Comparison of the 10 major Linux distros

[Wally Balljacker]

http://www.linuxforums.org/reviews/over ... tions.html

He takes a good look at: Debian, Slackware, Fedora, Mandriva, Suse, Ubuntu, Knoppix, Gentoo, Mepis and Xandros. Great reference for new users trying to decide which distro to use.

[Tsuroerusu]

In this month's issue of Tux magazine there's a Distro Smackdown!

'ey SUSE may not have won, but it scored a pretty darn good rating!

[jamathis]

It's interesting that their only complaint about Ubuntu wasn't even about the distro itself, just the business model of the company. I've been using it for a few months now on my laptop and my fastest desktop and have no complaints so far.

[Tsuroerusu]

It's interesting that their only complaint about Ubuntu wasn't even about the distro itself, just the business model of the company.

I'm also somewhat skeptical of Mark Shuttleworth's plan with the upcoming Ubuntu "Dapper Drake" being the first "enterprise-class" version of Ubuntu. I'm having a hard time believing that businesses would pick Ubuntu over well supported, well proven distros from companies such as Red Hat and Novell (SUSE). AFAIK both Red Hat and Novell's products are EAL4 certified, SUSE has both the EAL4 and CGL2.0 cerfications, which may not mean a lot to us as geeks, but it sure gives businesses a lot more confidense in using that software.

One of my primary complaints is about all the Ubuntu fanboys, a lot of them are very much like Apple fanboys by being like "Ubuntu rocks, everything else sucks, Ubuntu! Ubuntu!! Ubuntu!!!".
One reason why I'm quite positive about Fedora Core 5 is that it includes Mono and Mono-based apps, personally I think stuff like F-Spot totally 0wnz gThumb's ass, Banshee is a very nice and clean music player, and the one really like is Beagle, the desktop search, which now also has a KDE frontend and decent KDE integration.

[jamathis]

I definitely wouldn't call myself and Ubunutu fanboy. I like it a lot but I also like Red Hat/Fedora. I really couldn't see Ubuntu being used in an enterprise setting. I think that's best left to Red Hat and SuSe.

[Tsuroerusu]

I definitely wouldn't call myself and Ubunutu fanboy. I like it a lot but I also like Red Hat/Fedora.

I never accused you of being one, and I will say that with GNOME 2.14 and Fedora Core 5, I'm a lot more positive towards both of those. One thing that frustrates me is that Red Hat does such a good job at making their KDE slap the users in the face in terms of how KDE looks, because that BlueCurve theme REALLY reaches up and shouts "HEY LOOK AT ME, I'M UGLY!!".

I really couldn't see Ubuntu being used in an enterprise setting. I think that's best left to Red Hat and SuSe.

Yeah, businesses are already moaning about there being to many distros of Linux, why reinvent the wheel, and by the way if you look at Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu, Red Hat and SUSE are over 10 years old, Ubuntu is just about two years I think, I think that is certainly in the minds of businesses when they're going to pick a Linux distro.
Also, does Ubuntu have a hardware certification program or something in that direction? Both Red Hat and Novell have big-ass certification, high-end workstations and servers from Dell, HP, IBM.... are certified for use with their distros, and we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of pieces of hardware. Mark has some catching up to do

[jamathis]

I definitely wouldn't call myself and Ubunutu fanboy. I like it a lot but I also like Red Hat/Fedora.

I never accused you of being one, and I will say that with GNOME 2.14 and Fedora Core 5, I'm a lot more positive towards both of those. One thing that frustrates me is that Red Hat does such a good job at making their KDE slap the users in the face in terms of how KDE looks, because that BlueCurve theme REALLY reaches up and shouts "HEY LOOK AT ME, I'M UGLY!!".

I really couldn't see Ubuntu being used in an enterprise setting. I think that's best left to Red Hat and SuSe.

Yeah, businesses are already moaning about there being to many distros of Linux, why reinvent the wheel, and by the way if you look at Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu, Red Hat and SUSE are over 10 years old, Ubuntu is just about two years I think, I think that is certainly in the minds of businesses when they're going to pick a Linux distro.
Also, does Ubuntu have a hardware certification program or something in that direction? Both Red Hat and Novell have big-ass certification, high-end workstations and servers from Dell, HP, IBM.... are certified for use with their distros, and we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of pieces of hardware. Mark has some catching up to do

Yeah, I know you weren't. I'm not aware of any kind of certification for Ubuntu. That's not to say they won't try for one of course. But it would be an uphill battle for them due to the large install-base of Red Hat and SuSe in enterprise environments. I'm sure most IT department managers wouldn't switch over from something proven to work for over a decade to the "new kid on the block" so to speak.

[snarkout]

The "Distro Smackdown" was weak.

[dennis999]

One of my primary complaints is about all the Ubuntu fanboys, a lot of them are very much like Apple fanboys by being like "Ubuntu rocks, everything else sucks, Ubuntu! Ubuntu!! Ubuntu!!!".
One reason why I'm quite positive about Fedora Core 5 is that it includes Mono and Mono-based apps, personally I think stuff like F-Spot totally 0wnz gThumb's ass, Banshee is a very nice and clean music player, and the one really like is Beagle, the desktop search, which now also has a KDE frontend and decent KDE integration.

F-Spot, Beagle, Mono stuff has been in the Breezy Repositories for months. It will come with Dapper.

Ubuntu works for me, sorry if you can't handle it's popularity.

[Tsuroerusu]

F-Spot, Beagle, Mono stuff has been in the Breezy Repositories for months. It will come with Dapper.

I actually did know that, but were they in Fedora Core 4? No, they were not.

Ubuntu works for me,

Well then that is what you should be using, whatever works best for you is what you should be using.

sorry if you can't handle it's popularity.

Sure I can, I just can't handle the fanboys, the same way I can't stand Apple and Windows fanboys. That's not to say that SUSE or Fedora fanboys don't exist, because they certainly do.

[mrben]

F-Spot, Beagle, Mono stuff has been in the Breezy Repositories for months. It will come with Dapper.

I actually did know that, but were they in Fedora Core 4? No, they were not.

And you can find out why they turned up in Core 5 by listening to LUGRadio S3E12

FWIW I'm a Debian/Ubuntu user, and I still think that package management rules the day. When I used Fedora (back in Core 3 IIRC) I found it confusing to have up2date, yum and apt-rpm, and often couldn't find a package that I needed in any of them. I suspect that this has been sorted by now, but it was a significant problem for me then.

re: Ubuntu in enterprise level - I think that this move is something that was always going to happen from a Canonical point of view, even if it wasn't on the radar with Ubuntu. What companies are often looking for is actually the pledge of continued security patching and updates - support is another question entirely. That is was is being promised with Dapper Drake - a set software lifetime. Seperating that from your support process is quite an attractive promise for businesses.

[Gomer_X]

F-Spot, Beagle, Mono stuff has been in the Breezy Repositories for months. It will come with Dapper.

I actually did know that, but were they in Fedora Core 4? No, they were not.

FWIW I'm a Debian/Ubuntu user, and I still think that package management rules the day. When I used Fedora (back in Core 3 IIRC) I found it confusing to have up2date, yum and apt-rpm, and often couldn't find a package that I needed in any of them. I suspect that this has been sorted by now, but it was a significant problem for me then.

This has been drastically improved in FC4, and FC5 is even better. I'd say package management in Fedora is very nearly as good as Debian/Ubuntu by now.

The confusing mix of up2date/yum/whatever has been a problem for a while now. I suppose it's just different priorities. I'm just glad the default Firefox install now has links to the Fedora site rather than the Red Hat site.

As far as the Mono stuff goes, I really haven't had a chance to try it.

[Tsuroerusu]

And you can find out why they turned up in Core 5 by listening to LUGRadio S3E12

I've already listened to that, very interesting indeed.

This has been drastically improved in FC4, and FC5 is even better. I'd say package management in Fedora is very nearly as good as Debian/Ubuntu by now.

I agree with you on that, I'm running Fedora on my Mac mini right now, and I do "yum install something" with the same ease that I do "apt-get install something" on my Xbox which is running Debian. Lots of good repositories for Fedora, lots of good stuff. Props to Fedora for great PPC support!

As far as the Mono stuff goes, I really haven't had a chance to try it.

Definitely take a look at Beagle and F-Spot, those two are fantastic applications, Banshee is a little effy it crashes on me a few times, but it's a very nice and simple music player with playlists and stuff.

[Gomer_X]

As far as the Mono stuff goes, I really haven't had a chance to try it.

Definitely take a look at Beagle and F-Spot, those two are fantastic applications, Banshee is a little effy it crashes on me a few times, but it's a very nice and simple music player with playlists and stuff.

Beagle: no use to me. I know where my stuff is. I work across 4 systems including my laptop and Windows machine at work. I've come up with a pretty good organization scheme over the years.

Anything I need to access from more than one place (web stuff and programming projects plus my journal) I have in a CVS repo on my server and just check my changes in and out.

F-Spot: Well, I may look at this. I have my photos somewhat organized and don't currently use my camera much at all, though.

Banshee: not interested. The few times I listen to music on the computer Totem does OK.

[jsusanka]

Beagle: no use to me. I know where my stuff is. Very Happy I work across 4 systems including my laptop and Windows machine at work. I've come up with a pretty good organization scheme over the years.

I can't say how much I agree with this - if people just kept things organized there would be no need.

my email has search in it and I use that occassionally - but I think this whole desktop search thing it totally overblown - but I blame the apple fanboys for that.