Gentoo Linux is a Linux distribution. It is designed to be modular, portable and optimized for the user's machine. This is accomplished by building all tools and utilities from source code, although, for convenience, several large software packages are also available as precompiled binaries for various architectures. Gentoo achieves all this via the Portage system.

SUSE Linux was originally based on Slackware Linux; In mid-1992, Softlanding Linux System (SLS) was founded by Peter McDonald, which was the first comprehensive distribution to contain elements such as X and TCP/IP. The Slackware distribution (maintained by Patrick Volkerding) was initially based in large parts on SLS.

S.u.S.E was founded in late 1992 as a UNIX consulting group, which among other things regularly released software packages that included SLS and Slackware, and printed UNIX/Linux manuals. They released the first CD version of SLS/Slackware in 1994, under the name S.u.S.E Linux 1.0. It later integrated with the Jurix distribution of Florian La Roche (also based on Slackware), to release the first really unique S.u.S.E Linux 4.2 in 1996.

The name "S.u.S.E.", later shortened to just "SuSE", was originally an acronym for the German phrase "Software- und System-Entwicklung" ("Software and system development"). The company is now simply called SUSE LINUX, and "SUSE" does not officially stand for anything any more.

Knoppix is a Linux distribution LiveCD. Knoppix is a Debian Linux distribution running on a CD drive without using the hard drive or installing any files onto the hard drive. Knoppix was developed by GNU/Linux consultant Klaus Knopper.

The popularity of Knoppix is due to many factors. Its extensive hardware detection allows the majority of systems to boot straight into a graphical environment without the need for manual configuration. It connects automatically to most kinds of networks, and includes software both for use as a computer system (notably web browsers, OpenOffice.org, and the GIMP) and for system repair. The complete graphical environment and networking make it much more comfortable than the previous generation of boot floppies for system administrators repairing systems whose hard drives won't boot.

Knoppix 3.7 was released on December 9, 2004, and features KDE 3.3.1, Linux kernel versions 2.4.27 and 2.6.9, OpenOffice.org 1.1.3, The GIMP 2.0.6 and improved hardware detection.

Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ: RHAT) is one of the largest and most recognized companies dedicated to open source software. Founded in 1993, the company now has more than 700 employees and 22 locations worldwide, including its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States.

Red Hat is a market leader in the development, deployment, and management of Linux and open source solutions for Internet infrastructure, ranging from embedded devices to secure web servers.

Red Hat was founded by entrepreneur Marc Ewing, and in 1995 merged with ACC Corporation, run by Canadian Bob Young. Young then took the role as CEO of the company, until succeeded by Matthew Szulik in 1999.

Open source software lies at the foundation of their business model. It represents a fundamental shift in how software is created. The code that makes up the software is available to anyone, and developers who use it may freely make improvements. Even competitors like Microsoft admit that the result is rapid innovation (compare the Halloween documents).

Red Hat solutions combine Linux, developer and embedded technologies, training, management services and technical support. Red Hat optionally delivers this open source innovation to their customers via an Internet platform called Red Hat Network.

On August 11, 1999, the company completed its initial public offering of six million shares of common stock at a price of $14 per share on the NASDAQ. On November 15, 1999, Red Hat announced its merger with Cygnus Solutions, a leading open source vendor. Consequently, Red Hat now develops Cygwin. Other acquisitions have followed, notably those of ArsDigita and Sistina.

Red Hat Linux used to be the company's flagship product for both home and corporate use. After the spinoff of RHEL, Red Hat began to focus more on the corporate market, and stopped production of the personal version of Red Hat Linux after version 9. The current consumer distribution of Red Hat Linux has been replaced by Fedora Core, a more rapidly updated community supported Linux distribution, sponsored by Red Hat, run by the Fedora Project, and in part derived from the original Red Hat Linux distribution. Red Hat also has a business version of Linux, which is called Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The bulk of Red Hat's revenue comes from corporations paying yearly support subscriptions for this version of their product.

Red Hat's name came from the manual of the beta version, which contained a request for the return of Marc Ewing's characteristic red and white-striped hat, should anyone find it.

CentOS is RHEL, RedHat Enterprise Linux based distro that is available for free and used by many businesses that can't afford the support that RedHat sells.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.