The six month update cycles of major Linux distributions guarantees that there will be plenty of fresh releases for every spring and fall. At the end of 2007 we ranked the best distributions of the year, but as most distros have been refreshed since it is time to have another look at the current Linux offering. In the past six months the development has been incremental, but with a few nice surprises as well.

As before our focus is on typical desktop and Internet usage, seeking an open-source alternative to Windows. We value a good out-of-the-box experience, polished desktop design and usability over other features.

The 4th: Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

ubuntu hardy heronTo me the Ubuntu just continues not to impress. As usual it comes with the ugly brown looks and quite spartan Gnome desktop. Also my subjective opinion is that the quality and stability of Ubuntu releases has decreased in the past two or three generations. I think the decision to ship an updated 8.04.1 version later this year, which should be “enterprise quality”, is a clear indication that this release has some rough edges.

The 3rd: Mandriva One 2008.1 Spring

mandriva 2008.1 kde springIf you know absolutely nothing about Linux, but you wish to try the better operating system, then Mandriva’s latest is a top contender. It comes with excellent hardware support (best in my experience), beautifully designed desktop and easy to use Windows-like configuration tools. Mandriva is a KDE v3.5 oriented distro, but the Gnome implementation is decent as well.

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