According to the Linux watching web site, DistroWatch, there are more than 400 Linux and BSD distributions currently available and active. Many of these exist with many versions, giving thousands of possible options to choose from. The question often arises “Which one is the best?“.
The Best Linux Distribution?
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Debian for server, Ubuntu for desktop. Not answered objectivly of course.
Ubuntu
In my category, at least. 🙂
What is the best OS? Linux.
What is the most awesome programming language? Ruby.
What is one of the most interesting open source apps? OpenVPN.
What is the most promissing technology? NX/FreeNX.
Who rules? Linus.
Gentoo! Duh!
/puts flame hat on
There is no best, or the others wouldn’t exist.
mix of old and new hardware
easy package installs with tons of packages to choose from
different purpose for different machines, from router box,to apt-cacher, to file server, to dekstop
want the same distro on all of them
then Debian it is, or Libranet if you are so inclined
Linux from scratch, not even following the book. Just some abhorrent abomination cooked up to solve whatever arcane problem one has at the time.
Definitely the best!
The best Linux distro is the distro for which you have the most knowledge “in-house”.Has nothing to do with repositories and their size,has nothing to do with security.I think a competent admin is almost of greather value than the OS itself.
For the vast majority of desktop installs the distro is the best one when it really lives up to your expectations (gets the job(s) done).
I wrote
>>Of course, FreeBSD.
@ Tyr (IP: —.ing.be) wrote:
>But the article says : “It is wise to avoid a distribution that has died”
>*ducks*
??
No need to duck (well, maybe to learn to read..)
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/06/07/nearly_25_million_acti…
FreeBSD is used on web servers more than *any* Linux distribution (yes, Red Hat included. And it’s growing at the pace of 25% in one year).
If FreeBSD “has died” as you put it, then there’s *no* Linux distribution alive.
>Next week : “Which is the one true religion?”
Warning: if I put this little thing next to what I write –>
<– it means I’m not that “religious”.
(Hey, I’m not a Linux user, after all!.. Err, nerevmind.)
Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid
***** Nothing but flame wars
Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid
***** It’s non-sense to argue over opinion
Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid
awwww come on, she gave you a hint, the little graphic beside the post, no need to read the article, vote debian and be well
for me gentoo is very flexible, i like it!
Debian and Slackware are cool too
FreeBSD i can’t talk … i am starting with it …
I bet you’re waiting for someone to say “It depends what you want to do”
There! I said. it.
Slackware. Slackware is the best. So is Gentoo.
No mention of Arch Linux? The combination of Pacman and ABS makes it great for those who like a mix of an excellent binary package system plus being able to build from source whatever one wants, and that too quite conveniently, is very welcome indeed.
Of course, I make no claim of “best”, its IMHO better than all others I have tried, except slackware, which I put at par with it.
Linux from scratch, not even following the book. Just some abhorrent abomination cooked up to solve whatever arcane problem one has at the time.
Definitely the best!
I have to agree.
I’m working on a minimal Puppy Linux style LFS at the moment so I can have something I like for use on old computers, but can also run entirely from RAM for extra speed. I suppose I could probably customise Puppy, but that wouldn’t be any fun, would it?
Until that is completed though, it’s Arch Linux.
this may be a dumb question but has anyone ever asked Linus what distro he runs??
The only thing WIndows has over Linux (as an OS) is Virus support.
Which one is the best? The one you make yourself of course 🙂
ubuntu and fedora. ubuntu is great i am using it. fedora has good font system compared to ubuntu
I don’t only speak for myself when I say:
Ubuntu for desktop and Debian for server.
That is the only true truth and if you disagree, you are wrong.
😛
the best OS will sit in a tiny disk or card. it will run from palm sized hand held wireless device.
i am waiting.
The best Linux distro is OpenZaurus for My ancient SL-5500 and pdaXrom form my C860, since it is my main desktop now.
For my PC, Fedora is the best since, but I like debian very much too (I run both for my business needs).
Everyone else are absolutly wrong (just as my poor english).
…is Choice…someone reminded me that y’day! and I need to remind you all too…Choice is the best Linux distro. Freedom to choose!
I just want a linux distro I can turn off anytime and it will always reboot with out massive intervention.
Yes I like to turn off Linux while its booting.
My vote is for Knoppix live or ubunto live.
Oh and I want apps as good as windows. Not a flame bait here but can u really show me apps as good and easy to use as these? These are the windows apps I use all the time.
Dscaler(tvcard)
Foxmail(pop3)
Iarsn Taskinfor 2003(like taskmanager but uber, and dont say tops, tops has sucked for a long time)
Newsleecher(news reader/binaries)
DAEMON tools(mounting iso,img etc)
Maxthon(best ie hack ever, fastest loading of the 20-30 daily tabs i open, at once )
Mplayer(incert smily here)
Zonealarm pro
Tiny personaly firewall(I run both)
SDP Program Version 2.0.0(riping mms streams)
Ultra-edit 32(uber text editor)
ABBYY fine reader(ocr)
Irfanview(view pics)
Cool Edit 2000(audio editor)
I’ve try believe me. I hate windows and all the bs monopoly it stands for, Im just to lazy to switch.
What distro has the most talented developers and the most new technologies?
Fedora wins.
In hopes of not pissing too many people off its hard to argue RedHat snatched up alot of the smartest guys OSS has to offer and it pays them not only to devel, but to think. RH is directly responsible for alot of direction linux has taken. They are simply on the edge of everything happening.
There are sharp guys everywhere obviously just not as many as RH thats why thier distro is best. They don’t make thier living on one great idea, like yast, or apt, or portage. they make thier bones on a ton of ideas.
46,
That’s a good point. As far as a server OS, is Fedora as robust as Debian? I’m just curious, since I’ve not run either in a while. I’m also curious if they both have good encrypting filesystems?
Thanks.
Yoper is definitely the best… Its fast, easy to install and easy to configure and maintain.
The second best in my opinion is Debian.
It does NOT depend on what you want. Slackware is the best and there is nothing else to be said.
If you are not willing to open your mind to a different way of thinking, don’t bother. All the mentioned software really worth your time has a linux alternative. But I’m not going to bother…
CentOS is the best OS of course!
Vectorlinux, by golly! And Jove! Also by Jove!
No contest, the best Linux distro is RedHat. It has the longest lifetime, run’s Oracle with support, and has the most optimized kernel.
Solaris is the best Linux distro…
Not only can you see the source (more and more being added over time, please be patient), but it’s also free! And, it’s a real UNIX, unlike FreeBSD/LINUX, et. al.
The reason I can post this is because there is precedence…there was a vote for FreeBSD as the best LINUX distro.
Word.
GENTOO LINUX!Warning not for noobs!if you want more from your computer,Use Gentoo Linux.Everyhing works,you can find every program in Gentoo’s archive no broken downloads,Portage does everything for you genkernel compiles even your kernel for you!Latest programs and security patches!GREAT COMMUNITY!Instant support!Professional Linux is GENTOO!
ps:i have used about 20 different distros in last five years and almost tried all live cd distros.
It’s like asking “what’s the best color?” or “what’s the tastiest food?” There might be a wide consensus that chartreuse is pretty awful or that vegemite tastes nasty, but otherwise the answer to the question is basically “it depends on what you like”.
As far as a server OS, is Fedora as robust as Debian?
Sourceforge and Wikipedia use Fedora as server.
have only played a little with Vector and I like what I see…a LOT!
but i have to remain a debianite
even if Ian has been freaking me out here lately!
I’d like to use Ubuntu on my hp5000z (good documentation, and how to’s) but still not %100 (power management mostly). Distros have gotten really good, but something like autopackage for new programs and drivers would be really nice…I’ve gotten too lazy to thinker around and distro hopping.
My favorite is Gentoo GNU/Linux.
“There is no best, or the others wouldn’t exist.”
That is the best comment in this thread, and yet the other comments continue to exist.
I prefer Arch Linux, but there are lots of other Distros that i like, too.
… well Kubuntu seems pretty nice to me, although I haven’t tried it yet. I used Slackware for about 3 months, and although it’s wickedly fast, there’s just something “missing” from it (probably an auto-update tool of some sort – if it exists, pardon me, I didn’t know). Plus I don’t like the fact that it revolves around one man… I’d prefer a more community-driven distro. The same could be said for the Linux Kernel, true that, but that’s still a bit different IMO. Anyhow, that’s just personal preference. I may try out VectorLinux to see what all the hype is all about…
Gentoo Stage 3 failed to install on my PC more times than I can count… with detailed handbook and all – it’s just too hard for n00bs like me. Plus I managed to format my 120GB hard drive in some weird format (it lost 3 GB or so). So that experience left me wanting something easier. Although I like thinkering with my PC, when installing an O.S., I want it to be as pain free as possible. Someone should make at least a text-based menu for Gentoo if they want to capture a larger audience.
I’ve been thinking of installing SUSE 9.3, but after hearing so many RPM horror stories… I’m not so sure. It’s still getting high scores in most reviews though, so maybe some people exaggerate a little and I should give it a try some day. I’m staying away from RedHat/Fedora and clones because of their policies which I don’t agree with. That leaves me with Debian-based distro’s, notably Kubuntu for its supposedly very n00b-friendly focus. I don’t want to try smaller non-mainstream distro’s as their future is almost always in doubt and support is usually not there.
Hopefully this gives an insight into what a current Winbloze XP SP2 user thinks about the current Linux distro’s. It’s by no means “everyone’s view” and shouldn’t be regarded that way. Feel free to add your constructive comments. 🙂
nice debian based distro for noobs…. DEBIAN!!!!
or Libranet, or even Xandros if you must
The best Linux distro is MSLinux. Duh!
http://www.mslinux.org/
Linus, last I heard, uses Mandrake PPC on his G5
maybe mslinux should fund XPDE so they will have the total package….
if there is a person right now who knows about Linux is Patrick Volkerding. Period.
Slackware, hands down!
– 2501
pffft. everyone knows it’s slack.
/not 2501
Slackware.
Thanks Pat.
Although i do agree that there is no “Best OS” my favourite by far is Gentoo !!!!
Why so many ubuntu fans?
It never took on my boxes, possibly because I use stock bios settings. I like simply MEPIS 2004.06 , 331t1 and a version between those two the best because everthing just works. KANOTIX gives me much success for laptops and might be perfect for german speakers as they occasionally flunk english-izing it.
Some things seem to go backwards on some dostro’s lately especially since I’m now using the 7004 driver for my canon pixma ip2000 as the 7000 driver won’t go, and am suffering bad color unless I reboot and use those wonderful w98 drivers. Also the recent trend where I need to fix /etc/x11 resolutions and sources.list gets annoying. Occasionally we need some backsliding elsewhere to fix security bugs but this year things went mostly backwards.
Why ubuntu?
Most of users begins using linux on desktop. Yes, it’s true! Linus is used first by curiosity, ubuntu offers a great desktop system without the headaches of debian vanilla, slackware and with no dependencies of enterprises. It’s like an OS maded by users for users.
I personally like fedora and slackware, but ubuntu is a great choice, just ready for desktop and mainly for laptops with suspend-to-ram and suspend-to-disk ready to use. It has more than 15K packages on repositories, it’s very important.
In truth desktop users can choose only your desktop system for now. Gnome, KDE, Xpde, fluxbox, etc.. There are only small diferences beyond this. On servers there are less diferences than that, apache is basically the same on every distribution, squid, mysql, postgresql, postfix… and other softwares too.
Archlinux for me is the best. Once you try pacman you fall in love with it. Arch runs like hell in my box, even faster than slackware 10.1 . God bless P. Volkerding and J. Vinet.
“more than 15K packages on repositories”
yea but how many actually install and work without conflicts?
Well this article is good peice of No BS statement that what ever works or rocks your boat use it.
I love PC-BSD but i have to relearn all the differences from Mandrake/debian/WBEL
Also you have to dodge the hardware minefield. The system I use as a server has problems shuting down. SME server 6 good
WBEL 3 add halt -p to shutdown; chaos4 wont shut down. (iPAQ733)
So reguardless of what your disto is you may have to stop using it if you cant resolve hardware problems.
Also i try and use a distro that comes out of the box with the stuff i need to use.
Down With Pattents!!!(dam MP3’s time to go OGG)
been re-ripping all my music into ogg, lord help i never realized how many cds i had
Zonealarm pro
Tiny personaly firewall(I run both)
Why the heck..?
Solaris is the best Linux distro…
Not only can you see the source (more and more being added over time, please be patient), but it’s also free! And, it’s a real UNIX, unlike FreeBSD/LINUX, et. al.
The reason I can post this is because there is precedence…there was a vote for FreeBSD as the best LINUX distro.
Why do people talk this crap? *BSD aren’t [Linux] distro’s nor is Solaris. Please people shut up if you only talk nonsence.
Kanotix – when only the best will do!
I’ve been using Debian now for several years and I have always used a Debian proper system. Ubuntu works well, but Debian repositories will break the system. Kanotix is cool, but a new project that just released an ISO seems to be cool.
http://www.debianpure.com
This project doesn’t claim to be a distribution, rather just a modified Debian installer image with options to install KDE or Gnome locally or over the web. Ubuntu is pretty much the same thing but they are not using pure Debian debs and they only offer Gnome installation from CD. Anyways, I downloaded a copy of the ISO from this new site and gave it a run. It doesn’t install quite as smooth as Ubuntu, but it’s pretty close and it does leave you with a Debian proper system and pretty much all the features Ubuntu offers.