Choosing The Right Linux Distro

Right out of the gate, I agree with this article’s statement that eventually, most IT pros will be facing Linux at some point. It’s simply too cost effective not to come up. But there remains the issue of trying to decide which distro is the best choice for your needs?

This can be a tricky dance, between wants and needs. Usability and support. And of course price. For the most part, price is not really an issue with Linux unless you are investing in outside support from open source consultants. In most cases, price is not really a factor.

Big issues for most people, comes down to the desktop environment, package management and yes, hardware support. Even though people like to think that the hardware support is basically the same across the board, I have found a number of distros using their own customized kernels. And often this means adding their own take on some hardware support.