Which Linux distribution is the best?

I was asked that question recently, and this is my reply:

Which Linux is “best” depends on what you need. Every Linux is essentially the same – they are all Linux. They all have the same software available. The main differences in increasing order of importance are:

• which software they install as “standard” (easy to change)
• which software they make available through their software channels (harder to change)
• which features they configure install as “standard” (can be hard to change)
• the package manager used for adding and removing software (very hard to change)

The package manager is the most important thing. The package managers tend to be very different since they address different needs.

Gentoo is the most technically advanced Linux because its package manager builds software from source code that is optimised to the hardware and according to your desired features.

Nobody tells you what you should include with Gentoo. You do it all yourself. So when you are finished and have done it properly, your computer or server is the fastest and most stable it can possibly be.

Gentoo is my favourite, the one I use every day and am using right now, but it is the hardest to learn and to maintain. Once you are an expert you can install a new server (without graphical desktop) in one day or a new desktop computer in two, mainly because it takes a long time to build everything from source code.

Unfortunately, Gentoo has the most rude behaviour in its help forums. I have seen it, read people complaining about it, and experienced it myself. It seems that once people master such a difficult and technically superior distribution they then look down on (and insult) people who ask questions. These rude people are a minority, but a large enough one to give many people a bad experience when seeking help. So I have accepted that to use Gentoo means you read other people's questions (don't ask your own) and if you can't find anyone else asking what you need to know then just figure it out yourself.

Ubuntu (and derivatives like Kubuntu) is the “user friendliest” Linux. You can have it running within 20 minutes. The installation is attractive and clear (at least in English), giving a good first impression. Ubuntu is well supported and has a pretty good software selection in its package manager; not as much as Gentoo and they usually do not have the newest versions as quickly as Gentoo, but even so it is quite good.

The worst part about Ubuntu is upgrading. When they go from version 7 to 8 to 9 to 10 to 11, it always seems to fail in some way and usually leaves me at a command prompt to figure out what went wrong. The latest upgrade to 11 was better, the only thing it messed up with setting my boot loader to a proper kernel image, and I won't be too hard on Ubuntu for that since I have 4 Linux distributions defined in my GRUB configuration. But even on laptops where Ubunto was the only thing installed I've had the upgrades go poorly.

So the advice I give people is not to upgrade until they have someone capable on-hand to do it for them or help if something goes wrong. If you just keep to the version you install, install the updates for it but don't do a major version upgrade, my experience has been all positive, and I've heard the same from others.

There are many forums where you can get help, including from the Canonical company itself, and I've never heard any complaints about rudeness like with Gentoo. However, I will also say that I don't use Ubuntu very often, so I haven't been on their forums very often.

Sabayon is a Linux that takes Gentoo's technical advantages and tries to make it as friendly as Ubuntu. They do a very good job of making upgrades smooth, but occasionally there are upgrades that cause problems (although less than Ubuntu and usually with less serious impact on your system). If you want to learn some things about Gentoo but want the “user friendly” aspect of Ubuntu, Sabayon is a good choice. The negative part of Sabayon is that there are fewer people using it so you will not have millions of people you can go to for advice like you can for Ubuntu or Gentoo. I believe there are Sabayon forums, but I have never used them.

All of these distributions are essentially the same: they all derive from the Red Hat list of packages. The differences, as I have observed are:

• Red Hat is the commercial (i.e., with support and very expensive) Linux targeted at large Enterprise that requires support. In order to keep things stable, Red Hat does not update software very often except for bug fixes. As a result, the software packages tend to be quite old (most packages seem to be several years out of date).
• CentOS and ScientificLinux both take the Red Hat software (which is open source), build (compile) it, and bundle it in a way that matches the official Red Hat distribution in all but name and support.
• Fedora is the “early release” of the next Red Hat version where they test things. People who want Red Hat with more current software will use Fedora.

I have all four of these Linux distributions on my laptop using the GRUB¹⁾ to allow me to boot whichever one I want. In the past I also had Windows XP as a boot option, but having an entire O/S just so I could use it not even 1% of the time to test web site designs with MSIE was a waste of resources.

I use Gentoo the most (95% of the time) because my goal is to get work done quickly and to have a stable environment and using Gentoo with KDE 3.5 gives me that. I use Sabayon when I want to run some software in the newer KDE 4 desktop. The last two – Ubuntu and CentOS – I normally only use when working with a person or company that is using one of them.