OpenSUSE
Having began its life back in the early days of Linux, OpenSUSE is a stable and battle-tested distribution of Linux that has been used the world over. It is specifically tailored to system administrators and software developers. Formerly known as SUSE Linux and SUSE Linux Professional, Open SUSE is further completely free to use and to distribute. What's more, with its origins in Europe, it also multilingual.
- YaST, Auto YaST and WebYaST tools
- Excellent package management and a build service
- Strong desktop tools
- Has been used for a long time in many different types of production settings
- The software is both stable and dependable
- It is completely free to both use and to distribute
- Offers unique and powerful administrations tools
- Multilingual support
- Its unique administration tools may require a learning curve
- Development of the software has been lacking since Novell purchased it
- There are some licensing issues with Microsoft
With so many distributions of Linux available, it can be very difficult deciding which one to choose. If stability and dependability are important factors in the decision, OpenSUSE is good distribution to consider, as it is one of the oldest and has been used in the field for just about every purpose imaginable. Another aspect of OpenSUSE that sets it apart from other Linux distributions are its unique set of administrations tools, which include YaST (Yet another Setup Tool), AutoYaST and WebYaST. It also has an excellent package management engine and a build service. Ironically, these tools are both a strength and a weakness of OpenSUSE. While the tools are quite good and stand out from others, there is a learning curve for system administrators who are not familiar with OpenSUSE. The distribution has also has excellent desktop tools. At one time, OpenSUSE was considered one of the premiere Linux distributions, but its development has been somewhat lacking since Novell bought the company more than ten years ago. It has also been hampered because of some licensing issues with Microsoft. Still, OpenSUSE is one of the best Linux distributions available.