Choosing Linux Distro
Personal desktop
Dani Iswara
a newbie's perspective of main Linux distro

GNU/Linux
GNU
Linux (kernel) + OSS =
OS (GNU)
GNU/Linux + installer
+ OSS =
distribution (distro)
http://www.gnu.org/
GNU = GNU is not Unix; OSS = Open Source Software;
OS = operating system

GNU/Linux OS
Multipurpose
● Server
● Desktop
Special edition for special purpose

Main Linux Distro
● Debian GNU/Linux
● Fedora (RHEL)
● Gentoo
● Mandriva
● OpenSUSE (Novell SLE)
● Slackware
RHEL = Red Hat Enterprise Linux; SLE = SUSE Linux Enterprise

Debian GNU/Linux http://www.debian.org/

Debian GNU/Linux
● Incredible amounts of deb­based softwares
(>18733)
● Stable, unstable & testing version
● Conservative
● Easy of apt­get packaging sytem
● GNOME desktop
● Text­based (menuing system) installer
More: http://www.debian.org/intro/why_debian

Fedora
http://fedoraproject.org/

Fedora
● Incredible amounts of rpm­based softwares
● Latest software, upstream development
● Easy of yum packaging sytem
● GNOME desktop
● GUI installer
More: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Overview

Gentoo
http://www.gentoo.org/

Gentoo
● Source­based softwares
● Extreme configurability & performance
● Easy of emerge packaging system (portage)
● XFCE desktop (2008)
● GUI, text­based installer, stage
More: http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/about.xml

Mandriva
http://www.mandriva.com/

Mandriva
● rpm­based softwares
● Easy of Mandriva Control Center
● Easy of urpm packaging system
● KDE desktop
● GUI installer
More: http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Home

openSUSE
http://en.opensuse.org/

openSUSE
● YaST, easy & complete GUI configuration tool
● Latest softwares
● GNOME & KDE equal support
● GUI installer
More: http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:About

Slackware
http://www.slackware.com/

Slackware
● Source­based (tgz) packaging system
● Almost pure/generic, most Unix­like
● No deadline for each version
● Stable & simple
● KDE desktop
● Text­based (menuing system) installer
More: http://www.slackbook.org/html/introduction­slackware.html

Which one?
Are you hobbyist, networker, student?
Hardware requirements
Try with liveCD/DVD
Find the community support
Don't like it? Try the others
It's free

You are free to share (copy, distribute, transmit) & adapt this work
under the similar license Creative Commons Attribution­
Noncommercial­Share Alike 3.0 Unported
(CCA­NC­SA 3.0 Unported)
Dani Iswara
daniiswara@gmail.com
http://daniiswara.net/
Last updated: December 2008