"When a GNU/Linux machine runs out of physical memory it will start to use any configured swap-space. This is usually a sign of trouble as swap files and partitions are significantly slower to access than physical memory, however having some swap is generally better than having none at all.

Brian Proffitt recently tackled the topic of distro-hopping over on LinuxPlanet. Proffitt wonders whether the practice might be passe or something to be discouraged, but it's here to stay and should be encouraged rather than looked at askew. Distro-hopping, if you're not familiar with the term, is the practice of switching Linux distributions.

This is the first of a sequence of posts where we’ll take a look at a few of the main Linux distros to find out which are the most welcoming to Linux newbies.

The first distro to be analyzed is Fedora 9 beta.

Greetings Linux fans from around the world. We are here again to witness the clash of two ultra-lightweight distributions. As you may know, these two distros have collided in the past and have fought until the end. One ended up victorious, while the other one was not as fortunate. So today, we shall give the losing distro a chance to even the score.

In the midst of the current financial crunch, the popular, free Linux distribution Ubuntu has never looked more attractive. If you've considered switching, a free copy of the Ubuntu Pocket Guide is the perfect place to start.

There have been large distros, tiny ones, bleeding edge and rock-solid stable distros. Easy for the newbie to install, or downright impenetrable to the uninitiated. Created exclusively with free software as a badge of pride, or so proprietary in attitude that not even the toolchain was fully GNU (hello Red Flag Server 4.1, built with the Intel compiler in 2004).

It has been almost two years since LWN covered the swap prefetch patch. This work, done by Con Kolivas, is based on the idea that if a system is idle, and it has pushed user data out to swap, perhaps it should spend a little time speculatively fetching that swapped data back into any free memory that might be sitting around.

Many fully fledged distros have drawn praise for bringing something new to the linux arena, while relying on the solid foundation of a mother distro. There has been much comment in the community about these new distros taking the mother distros work, adding to it and pushing out releases without passing those additions back to the mother distro.

The open source survives and thrives by the sheer number of distros available. Proprietary software is just a small pond compared to the enormous number of distros available for open source. Again, distros are qualitatively superior and robust give developers the powerful tools that inspire their creativity, which they crave. One of the most popular distros ever is the Debian distro.