Candidate Distro List
The Candidate Distro List
About this list
Three key points for a candidate distribution:
- easy to use
- large hardware profile
- acessibility
Note from Paul:
- Big five, and interesting others
- List needs to be small and shrink
The List
Mint
Support Cycle: -Mint 12 and 9 supported until April 2013 -Mint Debian: rolling distribution from mint website
System Requirements: Recommended 1GHz 512MB RAM from wikipedia
Comments JP: -Mint 12 is based on ubuntu with a gnome environment. I installed and after a splash page comes up on the desktop that prompts you to download media and dvd codecs among other things like links to tutorials and other pages on the community website
-Mint website says Mint Debian is neat because it is auto-updating - you never have to upgrade versions. but it is also therefore more unstable. It also reqs knowledge of the command line to enable one-touch-click on laptops and other similar things. They also says it is like ubuntu but rough around the edges.
Ubuntu
Arch
Support Cycle: Rolling
System Requirements: not listed
Comments JP: -For advanced users familiar with the CLI and the layout of their system. Installation is robust and ncurses based; user must make many specific choices. Also, once installed, boots to CLI first, no GUI installed by default, must install and start x manually.
OpenSuSe
CentOS
Support Cycle: Version 5 - until March 2014 Version 6 - until November 2017 from centOS FAQ
System Reqs: Minimum v5 - 256MB Ram Minimum v6 - 512MB Ram