised and improved and have taken a wide variety of forms because most of the kernel and supporting packages are some combination of free software and open source. These forms would range from fully featured desktop and server operating systems to minimal environments, usually in embedded systems or for booting from a floppy disk.
A distro essentially refers to a particular assortment of applications that are used with a particularly compiled kernel, enabling its capabilities to meet most of the needs of its end-user base. Assembling and testing a distribution prior to release are generally more elaborate as the user base become larger.
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