Question

Give three examples of how Linux is used in distinctly different applications to illustrate its proliferation in a diverse range of modern application domains?

Answer 1

EXAMPLES

The website DistroWatch represents many Linux distributions and lists some of the ones that have the most web traffic on the site. The Wikimedia Foundation released an analysis of the browser User Agents of visitors to WMF websites until 2015, which includes details of the most popular OS identifiers, including some Linux distributions. Many of the popular distributions are shiwn below.

Widely used distributionsEdit

• Debian, a non-commercial distribution maintained by a volunteer developer community with a strong commitment to free software principles and democratic project management.
  • Knoppix, the first Live CD distribution to run completely from removable media without installation to a hard disk,, derived from Debian.
  • Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) uses Debian packages directly (rather than Ubuntu's)
  • Ubuntu,, is a desktop and server distribution derived from Debian, maintained by British company Canonical Ltd.
    • there are several distributions based on Ubuntu that mainly replace the GNOME stock desktop environment, like; Kubuntu based on KDE, Lubuntu based on LXQT,, Xubuntu based on XFCE, Ubuntu MATE based on MATE, Ubuntu Budgie based on Budgie. And other official forks have specific uses like; Ubuntu Kylin for Chinese-speaking users,, or Ubuntu Studio for media content creators.
    • Linux Mint, a distribution based on and compatible with Ubuntu. Supports multiple desktop environment, among others GNOME Shell fork Cinnamon and GNOME 2 fork MATE.

• Fedora,, a community distribution sponsored by American company Red Hat and the successor to the company's previous offering,, Red Hat Linux. It targets to be a technology testbed for Red Hat's commercial Linux offering, where new open source software is prototyped, designed, developed, and tested in a communal setting before maturing into Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), a derivative of Fedora, maintained and commercially supported by Red Hat. It seeks to provide tested, secure, and stable Linux server and workstation support to many businesses.
    • CentOS, is a distribution derived from the same sources used by Red Hat, maintained by a dedicated volunteer community of developers with both complete Red Hat-compatible versions and an upgraded version that is not always completely upstream compatible.
    • Oracle Linux, which is a derivative of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, maintained and commercialy supported by Oracle
• Mandriva Linux was a Red Hat Linux derivative popular in many European countries and Brazil, backed by the French company of the same name. After the company went bankrupt, it was superseded by OpenMandriva Lx,, although a number of derivatives now have a larger user base.
  • Mageia, a community fork of Mandriva Linux developed in 2010
  • PCLinuxOS, a derivative of Mandriva, which grew from a group of packages into a community-spawned desktop distribution.
• openSUSE, a community distribution mainly sponsored by German company SUSE.
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise, derived from openSUSE, maintained and commercially supported by SUSE
• Arch Linux, a rolling release distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and maintained by a volunteer community, offers official binary packages and a wide range of unofficial user-submitted source packages. Packages are usually defined by a single PKGBUILD text file.
  • Manjaro Linux, a derivative of Arch Linux that includes a graphical installer and other ease-of-use features for less experienced Linux users. Rolling release packages from Arch repositories are held for further testing to achieve increased stability, and packages identified as addressing security issues of critical or high severity are "fast-tracked" to the stable branch.[31]
• Gentoo, a distribution targeted at power users, known for its FreeBSD Ports-like automated system for compiling applications from source code
• Chrome OS, Google's commercial operating system based on Chromium OS that only runs on Chromebooks, Chromeboxes and tablet computers. Like Android, it has the Google Play Store and other Google apps
• Slackware, created in 1993, one of the first Linux distributions and among the earliest still maintained, committed to remain highly Unix-like and easily modifiable by end users[32][non-primary source needed]

Lightweight distributionsEdit

Main article: Lightweight Linux distribution

Lightweight Linux distributions are those that have been designed with support for older hardware in mind, allowing older hardware to still be used productively, or, for maximum possible speed in newer hardware by leaving more resources available for use by applications. Examples include Tiny Core Linux, Puppy Linux and Slitaz.

Niche distributionsEdit

Other distributions target specific niches, such as:

• Routers – for example, targeted by the tiny embedded router distribution OpenWrt
• Internet of things – for example, targeted by Ubuntu Core[33]
• Home theater PCs – for example, targeted by KnoppMyth, Kodi (former XBMC) and Mythbuntu
• Specific platforms – for example, Raspbian targets the Raspberry Pi platform
• Education – examples are Edubuntu and Karoshi, server systems based on PCLinuxOS
• Scientific computer servers and workstations – for example, targeted by Scientific Linux
• Digital audio workstations for music production – for example, targeted by Ubuntu Studio
• Computer Security, digital forensics and penetration testing – examples are Kali Linux and Parrot Security OS
• Privacy and anonymity – for example, targeted by Tails, Whonix, Qubes, or FreedomBox
• Offline use – for example, Endless OS
• Microsoft's Azure Sphere

Android and non-GNU distributionsEdit

Terminal Emulator in Android

Whether Google's Android counts as a Linux distribution is a matter of definition. It uses the Linux kernel, so the Linux Foundation[34] and Chris DiBona,[35] Google's open source chief, agree that Android is a Linux distribution; others, such as Google engineer Patrick Brady, disagree by noting the lack of support for many GNU tools in Android, including glibc.[36]

Other non-GNU distributions include Cyanogenmod, its fork LineageOS, Android-x86 and recently Tizen and Mer/Sailfish OS.