Linux is an Operating System: the program at the heart of controlling a computer. It decides how to partition the available resources (CPU, memory, disk, network) between all of the other programs vying for it. The operating system, while very important, isn’t useful on its own. Its purpose is to manage the compute resources for other programs. Without these other programs, the Operating System doesn’t serve much of a purpose.
A distribution provides a large number of other programs that, together with Linux, can be assembled into working sets for a vast number of purposes. These programs can range from basic program writing tools such as compilers and linkers to communications libraries to spreadsheets and editors to pretty much everything in between. A distribution tends to have a superset of what’s actually used for each individual computer or solution. It also provides many choices for each category of software components that users or companies can assemble into what they consider a working set. A rough analogy can be made to a supermarket in which there are many options for many items on the shelves, and each user picks and chooses what makes sense to them in their cart.
Read more at IoTForAll
