Without exaggeration, Ubuntu is definitely the king of all Linux distributions. Perfect for beginners, apt for learners and powerful enough for advanced users, it has almost all the qualities. But satisfaction is not the virtue of a normal human being and thus there comes a point when you get bored of Ubuntu (Yeah, right. Now don’t kill me for this). Looking for some worthy competitors of Ubuntu I have shortlisted 5 Linux Distributions that are capable enough to take the place of Ubuntu. Please bear in mind that the list doesn’t contain any other member of Ubuntu family such as Lbuntu, Kbuntu etc.

Fedora:

Fedora is the Linux distribution for experts. Avoid it if you are a beginner but do give it a try if you have experience with other Linux distros. According to DistroWatch Fedora is the third most popular Linux distribution, after Ubuntu and Linux Mint and it is also well supported by the community. You will miss “apt” here, if you are a long time Ubuntu user.

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Linux Mint is distant cousin of Ubuntu. Built on Ubuntu itself, it has the capability to run “out of the box”, mostly. If you find Ubuntu complicated to use Linux Mint is your silver line of hope in Linux sky. When the world was divide over Unity and Gnome 3 and missing the features of Gnome 2, Mint gave a wonderful gift to the community, Cinnamon. A great desktop environment which has best of both Gnome 2 and Gnome 3. Experienced users might find Mint too easy to use which might not go down well with some people.

Slackware:

Slackware is one of the oldest Linux distributions and it is often termed as the “original Linux” for its closeness with a true “Unix Like” system. The closeness to Unix system makes it difficult to use. Beginner Linux users should stay away from Slackware, as it is user friendly only with selective friends not everyone. But if you are an experienced one, a command line warrior, then Slackware is your arena.

ArchLinux:

Another Linux distribution for advanced users. It could be termed as a distant cousin of Slackware as it too believes in the philosophy of least modification from the original distribution. One of the best thing about Arch is that it is very light on hardware requirement. It follows rolling release cycle which means it is continuously under development without any specific release date, so your system is always up-to-date. Best suited for sys-admin users.

OpenSUSE:

This one is for beginners. No other distribution uses KDE desktop environment as beautifully as OpenSUSE. Gnome 3 and Unity haters can find solace in the KDE environment of OpenSUSE although Gnome 3 is also an option here. Package management is RPM (similar to Fedora and Red Hat). Ease of use gives it an edge over its cousin Fedora and provides a full fledged desktop experience.

There are several other distribution that did not make the list. I would like to know readers’ view on what they think can replace their Linux distribution. What you say?

Image Source: Wikipedia and flicker/tuxstorm