Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distributions among the Linux users. There are probably hundreds of distributions which are based on Debian, or others which are based on distributions which in turn are based on Debian. Although I'm not a Debian developer, I use it for over two years or so, and slowly got to love this OS.

A Linux distro is essentially a collection of software applications built into a complete operating system on top of the Linux kernel. Some distros, like Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, and Mandriva have companies that back them, while others, like Debian, do not.

http://hardware4linux.info/ is a new community web site about hardware for Linux. The site allows to browse systems and components to find the ones that work or don't work with Linux.

When it comes to the big distros I tend to stick to the ones that are based on Debian. Apt just is simpler and faster to me than rpm. But since I reviewed Fedora 11 (or tried to, in any case), I thought I’d have a go at the other big two RPM distributions: OpenSuse and Mandriva.

Fedora 7.0 is the latest community-based Linux release from Red Hat. Fedora and Novell's OpenSuse are Ubuntu Linux's two chief "competitors". All three Linux distros are free downloads; all have vibrant online communities where you can go for tips, troubleshooting and advice.

For those of you who have used it, you'll know that Debian is a solid distribution of Linux. Like Fedora or OpenSuSe, it was developed with all users in mind.

The most popular and stable GNU/Linux operating system Debain has turned 15 today. Debian was announced on 16 August 1993. In these last 15 years Debian has established itself as the most stable operating system. Most of the popular GNU/Linux distributions, like Ubuntu and Knoppix, are based on Debian.

You can categorize most GNU/Linux distributions as either community or commercial. Community-based distributions like Debian, Fedora, or CentOS are maintained largely by volunteers and donations of services or money, while commercial distributions like Suse, Red Hat, or Xandros are backed by a company and compete directly against proprietary operating systems such as Windows and OS X.

Debian GNU/Linux (Debian for short) tends not to attract the same attention as more flashy distros such as Ubuntu, even though the popular Ubuntu package is, in fact, Debian based.