A better alternative than Linux is OpenSolaris. Its real UNIX based on Sun’s Solaris 10 operating system. OpenSolaris is open source. There is lots of free software and it has the GNOME desktop from Linux.
OpenSolaris is coming along well but still is less user friendly in terms of maintenance than Fedora or Suse..
Just what is “better” about OpenSolaris than Linux? I use (regular) Solaris from time to time (I have it installed in VMware on my Linux laptop), but it is kind of a pain. The default userland tools are absolute rubbish. ZFS is nice, but for most people, it’s not something they’d ever use, particularly in a desktop/workstation environment.