Linux User & Developer, Issue 100

To celebrate Linux User & Developer magazine’s 100th issue milestone, editor Russell Barnes asked me to work on a special feature looking at the top ten Linux distributions around.

To say it was a monumental undertaking is something of an understatement: compiling a list that won’t have readers frothing at the mouth with rage that their favourite distribution is nowhere to be seen wasn’t easy, and every distribution needed to be downloaded, installed, tested and documented.

Each of the ten distributions – plus a handful that didn’t make it into the full list but are worthy of note – needed proper testing, if only to create the screenshots: each one customised so that the same applications were open in the same spot on the screen, making it easy to quickly compare the visual appearance of each distro.

Add in to that interviews with developers and community members to offer readers a feel for the people behind each of the operating systems on offer, and you’re looking at a lot of work and not a few sleepless nights.

Thankfully, it turned out great, with the art and layout teams working hard to turn it into a real centrepiece for the magazine’s celebrations.

This issue also sees a review of the DreamPlug ARM-based microserver, as a follow up to an earlier review I wrote covering its Marvell SheevaPlug predecessor.

More information is available over on the Linux User & Developer website.

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