Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a powerful component of the x86 hardware virtualization extensions required for Intel VT and AMD-V. Virtualization technologies have been growing steadily in their capabilities and adoption. Linux kernel has included the KVM component in the mainstream since 2.6.20. It is a crucial part of using virtualization on Linux machines, and is frequently used with software similar to QEMU.
Built as a slim and secure operating system, this is an option primarily for power users and advanced use cases.
A relative new comer to the world of Linux distributions is Arch. Designed to be a lightweight, flexible, and simple option. It’s used as a base to fork other distributions.
Closely linked to SUS Linux, openSUSE has a long history with a dedicated community. It is slightly different from the Red Hat Enterprise and Debian based distributions. For example, the application manager is Yet another Setup Tool (YaST), similar to YUM and APT.
There are two main flavours for this distribution: Leap and Tumbleweed. The numbering scheme was changed in 2017, when the version number jumped from 42.3 back to 15.0.
sudo zypper patch
Perhaps the most popular distribution on the “bleeding-edge” of software development is the Fedora Project and it’s operating system (OS). This seems to be a front runner to CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Many of the features that will eventually end up in these two OS distributions are piloted in Fedora. With this status of being a testing ground, this is probably not a good choice for production environments, or where stability is required. Fedora OS is available in a variety of editions, and can be further broken down into “spins”. This additional breakdown allows for increased customizations in features such as the graphical user interface (GUI).
This distribution is an option for those studying for the CompTIA Linux+ exam. If you are working towards the CompTIA XK0-005, you’ll likely want to use the Fedora 34 Workstation edition.
Fedora Project: https://fedoraproject.org