Linux Versions#
Reference list of current Linux distributions, current versions, and the forks they descend from. The operator uses this to size up the distro on a target host and predict the package manager and init system.
References#
Notes#
Pages 150-154 of the source handbook list well over 100 distributions with their first release year, latest version, last release date, and ancestor fork. Major branches the operator should know.
Distribution |
First release |
Fork lineage |
|---|---|---|
Debian |
1993 |
Softlanding Linux System (SLS) |
Slackware |
1993 |
SLS |
Red Hat Linux |
1995 |
Independent |
Mandriva (and Mandrake) |
1998 |
Red Hat |
SUSE Linux Enterprise |
2000 |
Slackware, Jurix |
Gentoo |
2002 |
Enoch Linux |
Arch Linux |
2002 |
inspired from CRUX |
Fedora |
2003 |
Red Hat Linux |
CentOS |
2003 |
RHEL |
Ubuntu |
2004 |
Debian |
openSUSE |
2006 |
SUSE |
Alpine Linux |
2006 |
LEAF Project |
Linux Mint |
2006 |
Debian (LMDE), Ubuntu (LTS) |
Kali Linux |
2013 |
Debian |
Manjaro |
2012 |
Arch |
Pop! OS |
2017 |
Ubuntu |
For the complete list with versions and dates, see the comparison page on Wikipedia.