Michael Harper’s Tech & Art Blog

Over the past week, I have been exploring some of the other Linux distro options available to me. Initially I branched out when I had to do some data recovery on a corrupted Windows XP hard drive. A friend in the business recommended Puppy Linux for fast load times and non-destructive viewing of the hard drive’s contents. Puppy Linux has the very useful ability to load itself directly into RAM as opposed to loading itself on the local disk drive. The Live CD is only around 90 MB but is amazingly a fully featured OS with an office suite, CD/DVD burners, graphic programs, audio editors and more. I quickly loaded Puppy Linux onto a bootable CD and a few minutes later I was extracting the data I needed from the corrupted hard drive. Nicely done. I might also mention that Puppy Linux is among quite a few different Linux distros that can be completely loaded to RAM.

Later in the week, I went on a whim and tried to learn more about Red Hat - an infamous name that I’ve known for quite a few years. It seems that the Linux distro Red Hat isn’t exactly free, but the that the company by the same name offers an open-source (and free) alternative by the name of Fedora. Turned out that Fedora was simple to install and looked surprisingly enough like Ubuntu. I very quickly conquered this new concept of “desktop environments”.

I discovered that what really defines a Linux distro is its backend, or, kernel. These kernels operate in different ways that give each distro its own set of pros and cons. It turns out that the “desktop environment” that comes packaged with the Linux kernel is what gives it its looks. Fedora and Ubuntu are loaded with Gnome by default. Gnome, it seems, is one of the more popular desktop environments available. Followed closely behind by KDE. KDE is an alternative the to Gnome environment that can be installed on top of your existing Linux kernel. There are dozens of choices of desktop environments to choose from. If and when I decide to switch, I’ll be sure to let you know.

In addition to that new discovery, I finally had the opportunity to install an RPM based system with Fedora. Fedora is built upon a package management system known as Red Hat Package Manager, abbreviated RPM. Package management systems are clean and friendly ways to install or uninstall software across an entire system. Ubuntu operates off of the Debian file system, which uses DEB files. DEB and RPM files are the Linux equivalent of Windows EXE - or executable - files.

After deciding to keep Ubuntu over Fedora and use Puppy Linux in case of emergencies, I started wondering where I could implement a large-scale Linux system. I realized it would probably have to be for a non-profit, or some group who is in desperate need of an IT make-over. I considered schools and the fact that my sister is a public school teacher and that my wife is in the process of entering the same field, I researched Edubuntu and very breifly, Edupup.

Edupup is a derivative of Puppy Linux that is supposedly supposed to be considered an educational release. I went to www.edupup.org and the site was in spanish. I just checked again and now the site is down. I’m guessing this project is still in the works. Edubuntu on the other hand is a spin-off of, you guessed it, Ubuntu. It operates in the same manner as Ubuntu, but adds a lot of cool features geared towards educators with limited technical skill levels and educational software. I’m still investigating this edition of Ubuntu but it seems to be a keeper. I’m in the process of putting a proposal together for a small school here in Savannah to launch a test-run.

Overall, my experience with venturing beyond Ubuntu has led me to stay with Ubuntu. It’s widely supported and the most popular distro according to quite a few websites and from what I’ve observed as far as software compatibility goes. I would like to test Fedora even more to see what type of system it seems to be. Maybe next week.