The Perfect Linux Distribution - Myth or Reality

In my opinion, the perfect Linux distribution is always a focused distribution: Backtrack is not suitable for the newcomers whereas Mandriva is not suitable for the penetration testers. The user group that the distribution focuses on results in efficiency on the developers side. Instead of trying to pack everything into the Linux distribution they choose specific applications. This is also a benefit to the user, for example, lets assume I want a simple desktop on which I can read my e-mail using Thunderbird or Evolution. It would make little sense to waste disk space by installing a complete e-mail server nor do I have various unnecessary entries in my programs menu. At the very least this is a win-win situation for both the developer and the user.

A perfect package manager, as we have discussed, has to simplify application management for the user. It must conserve bandwidth and disk space as well as offer both a command line interface and a graphical user interface. For this purpose, we have brought PISI of Pardus and Portage of Gentoo together leaving one more step to arrive at perfection: the Graphical User Interface. The interface has to conform with the principles, which we discussed under the “Perfect Application” article and also has to have the screenshots of the applications that the user can see before he or she decides to install. Additionally, the package manager has to be able to remove the packages completely! It must remove the dependencies that are no longer needed from the system. Is there such a package manager that has all these features? Unfortunately no (at least as of this writing).

The choice of the perfect applications is closely tied to the focus of the distribution: will it be a server-oriented or a desktop-oriented distribution? As we have discussed in the “Perfect Application” article, we will assume a desktop-oriented distribution.

The chosen applications need to provide a good balance of stability and cutting edge. There is no point of presenting the user with a unstable application, with which he will manage his daily tasks, e-mails and calendar. It is wise to include the latest stable versions of the applications with the distribution, rather than including the release candidates or betas.

There is also the issue of security. The included applications have to have a firewall that is installed by default and can easily be configured by the user. As for the firewall, I personally like the Zone Alarm which is available for Windows: it acts as a solid firewall, informs the user about its actions, is easily configurable and does not get in the user’s way in an annoying manner.

Perfect application examples? Firefox, Evolution, Transmission, KGet, KTorrent, OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird, K3B, Pidgin, Xsane, Kate, Kile to name a few (I am hesitant to add Kontact here since as a personal information manager (PIM) as I have experienced some instabilities with this application). Open these programs and see what they do. You will see they do what they claim to do simply and efficiently: they are not like -say- Nero, which claims to be an optical media (CD/DVD) burner but includes additional features such as media management (which I believe nobody uses) coming in at a half a gigabyte total footprint. Lets stick to the intended focus of our applications in Linux and keep the applications small, efficient, and easy to use.