[TriLUG] Followup to last Thurs. roundtable

[Scott G. Hall]

I wanted to give you guys a heads up on some additional material to help
decide which Linux is right for you.

A quick reference comparison from Linux Migration:
http://www.linuxmigration.com/quickref/install/linux.html

A good descriptive overview list of the major distributions:
DistroWatch:  http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major
    "The bewildering choice and the ever increasing number of Linux
     distributions can be confusing for those of you who are new to Linux.
     This is why this page was created. It lists 10 distributions (plus a
     honourable mention of FreeBSD, by far the most popular of all of the
     BSDs), which are generally considered as most widely used by Linux
     users around the world. There are no figures to back it up and there
     are many other distributions that might suit your particular purpose
     better, but as a general rule, all of these are popular and have very
     active forums or mailing lists where you can ask questions if you get
     stuck. *MEPIS* and *Xandros* are considered the best for new Linux
     users who want to get productive in Linux as soon as possible without
     having to master all its complexities. On the other end of the spectrum,
     *Gentoo*, *Debian*, *Slackware* and *FreeBSD* are more advanced
     distributions that require plenty of learning before they can be used
     effectively. *Mandrake*, *Red Hat*, *Ubuntu* and *SUSE* can be
     classified as good "middle-road" distributions. *Knoppix* is a so-called
     live CD - it is great for trying out Linux without getting your hands
     dirty as it runs directly from a CD, no installation required. These
     distributions are listed in order of popularity on DistroWatch, which
     is NOT an indication of their market share or quality. As always,
     comments and suggestions are most welcome."

     - missing is Solaris-10:
       eWeek Review: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1775017,00.asp

Lineman.Net's comparison article: http://lineman.net/article156.html

Linux.Org's comparison article: http://linux.org.mt/article/which-linux

Another pointer to download resources: http://www.linuxiso.org/

For a comparison of the various Debian distros, see this Linux Magazine
article: http://www.linux-mag.com/content/view/45/2201/
(same one I passed out at the meeting)  Though, Xandros is missing from
this article.

A humourous, but appropos, article on the subject: /Really Linux/,
"Which Linux Flavor is Best?", http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/which.html

--
Scott G. Hall
Raleigh, NC, USA
ScottGHall at BellSouth.Net