A Short Tour of Linux Distributions

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A Short Tour of Linux Distributions Open Source 101, February 2017 Tyler Langlois Infrastructure Engineer, Elastic

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$ whois tylerjl ● Infrastructure engineering/devops at Elastic ○ Operations and software dev ● Other pursuits ○ Linux package maintainer, functional programming, raspberry pi wrangler, automation normal person

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Who is This For? ● What’s a distribution? ● How are they different? ● Which should I choose? ● How should I choose? ● What’s happening in the distro landscape?

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Stay With Me, Here

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What’s a distribution? Version 10 8 7 Vista … Version Sierra El Capitan Yosemite ....

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What’s a distribution? Distribution

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What’s a distribution? Distribution Stable Testing Unstable (Sid) Version Jessie (8) Wheezy (7) …

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What’s a distribution? kernel Licensing Technology choices systemd rpm dpkg openrc Community GNU utilities

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What’s a distribution? Technology choices Package management ● apt, yum , pacman, portage Init system ● SysV, Upstart, systemd Other ● Desktop Environment ○ Gnome, KDE, xfce ● Defaults ○ filesystem, kernel patchsets ● Installer

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What’s a distribution? Technology choices: Package Management build $ conky ???

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What’s a distribution? Technology choices: Package Management $ apt install conky $ conky $ yum install conky $ conky $ pacman -S conky $ conky

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What’s a distribution? Technology choices: Package Management ● dpkg ○ Debian and all derivatives ○ .deb packages widely available ○ apt (formerly apt-get) CLI utility ● Features of note ○ dist-upgrade for easier major version updates ○ Ubuntu-created PPAs for small, third-party repos $ apt update $ apt upgrade $ apt search conky $ apt install conky

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What’s a distribution? Technology choices: Package Management ● rpm ○ Red Hat derivatives ○ .rpm shipped alongside .deb ○ yum, dnf most commonly used ● Features of note ○ Plugins like deltarpm improve performance ○ dnf next-gen yum replacement $ yum update $ yum search conky $ yum install conky

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What’s a distribution? Technology choices: Init Systems openrc sysv s6 upstart runit systemd

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Distributions: Overview .rpm .deb

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Distributions: Overview Root distributions Derivatives + more! + more! deb rpm

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Debian Vital stats ● Governance ○ Community/constitution ● Tech ○ dpkg / apt / systemd ● Notes ○ Stability, open source ○ Bedrock for many .deb based distributions

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Debian Use Cases ● Rock-solid foundation for other projects (raspbian, Ubuntu, others) ● Stable branch is extremely stable, most users rely on testing/unstable ● No “flavors” of Debian per se, but equally capable for many roles ● Predictable cycle, stable releases are easy to test beforehand

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Ubuntu Vital stats ● Governance ○ Supported by Canonical ● Tech ○ dpkg / apt / systemd ● Notes ○ userbase, widespread adoption ○ Regular release cycle

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Ubuntu

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Use Cases ● Often the default choice for users who need general purpose distro ● For more specific purposes, Canonical ships more tuned releases ● Focus on user-friendly installation and experience ● Set-in-stone release cycle means predictable releases (+LTS) Ubuntu

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Linux Mint Vital stats ● Governance ○ Community distribution ● Notes ○ Very closely related to Ubuntu ○ Customized user interface and desktop experience ○ Ease-of-use and user friendliness

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Fedora Vital stats ● Governance ○ Community, sponsored by Red Hat ● Package management ○ rpm / dnf / systemd ● Notes ○ Strictly OSS ○ Cutting edge software ○ Spins

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RHEL Vital stats ● Governance ○ Red Hat, Inc. ● Package management ○ rpm / yum / systemd ● Notes ○ Enterprise-grade & industrial strength ○ Certifications & compliance ○ Commercial support

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CentOS Vital stats ● Governance ○ Community-driven, blessed by Red Hat ● Notes ○ It’s RHEL, but rebranded + free ○ Common base (for example, Amazon Linux)

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openSuSE + SLES Vital stats ● Governance ○ Commercial (SuSE) ● Tech ○ zypper / rpm / systemd ● Notes ○ OSS distro (openSuSE) and Enterprise (SLES) ○ Useful tools (YAST, btrfs)

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...and so many more

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The “Other” Distros

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● Most off-brand distributions are tuned to a specific use case ● All the exciting evolution happens at the fringes! What’s the Distinction? ● Nearly all distros branch off dpkg/rpm ● Package managers outside the norm grow a whole new ecosystem

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Arch Vital stats ● Governance ○ Community of trusted users ● Tech ○ pacman / systemd ● Notes ○ Simplicity ○ Vanilla software ○ Bleeding edge

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Use Cases ● pacman == yum == apt ● AUR is community-managed package repository ● Rolling updates means there are no “versions” of Arch ● Vanilla package a good base for derivative distributions ● Often a good choice if latest software is always needed Arch

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NixOS Vital stats ● Governance ○ Community (GitHub) ● Tech ○ nix / systemd ● Hallmarks ○ Declarative config ○ Atomic upgrades $ cat configuration.nix { virtualisation.docker.enable = true; } $ nixos-rebuild switch

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Gentoo Vital stats ● Governance ○ Community ● Tech ○ emerge / portage / openrc ● Hallmarks ○ From-source distro ○ Simplicity has spawned some other distros (including ChromeOS)

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Slackware Vital stats ● Governance ○ Community ● Tech ○ tarballs / BSD-SysV init ● Hallmarks ○ Oldest distribution still maintained ○ Simple package management

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Which Distro?

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Which Distro? Points to consider ● Stability versus latest features ○ Solid reliability takes years, it’s a tradeoff ○ Time-tested package managers (rpm, deb) are a safe bet ○ Users have a nice spectrum of latest-shipping distros (i.e., CentOS -> Fedora -> Arch) ○ Know your (eventual) upgrade plan (CentOS 6 -> 7???)

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Which Distro? Points to consider ● Stability versus latest features ● Machine use case ○ Servers ■ Stability, consistency, support considerations ■ CentOS, RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu LTS ○ Desktop ■ Graphics drivers, wireless drivers, etc. ○ Special-case ■ Kali, Vyatta, Raspbian, etc.

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Which Distro? Points to consider ● Stability versus latest features ● Machine use case ● Technology decisions ○ systemd-ocalypse ○ Preferred desktop environment ○ Defaults (filesystem, bootloader, and so on) ○ Kernel choices

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Which Distro? Points to consider ● Stability versus latest features ● Machine use case ● Technology decisions ● OSS versus commercial ○ How comfortable are you with a) community support, b) commercial support, c) do-it-yourself? ○ Licensing: are you compliant? ○ Free as in beer ≠ free as in speech

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The Future

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The Future ● btrfs and ZFS on Linux ○ btrfs ■ Native Linux filesystem ■ Rapidly stabilizing ○ ZFS ■ Adapted from Solaris ■ Long history ○ Copy-on-write ○ Online scrubbing ○ Snapshots Filesystems file.txt file.txt file.txt sda sdb pool

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The Future Distribution ● OSTree ○ Swap running operating system with new image ○ Similar strategy used in CoreOS ○ Experimental progress in Fedora v1 v2 /root

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The Future Distribution Source: https://sourcediver.org/blog/2017/01/18/distributing-nixos-with-ipfs-part-1/

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The Future ● Wayland / Mir ○ Replacements for the venerable XFree86 / X.org ● Snappy ○ Ubuntu’s new packaging format ● dnf ○ Red Hat-based distribution next-gen yum ● Kernel ○ Live patching New Core Components

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Questions?

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Thank You! ● GitHub ○ tylerjl ● IRC, Twitter ○ leothrix ● tjll.net ● Check out “Open Source Developer’s Toolbox” later today