Many times I face the same discussion in forums, lists and in all other places about linux distributions and in particular, the question \”Which linux [distribution] is better?\”.
I\’ve been using linux for something like 3 years now and I have tried few different distros and still I am using Fedora one. There are many criterias which can influence the choice of preferred distro, among them one may find: choice of packages included in the distro, freshness of these packages, ease of installation, ease of updating, ease of administration, amount of configuration to be done after installation, beauty of GUI and anything else.
If you ask me what makes me use Fedora distro, I would answer that first of all it is a use. I am used to it and it seems that I know all major points about it. Second is the ease of installation and update of the system. Finally – look and feel.
Of course there a few things that I don\’t think much comfortable with like the choice of packages coming with distro, but this can be easily fixed due to the ease of update. I mean – every time I install Fedora I need to get APT installed and few things like mplayer, amarok, licq and some other, but overall there are not too many packages that I need to get and there is an easy way of doing it.
The major plus in Fedora is that it is RPM based (that means that the system can be maintained with almost no \”./configure && make && make install\”, it is easy to track dependences, it is easy add/update/delete software and it is widely supported.
So to kinda sum this up, if you doubt on which distro you should choose – first decide on what are the most critical criterias for you, then consider your habits (it is a bit difficult to switch from distro to distro if have used one for a while since on one hand everything is similar, but on the other hand there some small differences that can really drive you crazy all the time) and finally take a look around and see what other people a using for some time.
P.S.: and stop asking just plain question \”Which distro is better/the best?\” since it is too general. If you doubt and you still want to ask something like this – be more specific, giving a list of things you expect from the distro.