The six month update cycles of major Linux distributions guarantees that there will be plenty of fresh releases for every spring and fall. At the end of 2007 we ranked the best distributions of the year, but as most distros have been refreshed since it is time to have another look at the current Linux offering. In the past six months the development has been incremental, but with a few nice surprises as well.

As before our focus is on typical desktop and Internet usage, seeking an open-source alternative to Windows. We value a good out-of-the-box experience, polished desktop design and usability over other features.

The winner: openSUSE 11.0

openSUSE 11.0 is now at release candidate phase, with final version just around the corner, but it is already safe to say that this is THE distribution for the year 2008. openSUSE has put a lot of effort to KDE v4 implementation, but unfortunately the next generation KDE still feels premature and doesn’t seem to offer real additional value to for the end-user. I always prefer KDE over Gnome, so it was kind of a disappointment. Luckily openSUSE has the best implementation of Gnome, and the familiar KDE v3.5 is also available on the DVD.

Since the version 10.3 openSUSE has updated and improved the applications, now ships in installable live CDs and has dramatically improved the package management - both backend and the GUI. In all desktop versions everything looks very professional, and well laid out. Compiz 3D-desktop now works out-of-the-box in most configurations and overall the performance seems to be top notch. openSUSE 11 has everything that an average desktop users needs, outstanding configuration tools in YaST and plenty of features for office or corporate networks. OpenSUSE community offers one-click solutions for proprietary formats. The  community is very strong in every way, and the availability of packages and backports is excellent, so this distro has a pretty long life cycle. openSUSE is totally desktop ready and actully quite far ahead of the competition in many ways.

The 2nd: PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniMe

Some may see PCLOS as a strange selection for the 2nd place, but after plenty of consideration and using it trough the winter I just have to give it a lot of credit. PCLOS 2008 MiniMe is sort of a prologue for the upcoming full 2008 edition. It ships with a bare bone KDE v3.5 installation, with no additional applications - the user pulls the needed apps (Mozilla, OpenOffice and so on) from the repos using the familiar Synaptic package management. As a result the user has a very streamlined desktop system only with apps that he wants or needs. As such the MiniMe might not be the best choice if you are looking for your very first Linux as one has to understand the basics of Linux package management, even though it is a very simple process.

What makes PCLOS stand out is the stability and longevity. For me this has been the most realiable Linux distribution. It uses a rolling release strategy, so you do not have to upgrade or reinstall every six months, as the system stays always current just by applying the updates using Synaptic. PCLOS is somewhat conservative in updates, so the stability has remained good. On the other hand it seems that PCLOS is slightly lagging behind in Linux development and cannot me considered as a bleeding edge distro. The key applications are up-to-date but for example the kernel is typically couple of version behind. PCLOS is forked from Mandriva, but they have not systematically synchronized with Mandriva releases since their departure.

The 3rd: Mandriva One 2008.1 Spring

If you know absolutely nothing about Linux, but you wish to try the better operating system, then Mandriva’s latest is a top contender. It comes with excellent hardware support (best in my experience), beautifully designed desktop and easy to use Windows-like configuration tools. Mandriva is a KDE v3.5 oriented distro, but the Gnome implementation is decent as well. The downside of Mandriva is that the life cycle of the releases seem pretty short, and in my opinion the community is not very strong compared to Suse or Ubuntu. It is kind of a shame that Mandriva doesn’t get the attention it deserves, since in many ways it is a better system for the Windows refugees than the over hyped Ubuntu.

The 4th: Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

To me the Ubuntu just continues not to impress. As usual it comes with the ugly brown looks and quite spartan Gnome desktop. Also my subjective opinion is that the quality and stability of Ubuntu releases has decreased in the past two or three generations. I think the decision to ship an updated 8.04.1 version later this year, which should be “enterprise quality”, is a clear indication that this release has some rough edges.

So why is Ubuntu high on the 4th place then? First of all it is still a decent distribution, that is quite easy to use and supports a lot of hardware, even though it is not worth the hype and is showcases nothing exceptional. The Hardy Heron release has some serious edge over the competition: It is a so called LTS (Long Term Support) release with 3 years of updates for the desktop edition and 5 years for the server! This offer is simply unmatched by any recent desktop distribution. The LTS status of this release will also guarantee that there will be many Ubuntu Hardy based distributions on the market, most notable perhaps being the Linux Mint which corrects many of the faults complained here regarding the look and feel of the desktop. Besides the long life-cycle, the popularity and media attention of Ubuntu has made it very popular, which means that it has the strongest community, with user groups in many countries. In the non-commercial software world, the support of a local community is priceless.

Final words

That wraps it up for the spring of 2008 - openSUSE wins, second time in a row. Obviously there are many other potential distributions out there and actually the amount of choice is almost overwhelming. We try to help the people that are looking for an alternative to Windows, and in our opinion these are the most potential choices for that purpose. They all have their higlights and weaknesses, but overall the offering of openSUSE seems most complete.