Look before you leap. Review on Choosing a Linux Variant

I have been using linux on and off for the past 4-5 years. I am yet to find a Mr. RIGHT. Why another review?

Many of the reviews have focussed on why you should move from Windows to Linux. If you are a fat cat and can afford to splurge on newest hardware, windows XP is probably ok for you. If you are a cool(and fat) cat, you may have already decided on a Mac.

As a humble mortal, I have to live with rising costs in terms of newest hardware and software. I decided on using two unix-like OSes - FreeBSD and Linux. I'll assume that you have probably decided to use some variant of Linux(hence this review).

There are essentially 4 basic varieties of linux

1. RPM based

   
   




2. APT(debian based)

   
   




3. Slackware like linuxes

   
   




4. source-based.

   
   

Examples of RPM-based distros are: Fedora, Redhat(now commercial), Mandrake and Suse.

APT-based: Debian, Knoppix, Ubuntu, Libranet, Xandros

Source-based: Gentoo, Arch linux

Slackware clones: vector, slackware

Top-20

We'll limit ourselves to the top-20 linux distros for this month(Mar 2005):(from distrowatch - those who say solaris and freebsd do not belong here should really complain to distrowatch).

Ubuntu

Mandrakelinux

MEPIS

Fedora

SUSE

Debian

KNOPPIX

Gentoo

Xandros

Slackware Damn Small

Vector

PCLinuxOS

CentOS

FreeBSD

Libranet

Linspire

KANOTIX

Red Hat

Solaris

Constraints:

In my case, I did not want to shell out money to buy an OS like SuSE, RedHat Enterprise etc. I also have a slow dialup connection, I use to check mails, not to download ISOs or binary packages. I also don't like teasers like SuSE, they'll have to give out a full-sized OS.

The foll are REJECTed:

SuSE - OK gives a DVD ISO of 9.2 no CD ISOs and . REJECT!

Gentoo - We don't want to d/l compile XORG, GNOME etc. REJECT

Xandros - NO TEASERS. REJECT! Vector - Reject - no full OS with all software.

PCLinux OS - Mandrake based live CD BETA - REJECT.

Linspire - REJECT

KANOTIX - KNOPPIX clone

RedHat - REJECT

The Players

Out list becomes the foll:

Ubuntu

Mandrake

MEPIS

Fedora

Debian

KNOPPIX

Slackware

Damn Small

CentOS - compiled from RedHat sources

FreeBSD

Libranet

Solaris

UBUNTU: Debian based. They will even ship you a CD for free! In 1 year this has climbed up the charts to the #1 position. The CD will install the basic OS with 1 application for each function - only GNOME for GUI, for eg. To get the others you need to do apt-get(if you have good bandwidth, or you can go to their website and download the software and then do: dpkg -i name_of_package

DEBIAN: Same as above. UBUNTU has 6 month release cycle, but Debian has a 3 year release cycle. MEPIS: Debian based, live CD and can be installed. YOu can apt-get like DEBIAN and UBUNTU to get additional software.

KNOPPIX - - do -

LIBRANET: Same as UBUNTU. I have used this and it comes with good software. But what I hate is that the xscreensaver locks up my screen and it takes 20 minutes for the screen to show up. This was unacceptable, so I removed it from my computer.

FEATHER/DAMN SMALL - based on Knoppix, but 128MB only. Basically for illustrative purposes. This should have really been rejected, but I left it here for curiosity reasons.

MANDRAKE: The latest 10.1 is OK for end-users, but not good enough for me. 3 ISOs of 700MB each. To what good? If you purge out OpenOffice Locale files(basically different languages) and aspell locale files, you can cut down the CD to 1.5 CDs.

If you can live without GNOME and KDE, you'll get all in one CD like Windows XP. That said, it is good enough for day-to-day use. I use Window-Maker and OpenOffice, with Mplayer and XMMS. Things are fine. To install new software, you'll have to urpm. This will basically connect to some random sites and pull binary packages for you and do dependency checking. Note: you will have to have a fairly fast internet connection.

FEDORA: Same as Mandrake but less polished and buggy. Stay away from this.

CentOS: Ever since RedHat decided to go for the big bucks and made REdHat a paid only distro, CentOS formed itself to make RedHat Enterprise Linux for the masses.(Under GPL RH is required to publish the sources). Centos has been reported to be quite good but the cummunity is more interested to use this for enterprise purposes, not for desktop purposes.

FreeBSD: I used to absolutely love freeBSD until the project's adamancy to improve the USB drivers. I had a 5.3 installation that would crash the minute I would plug in my thumb drive. This was totally unacceptable for me. Otherwise, it is a great OS, as even with a dialup link you can easily install about any software from ports. THis is preferable to binary downloads as it is easier(smaller) to download source code.

SLACKWARE: A minimal linux distro with non-existent package management. Good for only those who know exactly what to.

CONCLUSION:

There are no free meals. FreeBSD is about the best you can get if you can live without USB functionality(use firewire if you can). Installing software under freeBSD is a breeze.