Choosing the best Linux variant can vary depending upon one’s need. I’ve tried to examine the best Variants according to the usage and demands.
the Most Powerful
I will recommend this variant for power users who are comfortable with Linux and who demand nothing but the best. Presently Red Hat is the best in these segments.
Red Hat - is probably the most widely used and most robust variant of Linux. The current version 9.0 is the best offering of Red Hat.
Interface - Red Hat features it so called Blue curve. This Red hat 9 has an edge over the rest variants. The interface is sleek and easy to use bridging the gap between windows and Linux narrower. You can choose from Gnome or KDE 3.
Kernel - Red hat offers the latest kernel which makes it really robust and fixes may of the older problems.
Control Panel - Red hat control panel proves to be a very powerful tool in the right hands. It offers you a wide array of options to tweak and optimize the performance to suite your needs.
Support for hardware - Red Hat has the best hardware support in compare to any variant of Linux. As a matter of fact it comes close to windows.
Extra Features - Red Hat features ton’s of software to fulfill all your thirst. From Image editing(Gimp) to hosting a web server(Apache) it has it all. It even has star office which is quite similar to Ms Office. It lacks behind in multimedia area but all that can be obtained for free from the internet
Pricing - Red Hat would cost you roughly 3000 /- for personal use(internet price)
Summary - Red Hat is recommended for Soho users and enterprises as well. It recommended for anyone who want to use Linux to its full limits.
the Most Useful
In this category home users have been targeted and Suse is the leader in here. It’s ideal for people who want to use there computers for all the basic work and fun.
Suse -
Multimedia - The one thing you can be use of is great multimedia support. It’s bundled with many multimedia applications to turn your pc into a Dj station.
Games - It features many games to keep you busy. The games are really a treat.
Interface - Like the Red Hat, Suse has a good interface. It has a highly organized desktop and pretty neat too.
Hardware support - The hardware support is good but not good enough as Red hat.
Summary - Suse is best suited for home users.
the Basic
This segment is for people who want to only explore Linux, use it as an alternative or have just switched to Linux for the first time. Lindows rules in the segment.
Lindows -
Interface - The best thing about Lindows is that it has an interface very similar to Windows(as the name suggests). It’s an idle option for people switching from window s to Linux and it also helps people get familiar to Linux.
Hardware support - Poor hardware Support
Extra Applications - very few
Summary - best suited for novices, exploring and people switching from windows.