Monday, December 15 2008 @ 01:45 PM EST Contributed by: sde
I am frequently asked by family and friends why there are so many Linux distributions, and how one should go about making an informed choice between them. I will not attempt to comment on the first question, other than to say that it is because it can be done, and that is one of the things that makes Linux so wonderful. The second question, though, got me thinking about the breadth of Linux distributions, and that is something worth discussing.
The way that I look at it, Linux distributions run across a rather wide scale. At one end of the scale are what I see as the "base" distributions. The best known of these are probably Debian and Slackware. If you have the time, knowledge, desire and patience you can start with one of these and add exactly the packages that you need. The advantage is that you end up with a tight system that doesn't contain a lot of stuff you don't want. The disadvantage, of course, is that you have to find, download and install almost everything yourself, and you are taking on the responsibility to keep up with patches and updates (of course some will look at that last point as being an advantage).
