vinayasurya said:
What is actual difference between redhat, Debian, Slackware linux? Especailly from a users point of view. Is there any difference, Will rpm works on all three? Are there any common software packages like rpm for other flavours of Linux?
Well as the name says.
Red Hat based distros use Red Hat's package Manager i.e. rpm.
Debian based distros use Debain's package Manager i.e. deb.
Slackware based distros use Slackware's package management system i.e. tgz.
Well the end user will be better off using native package for each type of distro. For example it is more recommendable to use deb files than rpm files for Ubuntu, which is based on debian. But, first you should look forward to package specifically compiled for that distro eg. It is favourable to use a deb file compiled for Ubuntu 6.06 then using deb file compiled for Debian 3.1, if you are using Ubuntu 6.06.
Yes rpm will work on all three but you shouldn't use it unless you have no other alternative which is a rare case.