Linux:

People use the name Linux to refer to a free OS (operating system) using the linux kernel. Linux provides an alternative to Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and UNIX as both a desktop and server OS. Linux comes in many different "distributions" which are essentially packages of the linux kernel with a bunch of useful software to form a UNIX-like operating system. Although all distributions have certain things in common, one could say that they are more different from each other than some distributions are from certain commercial OS's.

Everyone has their own feelings on linux distributions. Mine is simple: I like gentoo linux, except in special cases. This server is running gentoo linux; every computer I own has gentoo linux installed on it. Gentoo linux is a source-based distribution with a highly-developed package system called "portage" that automatically downloads, configures, compiles, and installs packages.

My favourite advantages of gentoo are:

• Package System - Gentoo's package system is easy to use and extremely powerful.
• Up-to-date - Gentoo's stable branch is very up-to-date, and is updated on a continuous basis instead of being held back until the official release date.
• Stable/Secure - The stable branch is well-tested, the default installation is minimal, the distribution's organizers keep an active watch on security, and gentoo supports many advanced security features.
• Supportive User Base - Gentoo attracts a highly skilled and helpful user base, many of whom participate in the gentoo forums.
• Ease of Configuration - Gentoo requires all configuration to be done manually, but configuration files are easy to read and in logical places. There are no GUI interfaces that generate ugly configuration files.
• Potential for Optimization - Gentoo allows you to optimize all software for your specific hardware, and also build-in support for only the libraries and programs that you wish to use, keeping your system fast and efficient.

Disadvantages of Gentoo:

• Requires up-to-date hardware - Although gentoo can be compiled on Pentium-1's with 64MB RAM, the process takes days to weeks. You can get around this by distributed compiling or compiling the whole OS on another machine and then copying or swapping the hard drive. Gentoo is not for the very old computers (although I will point out that it can be installed quite painlessly on Pentium III's with 128MB RAM).
• Requires a fast network connection - Using gentoo effectively depends on being able to frequently download source code to programs. If you are using a dial-up connection, or aren't on the internet, you are better suited to go with a more static distribution.
• Requires a lot of skill - Although gentoo is easy to learn, you need to want to learn it, and you need to be good at problem solving. If you do not want to put a considerable amount of time into understanding the internals of your system, gentoo is not the OS for you.

My Opinion of Other Linux Distributions:

These are my opinions and they are based on feeling more than careful logic; I only review distribution that I have had extensive experience with (i.e. installed more than 3 times, worked with administering in some respect for at least a month).

• RedHat (7.2, 9, Enterprise 3) - RedHat is very easy to install, but very bloated and not stable. It seems easy to administer because of all its GUI tools, but if you need to modify files by hand, the GUI tools won't recognize these changes, which is a major flaw. RedHat is also very lacking in console administration tools--if you don't want to use the GUI you have to do most things by hand. RedHat also has some serious stability/sanity issues, such as including unstable and experimental features (even in its enterprise edition). Its package management system is severely lacking when installing packages that are not included in the official distribution. By the way, if you are considering using RedHat Enterprise edition (for example, for compatibility issues, or just because you like it) and want a free, community-based distribution, you might check out CentOS, which I've happily used. However, overall I do not recommend RedHat for anything, even newcomers.
• SUSE/Novell (9.0, 9.1, 9.2, Open Enterprise Server) - SUSE (recently acquired by Novell) is a lot like RedHat; easy to install, very bloated. Suse generally has a better grip on configuration than RedHat; YAST, its main configuration tool, is easy to use, runs in a console as well as with a GUI, and is better at integrating manual changes in config files. However, I've found that YAST has major stability issues--it freezes a lot (I've seen this problem in several different versions of SUSE, and also Novell) and sometimes even causes irreparable damage to the system, if it freezes when installing programs or changing key settings. I would not recommend SUSE for this reason.
• Debian (Woody) - I've had very good experiences with Debian. I have one very big complaint about it: its stable branch, "woody" is so incredibly out of date that it's unusable for some purposes. While the "unstable" branch is very reliable, I question the sanity of this model. Besides this, I love Debian--the text-based installer is fairly easy to use, although it can give a bit too much choice for total newcomers. Debian installs can be very light, and I've happily installed Debian on 486's and Pentium I's, to have them perfectly useable as servers and even desktops. I recommend Debian for installs on older hardware and for other setups in which Gentoo is not a good option.
• Ubuntu - Ubuntu markets itself as "linux for human beings" and it is just that--it's very easy to install and set up. It seems oriented mainly towards desktops. I've also found it is considerably faster than most other distributions. It has a few quirks (the default install has no root account, and there's no option to install KDE by default), but I would happily recommend it for new users.
• YellowDog - This is a RedHat-derived distirbution for ppc (macintosh) hardware. I haven't used it recently, but in its early days it was markedly superior to RedHat (less bloat, or perhaps the bloat was less apparent on the ppc architecture). I recommend it for any newcomers who want to install linux on ppc hardware.
• LinuxPPC - I've never had good luck with this distribution, and I've lived with it for a while, as well as installed it (over and over again on the same box) many times. The install gives you too much choice and gives you too many opportunities to screw up. I don't see any advantage to this distribution, because…well, if you are knowledgeable enough to get it to work right, you might as well go with gentoo. But then again, it was many years ago that I used it.

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