What is the difference between Ubuntu and...

[th5th]

OK so the title is fairly baitlike - but hey you gotta do what you gotta do!

TL;DR: When you strip away the GNOME/KDE/XFCE desktop environment and all the bundled apps, and install a custom window manager, custom file manager etc. etc., what is left of *buntu? How is it different from Debian? What about other Linux distributions?

I like projects. I need things to keep me occupied. So after my exams are done (1 week tomorrow!) I am going to order a netbook and do a custom Ubuntu install on it. Nothing too crazy - start with a minimal CLI install, add Openbox, Thunar and various other trinkets.

So of course my system will look the same as, say Debian, or Gentoo with Openbox, Thunar and trinkets (right?). But what is the difference? I have the same command line tools inherited from Unix. My user experience is pretty much the same. Is the difference only in the repositories and package management? I am perplexed!

Unfortunately I guess this boils down to "what is a Linux distribution?"... Great...

[amitabhishek]

OK so the title is fairly baitlike - but hey you gotta do what you gotta do!

TL;DR: When you strip away the GNOME/KDE/XFCE desktop environment and all the bundled apps, and install a custom window manager, custom file manager etc. etc., what is left of *buntu



Kernel

[fatality_uk]

Bait, not really!!

Anyway. A Ferrari F430 and a Fiat Panda both have four wheels, doors, a windscreen and are made by essentially the same company. They are poles apart in car terms. Similarly, A minimal install built from the ground up will share many attirbutes, but it will be "your" OS and as such, different from every other OS in the world as it is defined by you.

[th5th]

Anyway. A Ferrari F430 and a Fiat Panda both have four wheels, doors, a windscreen and are made by essentially the same company. They are poles apart in car terms. Similarly, A minimal install built from the ground up will share many attirbutes, but it will be "your" OS and as such, different from every other OS in the world as it is defined by you.

OK this I understand. But what I am asking is if I installed a minimal Debian system, or Gentoo or Slackware or OpenSUSE or whatever, and then added the WM and FM I wanted, and any other apps I wanted, what would be the difference between these hypothetical systems?


Kernel

Don't all Linux distributions use the Linux kernel? I mean I know some use older/newer versions but...?

[Dragonbite]

Underneath, there isn't much difference.

Just like with phones, it's all about the apps! The Linux kernel plus apps determines the "package" which is the distro.

Some "package" so that it is customizable and all-accessible.
Some "package" so it is server-orientated.
Some "pakcage" with only certain types of applications (FOSS, etc.)
Some "package" to be easy for users to use.

That's why having so many different distributions of Linux is a GOOD thing; each "package" focuses on an aspect of computing but since they ALL use the same underlying framework what benefits one, benefits them all.

Improvements in Fedora makes it into a lot of different distributions, including Ubuntu. At the same time, don't thin the Fedora developers aren't looking at how things are done in Ubuntu too.

[wojox]

Tl;dr

[nmccrina]

Well, most of the major distributions add their own additions to the kernel and compile it with different options; for example, Ubuntu might include binary blobs that Fedora or Debian would leave out. That would be one fundamental difference even if you started with CLI Gentoo and Ubuntu and added the exact same apps. Then, yeah, the repositories would be different; if you installed the same package on Ubuntu and Fedora you would get different results; I think Ubuntu splits packages into regular, -dev, -dbg, etc, while Fedora includes it all in a single package (but I'm not exactly sure about that).

[snowpine]

A lot of people think a linux distro is just the sofware. :) Ubuntu also means the wonderful people here at these forums and working at Canonical. Visit the internet forums for a bunch of other distros and you'll see what I mean. ;)

[th5th]

So it comes down to:


Kernel compilation differences.
Repository access differences, packaging system etc.
Community :)

That wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Thanks!


Tl;dr
Oh except Wojox. NO INTERNETS FOR YOU SIR :P