Before you embark on a distro adventure, it's worth giving some thought to the kind of Linux user you are. The answer isn't as obvious as you might think, and which distribution you do choose will have an effect on that distribution's future, and indirectly, that of Linux.
You might have a preference for open source-only distributions, for example, or you may prefer proprietary drivers and codecs to be pre-installed. If you're choosing a Linux distribution for another person, or for a group of people, that decision is going to be even more important. A typical group of office workers are unlikely to have used Linux before, and your choice is going to affect their perception of the operating system. Those first impressions count.
There are many other linux distributions that might suit your particular purpose better.
Ubuntu, Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS are considered the easiest for new users who want to get productive in Linux as soon as possible without having to master all its complexities.
Slackware Linux, Gentoo Linux and FreeBSD are more advanced distributions that require plenty of learning before they can be used effectively.
openSUSE, Fedora, Debian GNU/Linux and Mandriva Linux can be classified as good "middle-road" distributions.
CentOS is an enterprise distribution, suitable for those who prefer stability, reliability and long-term support over cutting-edge features and software.
What is the best linux distro for me?
Below are the refferences for new users who are mainly looking for a linux distro experience that's similar and compatible with the one they're used to.
You might have a preference for open source-only distributions, for example, or you may prefer proprietary drivers and codecs to be pre-installed. If you're choosing a Linux distribution for another person, or for a group of people, that decision is going to be even more important. A typical group of office workers are unlikely to have used Linux before, and your choice is going to affect their perception of the operating system. Those first impressions count.
There are many other linux distributions that might suit your particular purpose better.
Ubuntu, Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS are considered the easiest for new users who want to get productive in Linux as soon as possible without having to master all its complexities.
Slackware Linux, Gentoo Linux and FreeBSD are more advanced distributions that require plenty of learning before they can be used effectively.
openSUSE, Fedora, Debian GNU/Linux and Mandriva Linux can be classified as good "middle-road" distributions.
CentOS is an enterprise distribution, suitable for those who prefer stability, reliability and long-term support over cutting-edge features and software.
What is the best linux distro for me?
Below are the refferences for new users who are mainly looking for a linux distro experience that's similar and compatible with the one they're used to.
- For newbies: Ubuntu
It sets out to pull Linux into a shape that ordinary computer users can recognise, and doesn't require any assumed knowledge. You can install Ubuntu on to most machines without any difficulty, and there's a good chance your monitor will be optimally configured and your wireless access point will be discovered. This is where many previous new users may have stumbled, and Ubuntu has raised the bar when it comes to hardware compatibility.
Ubuntu is composed of many software packages, of which the vast majority are distributed under a free software license (also known as open source). The main license used is the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) which, along with the GNU Lesser General Public License (GNU LGPL), explicitly declares that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, develop and improve the software. - For OS migrants: Linux Mint
Linux Mint is another distribution built on the strong foundations of Ubuntu. It takes the good points, such as the excellent hardware compatibility and easy installation, and performs a facelift on the weakest points, which is the muddy ambience of the Ubuntu desktop.
Usability has been enhanced by removing the top menu bar and replacing the themes and palette of the original distribution with a tub of choco-mint ice cream. But what makes Mint most effective for a recent convert to Linux is its excellent support for codecs. Most music and video will play without any further requirements, and Adobe Flash and Sun's Java are installed by default. - Family friendly: Qimo
It's a distribution with a focus on young children, with a friendly oversized desktop and colourful engaging artwork. A small toolbar of educational games sits at the bottom of the screen, and children can use these to quickly launch a selection of open source games and educational resources.
Addressing the second point is a little harder. That's because content filtering is a tricky and technical subject, and not at all in-line with an open, family friendly distribution. You could take any distribution, for example, and use a carefully configured OpenDNS or DansGuardian server to filter contents to the sites that you don't want your family to have access to. - Everyday Linux: Fedora
For every day desktop use, Fedora can't be beaten. The choice of software is excellent, and we can't think of anything that's missing. Fedora's stance on freedom is a little painful if you need proprietary drivers or MP3 support, but these issues can be worked around. Both the Gnome and KDE desktops look and feel brilliant, and the performance of our Fedora installation is as good as any other tuned Linux distribution.
It's also a distribution that will have users of other operating systems looking over your shoulder. Fedora might not be the easiest distribution to use, or the one with the largest package repository, but we feel it represents the very best that open source software has to offer. - Business: OpenSUSE
It's a distribution that's very close to the development of OpenOffice.org, and it scales extremely well. If you need professional support and training, you can get it from Novell as well as a number of third-party providers.
At the heart of OpenSUSE 11.1 is the word processor, and Novell does an excellent job of integrating OpenOffice.org into whichever desktop you choose (Gnome and KDE are available). Themes and icons look fantastic, and OOo loads quickly and is configured for compatibility with Microsoft Office documents.
A to-do tasks manager is bundled alongside the office suite, and this can be synchronised with Evolution, the standard email application. Pervasive desktop searching is enabled as standard, and Wine is a click away for running any remaining Windows applications you may need to run from the Linux desktop. - Light and fast: Puppy Linux
It's a tiny distribution, fitting into a tiny 100MB ISO image. This means it can be installed on any cheap old USB disk and used on an old computer.
But unlike many other lightweight distributions, the Puppy desktop covers almost every task you'll ever need. Photo editing, document writing, listening to music and watching videos can all be accomplished using a low-fat application listed in the main menu, or from the icon on the desktop.
These applications may not be quite as user-friendly, or quite as capable, but they can accomplish 90% of the tasks most people need. And they'll do it quickly. There's even wireless networking support, so you can quickly shoe-horn a laptop into providing a quick Linux fix, or maybe squeeze Puppy alongside a standard install on a netbook computer to give yourself a breath of fresh air once in a while. - Sysadmin: Arch Linux
A distribution that's unashamedly built for reconfigurability and gaining geek credentials. It's a distro for experienced Linux users who aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty. Arch doesn't make any assumptions about what packages you might want to install. Logging into live CD-based system, you're invited to run the install script from a specific directory.
From the solid foundation of Arch's base installation, you can build an administrator's toolkit that will only include the applications and the tools for your working environment. This will save system resources on the machine, and your mental resources when you need to get a job done quickly. Arch includes all the packages you'll ever need, especially when it comes to useful command line tools you'll find more effective at system administration. - Coder: Mandriva
If you prefer scripting languages like Perl or Python you're better off using your standard desktop, as these languages are now so common that any one distribution is as good as another, while professional developers using an IDE like JBuilder will find that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is often the only distribution supported by the vendor.
Not only does it include a working development environment from the first boot, the development libraries themselves are easy to find and install through the package manager. Gnome, KDE and Xfce developers are well catered for, and the distribution includes Java. - Server: CentOS
You can install and use commercial packages designed for RHEL, but it also means you get the same high level of security and integrity that Red Hat's direct customers enjoy. This makes CentOS the perfect choice of operating system for running a server on a restrictive budget.
Like RHEL, CentOS is based on a Gnome desktop, and includes access to many of the same applications, servers and utilities you can find with any standard distribution. If you've used a recent Fedora release, you'll feel right at home. Security features include an excellent firewall and SELinux, a policy enforcement mechanism that prevents wayward applications from ever causing security problems, even if they do happen to be compromised or broken. There are also plenty of updates, and there's a large community who are willing to help. If you ever do need professional-level support, the transition from CentOS to RHEL is seamless. - Music Production: 64 Studio
64 Studio provides a complete audio production environment, as well as all the kernel and system tweaks to optimise your hardware. It has been designed to create a professional setup that's capable of recording, mixing and mastering many simultaneous tracks of audio.
The Sound & Video menu is crammed full synths, an oscilloscope, guitar and studio effects, an audio sampler, a turntable emulator and several methods for monitoring audio. But the two most important entries are Rosegarden and Ardour. These are the open source equivalents of Cubase and Pro Tools in the commercial world, and they're both exceptional applications for composing and recording music.
All of these applications are part of the default 64 Studio desktop, and you can see that this distribution covers everything from the recording, and sound generation part of a project, through the editing and mastering to the final CD burning. We can't think of any other system that provides anywhere near the same amount of functionality for the zero cost. - Gamers: Live.linux-gamers
If you live for gaming, Linux isn't the best choice of platform. Most of the major releases don't offer Linux versions, and there's little third-party hardware support for controllers. But most of us love playing games, and switching to Linux doesn't mean you have to abandon this wonderful time waster.
We've found that the best solution is to boot into a live distribution specifically tailored for games, and the best we've come across is called Live.linux-gamers.net. It contains a DVD's worth of data and includes almost anything worth playing, along with the proprietary graphics cards drivers to ensure maximum performance from your hardware.
There are two companies that sell a commercial version of Wine, the Windows compatibility layer, specifically tweaked for running the latest Windows games. These two applications are called CrossOver Games and Cedega, and both claim to run titles such as Spore, World of Warcraft and many Steam titles. Packages are available for most popular distributions, and in our experience they work quite well. - Multimedia: Mythbuntu
The installation includes everything you need to get started, and bundles the most common MythTV plugins for media playback. You can even use the installation disc as a live CD in a spare machine, turning it into a MythTV client on the network for ad-hoc TV and movie watching. Even without a MythTV system on the network, you can still use the disc for basic multimedia playback, as it operates as a standard Ubuntu disc with a few additional packages.
We think it's easier to stick with Mythbuntu if you're after a multimedia distribution for your home entertainment system. But if you want a slick user interface without the hassle of configuring MythTV, LinuxMCE is worth a look.
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