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The question is not as simple as the title suggests. I am not a newbie in tech at least as per my experience. But not much experience in Linux.

The basic difference is the UI between all linux distros. So one should choose any distro just based on just the UI. What makes a distro different than the other? When every linux software works on any distribution then why is it suggested at so many places to choose Ubuntu instead of elementary OS.? Even if Ubuntu software store has more apps but those apps can still be installed on eOS. apt get install should install any package available in Ubuntu in eOS too.

Can someone explain how a distro differs from another distro. Exclude UI, stability, personal preference etc.

Mainly capability of a distro. For example how Ubuntu is more capable than say eOS or any other example. How their capabilities differ?

Pera
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Your lost starts off with a lot if incorrect assumptions/assertions,

  The basic difference is the UI between all linux distros.

No, in many cases this is not a factor, and many distros will allow you to install different guis. Also, the question faces people installing servers that don't have a GUI at all.

  When every linux software works on any distribution then why is it suggested at so many places to choose Ubuntu instead of elementary OS.?

This is not practically true - most popular software will work on most general purpose distros, but things like kernels and libraries can make it hard to impossible to install some software on some distros.

The biggest differences between distros are the people behind them, the level of support, package management, environment management and support. Really the only significant difference between VentIS and RHEL is support.

Distros like Ubuntu and its variants may have lots of packages and be easy to use with a GUI, while systems like RHEL are about long term compatibility - focussing more effort on stability and longevity.

That's not to say any 1 distro us the best - I run Ubuntu on my desktop and CentOS on some of my servers. Of-course when it comes to derivatives of the most popular distros there is less to differentiate them.

davidgo
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The main differences are in the package management (e.g. rpm, deb) and the way some of the configuration is stored (e.g. Fedora and derived distributions like RedHat and CentOS keep most of the startup related configuration in /etc/sysconfig).

Most of the rest of the differences are relatively minor and down to package selection and package versions.

In terms of capabilities, the only factor here is the ease of availability of a particular package, i.e. whether you can just yum/apt install a package or whether you might have to compile it from source yourself. Any Linux software can be compiled for any distro, though, so in absolute terms, there is no difference in capabilities.

Gordan Bobić
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