Linux Desktop Distro Shootout

An anonymous reader writes "InfoWeek has posted an open-source OS comparison. Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared pits openSUSE, Ubuntu 8.4, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva Linux One, Fedora, SimplyMEPIS, and CentOS 5.1 against each other. And the winner is ... Ubuntu. Author Serdar Yegulalp writes: 'Ubuntu 8.4 remains one of the best desktop distributions for many good reasons: it works with almost any hardware you throw at it, and has tons of features for both existing Linux users and prospective converts from Windows.' He also gave openSUSE points for ease of use on the desktop, and Mandriva kudos for ease of administration."

8.4?

[Anonymous Coward]

8.04.

why CentOS?

[trybywrench]

Isn't CentOS the free version of Redhat Enterprise Linux? Why is it in a desktop linux shootout?

Add free version.

[Anonymous Coward]

Here [informationweek.com]

Re:why CentOS?

[lgarner]

It includes elements from all RHEL packages: RHES, RHAS and RHED.

Re:Ubuntu 8.04

[Anonymous Coward]

Feel free to file a bug: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug [launchpad.net]

"Almost any hardware you throw at it"

[loteck]

I sincerely enjoy the Linux experience and appreciate the community, but this statement is positively absurd. Ubuntu's own help files [ubuntu.com] contain extensive lists of wireless cards that have a big fat "No" listed under the "Works out of the box" column. And that's just wireless cards.

One of the primary reasons that the average person abandons Linux is the frustration caused by these types of misleading claims. Somebody says, "Hey, virtually everything works out of the box!" and they think... wow, well, I buy my stuff at top retailers from top brands, surely then my stuff is supported.

Unfortunately for them, their stuff may not work at all, or may work partially. Lots of gotchas for Video cards [ubuntu.com], scanners [ubuntu.com].. the list goes on and on. Nobody is well served by making statements that indicate anything except that hardware support is still a major obstacle for the adoption of Linux on the desktop.

Why Mandriva One?

[CastrTroy]

Why did they opt to use Mandriva One, over Mandriva Free? Mandriva Free is a bigger download, but comes with a lot more software on the disk. It also seems more suited to an actual install, whereas Mandriva One is more of a Live CD.

Re:Ubuntu 8.04

[TheLink]

I heard the freezes are due to some scheduler thing they did - rather than all processes competing equally, you have some weird situation where programs that have root and user instances have problems with one starving out the other.

Re:Ubuntu 8.04

[Dystopian Rebel]

There was a decision to use the old scheduler on the Desktop version of Heron. It is causing problems. Try the Server version.

I find that it's as wise to wait for stability in an Ubuntu release as it is with an MS Windows release. The difference is that stability comes to Ubuntu faster. (o:

I will give Heron a month or two to settle down and then switch.

Ubuntu does more right than any other Linux distribution ever has.

Re:Add free version.

[ajs]

Summary: Each of the distributions had their strengths and weaknesses when it came to hardware, but beyond that were essentially competing on common ground.

That said, Fedora 8 was tested, and the beta for Fedora 9 is currently in full-swing and will be released in 8 days [fedoraproject.org], so the comparison is slightly weighted (as all Linux desktop distribution comparisons tend to be) to the most recent release: Ubuntu in this case.

Re:why CentOS?

[TheRaven64]

If you read that section, it refers to setting up the local MTA to relay send mail. If you are using a mail client that relies on an external MTA, and you already have an external MTA set up (e.g. by your ISP or company) then you can skip it.

Re:Ubuntu 8.04

[DanielJosphXhan]

Same here. Mostly due to the new X server and its dependence on xrandr. In 8.04 the devs decided that single and dual screens were the most common use cases for xrandr (still in relative infancy, as well). As such, 8.04 doesn't support more than two monitors and more than one graphics card, not to mention s-video output (in my experience). That's not so bad... typically with my setup I install the NVidia binary drivers and use nvidia-settings to generate an xorg.conf.

The problem is that I can't use my old xorg.conf. xrandr has deprecated most of its functionality. But there's no way to remove xrandr or downgrade to the previous version of X. There's no information about this in the 8.04 release notes. There was no information period, except for a well-buried Ubuntu wiki page.

My bug report was thankfully triaged almost immediately (probably because Bryce recognised the problem from the heading) and I understand why they did it. But the lack of information is what bothered me most. I wouldn't have upgraded till 8.10 (when the functionality for more than two screens and more than one graphics card is supposed to be introduced into xrandr) if I had known my setup would break, or that there would be this amount of functional regression. And I'm fairly involved in the community (not the xrandr dev side of things of course). I had no idea.

Also PulseAudio has been no end of trouble for me. If I have to install nswrapper just to get sound with Flash, I consider that a major show-stopper.

That said, I'm not leaving Ubuntu. I am downgrading to 7.10 again (again!), and I'll be rather more careful about upgrading in the future.

Re:"Almost any hardware you throw at it"

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you use the Dell remastered ISO for the laptop?

http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_7.04#Dell_Remastered_Ubuntu_7.04_ISO

Dell releases CD versions tailored for the hardware they support under Ubuntu.

Re:"Almost any hardware you throw at it"

[Necreia]

The "Average User" doesn't install their OS. It comes preloaded and configured from Walmart / Dell / etc.

Re:"Almost any hardware you throw at it"

[Salamander]

Oddball hardware? Like a millions-of-units Dell E1505, on which the Broadcom wireless doesn't work out of the box and one of the most popular video-card upgrades doesn't either? What percentage of the common hardware out there have you used? 0.01% maybe? Don't overgeneralize from your own experience, whether it's good or bad. Look at actual statistics about actual hardware used by actual people before you try to make the "oddball hardware" excuse. You've been fortunate. Leave it at that.

Re:Add free version.

[s4nt]

Well yes and no. Just the other day on /. everybody was complaining that an early adoption of an Ubuntu release was fraught with problems, my first week with Ubuntu confirmed that for me... So this comparitive test does not really lend Ubuntu an unfair advantage, if it were done with Hardy a bit matured one would be able to say that...

same thing with suse and mandriva... to be fair with the other distros, he should have reviewed suse 11 (soon to be released) and mandriva 2008.1 (released last month)

Re:Speeds & Feeds Perils

[discogravy]

as other comments have mentioned w/r/t Debian Testing, it's not a good comparison to Ubuntu; it's central idea is different, which is really what the other replies have been about. Deb Testing is about getting Debian new software and making everything new work well enough that bugs can be squashed. Ubuntu's raison d'etre is about making debian usable for everyday use without making users spend a day looking up config details for their hardware or what chipset their cards are using and what drivers go with what. Testing's cool, but testing's not for desktop users. It can be /used/ for that, but then again, you can also drive cross country on a unicycle, if you're dedicated enough.

Re:Almost Any Hardware...?

[businessnerd]

I won't do all of your homework for you, but here's a start. It looks like, based on Best Buy's offerings, you are best going with a card that uses the Atheros chipset. I have a D-Link in my desktop computer that uses this chipset and Linux support is very good. However, every model (even by the same manufacturer) is different. There are only 11 desktop cards and 18 laptop cards carried by best buy. If one of those cards is on this list [madwifi.org] then that is the card for you. Install the card, install Ubuntu (but keep a wire connected for now). You will then need to enable the "universe" repositories in Synaptic that include non-free software. Install the "madwifi" driver and you should be good to go. The only wireless cards I've used that have worked out of the box, with no extra drivers to install and no windows drivers to install with ndiswrapper or the like is Intel wireless cards. Doesn't look like Best Buy has any though, so your easiest bet is using a MadWiFI compatible card. If you are truly new to Linux and Ubuntu, then I would consult http://ubuntuforums.org/ [ubuntuforums.org] for setting up Synaptic and getting the driver installed. This is an extremely common topic and is well documented.

On a side note, I would try to get away from buying computer parts from Best Buy. The options are limited, the prices high, and you always have some deusche salesmen trying to talk you into the more expensive card "cause it's teh r0x0rz!" even though it's completely wrong for your needs. I would drop by Newegg.com for great price, great shipping service, and huge selection.

Re:Almost Any Hardware...?

[BadHaggis]

Not Best Buy, but here is the link you asked for. Best Buy may have them on the shelf but not available online.

PCMCIA - Laptop (ATH0 drivers)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839127003 [newegg.com]

PCI - Desktop (ATH0 drivers)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127075 [newegg.com]

I have systems running these cards and just about every linux distro I tried found and configured them with no issues.

Re:Almost Any Hardware...?

[Dr. Manhattan]

I dunno about Best Buy, I check the circulars and look for deals when I need hardware. You don't say what kind of card you're looking for. If you're looking for a notebook adapter, I've had good results with two different Trendnet TEW-441PC Cardbus cards and Ubuntu - WPA & WEP, etc., works "out of the box". If you're looking for a desktop PCI card, well, Trendnet has a page telling which ones work with Linux [trendnet.com]. (I think the TEW-443PI has the same chipset as the Cardbus card I have; it's not listed as supported at Trendnet, but then again, neither is mine. But the TEW-441PC works anyway.)

I picked them up from an InkStop store, they usually have some in stock, at least here in Michigan.

It's not as easy to answer your question as it should be, because manufacturers sometimes change chipsets but don't change model numbers. For example, I have a desktop card, a DLink DWL-G520 (rev B), works fine with Linux. But the (rev B) is important - the (rev A) version has a totally different chipset.

Re:Add free version.

[pthisis]

"couldn't care less" not "could,"

And "begs the question" doesn't mean "raises the question" or "ducks the issue". It refers to a specific form of argument which _does_, in fact, attempt to answer the question--but does so by assuming the conclusion in one of the premises. Specifically it's an argument of the form

p implies q
suppose p
-> q

Where "suppose p" really is "suppose my side of what we're arguing about is true".

Re:8.4?

[aaronmarks]

With that logic though, they shouldn't have tested Ubuntu 8.04 because they apparently tested that as well while it was still in beta.

Re:why CentOS?

[gfxguy]

You loathe Ubuntu? Loathe What the hell does that mean? It's a Linux distribution. It's like saying "I like Coca Cola, but I loathe Pepsi." I mean, sure they're different, but they are so close as to be nearly indistinguishable.

What about it do you loathe? I've been using Linux off and on since pre 1.0 slackware, and pretty much constantly for the past five years; Ubuntu's the easiest to install and use out of the box that I've seen.

Granted, I've been only using Ubuntu for the last year, but 8.04 was the first version of any Linux distribution that recognized every single piece of hardware on my laptop during the install, I didn't have to configure a damn thing.

Now, I'm not trying to be a fanboy... I've used Mandrake (before it was Mandriva), Red Hat, slackware, CentOS (Maya won't run on Ubuntu, so I need to use CentOS at work). I just can't say that I've "loathed" any of them. Even when I had to install slackware with like 60 floppy disks.