A a [[distribution]] of various projects running on top of the [[Linux]] kernel. Some major characteristics of linux distributions are: the package management system, the target audience, the size of the community behind the distribution, commercial support options and default [[window manager]].

The term GNU/Linux is favored by the [[FSF]] to describe a Linux distribution that includes the collection of open source [[GNU]] utilities that implement standard [[Unix]] utility functions.

h3. Some common linux distributions

* [[Ubuntu]]

* [[Debian]]

* [[Gentoo]]

* [[RHEL]]

* [[Fedora]]