Software distribution can refer to:

• The process of software distribution, from creator to the user,
• A collection of software, also referred to as a distribution, or a distro, which is set of software components built, assembled and configured so that it can be used essentially "as is" for its intended purpose.

Software distribution is often the closest thing to turnkey

Turnkey

A turn-key or a turn-key project is a type of project that is constructed by a developer and sold or turned over to a buyer in a ready-to-use condition.-Common usage:...

 form of free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

. It may take the form of a binary distribution, with an executable

Executable

In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...

 installer which can be downloaded from the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

. Examples range from whole operating system distributions to server

Server (computing)

In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...

 and interpreter distributions (for example WAMP

WAMP

WAMPs are packages of independently-created programs installed on computers that use a Microsoft Windows operating system.WAMP is an acronym formed from the initials of the operating system Microsoft Windows and the principal components of the package: Apache, MySQL and one of PHP, Perl or Python....

 installers). Software distribution can also refer to careware

Careware

Careware is software licensed in a way that benefits a charity. Some careware is distributed free, and the author suggests that some payment be made to either a nominated charity, or a charity of the user's choice. Commercial careware, on the other hand, includes a levy for charity on top of the...

 and donateware.

In recent years, the term has come to refer to nearly any "finished" software (i.e. something that is more or less ready for its intended use, whether as a complete system or a component of a larger system) that is assembled primarily from open source components.

Examples

Examples of software distributions include:

• Berkeley Software Distributions
  Berkeley Software Distribution
  Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...
  
   such as FreeBSD
  FreeBSD
  FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
  
  , NetBSD
  NetBSD
  NetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...
  
  , OpenBSD
  OpenBSD
  OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
  
   and DragonflyBSD
• Linux distributions
  Linux distribution
  A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
  
   such as Ubuntu
  Ubuntu (operating system)
  Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
  
  , SUSE
  SUSE Linux distributions
  SUSE Linux is a computer operating system. It is built on top of the open source Linux kernel and is distributed with system and application software from other open source projects. SUSE Linux is of German origin and mainly developed in Europe. The first version appeared in early 1994, making...
  
  , Debian
  Debian
  Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
  
  , and Fedora
  Fedora (operating system)
  Fedora is a RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat...
  
  
• Application server
  Application server
  An application server is a software framework that provides an environment in which applications can run, no matter what the applications are or what they do...
  
  s such as JBoss
  JBoss
  JBoss Application Server is an open-source Java EE-based application server. An important distinction for this class of software is that it not only implements a server that runs on Java, but it actually implements the Java EE part of Java...
  
   or Apache Geronimo
• The Eclipse Europa
  Eclipse (software)
  Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment comprising an integrated development environment and an extensible plug-in system...
  
   release of software development tools
• The PostgreSQL
  PostgreSQL
  PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...
  
   relational database

Distro support

Technical support is a key issue for end-users of distributions, since the distribution itself is typically free and may not be "owned" in a commercial sense by a vendor. Depending on the distribution, support may be provided by a commercial support vendor, the developers who created the distribution or by the user community itself.

Free software distribution tools

GNU Autotools

GNU build system

The GNU build system, also known as the Autotools, is a suite of programming tools designed to assist in making source-code packages portable to many Unix-like systems....

 are widely used for distributions which consist of source files written in C++

C++

C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

 and the C programming language

C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....

, but are not limited to these.

Distribution tools for mobile devices

Distribution of software to small mobile devices such as phones, PDAs and other hand-held terminals is a particular challenge due to their ad-hoc connectivity.
Some tools that cater to this category of devices are:

• Sybase iAnywhere Afaria