Given the number of Linux distros out there, how did we pick just 14? Some were obvious; the likes of Slackware and Debian have been around since Linus was in short trousers. SUSE, Fedora, Mandriva and Ubuntu are similarly too significant to ignore. What about the others?

To survive, a distro must have something to offer – a large userbase, unique features, ease of use – something that makes it a little (or a lot) different from the rest. We hope that the selection here is sufficiently varied, but please forgive us if we have omitted your favourite distro – try some of the alternatives to see what you may be missing out on.