My opinion of which Distro of Linux is best has changed over the years. I’ve been using Linux in various roles for several years now, and I just wanna give my thoughts for what they’re worth.
If you are looking for a very flexible distro with the ability to do just about anything without having to learn a bunch of stuff then Fedora is my suggestion.
Fedora is a very able desktop distribution of Linux if albeit it doens’t have the polish of some of the other distros. What it lacks in polish it more than makes up for in software availability. I would say it sticks to the old montra: Form Follows Function. Fedora is Function oriented first and foremost. I have used Fedora as a LAMP server for many years now and would say it is a GREAT product in that role. I have also used it as a jabber server (XMPP), an LTSP Server, a DHCP Server, a Content Filtering Proxy Server (Squid/Dansguardian), VoIP Server (Ventrilo/Team Speak) and have hosted a number of online game platforms. In each case, I have found Fedora to be well supported to fill these roles. I have found the repositories to be well maintained and easy to use. I like YUM, but some use APT.
Perhaps the only downside I have of Fedora is it’s a little TOO bleeding edge. It’s funded in part of Redhat, who uses the distro as a proving ground for it’s own product line. If you want the long term support of Redhat but without the cost involved in Redhat’s product, then CentOS is a good choice.
Moving on, I have used OpenSuSE and have found it to be a good choice for general use. OpenSuSE reminds me of my limited experience with Mac OSX. I find it a Good distro, but not a Great distro. I have no specific critisism other than to say it just never was able to keep my attention very long. I would not hesitate to install it on a non-techy person’s pc. It’s user friendly and it seems stable enough. It has a fairly long upgrade cycle so that helps.
While I am not a great fan of Ubuntu per se I do think that Ubuntu-based Mint Linux is certainly my distro of choice for a Windows replacement home computer. I can’t imagine anything that I can’t do and do with flair on this distro. You don’t gotta be “geek” to use it as it’s extremely user friendly. It also has very well maintained repositories. What I like is they went ahead and included all the “gray” packages that EVERYONE uses anyways. You can watch a DVD out of the box. I am VERY much a supporter of FOSS but let’s face it: What good is a home PC if you can’t watch DVD’s on it? For those of you that don’t know it, Windows doesn’t play DVD’s out of the box either. It NEVER has. You have to buy WinDVD or Nero or whatever to do so. Must manufacturers include that software with your PC so many folks assume Windows has the functionality. It doesn’t.
At the moment, I would say these are your three best choices for a Windows Replacement box. There are MANY other fine distro’s out there, each with their proper roles (vis. Freedom). Gentoo is great but I think way to “Geek” for the average user. Debian strikes me as more of a server solution.
