The difference between Linux distros

It is the software included within the distro which gives it a greater or lesser amount of stability. Distros that try and package together as much as possible are less secure in general because they have more applications included which could have issues.

The quicker the release cycle, the more chance that included software is not as mature as it should be. Occasionally in this instance beta software is included within the package. Some distros don't claim to be anything other than beta and if stability is what a user requires, these should be avoided.

The pitfalls of untested or beta software

One pitfall of using a less stable, relatively untested version of Linux is that there are less people to help debug or fault find an issue. Users are at risk of a potential loss of data from less stable untested versions of Linux when they install it onto a desktop or server. Furthermore a business’s clients may experience loss of service if the distro is used for client or staff facing applications.

Comparing Linux distros

When comparing distros look at different factors such as minimal hardware requirements, package selection, and of course stability and maturity. For example, Red Hat sponsored Fedora Core is similar in its stability to Linux flavour Ubuntu. Currently there are more efforts to test the stability of Fedora in a project run by Will Woods.

Fedora is customisable for different specifications and therefore suitable for programmers, home users and business servers but it needs some work to set up, so some more advanced programming skills are necessary. Ubuntu however, is one of the easiest Linux distributions to set up so is great for the new user.

Fedora comes with a fair number of packages but not as many as Mandriva or Debian and there are many sources for alternative packages. With Fedora Core 4 and 5 and Fedora Extras, the number of alternative software repositories has grown considerably. With regards to Ubuntu there are over 10,000 specific packages. It is not recommended that you use alternative sources from Debian.

For more information on varieties of distro we recommend the comparison chart at http://polishlinux.org/choose/comparison.

The site allows visitors to choose two distros and compare them side by side. When using this helpful tool it is possible to see how the two compare on package, security, stability and much more.

Click the link to learn more about the different versions of Linux or request more information online.