I’m a compulsive experimenter now when it comes to Linux. I like to have the latest of everything too, which means I’m constantly updating. I’ve tried several different distros in the past few weeks; the best of them is Kanotix.

I’m not a Linux guru and I can’t do much from the command line, so I like things to be simple.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the Kanotix live CD, which is based on Knoppix. I liked the ease of creating a perpetual home directory on the hard drive, and could have persisted with using it as a live CD, but curiosity prompted me to try a hard-drive install.

I’m glad I did. All hardware was detected, the system is fast and easily configurable. Debian’s apt-get remains the best way to install new programs in Linux and it’s available with Kanotix. I can’t find anything negative to say.

I installed Kanotix over Suse 9.2. Suse is great for its range of software on the DVD, but it was starting to get dated. Upgrades aren’t that easy because of dependencies.

I looked around for a distro with OpenOffice 2 and there aren’t that many.

I tried Ark before Kanotix. Its speed impressed me, but I had a bizarre problem with the system saying the 40GB hard drive was full. I couldn’t find anything about this in the forums. Ark looks promising, but its support community is still rather small.

I had a look at the Kate live CD, but its look and feel just didn’t grab me; likewise with Symphony. I won’t criticise these distros though, as I didn’t use them for long enough. It’s funny how first impressions can be significant.

Kanotix has a wide and very active community. So far I haven’t had any problems that need assistance, but it’s reassuring to know it’s there.

I read a discussion about Kanotix v Mepis. Mepis is the other distro I’ve been impressed with in the past. It’s very similar to Kanotix, but more commercial. I’d like to try one of the premium paid versions, however why pay for something that might be good when you can get something that is good for free?

I’ll continue to experiment, no doubt. To this point though, Kanotix is the best Linux distro that I’ve experienced.