The Red Hat extended family
Distro Walk – The Red Hat Ecosystem

© Lead Image © ra2studio, 123RF.com
Red Hat has spawned an outgrowth of corporate and community-based distributions. Here's how these distributions are related and how they differ.
When Linux was just starting to be known in the late 1990s, Red Hat Linux was one of the top half dozen distributions, largely because of its unusually complete documentation and its efforts at making Linux accessible. That changed on August 11, 1999, when the company called Red Hat became the first Linux company to go public. Red Hat went on to become a multi-billion dollar subsidiary of IBM, and created Fedora Linux for its community-based distribution and testing ground for its Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product. More recently, because of Red Hat's ending of CentOS development and the start of CentOS Stream, derivatives such as Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux were forked from RHEL. Add Fedora's and RHEL's derivatives, and the result is an ecosystem of inter-related distributions second only to Debian's, but focusing on innovation and on networks and servers. How are these distributions related? How do they differ? Here's a brief overview.
The Fedora Project
The Fedora Project [1] is the replacement for the original Red Hat distribution. Red Hat appoints the Fedora Leader and has half the seats on the Fedora Council, but appears to operate at arm's length, with many decisions made by consensus or a majority, or by Fedora's technical working groups.
Fedora mainly functions as an initial test platform for RHEL, with releases every six months. In this role, Fedora has been the first distribution to use many new technologies such as DNF, PipeWire, or Wayland, especially ones developed by Red Hat. Occasionally, these new technologies take a few releases to work smoothly in most circumstances, but Fedora remains one of the best distributions to learn about emerging technologies.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
-
So Long, ArcoLinux
The ArcoLinux distribution is the latest Linux distribution to shut down.
-
What Open Source Pros Look for in a Job Role
Learn what professionals in technical and non-technical roles say is most important when seeking a new position.
-
Asahi Linux Runs into Issues with M4 Support
Due to Apple Silicon changes, the Asahi Linux project is at odds with adding support for the M4 chips.
-
Plasma 6.3.4 Now Available
Although not a major release, Plasma 6.3.4 does fix some bugs and offer a subtle change for the Plasma sidebar.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 First Release Candidate Now Available
Linux Torvalds has announced that the release candidate for the final release of the Linux 6.15 series is now available.
-
Akamai Will Host kernel.org
The organization dedicated to cloud-based solutions has agreed to host kernel.org to deliver long-term stability for the development team.