Linux Operating System

The Linux Operating System is software that runs on several kinds of computer hardware. The most common hardware uses x86 CPUs.

Since Linux is open source software, the "manufacturer" is a community of people rather than a single company. Generally, people acknowledge that companies are involved with the process of making the Linux software available. Since this involves distribution of the software to multiple people, the collection of a version of Linux with other software which uses that version is called a "distribution" or "distro". These "distros" are produced by companies and organizations which give their name to the collection such as RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, Slackware, Suse, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Morphix, Knoppix, etc.

Generally, the VistA software is not in any of the common distributions.

It can be obtained
 * as a virtual machine created by Bhaskar, Peter Bodtke or John Leo Zimmer
 * Bhaskar is collecting versions of the software onto a single DVD-ROM, with a copy of the Morphix or Knoppix distribution, which is able to boot a computer to demonstrate the capabilities of the system.
 * Ignacio Valdes is creating a .rpm file and a .deb file that has a way of loading VistA onto many Linux distributions.