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Ubuntu: Best Linux Desktop for Business?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the they're-all-better-than-the-alternative dept.

sebFlyte writes "ZDNet has been testing Linux for business, trying to work out what the best distro is for small businesses. After testing Mandriva Linux 2006, Novell Linux Desktop 9, Red Hat Desktop 4, SUSE Linux 10 and Ubuntu Linux 5.1. After installing them all from scratch to simulate a new business set up, and extensive testing involving Gaim, Evolution, OpenOffice.org -- as well as actually writing each review on each distro -- Ubuntu came out as the winner. They summed it up saying 'Ubuntu is a well integrated, practical and absolutely free' and dismissed worries about support. SuSE came a close second."

4 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. "only one crash"... by Yath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's funny how different perspectives can make communication difficult. For example, take this casual comment from the article:

    During the whole exercise, we only experienced one system crash...

    To a Linux user, the idea of "only one crash" is bemusing. A modern Linux system, going down so easily? That's very serious. Surely the author isn't familiar with the territory.

    Later, it becomes clearer, when the Mandriva review states:

    ...an accidental combination of keystrokes -- experimenting around Ctrl-Alt-E to try and get a euro symbol -- crashed the system and dumped us at a $-prompt command line, with no obvious route back to our unsaved work.

    Obviously, this is not what a Linux user would call a "system crash". I suppose it's just as well that Windows users would be asked to review Linux distros for the desktop, though. A Linux user might regard this as a minor problem, forgetting that to most people, this is indeed a show-stopper.

    --
    I always mod up spelling trolls.
  2. Re:Xandros by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, I second that. Xandros Business Desktop 3 (as the name suggests) should have been included in the comparison. Otherwise it is downright unfair. And believe me, since I am also their beta tester for sometime, it would have beaten everyone hands down in ease of installation to integration into existing Windows networks -- and the last point is *damn important* no matter what you may think!

  3. Ubuntu's best "business friendly" feature: by pschmied · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ubuntu has started by locking the root account and making proper use of sudo (and it's various graphical equivalents).

    This is increadibly handy. Not that you couldn't do this on other distributions, but it's nice to see this feature in Ubuntu by default. I'm partial to OpenSUSE myself, but their (and many others') handling of sudo is misinformed.

    -Peter

    --
    . Penguins Surely Ca
  4. Re:One little additional remark by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So why doesn't Microsoft provide updated copies of its OS with new computers that come out, instead of shipping the exact same disk they've been shipping for the last 5 years? Why don't they go around collecting all the new popular drivers, and have a database of them so it can download them right off the internet, automatically, without having to search around for them?

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.