38 Part I Linux Basics

TurboLinux

TurboLinux is distributed by Pacific Hitech and supports only the Intel platform. TurboLinux is well known for its own packages, such as TurboPkg (for application updating), the TurboDesk X-windows environment, and Cluster Web Server. Like most distributions of Linux, it does support the RPM system. TurboLinux is the clustering technology leader in Linux and is the market leader in Asia. TurboLinux supports the x86 platform, and although it currently supports the Alpha platform, this support will end soon. TurboLinux provides free online documentation for users to browse through, FAQs, and package updates. The support from TurboLinux is not as easy to access as the support from other commercial providers, and the variety of supported platforms is limited. TurboLinux is available at www.turbolinux.com/.

Yellow Dog Linux

Yellow Dog Linux is for PowerPC computers and may co-exist with Mac OS in a dualboot environment. It is a graphical environment that runs on older Apple hardware and is stable and fast. Yellow Dog is based on Red Hat 7.0, but includes a simplified booting structure and a custom-built (by Terra Soft Solutions) graphical installer, which also has the more advanced Black Lab Linux. Yellow Dog Linux is dedicated to the PowerPC platform and provides online FAQs, general questions, hardware compatibility, installation guide, yaboot or BootX (provides dual-boot), and yup (which stands for Yellow Dog update program), which are all easy to use. Because Yellow Dog supports only the PowerPC platform, it only has limited appeal to other general Linux users. It is available at www.yellowdoglinux.com/.

Mini and Specialty Distributions

Linux also comes in mini, micro, and specialty distributions. These are used to perform very specific functions and several are listed in the following section.

Astaro

Astaro distributes Astaro Security Linux, which offers extensive protection for local networks against hackers, viruses, and other risks associated with connecting to the Internet. The Astaro Security Linux provides firewalling capabilities, NAT (network address translation), masquerading, proxies with content-filter, user authentication and SMTP with virus protection, VPN (virtual private networking), traffic accounting, and easy administration. The Astaro distributions are available via download at www.astaro.com.