Can someone point me to a helpful beginners resource explaining some Linux basics? Like what is the difference between “distro”, which is what, like Ubuntu, fedora, Debian (? Or is that a category of distro?) And desktop environment which is what, KDE, Lubuntu, gnome? Like I don’t even know I have these categories right let alone understand why I’d pick one over another and what practical effects it will have- which apps will I/won’t I be able to install, etc…
I’m not expecting anyone to answer these questions for me, but if you could point me to something already written, I’d appreciate it.
Debian is a base distro, in your example. Other distros can be based upon other ones. Think of it like another layer; the distro maintainers look at Debian and say, “I like these aspects, but I think we can build upon that and make something even better!”
This means those distros with a “base” are
downstreamof theupstreamdistro base, and any time the upstream distro gets updates, the downstream ones will benefit.