Tanner Babcock

  1. Linux
  2. GNU/Linux Software

Table of Contents

GNU/Linux Software Guide

Distributions

Ubuntu

Ubuntu

  • Easy
  • Based on Debian
  • Fixed Release
  • Package Manager: apt
  • Init System: SystemD
Linux Mint

Linux Mint

  • Easy
  • Based on Debian
  • Fixed Release
  • Package Manager: apt
  • Init System: SystemD
Debian

Debian

  • Easy
  • Independent
  • Fixed Release
  • Package Manager: apt
  • Init System: SystemD
Fedora

Fedora

  • Easy
  • Based on Red Hat
  • Fixed Release
  • Package Manager: yum / rpm
  • Init System: SystemD
Manjaro

Manjaro

  • Easy
  • Based on Arch Linux
  • Rolling Release
  • Package Manager: pacman
  • Init System: SystemD
Arch

Arch Linux

  • Intermediate
  • Independent
  • Rolling Release
  • Package Manager: pacman
  • Init System: SystemD
CentOS

CentOS

  • Easy
  • Based on Red Hat
  • Fixed Release
  • Package Manager: yum
  • Init System: SystemD
Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise

  • Medium
  • Independent
  • Fixed Release
  • Package Manager: yum
  • Init System: SystemD
Slackware

Slackware

  • Difficult
  • Independent
  • Fixed Release
  • Package Manager: pkgtool
  • Init System: SysVInit
OpenSUSE

OpenSUSE

  • Easy
  • Based on SUSE Linux
  • Fixed and Rolling Release
  • Package Manager: ZYpp
  • Init System: SystemD
Alpine

Alpine

  • Intermediate
  • Uses musl as libc
  • Independent
  • Fixed Release
  • Package Manager: apk
  • Init System: OpenRC
Gentoo

Gentoo

  • Difficult
  • All packages must be compiled
  • Independent
  • Rolling Release
  • Package Manager: Portage
  • Init System: OpenRC
Void

Void

  • Intermediate
  • Offers musl for libc
  • Independent
  • Rolling Release
  • Package Manager: xbps
  • Init System: Runit
Garuda

Garuda

  • Easy
  • Based on Arch Linux
  • Rolling Release
  • Package Manager: pacman
  • Init System: SystemD
Kali

Kali

  • Intermediate
  • To be used as live system only
  • Based on Debian
  • Fixed Release
  • Package Manager: apt
  • Init System: SystemD
Artix

Artix

  • Intermediate
  • Based on Arch Linux
  • Rolling Release
  • Package Manager: pacman
  • Init System: OpenRC

Desktop Environments

Any of these desktop environments can be installed on any of the above distributions.

Name Toolkit File Browser Text Editor
KDE Plasma Qt Dolphin Kate
GNOME GTK Nautilus Gedit
XFCE GTK Thunar Mousepad
LXDE GTK PCManFM Leafpad
LXQt Qt PCManFM Featherpad
Cinnamon GTK Nemo Xed
MATE GTK Caja Pluma

Programming Languages

Name Compiler/Interpreter Package Manager Year
C GCC None 1974
PHP PHP Composer, search Packagist 1995
Python Python 3 Pip 1991
Rust Rustc Cargo, search Crates.io 2010
Go Go pkg.go.dev 2009

Window Managers

Name Type Config Info
Awesome window manager Tiling window manager Lua (rc.lua) Create widgets and bars, as well as menus. Window decorations
Openbox Floating window manager XML (rc.xml) Can create menus
dwm Tiling window manager C (config.h) Configure by editing source code, must be patched, uses slstatus to feed status bar
Xmonad Tiling window manager Haskell (xmonad.hs) Config written in Haskell, uses xmobar as status bar
bspwm Tiling window manager Shell script (bspwmrc) Uses sxhkd for key bindings, Bash script config. Does not have a default bar or menu
i3 Tiling window manager i3 config Has its own status bar, simple config file, window decorations
spectrwm Tiling window manager Spectrwm config (spectrwm.conf) Has its own status bar, simple config file
Herbstluftwm Tiling window manager Shell script (autostart) Does not have its own bar