Linux is an outstanding operating system, with so many different distributions and flavors of Linux you have a very wide selection to choose from. While having so many different flavors to choose from can be nice, sometimes it’s hard to pick which one is the right one for you. In this article I will show you a few of the more popular Linux distributions, ranging from easy to use and beginner friendly to distributions more suited for more experienced Linux users.
Let’s start the list of with some of the more user friendly forms of Linux.
Ubuntu
Quite possibly one of the most popular distributions these days, Ubuntu manages to be one of the most user friendly distributions while still keeping a lot of the same tools that other flavors of Linux have. Whenever anyone says that want to try out Linux I always recommend they use Ubuntu to start out with. It’s incredibly easy to use and teaches you the basics of Linux very well without overwhelming you.
Linux Mint
Linux Mint is based off of the Ubuntu distribution, so it is a lot like Ubuntu in many ways. What separates Linux Mint from Ubuntu is Linux Mint strives to have a better out of the box experience by having many of the things you’d need such as media codecs, browser plugins, Java and DVD playback support already installed.
Fedora
Fedora is a project designed by Red Hat and is very open with the community, all development is done in a public forum to where the community can give feedback and help change and shape Fedora. While Fedora is relatively easy to use it’s still quite a bit more advanced than either Ubuntu or Linux Mint. I typically suggest Fedora to anyone who’s looking for a stepping stone from Ubuntu into the more powerful and advanced Linux distributions.
And now for a few of the more advanced distributions.
Slackware
Having been released in 1993, Slackware is the oldest surviving Linux distribution. Slackware is one of the most powerful Linux distributions available, you have complete control over every aspect of your operating system. While having so much power is great, if you don’t know what you’re doing you could really mess up your system, so Slackware is recommended for the more experienced Linux users.
Gentoo
Gentoo is one of the fastest Linux distributions available, what makes Gentoo so fast is it’s unique packaging system called “Portage”, which compiles it’s packages from source code rather than from a pre-built binary package, compiling from source code has the distinct advantage of allowing you to add or change options to the installation in order to fully optimize the program for your computer. The downside to compiling from source code is the long install times, some times taking as long as 4 hours.
Arch Linux
The goal of Arch Linux is to be lightweight, simple and fast. When installing Arch Linux you have to manually install much of the system, which allows you to pick and choose what you want installed, giving you an operating system that is completely personal and tailored to your needs. The downside to Arch’s manual installation is it’s complexity for beginners and the time it takes to sort through all of the options when installing.
There you have it, 6 great Linux distributions to choose from. These 6 are just a few of my favorite ones, there’s literally hundreds more out there and more being made all the time, so go check them out and see which one is the best for you.
