I recently installed Linux (Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” to be exact) on my not-so-old pentium 4 HT machine, the very same computer where different Linux distros have been installed over the course of two years. What struck me most after this very latest installation is how Linux has evolved and has become a more than capable desktop operating system.

Susan Linton compares Mandriva Linux 2008 and openSUSE 10.3 in installation, visual appeal, included software, software management, hardware support, stability and performance.

I pulled the 30 GB hard drive from the $15 Laptop today, swapped in the original 3 GB drive (which wasn't bootable with its original Windows 98 install) and decided to throw distros at it.

Recently, I tried Ubuntu 10.04 and I was impressed. Then the system locked up. I downloaded openSUSE. I installed Fedora. Same thing. I installed Debian, Mandriva, Sabayon, MEPIS, Pardus, and GoboLinux and all of the experiences were rather similar. Then it clicked.

When you, Joe or Mary user, buy a computer at Best Buy or Computer Village or order a computer from Dell or Gateway, you get a computer with a system already installed. Do you think they had any trouble installing that system on that computer?

I'm running a computer institute and I have new, middle and advanced users. People who know Linux very well and those who don't even know "L" of Linux. Recently, I've been trying different distros. Trying a distro is always based on the reviews I read on the web.

MEPIS and Mandriva are testing new releases of their Linux distributions, and French project Jolicloud has posted a screen (pictured) from its upcoming netbook distro. MEPIS posted SimplyMEPIS 8.0 RC2, and Mandriva released its second alpha for Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring.

The operating assumption here is that Windows 7 is installed on /dev/sda, the first hard drive recognized by the system, and Linux Deepin 12.06 will be installed on /dev/sdb, the second hard drive.

I was glancing through the top searches for my site and noticed one string I thought I'd try to answer it. That search was openSUSE vs Ubuntu. Now, I've avoided formally comparing Ubuntu to other distros such as openSUSE or Mandriva before because in my book it's like comparing apples to oranges, but for the sake of those searching, I will try.