I drive a 1973 Toyota Hi-Lux pickup truck. This sucker has well over 100,000 miles on it (odometer got stuck sometime after the first flip) and it keeps on tickin’. Its not fast, I can’t tow much or carry that much in the back but I’ll tell ya what; its perfect for my needs. I drive it once a week or so or during vacation times I use it a lot when I’m doing work on the house. It meets my needs.
Now, I could be like a lot of people out there who want to buy a big huge Ford or Chevy truck, but why? Its not what I need. That said, Ford and Chevy owners would scoff at me for owning my truck; they laugh at it. But why on earth would I want a huge truck payment every month and the pain of fueling a mongo truck like that in this day-and-age? It doesn’t meet my needs. You know what? I paid cash for my truck (a whopping $850), insurance is less than $60 a year and I never put more than $5 of gas at a time in there. Exactly meets my needs.
So, when I hear people scoffing at my choice of Debian, Gentoo or some other not-uber-popular distro it just makes me laugh. Again, why do I want the hassle, the up-keep, the payments, etc of something that doesn’t exactly fit my needs?
Often times, the people that do laugh/question my choice of distribution usually do so totally biased. They use the Ford or Chevy truck of distributions and haven’t ever even taken the Hi-Lux for a spin. You know what? Its different; but different isn’t always bad.
What are some of the factors in choosing your distro you should consider? Well, I can name a few; security, licensing, cost, ease-of-use, community and access to expertise. If you’re a Red Hat or SuSE user and you continually deride the other distros ask yourself this; why? Have you ever tried one of these other distributions? Have you engaged with the communities surrounding them? One of the most powerful aspects of community-based distributions (even the lesser-known ones) is just that; the community.
Don’t just scoff; consider, be reasonable and leave your snap judgements at the door.