I would like to give a top five list on something that I believe a lot of new people to Linux get really confused about when first jumping into the wide and varied world that is Linux. The top five things people need to remember when looking for in a Linux distribution. The many distributions of Linux to juggle through when going to a place like Distrowatch.com can be very confusing to a new person coming from the world of Windows or OS X. So here is top five list about things to look at when choosing a Linux distribution.

5. There are, for the most part, four core distributions that most distributions are forked from. Those distributions generally tend to be Slackware, Red Hat (aka Fedora), Debian, and Gentoo. Each distribution has a difference at its core in the way files are installed. Each file format has its strengths and weaknesses. Depending on how new to Linux you are and how much you are willing to spend time learning should be part of the decision on which distribution you choose.

• Gentoo: everything is installed from source
  • Strength: compiling from source gives the best performance out of your installed OS

  • Weakness: can take a long time to compile a complete system — sometimes days

• Slackware: installs from tgz files
  • Strength: one of the most stable and secure Linux distributions

  • Weakness: can be very intimidating to a new user

• Debian: installs from .Deb file
  • Strength: apt-get for installing programs

  • Weakness: depending on the distro fork, the community within Debian can be very vocal and not always in a good way, which can drive away new users

• Fedora (or Red Hat): installed from RPM
  • Strength: as the testing ground for RHEL, there are many cutting edge things within

  • Weakness: some would say that RPM is the major weakness (however, there have been major improvements)

4. How much time are you willing to spend, and do you prefer a GUI or do you prefer the command line? One major thing to remember in Linux is there are two ways of doing things and getting around. There is the command line and then there is the GUI — in the end it boils down to choice of wanting to learn menus or wanting to learn commands. Now to give an example, getting the right resolution sometimes requires opening up xorg and manually editing the file, however, if you’re setting up Nvidia graphics, there’s a settings manager GUI. How would you configure that file? Change it through manually editing or changing it by clicking? However, in answering that question, that’s where you should be looking for a possible distro.

3. Does the particular distribution you are thinking about trying fit your needs? A lot of the distributions within Linux are meant for specific tasks. For example a distribution like Ubuntu is meant for ease of use to a new user, whereas something like Backtrack 2 is meant for security penetration. So find the distribution that will fit best as to what you will be using it for.

2. How good is the hardware detection of the distribution you are using? Each distribution will detect something that other ones won’t or will and vice versa. Which leads me into my very first point

1. The number one thing to remember is that most distributions of Linux now use LiveCDs that can be downloaded and burned to CD or DVD. Place the disc into your computer and boot into a full Linux operating system. This is a great way to test out the distribution of your choice on your real hardware to see what will work and what will not.

The biggest thing with Linux is its all about choice. So research is key to choosing your Linux.