What Distro?

From LinuxNewbie

The question is frequently asked, "What distro is best for new users?"

I will provide a short answer first, and then comments below. #linuxnewbie supports all distros. The consensus is the Ubuntu is the choice for new users. It is Debian based.

Linux Journal runs a survey each year called the Reader's Choice Awards. Although not scientific it does generally reflect the views of the community.

Distro favorites:
10th 2004 1: Debian 2: Mandrake 3: Gentoo
   ! Something important happened in 2003. More below. !
 9th 2003 1: Debian 2: Red Hat 3: Mandrake
 8th 2002 1: Mandrake 2: Red Hat 3: Debian
 7th 2001 1: Red Hat 2: Debian 3: Mandrake
 6th 2000 1: Red Hat
 2nd 1996 1: Red Hat

You can see that historically, Red Hat Linux led for a long time. Then something happened; in 2003 Red Hat said they would no longer have a free distribution. They talked about a new Fedora Core distribution and it became available late in 2003. As of April 2004 Red Hat quit supporting (End of Life or EOL) Red Hat Linux 9, the last version released. In 2004 they did not make the top 3, and I doubt they will make it in 2005.

Things to consider about a distro:

  • Package manager
  • Communitee support.
  • Boot method (SysV or BSD, most are SysV).
  • Maintainability: How well can you upgrade a package without breaking something?
  • Upgrade path: When a new version is released, can you upgrade?

Debian
Pros:

  • Debian has an excellent package manager.
  • The net install is only about 150M. Then you get only the packages you want, and they are the current versions. No more downloading 2.1G over 3 days to install a system.
  • Did I mention the package manager? When a new version is released it is very easy to upgrade and consistently works.


Cons:

  • The stable branch is ancient (but very stable).
  • The testing branch runs a few months behind (but works well)
  • The unstable branch has bleeding edge, and is still more stable than Fedora.
  • The only trouble I even had upgrading packages is that sometimes unstable changes configs and something breaks.

Fedora Core http://fedra.redhat.com
Pros:

  • Easy installer, aimed at the new linux users.
  • Constaintly being updated.
  • The most common software is already "Pre-Packaged."

Cons:

  • New distro is usually somewhere on a three to four month cycle (they come out with the new version offten.)
  • Not really aimed at the "Admin" type, becasue it's jammed packed w/ everything you need.
  • Each release is getting bigger (Fedor Core 4: 4 CD's, or 1 DVD)

Mandrake
Pros:

Cons:

Gentoo
Pros:

  • Package manager "emerge" (Con & Pro)
  • Once it's correctly setup, the system's stability/speed is highly reliable.

Cons:

  • Emerge package manager is slow.

Slackware
Pros:

  • Latest versions are up to date.
  • Full distro fits on 2 cds
  • There's no package manager, which means you compile every packages you want to install (Con and Pro)
  • slapt-get package manager (Written in perl)

Cons:

  • No package manager installed by default which makes it hard for new users to manage their packages.

Slackware has a text based package manager since 3.0 or something, pkginstall/pkgconfig, etc, etc

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