There's no denying that Linux is a popular operating system and is genuinely seen by many as a viable alternative to Microsoft's market domination.

At heart, what we mean by "Linux" is two fundamental items: the kernel and the non-kernel parts. The kernel is the central component of most operating systems which manages resources and communications with hardware. It typically makes the lowest-level computer components available to software applications. This is the heart of any operating system. When people speak of Linux being created by Linus Torvalds, it is specifically the kernel that is meant; it was this which provided the basis and framework for all other applications.

The "non-kernel" therefore is everything else. This is software like the raft of networking tools for which Linux is well-known - web servers like Apache, programming language compilers and interpreters like Java, GNU C++, Perl and Python - and more.

The reason why Linux distributions are called "distributions" in the first place is because each distro is a collection of the kernel plus any of a number of software packages, distributed together. These packages are largely drawn from the GNU free software project. All distros provide facilities for managing the installation, removal and upgrading of discrete software packages.

What makes one distro different from another is generally the audience for which it is targetted. Some distros contain commercial enterprise-level applications, particularly for security and backup purposes. Some are designed more for servers than desktops. Some are targeted at power users more than home users. Additionally, although Linux distributions are freely available, commercial vendors can derive income through paid support for their distro.

So, what do you do if there's no distro which meets your specific needs? Or, what if you want a distro that doesn't bother you with any pesky prompting but just sets itself up exactly how you like it? In these cases - or even just for the fun of it - you can always make your own distro. And here's how.