What Is The Best Linux Distro For 2017?

So what is the best Linux distro? If you know Linux you may know that there are a lot and a lot of Linux distros out there and you can check most of them from distro watch website

https://distrowatch.com/

 

You may try few of them so what is the difference between them and which one of them suitable for you and what is the best Linux distro?

Well that question needs you to walk around and what other provide and Pros and Cons of everyone but I gather some information from the web about the most used and loved distros that you might use and fit yourself with one of them

I’m going to walk through every one of those distros and you will choose the best Linux distro yourself according to your needs

 

Elementary OS: Elegant Looking and fast speed

Elementary OS is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. It uses Pantheon desktop environment which gives the distro the beautiful looking and lightweight on your PC

So if your concern about the best looking this is the best Linux distro for you

https://elementary.io/

 

Linux Mint: Best Distro for Desktop Computers

They call this distro Mac OS X of the Linux because it is the best Linux distro for laptops and desktops some people might say they do not prefer it because of the desktop environment which is called Cinnamon But now it is LTS (long term support) and is more stable than ever and developers of that desktop spend a lot of time to make it better than ubuntu so if you are searching about powerful computing this is the best Linux distro that you might need

https://www.linuxmint.com/

 

Tails: Best Distro for Privacy

Nothing beats tails distro in privacy and security because that was the purpose of that distro It’s a Debian-based distribution that gives you privacy

So if your privacy matters this is the best Linux distro you should choose

https://tails.boum.org/

 

CentOS: Best Distro for Servers

If you check the servers around the world you will notice that the huge percent of servers uses centos specially and this is because of one very important thing

The famous and cool hosting control panel cPanel runs only on CentOS

And for many people that might let them choose it

So for Servers CentOS is the best distro that you should go with

https://www.centos.org/

 

Arch Linux: Simplicity and Customization

Arch Linux is the best Linux distro for those who want to learn everything about Linux

Experts categorize this distro as the most customizable Linux distro on the web and with the rich documentation on their website that makes it the best one Geeks

https://www.archlinux.org/

 

Lubuntu and Xubuntu: old hardware compatible

If your hardware is a bit old then you might need something light that you can run without problems and Hang

For this sake, there is a lightweight desktop environment like LXDE and XFCE

Lubuntu comes with LXDE and Xubuntu comes with XFCE and both are lightweight

So if the old hardware is your limit these might be the best one that you should try

http://lubuntu.net/

http://xubuntu.org/

 

Steam OS: Linux Gaming

Many gamers use windows for gaming and if they love Linux they may dual boot with Linux till coming to that distro of Linux which is dedicated for gamers and games so if you are a gamer this is the best one for you

http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/

 

Keep in mind that all the mentioned distros are the best when writing that article, the world is changing everyday who knows what will be the best next? see you then

This post was originally published on Like Geeks site here.

This post was originally published on July 29, 2009. The original can be found here.

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100% fat free

Picking a flavour of Linux is like picking what you want to eat for dinner; sure some items may taste better than others but in the end you’re still full. At least I hope, the satisfied part still remains to be seen.

Where to begin?

A quick search of Wikipedia reveals that the sheer number of Linux distributions, and thus choices, can be very overwhelming. Thankfully because of my past experience with Ubuntu I can at least remove it and it’s immediate variants, Kubuntu and Xubuntu, from this list of potential candidates. That should only leave me with… well that hardly narrowed it down at all!

Learning from others’ experience

My next thought was to use the Internet for what it was designed to do: letting other people do your work for you! To start Wikipedia has a list of popular distributions. I figured if these distributions have somehow managed to make a name for themselves, among all of the possibilities, there must be a reason for that. Removing the direct Ubuntu variants, the site lists these as Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, gOS, Knoppix, Linux Mint, Mandriva, MontaVista Linux, OpenGEU, openSUSE, Oracle Enterprise Linux, Pardus, PCLinuxOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Sabayon Linux, Slackware and, finally, Slax.

Doing a both a Google and a Bing search for “linux distributions” I found a number of additional websites that seem as though they might prove to be very useful. All of these websites aim to provide information about the various distributions or help point you in the direction of the one that’s right for you.

• DistroWatch
• Linux Online
• LinuxQuestions.org
• The Linux Documentation Project
• Linux HQ
• DesktopLinux.com

Only the start

Things are just getting started. There is plenty more research to do as I compare and narrow down the distributions until I finally arrive at the one that I will install come September 1st. Hopefully I can wrap my head around things by then.

As a follow up to my previous post I have decided to re-run the tests, this time with the updated distributions (where available of course). Again I will be testing all of this within VirtualBox on ‘machines’ with the following specifications:

• Total RAM: 512MB
• Hard drive: 8GB
• CPU type: x86

The tests were all done using VirtualBox 3.2.6 on Windows, and I did not install VirtualBox tools (although some distributions may have shipped with them). I also left the screen resolution at the default 800×600 and accepted the installation defaults. All tests were run on July 3rd, 2010 so your results may not be identical.

Results

As before I have provide state of the art graphs for your enjoyment.

First boot memory (RAM) usage

This test was measured on the first startup after finishing a fresh install.

Memory (RAM) usage after updates

This test was performed after all updates were installed and a reboot was performed.

Memory (RAM) usage change after updates

The net growth or decline in RAM usage after applying all of the updates

Install size after updates

The hard drive space used by the distribution after applying all of the updates.

Conclusion

As before I’m going to leave you to drawing your own conclusions. I will point out though that almost all of the distributions have done a good job of lowering memory usage with system updates, which is very commendable. Also it’s important to note that even though RAM and disk space increase with updates so might performance so it’s all about which metric you hold as most important.

As you know I am currently running OpenSUSE 11.2 on my laptop. While I have enjoyed my time using it, I have noticed that this particular distribution tends to be on the heavy side of memory usage. This got me thinking. If OpenSUSE uses this much memory on my machine, how could it possibly run on a machine with 512MB of RAM (the lowest recommended amount)? If Ubuntu is the most popular distribution, but it is also, what I would call, a fully-fledged desktop distribution, then how does it manage given tighter memory constraints? And so the mini-experiment begins.

Points to make before I begin

• This is not a very scientific study, but rather something I did in my spare time because I was curious.
• I have picked the majority of the most popular desktop distributions. These distributions were chosen not because they were designed for minimal system specs but rather because they are popular and provide a full desktop experience out of the gate.
• What do I mean by full desktop experience? The distribution should be easy enough for a novice Windows user to install, should come with all of the standard software for desktop activities, and should not require any fine tuning.
• What you won’t find here: DSL, Arch Linux, Slackware (only because it failed at installing in VirtualBox), Gentoo, or other ‘expert’ distributions. You also will not find netbook remixes or low-resource specific distributions. This experiment is designed to see how these big distributions run on little RAM, nothing more.
• Please do not post things like ‘you forgot to test XYZ’ or other useless comments that don’t actually help the discussion. Yes I am sorry I missed your favourite distribution, but grab a tissue, clear the tears from your eyes and let’s all move on with our lives.

How I tested them

The process was identical for all tested distributions. I set up a new virtual machine inside of VirtualBox with the following specs:

• Total RAM: 512MB
• Hard drive: 8GB
• CPU type: x86

The tests were all done using VirtualBox 3.1.4 on Windows, and I did not install VirtualBox tools (although some distributions may have shipped with them) nor did I change the screen resolution from the default 800×600.

Results

I have broken the results down into a variety of categories and included fancy graphs just for you!

First boot memory (RAM) usage

For this test I installed the distribution and then on its first (post-installation) boot measured the amount of memory it used. This was to gauge the amount of resources that the stock distribution required before any updates.

Average first boot memory (RAM) usage by packaging type

This shows the average memory usage broken down by the packing type used.

Memory (RAM) usage after updates

This was a test to see whether or not system updates caused the memory usage to increase or decrease. I updated the system with all current updates and then rebooted and measured the resource usage again.

Memory (RAM) usage change after updates

This graph shows the usage difference between installation and post-updating. The formula I used was [after updates – initial installation].

Average memory (RAM) usage after updates by packaging type

Similar to above. Again this is broken down by packing type.

Filesystem layout

This is a simple graph showing the partitions that each default setup created as well as the relative size of them.

Filesystems used in partitions

This graph shows the different filesystems used for the various partitions. For example if a distribution has a value of 2 under ext4 that means that it used ext4 in two different partitions.

Occurrence of filesystem by packaging type

This graph shows the number of distributions who used a certain type of filesystem. It is broken down by packing type.

Install size after updates

This is the total OS install size after downloading and installing all of the updates. This should represent a fully updated version of the distribution.

Average install size after updates by packaging type

This shows the average install size of the distributions broken down by packing type.

Conclusion

Make you own! …well it is pretty obvious that some of these distributions would perform better than others given these low system specs. There are however other things to consider. For example which packing type you prefer, or for that matter which package manager.