/var/opinion - Amazing Free Distributions Abound

I have settled on SimplyMEPIS as my every day desktop. I have three instances of it across two desktop systems: SimplyMEPIS 6.0, last year's version, but still updated periodically from the Ubuntu LTS binaries, SimplyMEPIS 32 6.5, the current stable release, and SimplyMEPIS 7.0 Beta. All three, even the beta release, are pretty stable and simply nice distributions to use.

I've been using PCLinuxOS 2007 on a laptop when I go to the laundromat. It nicely recognizes the wireless card and gladly connects to the wireless network in the restaurant across the street. PCLinuxOS announces that it is "radically simple" and it is. Everything I need to access the Internet while on the go works right from a Live CD that I use on a work laptop. I cannot install Linux on that box, but when out of the office, I can certainly run a Live system from it and I do, about once a week.

I have been enjoying the many distributions that use binaries from the Ubuntu project, including the Ubuntu distributions themselves. I have been using Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 5 quite a bit this week. Just about every night it has new updates, and the system continues to work, at least for the basics, so I can use that software to browse the Web and read my Email while reviewing the progress being made as it nears release. One more tribe - the Tribe 6 and Alpha testing finishes, then a relatively short beta test, a one week release candidate, and Gutsy Gibbon gets released on October 18. Though it is not tagged a "stable" release, but a technology release, it should be a very useful release. I think it will be quite popular; I have found it worth using already.

Ubuntu 8.04, the next stable release, was just announced this week. I wrote to Juno Bacon to ask him if they will be providing a clean upgrade path from the current Long Term Support (LTS) release, 6.06, and he replied "Yes" to me with a smile. That should be a great release, especially if the features in 7.10 can be brought to full stability in 8.04.

Linux Mint has been a good project; I've enjoyed using it.

One of the Ubuntu derivatives I have enjoyed working with most is Ubuntu CE 3.3, the Christian Edition based on Ubuntu 7.04. It is more than veneer. It has a lot of useful Bible reading tools and multimedia applications geared to the online Christian. Many of us use YouTube, but UbuntuCE provides browser pulldowns to GodTube videos - some are quite entertaining.

I test Mandriva, Fedora and a few other releases, but I definitely have a preference to the Debian derivatives. There are so many good ones these days that I do not test Mandriva, Fedora, or SUSE, for that matter, nearly as often as I did in the past. That said, I actually bought Mandriva 2007.1 Spring. Very nicely done, one of their best distros ever. I also purchased SimplyMEPIS 32 6.5 and a subscription to SimplyMEPIS to support the project.

What are the favorites of other readers?

At the USALUG where I frequently visit, several people are really enthusiastic about Arch Linux. One of these days I will try it out again.

I signed myself as Anonymous Brian Masinick because Linux Journal knows of an account of Brian Masinick and won't let me post here otherwise - funny site behavior.