(02-28-2014, 06:50 AM)nplez1 Wrote: In my experience, they are all using the linux kernel, so you should be able to do about the same thing regardless of the distro your using, right?
That's kind of simplifying things too much. If having a similar kernel were all it took, getting Dolphin to run on Android devices would have been a trivial non-issue, but obviously that hasn't been the case. While every Linux distro has similar kernels, they all vary in terms of what software they pack together and how they do so, what patches they apply and where, and even how they decide how to use basic but common components like /etc. The things Fedora does say when managing a file like fstab might not be the same as Ubuntu or Gentoo or Arch or any number of distros. That's the choice Linux represents; there's no one "way" to build a distro. Some don't add a lot of extra functionality via scripts or change a lot of settings in the Linux system file tree; others make heavy modifications to just about everything, from package management, to firewall setup, to disk partitioning, and a lot more.
tl;dr, yes one distro can do what others do more or less, but each distro has nuances that have to be taken into account. That's why distros exist though, because people have nuances and preferences themselves.
I am and forever will be heavily biased towards Slackware as my distro of choice. I used Kubuntu and Mint in the past, but I like Slackware's approach. It doesn't make a great deal of assumptions regarding how I use my computer unlike other OSes and programs (*cough*Unity*cough*). I also really like it's package management system; it's compiling from source, but it gives me a package that can be removed or reinstalled easily. Having dealt with Debian based systems for years, I'm kinda turned off from their package management system. Compiling from source takes longer, but I've run into far less dependency issues on Slackware than on Ubuntu.
Quote: Are you just saying that some distros make it easier because of the package that are included and how the kernel is compiled?
I'm saying some distros are easier for some people to handle than others based on their differences and what people need from an OS. Debian based systems are something I won't touch for daily use because I really dislike how they manage software. Depending on your knowledge and familiarity with Linux, some distros will seem to "fight" you more than others (especially if you don't understand how one distro does things). In my case, Slackware fights me the least and does all that I need. I have a tendency to poke fun at Debian based distros whenever I can though.