"Over the last decade, Linux has evolved from the pet
project of a Finnish university student to a worldwide platform.
The undisputed strength of Linux in the server arena has led to
widespread adoption in the business arena--case in point, the
ubiquitous Apache Web server, which serves roughly 65 percent of
the world's Web sites.
But Linux isn't limited to just servers anymore. In the last few
years, desktop-oriented Linux distributions have exploded, with
increasingly simpler installation and configuration routines and a
slate of productivity apps. Linux's X Window System GUI, along with
rapidly maturing desktop environments such as KDE and GNOME, is
beginning to offer a computing experience that approaches the
relative simplicity of Windows. With the advent of high-quality,
Linux-native office apps such as KDE's KOffice suite and Ximian
GNOME's Evolution and Gnumeric, Linux also has the potential to
become an attractive alternative for corporate desktop
deployment.
Though each of these distributions has something to offer
business users, some are better suited for enterprise use than
others. To help you choose the most appropriate version of Linux
for your enterprise, we evaluated seven major Linux distributions
in search of the perfect balance between utility, productivity, and
support."
