Evaluating distros for the corporate desktop

Evaluating distros for the corporate desktop

Do you know of a good comparison of Xandros, RedHat EWS and Suse Pro for corporate desktop use? I'm looking for information regarding package selection, support agreements, etc. (all the good stuff that corporations like to look at).

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I did some digging as well, but couldn't find a nice overview that would answer all your questions right away. However there are some resources that may help you a little further. Distrowatch has a very complete overview of available Linux distributions with information on the packages.

About support, for this moment I have to refer you to the respected Web sites of the distributors. It may be wise to start off on a list of demands and wishes and see what distributions live up to your technical specs. After that you will have a short list to verify if all support and pricing issues are really what expect. There are more companies delivering a corporate Linux distribution that you ought to consider as well, for instance: Mandrake Linux, Linspire and Sun Java Desktop. Depending on the current infrastructure and the number of users, these distributions might suit your needs.

This was first published in October 2004