VectorLinux vs Freespire Linux

I ran into an ample discussion today with a business partner today regarding the best Linux distro one can setup for a home and office machine. As the title suggests my friend is a Freespire user and feels comfortable with it.

Now he attacked the following points:

Freespire is way easier to install with it's 100% graphical setup interface

Freespire initial KDE settings and desktop are more intuitive to Linux noobs, especially for those familiar with MS Windows series

Freespire is loaded with a broad collection of drivers and codecs

The 3rd point is easy combat, VL is ready to play all your DVD collections and, very important, Firefox is already configured with the mplayer plugin for watching online clips. As about drivers, all my USB stuff works great, and the ATI Radeon works very nice with the Mesa DRI driver (RedHat based distros don't setup well for it, I have to manually tune it).

Well, as about the first points, I must admit he is right, however for the 2nd I noted nice graphical improvements in VL Standard 5.8 RC1.

My retaliation focused on several strong points:

VL comes with an impressive collection of software, and that's on a single setup CD!

VL setup is more flexible and powerful

VL is based on Slackware, so it's directory layout is the optimal one for setting up new software or manually replace built in ones with new versions build by compilation on the same box

VL is way more lighter and faster, which is definitely an advantage for older machines

Installing Wine, CrossOver Office or Cedega on VL is a breeze if you need to run Windows apps

In the end we reached to several conclusions, VectorLinux is more powerful than Freespire but is more accessible to experienced Linux users. Casual Linux users or noobs will find Freespire more friendly.

Should VectorLinux have a graphical setup? No, I prefer to know I'm able to setup my system first in case there are any video driver conflicts, not to get the black screen before I'm able to start selecting my packages :-) And for those experienced with Slackware (which I use for servers) it's really no difference.

Freespire is a good distro too, however it doesn't fit my needs since it's target niche ain't the one I belong to. I appreciate that Freespire is not software bloated, a trend which seems to affect many contemporan Linux distros.

In the end I promised my friend I'll help him setup VectorLinux SOHO on his previous laptop to see how it performs in the long run. I'll get back with the results :-)

-- UPDATE --

Well, VL SOHO is going to stay for a while on the laptop but so will Freespire do on the desktop. My friend enjoys the speed of VectorLinux on older hardware but finds Freespire perfect for his needs on the desktop.

The moral of this story is that each distro has its strength and its target. Both of them are not bloated but target different user although both are desktop distros. It's all about how much CLI vs GUI you need and the flexibility that is given to you to get your job done.

I'm glad to find out that my little story had been noticed by the VL community here. I'd like to add that this is no contest or an attempt to find the best distro. It's just a comparison of the two distros, each used on a daily basis in real life.

To conclude, well done to both teams!

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