January 24th, 2016

Take Our Quiz: Check Your Knowledge of Linux Distros

The FOSS Force Quiz

Are you a distro hopper? Are you one of those people who knows what day of the week it is because of which distro you’re using? If so, this quiz is for you. But even if you’re one of those people who finds a distro you like and sticks with it until it becomes as comfortable as a well worn shoe, you’ve probably done your homework, and that’s why you were able to find the distro that was a perfect fit for you. In other words, you’ll probably do well on our quiz too — because it just might be a tortoise and hare sort of thing.

Anyway, now it’s time to test your knowledge in our FOSS Force Linux Distro Quiz. There are 18 questions about 18 distros and it’s pass/fail; either you make the grade or you don’t. 70 percent is the magic mark. Go over, and you’re off to study for your Linux certification. Go under, and it’s back to seventh grade for you. After you’re through you can check your answers. Each answer you get wrong will be underlined in red and all the right answers will be underlined in green.

And yes, this does count toward your final grade and will go on your permanent record. And no whining about questions being unclear. We’re the teachers. We’ll decide whether the questions are clear or not…

The FOSS Force Linux Distro Quiz

Results You passed! You're on to do your desktop Linux post graduate work. Close but no cigar. It's back to middle school for you. #1. This Brazillian based distro was begun in 1995. In addition to producing a Linux distribution, the organization developed a series of products and additional services, such as books, manuals, and even a Linux magazine. Caldera Mandriva Ximian Conectiva #2. This Ubuntu derived distro consistantly holds the top spot on Distrowatch’s “Page Hit Ranking” and was conceived by Clement Lefebvre. The distro also offers a version derived directly from Debian. Manjaro Mint Fedora Ubuntu MATE #3. This distro was started in 1994 by Ransom Love and Bryan Sparks and was considered at the time to offer one of the best user experience. Development was stopped in 2003, after the company that was developing it, SCO, sued IBM over Unix code allegedly showing up in Linux. Caldera Mandriva Ximian Conectiva #4. Designed primarily for penetration testing, ethical hacking and network security assessments, this distro recently went to a rolling release cycle. CentOS RHEL Kali Black Lab #5. This distro began as a Red Hat based distro and was started in France by Gaël Duval with the intention of creating a distro designed around ease-of-use. Mandrake Simplicity PCLinuxOS Ubuntu #6. This distro is the brainchild of Mark Shuttleworth and by default features the Unity desktop. Fedora Debian Ubuntu Red Hat #7. Until it was sold in September 2002 to a Japanese company that chose to focus on Asian markets, this distro was one of the most well know distros in the West. Red Star Bodhi Turbolinux Fukushima #8. This Ubuntu derived distro was started by Jeff Hoogland as a way of showcasing the Enlightenment desktop. Bodhi Simplicity ClearOS Gentoo #9. Born in 2001, this New York City based distro was derived from the Debian based Corel Linux and included proprietary software developed by the distro’s development company. Turbolinux PCLinuxOS Xandros Mandriva #10. One of the oldest distros under constant development, this community distro has been used as the base of many other distros, inculding Ubuntu. RHEL Debian Fedora Mint #11. In the early part of the 21st century, the company behind this distro discontinued it’s desktop distro to concentrate on its server distro. Several years later, it began offering this “community” desktop distro, partly as a testing ground for its commercial offering. Oracle openSUSE Fedora openMandriva #12. This KDE distro was initially based on Mandrake but very quickly developed away from those roots and is no longer seen as a Mandrake/Mandriva derivitive. PCLinuxOS Mageia openMandriva Caldera #13. Primarily designed to be used with online applications, this distro developed by Google is mostly found on laptops and notebooks, and is not a traditional GNU/Linux “distro.” SmartOS Salix ChromeOS Netrunner #14. Although this distro features some modifications to the kernel, it’s essentially a clone of RHEL. SUSE Fedora Oracle Netrunner #15. One of the oldest distros in continuous development, this distro was started by Patrick Volkerding in 1993. Gentoo KNOPPIX Quirky Slackware #16. This popular Linux distro aims to be user friendly while being based on Arch Linux, which is considered somewhat difficult to master. Although based on Arch, the distro maintains its own repositories. KNOPPIX Manjaro Fedora Mageia #17. Primarily used in server implementations, this distro is considered to be a clone of RHEL. Slackware CentOS SparkyLinux SUSE #18. One of the very first Linux distributions, this distro was the very first to offer a “live” CD version. The distro was active from 1992 until 1995. Boot-root MCC Interim Linux SLS Yggdrasil finish

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