[plug] Reply to Nathan

[Craig Ringer]

> Is that the main difference in distributions - the GUI's and extra's?
OK, the default setup of the various GUIs is different but the core 
stuff (KDE/GNOME/WindowMaker/Enlightenment + Qt/Gtk/Motif etc etc) is 
much the same. Each distro has a different way of doing "friendly" 
system administration and different GUI tools to do it, too.

Package handling is one big difference - how software 
installation/removal is handled. The two main schools are the 
Debian-based distros (basically just Debian in the major distros) and 
all the Red Hat/RPM based ones. They can install each others packages 
etc but not always smoothly. Debian is _much_ better about automatically 
resolving dependencies like you need libxyz to install "bob's motor 
mower" than RPM based distros are, though there are efforts to fix that.

>  or do
> they vary in the way you use the login consoles?
Not really.


>  I presume all their bash
> and tcsh scripts use the same syntax. 
Syntax, yes; layout, ways of doing things, etc not always. Boot-up 
scripts tend to vary a bit, for example.

> Do all distributions have similar
> files systems?
As in file-system layout, yes much the same, its specified under a 
standard. Thankfully.

> - I mean if you are used to finding certain files in, say,
> /etc , is that where you would look on most distributions, or do differing
> distributions have their own way of storing files?
They're usually where you expect on every distro in general terms but 
for example /etc/sysconfig is redhat-based-distro only, /etc/default is 
used by Debian, etc. File system layout is the same, contents usually not.

> Trying to get a handle on what makes one distribution different from
> another, other than the packaging?
Package format and infrastructure (!!).
System admin tools (both GUI and console).
System scripts, layout.
Default settings.
Installers.
Lots more probably....