Picking the Best Open Source Project

I’m pretty sure I’ve addressed this before in some way or another, but I think it bears repeating. I’ve been seeing a new influx of posts on “which is the best distro?” and frankly it’s getting a bit dull.

Newsflash: there is no “best” distro. Every one has their strengths and their weaknesses and every one of them appeals to a slightly different audience. The 3 “daddies” of Linux are Slackware, Debian and Gentoo. Each one has a reputation for being hard to install and administer – wrongly, as over time they have all taken steps to make things easier. I have tried all three and, in my opinion, Slackware is the preferred option. Note those words: in my opinion. Speak to another Linux user and they will disagree – I know people who prefer Debian, Gentoo, Fedora, Ubuntu and so on. It is purely down to personal choice. I have tried a large number of different distros and have settled on Slackware. One is no less or more a Linux user because of the distro they use.

While we’re at it, Gnome and KDE are equally as good as each other, depending on what you want. KDE has more options but Gnome is designed to be more intuitive and easy to use. Oh, Vi/Vim and Emacs? It doesn’t matter which one you use. They both can do pretty much whatever you want them to do. Personally, I use KDE and Vi – though I use Nano more than Vi.

Are we getting the message yet?  Not only does it not matter which you use, no one actually cares.  Use what you want, for the reasons you want to use them.  Or don’t.  I use them and I use the ones I like, don’t care if you disagree or not.

So the next time someone asks you which is best, point them to this.  Or don’t, doesn’t bother me either way.