Examples of the Differences Among Linux Distributions

This represents an illustrative rather than a complete list of the differences

1. The Kernel: each distribution vendor rolls up their own patches, so if you require a specific patch, it may be in one vendor's 2.2.14, but not in another vendor's until their version 2.2.16.
2. Drivers: some companies that produce adapter cards (particularly with Fibre Channel) supply their own Linux drivers, but these are not part of the standard kernel (although they may be included in distribution specific kernels). In order to get the correct and tested driver for the product, we must either direct the user to download it from the vendor's website (and possibly compile it) or supply it ourselves.
3. Package names may be different (e.g. RedHat has nfs-utils whereas SuSE has nfsutils.
4. The init subsystem may be different (e.g. /etc/rc.d/init.d on RedHat but /etc/init.d on SuSE). (Note that the adoption of the Linux Standard Base will eliminate this issue.)
5. Device names (e.g. /dev/raw/rawn on RedHat but /dev/rawn on SuSE).

We must abstract each of these features from the product and construct it in such a way that future but currently unrecognised differences may also be handled without necessitating re-delivery of the entire package.