Given the number of Linux distros out there, how did we pick just 14? Some were obvious; the likes of Slackware and Debian have been around since Linus was in short trousers. SUSE, Fedora, Mandriva and Ubuntu are similarly too significant to ignore. What about the others?

To survive, a distro must have something to offer – a large userbase, unique features, ease of use – something that makes it a little (or a lot) different from the rest. We hope that the selection here is sufficiently varied, but please forgive us if we have omitted your favourite distro – try some of the alternatives to see what you may be missing out on.

1. Debian

The grand-daddy of some of the other distros here, and still going strong

Desktop: User's choice
Architectures: i386, amd64, ppc, s390, ia64 m68k, sparc, alpha, arm, mips, hppa
URL: www.debian.org

Debian is one of the original distros, dating back to 1993. The Debian package management system is generally considered superior to the RPM systems, although they have closed the gap (mainly by incorporating features from Debian's system).

It has been criticised in the past for lagging behind on software versions and its slow development cycle, but these are due to conscious decisions by the Debian leadership. The main package repositories concentrate on stability. This is not only in the "doesn't crash" meaning, but also as in "doesn't change": equally important in a production environment. If you run a dozen servers and a couple of hundred desktops, you don't want to be continually upgrading everything and dealing with the associated hassle, multiplied a hundred-fold. Debian stable is ideal for those you follow the "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" philosophy.

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