Best Distro for Desktop End Users in Small Shops?

[benali72]

I support a couple small sites as IT tech support. Our desktop users do typical office work. We value product stability, minimal bugs, and consistency across releases. We are dropping Ubuntu because it changes too drastically for us across versions (and doesn't appear too concerned about buffering its existing user base from the impacts of these changes).

Any suggestions on what I should look at? Right now I'm investigating Cent OS, openSUSE, and Mint.

Thank you.

[oz]

Any suggestions on what I should look at? Right now I'm investigating Cent OS, openSUSE, and Mint.

If it were me, I'd probably use Mint out of those that you mentioned.

[daark.child]

I'd go for CentOS with openSUSE as a close second. With CentOS there is more consistency between point releases and the releases tend to be supported for longer periods than many distros.

[Jonathan183]

Mint Debian - and switch to Debian Stable repositories ... or run Debian Stable.

[mizzle]

I support a couple small sites as IT tech support. Our desktop users do typical office work. We value product stability, minimal bugs, and consistency across releases. We are dropping Ubuntu because it changes too drastically for us across versions (and doesn't appear too concerned about buffering its existing user base from the impacts of these changes).

Any suggestions on what I should look at? Right now I'm investigating Cent OS, openSUSE, and Mint.

Thank you.

Definitely Centos. They use Red Hat's upstream source as the base of their distribution, with some extra software thrown into the repos RHEL doesn't offer. Centos will mirror Red Hat's release cycle (as much as they can), so you'll get security updates and patches for years to come, with no loss of stability.

[benali72]

>>>> With CentOS there is more consistency between point releases and the releases tend to be supported for longer periods than many distros.

>>>> Centos will mirror Red Hat's release cycle (as much as they can), so you'll get security updates and patches for years to come, with no loss of stability.

Thanks, that's exactly the sort of info I'm looking for. Sounds like Cent OS is where I should spend some time investigating further.

Thanks for the suggestion about Mint Debian, but from reading this paragraph on their download page, I don't think they fit my requirements as an IT support person:

"Cons: Although it's using Romeo for unstable packages, LMDE continuously changes as it receives updates and new software. Compared to a frozen version of Linux Mint which changes very little once it's publicly released, it's not as stable. Things are likely to break more often but fixes can also come quicker. For this reason, LMDE requires a deeper knowledge and experience with Linux, dpkg and APT.
Debian is a less user-friendly/desktop-ready base than Ubuntu. Expect some rough edges."

Any other distros I should be looking at that have not been mentioned?

Thanks everyone.

[Jonathan183]

Thanks for the suggestion about Mint Debian, but from reading this paragraph on their download page, I don't think they fit my requirements as an IT support person:

"Cons: Although it's using Romeo for unstable packages, LMDE continuously changes as it receives updates and new software. Compared to a frozen version of Linux Mint which changes very little once it's publicly released, it's not as stable. Things are likely to break more often but fixes can also come quicker. For this reason, LMDE requires a deeper knowledge and experience with Linux, dpkg and APT.
Debian is a less user-friendly/desktop-ready base than Ubuntu. Expect some rough edges.".

That's why I suggested using Debian Stable repositories ... if you point at squeeze then you migrate from squeeze to the next release when you decide. I've been using Debian Mint for a while now, the only break was firefox - fixed by removing firefox and installing iceweasel ...

Ed: additional info here

[jayd512]

After looking at the suggestions...
Debian (or LMDE) or CentOS.

Both offer the long term stability that you would want.
If you're feeling good, Slackware and all of its rock-hard stability!


What you install is really up to you. Any distro you decide upon will offer the same benefits. It's up to you to decide on the one that feels right to you, as an admin.

[benali72]

@Jonathan183, thanks for the explanation, I think I'm following what you're saying now. I'll educate myself on LMDE (which I'm not previously familiar with).

[MASONTX]

I just started migrating my home machines from Ubuntu, lubuntu, xubuntu, to Mint 13 Mate edition for the same reason you stated. I tried a lot of popular distro's, but not centos, and settled on the Mint/Mate, with LMDE a close second.