I love my 7.5 FX disc brake, it is a great commuter bike. The DS is a dual sport bike with a shock front fork. The question is at a 25 mile round trip commute do you really want to peddle the extra weight of a dual sport type of bike around? Those shock front forks do weight a little extra. The 7.5 will give you a good solid bike in which to commute with, but so will other brands of bikes. You really need to determine which quality is most important for you (ie. commute or off road) and then test ride many bikes to see which one you like the best. And while I know it is possible and many do commute on off road bikes, I personally prefer a non suspension bike with 32mm wide or less road tire.