Editor Opinion of Distros
  Quick Favorite List

*Disclaimer - this list takes into consideration the distros that worked best for me. Some I would like to have had more experience with, but it wasn't to be.

Legend (in brackets):
ranked from one to five (5 being best) beside the distro name: speed optimization, package availability, spirit of open source, "out of the box" capabilities, ease of installation, ease of use.

Best possible score = 30
*notice that some of the distros I ranked higher actually scored lower - that is because I am basing the ranking on quality mainly

1 - Jamd 0.06b (4,3,5,4,5,4) = 25
2 - Arch (5,4,5,4,2,4) = 24
3 - Gentoo 1.4 (5,4,5,2,1,3) = 20
4 - Red Hat 9 (2,5,2,3,4,4) = 20
5 - College Linux 2.3 with Dropline Gnome (4,4,4,3,3,4) = 22
6 - Knoppix live 3.2/ install (3,4,4,4,3,4) = 18
7 - Suse 8.2 Pro (must use apt-get) = (1,3,2,4,4,4) = 18
8 - Elx 2.0 (3,3,3,3,3,3) = 18


The following is a list of Linux Distributions I have tried and what I think about each of them. Some of them I continue to use and others I have tried and then abandoned. These are only my humble opinions, others may disagree. As always, do your own research and come up with your own opinions. Nonetheless, here are my thoughts. *Click on the distribution name to access its home page if you like.

Arch - This is an i686 that I would recommend for intermediate linux users. If you are a beginner and are willing to do some reading, it is still a very possible install. The great thing about Arch is the ease of installing optimized packages. It uses only i686 repositories which means that you can easily get applications in a similar way to apt-get and still keep optimization. Arch uses a package manager called "pacman" which works great. The iso is available for download as a base package (gets you up and running but without major packages) and also a full iso that can allow you to install a pretty full working system. I have started an Arch Linux Guide but there will be more added to it in the future. There are some really good links there to the homepage and also to some excellent documentation.

College - A distribution based on Slackware 8.1. For more info on this distribution, visit my College Linux Guide. Also help is needed for this project so feel free to offer any help via the College Linux home page.

Red Hat - This is the distribution that I really first started with. I had previously tried Mandrake, but didn't really use it much due to it not being on my main system. Anyway, I first downloaded Red Hat 8 and I hated it. It was glitchy and nothing seemed to work right. I got kernel panics whenever I tried to use my burner and I was getting way more errors than I ever had in windows believe it or not. I soon (within a I soon (within a week) scrapped Red Hat 8 and decided to try Red Hat 7.3.

What a difference! Everything worked the way it was supposed to and I had no more freezing or kernel panics. I was completely impressed. It was only until recently that I begrudgingly switched to Red Hat 9. I only really did this because of the newer packages available and the dependency issues were driving me crazy with Red Hat 7.3 since a lot of the software was older and required many other files in order to be upgraded. I am quite happy with Red Hat 9 overall, but I still hold Red Hat 7.3 in high regard. This is a distribution that I would recommend to someone who is new to linux. It is fairly easy to use, there is a lot of support for it and it comes with pretty much every package you could ever want. If you decide to try this out, please follow the installation instructions on my guide - not one person yet has had a problem with using the method I suggest. *I have recently switched to Jamd - see my review below for the advantages of using it!

Vector - I only first tried this when I was in search of finding a distribution that I could use on my old P166 box. It had windows 98 on it but it was slow as molasses and plus I was (and am) sick of using windows. So I decided to try Vector. I created it as a dual boot system and I must say that Vector is pretty good - it runs a lot faster on that machine than windows. I do however, have some complaints. For one, upgrading is a real pain as it seems that all the files from the ftp server have seemed to have disappeared. Also, in an effort to support Vector in their pursuits, I ordered a copy via paypal. It has now been about 2 months and I still do not have my retail copy. I contacted the people running the Vector site and assured me that my copy was on the way and offered their apologies. However, it as been weeks since then and I still do no have my copy. Very irritating and not very good behavior on their part in the world of open source. UPDATE: I waited so long without receiving my package that I have requested that they credit my paypal account. They blame it on the mail system. I finally got my paypal money back after 2 and a half months!

Debian - Well, after hearing much about this, I did an install on my main computer a while back. The major advantage with using Debian is the package manager: apt-get. You can just open a terminal and type commands and any software you want will be added to your system. There is no need to download specific files or anything, and no worries about dependency errors. The mistake I made, however; was selecting the "stable" packages to download instead of what Debian considers "unstable". In my opinion, they are way too overcautious about what packages they consider unstable versus stable. For example, they consider Gnome 1.4 stable, but not any of the newer releases. Imagine my dismay when I rebooted after installing that plethora of packages and I was looking at old packages! Anyway, I take part of the blame for that since I could have done more research into package selection, but I also think Debian should explain that more clearly during the install process. Either way, I don't really have a solid opinion on Debian since I promptly removed it from my system and installed Red Hat 9.

Slackware - I have always wanted to try this distribution, however; I can never seem to get it to read the cd's I burn (on my backup system despite even getting a new cdrom!) or even when it does (on my main system) the install messes up. I have downloaded a ton of linux distrubitions so I am pretty used to burning iso's and such, but Slack just didn't want to work for me.

SuSE - I have tried a few versions of SuSE. On the surface and out of the box it looks fantastic. I even enjoyed using it while I did. My biggest complaint was the dependency hell it was to install or upgrade packages. I have used apt-get under SuSE and it made things a lot easier.

Gentoo - This is a very highly reputed version of linux and rightly so. If I ever abandoned Red Hat on my main system, I would go directly for Gentoo. The process of installing Gentoo is a learning experience in itself. For anyone who is interested in learning how linux works and has a fast internet connection, I would heartily going through the install process. There is documentation available on the Gentoo site if you are interested. Two of the best features of Gentoo are the "Emerge" function and the customization. Similiar to apt-get in Debian, Gentoo uses "Emerge". Emerge is actually easier to use than apt-get because you can simply enter "emerge" and then the name of the package you want to install. Again, it retrieves all of the dependencies needed and compiles and installs it optimally for your system. Which leads me to the next huge advantage in Gentoo. A lot of people talk about how fast Gentoo runs. This is because it downloads packages and installs them optimally for your system. Therefore when your packages are installed, they are customized to run as well as possible with your specific computer.

Elx - I just recently installed this (kde 3.x version) so I will have to report back later, however; so far I am quite pleased with it. The install process was easy and it offers the choice to install a bootloader or use a bootdisk. Some distributions do not have this option for some reason, so I was quite pleased that Elx had that feature. The desktop looks nicely customized and it appears to work quite well so far.

Jamd - Stands for Just Another Modified Distribution. Highly recommended! This is based on Red Hat 9, but is optimized for i686 machines. I highly recommend two things for this: get jamd 0.0.6b or higher and when it boots to be installed, type "advanced" so you can have some control over the installation process. This is what I am using on my main box right now - it is much faster than red hat, I can't see myself going back to rh now. Plus with their copyrighting issues and such it is quickly becoming less appealing. You can download Jamd here.

Lorma - This is another distribution based on Red Hat and optimized for i686. I found this to be a bit glitchy and slow which I found weird because it is supposed to be fast. Mozilla in this one does the double load thing that I mentioned earlier. Overall, I was not impressed, I see no reason to use this instead of Red Hat or better yet - Jamd.

Knoppix - I heartily recommend this distribution to anyone who wants to try out linux but doesn't have the room to install it on their computer or perhaps is using a family computer. I use the Knoppix 3.2 live cd for doing tech work. It is about 2GB of compressed data that decompresses on the fly and makes no changes to whichever computer on which you use it. Great idea! If you want to use the cd to an install on your hard drive, see this site!

Mandrake - I know people will disagree with me on this, but I have to say that in my experience Mandrake is bloated, glitchy and slow. I have tried several versions - 7, 8.2, 9, and 9.1 and they all gave me problems and I wasn't impresssed at all. Mandrake 9.1 looks really nice, but it sure didn't behave well for me and neither did the other versions.

Lycoris - This looks way too much like windows for my liking, but I decided to try it anyway. I installed it (without the use of a mouse) and it ironically behaved a lot like windows - it was buggy, crashed, and was bloated. I did not have a very good experience with it.