Why are there so many Distributions of Linux?
What is the best Distribution to use on a laptop instead of windows or mac?

Welcome to LQ!!!

Because there are too many linux lovers around the world and thus there are many distributions of linux :-) . This is what I think. I don't think so there will be any straight answer for that question.

It would have helped if you would have mentioned your laptop configuratioin. I would prefer using Ubuntu or Linux Mint on a laptop.

Different flavor of ice cream for different folks.

What's the specs on your laptop?

What do you intend to do on the laptop?

Because its open source and everyone has their own ideas on how it should look/feel/work. There's more than one way to kill a cat.

This can be a loaded question, but for a quick drop-in replacement for a newbie I would suggest Ubuntu/Debian, RedHat/Fedora, or Suse. Its all ultimately Linux.

Ultimately, its whatever distro you like. Best way to try multiple distros is to get VirtualBox and install a VM of anything that strikes your fancy.

If it's a reasonably modern computer, anything should work. As a newcomer, you want something that will just install and run. You also need something that has a user interface that you like. Unlike Windows and OSX, you get a choice and everyone has their own idea of what's best. You can try different Linuxes from live CDs that let you run them (a little slowly) without installing. My suggestions for different GUIs would be

1. Xfce (middle of the road, simple): Mint
2. KDE (lots of features and eye-candy, really needs 1GB to run well): Mint or Mepis
3. Unity (looks like an oversized smart-phone, but some people think it's cool): Ubuntu

Avoid Gnome: version 2 (still in almost all distros) is obsolete and version 3 seems a bit unfinished.

There are so many distributions because everyone has their own feelings on how it should work, and because it's free software they are free to change things and release their own version, it gives us users a lot of choices about what we want, and if we disagree with what distro X does, we can go to distro Y that does it differently.

As for the best distro to use, try them out. Mint is usually pretty good for someone brand-new to linux, but it's not right for everyone, I personally started on Fedora with no problems, the best I can advise is to just look at the distro's official pages and see which ones have a philosophy, look/feel, etc. that you agree with and try them out. Most distributions are available as free downloads anyway so for the cost of some CDs you can try out a bunch of distros and find what works best for your needs and preferences.

If you need help finding distros, look here:
http://distrowatch.com/

they give descriptions, details of what software a distro comes with (though you are free to add more) and link to the home page for the distributions etcetera.

If there was one best distribution, everyone would just use it, and the others would die off. By this logic, there are so many distros because everyone is trying to get it exactly right, but not achieving that. Really, there is very little to distinguish between modern, large-scale distros these days. For laptops, the biggest distinction is probably which installer tool does the best job of find and configuring all of the hardware on your laptop. To determine that, start with a list of distros, and try them until you get one that completes with fully working support for all of the features of the computer.

--- rod.

My laptop is an ASUS G73 with an i7. I'm running windows 7 64 bit. I've tried Ubuntu (Ununtu2)in Oracle VM and don't really care for it. Maybe it's just the VM.

As I've said I've tried Ubuntu using a Virtual Machine. I did this to avoid installing the Linux OS on my windows os and screwing something up. Is there any suggestions on how to test the different Linux OS? What are the potential problems if I just install the Linux on my laptop and I don't like the distribution? Is it a problem to uninstall the Linux and restore the windows OS?

I don't really understand. The only thing the VM changes from a desktop experience point of view is that it's a bit slower and runs in a small window instead of fullscreen.

Use virtual machines or live CDs.

You can easily overwrite it with another distribution.

It will be a problem to get Windows back if you don't have the Windows installation disc.