In terms of other similar solutions, I know that Red Hat Linux is more complex than the standard Linux distribution but it's better because it has so many extensions and so many different products within the Red Hat family. It's a lot more mature than SUSE. Now that IBM has bought Red Hat it's going to become even better. It can become a serious competitor in the cloud, although they need to standardize the naming conventions and there isn't a convention as with Amazon where it's very easy to understand the cloud features and products, and they have a well-organized system. IBM doesn't have that.

We did not switch from another product, as such. We have been using SUSE Linux for some time. We do have a mixture of different Linux servers that we use and we continue with this product because it's stable.

I have evaluated several different versions of Linux distributions over the years. It depends upon the planned use as to which platform will work best. I have tested RedHat, Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE, Linux Mint, SparkyLinux, SliTaz, Gentoo Linux, and several others.

We've tried some Linux distro.
Limited internet connection made us look for distros which have repository on DVD.
Ubuntu may be the best choice for beginners if you have reliable internet access.