The verdict
When tasked with doing a Roundup of distros with the same desktop environment, it’s difficult to narrow down five that are distinct enough so that we could find a winner. In the end, we settled on distros that despite offering a similar set of default applications, have a different underlying package management system and development strategy.
Debian comes in last because of its software packaging policy. It would have been unfair to rate a distro that doesn’t even offer the latest software above a rolling release distro. That said, if you prefer stability over everything else, there’s no beating Debian.
One of the key factors in deciding the winner of this Roundup is the customisation and personality of the distro. This is why Fedora, which ships a stock Gnome release, doesn’t rate higher. The only reason why it didn’t finish last is Antergos’s minimalist default application set.
All the distros fared rather poorly in the security test. When the worst comes to pass, knowing that your castle is surrounded by a moat is a comforting thought, but one is much more at peace knowing that all your precious possessions are safely stored in a remote location. While Fedora seemingly outshines the others because of its default firewall rules as well as SELinux, the fact that it doesn’t ship with a back-up tool out of the box, is surprising. This is why Zorin OS, despite offering nothing that comes close to the robustness and utility of SELinux, outscored Fedora on this test.
As wonderful as Manjaro is, it must devote some thought on providing an easy-to-use firewall tool, and a back-up tool out of the box. In fact, this is true for even old distros such as Debian.
Zorin OS and Manjaro were nearly identical in every test. But we can only choose one winner and that distinction goes to Manjaro, because of its rolling release nature. Although both the distros devote plenty of resources to looking unique and friendly, Manjaro outshines its deb-based peer because of dedicated user community and impressive documentation.
“One of the key factors in deciding the winning distro is its customisation and personality”