Who really cares?

[fistfullofroses]

Distrorankings, distrowatch, and all of these other things people mention will not reveal what the best linux distribution is. If you really want to find out what is most popular just go ask people (or look at places like fox). Today on foxnews.com I saw an article about Linux. Amazing that mainstream media even realizes Linux exists, but hey. The distros they mentioned were Ubuntu, Fedora/RedHat, Linspire/Freespire, Mandriva, Slackware, OpenSuSE. I am not saying "trust the news corporations" as they are normally biased toward the right or the left, but I am saying they follow and/or create the trends in the world. As such, they are influential in our technological spheres (the desktop anyway). Plus, aren't those the distros that most people use anyway?

On another note, why are we all so fragmented? I understand hating Freespire/Linspire. They are trying to implement non-opensource code as a feature of Linux. That really is not the way to go. But, as for open operating systems, we see a lot of people saying the BSD, opensolaris, GNU, Linux, Haiku or whatever is the only way to go. We are all in this together competing against one common enemy - closed source. A distribution should make little difference. A open OS should make little difference. As long as it takes market share from a closed source competitor... hey it's all good.

[SunnyRabbiera]

Its all about what works for you in the end that matters, if ubuntu works for you use it, if PCLinux works for you use it, if redhat works for you then use it...

I really dont like this popularity contest stuff.

[Arwen]

Its all about what works for you in the end that matters, if ubuntu works for you use it, if PCLinux works for you use it, if redhat works for you then use it...

+1
Also just because it's not working for you doesn't mean an OS sucks,you may have just been unlucky or have configured it the wrong way.

[terry_gardener]

i completely agree people should pick what ever OS that works for them. even if it is windows or mac osx.

[wolfen69]

i completely agree people should pick what ever OS that works for them. even if it is windows or mac osx.

let's not get carried away here. jk.

[Lord Illidan]

It's true. If I see that someone is working happily in Windows, I don't try to convert him. He's happy, why make him switch. If he is grumbling about it, that's different.

[Tux Aubrey]

Ok. I'll say it. I think popularity does matter - to some extent.

User base > community > support > active development > commercial opportunity > more developers > better bug fixes > better distro for users.

Don't get me wrong - I actually love the diversity of Linux. It leads to rapid evolution and the wider adoption of good ideas and innovation.

Nor do I think that "best" = "most popular" (look at Windows for goodness sake).

But I do think we are well served by having a few well polished, well supported distros with big user bases. They are certainly the ones I recommend to new users.

And just for the record (in case my comments in another, now closed, thread were taken the wrong way), I do not think it a good thing that Ubuntu attracts users away from Suse, Fedora or Debian. Quite the opposite. I like to see any distro taking market share away from closed source OSs.

[fistfullofroses]

I would have to say that I agree with you on many things. The only thing that I can say, is that I really do not care much if one distro is more popular than the others, and in doing so takes some users from SuSE or Fedora. I do agree though that the real idea is to take market share from closed source systems. I mentioned that in the post. I also agree with others that everyone should use what works best for themselves. I do not agree that anyone should use closed source operating systems though. That really hurts all of us. Open source systems promote the rapid development and evolution of software, which benefits all of us. Open source software brought us so many things that are now being implemented by the "big boys" over in Redmond. Unfortunately Mac and Windows users think that their respective vendors of choice made these innovations...

[LowSky]

Linux is the way it is because Torvalds says so. You want to change that, make your own OS. Just make sure you use nothing that resmebles code from another operating system or someone might sue you... like microsoft or novell or apple

[fistfullofroses]

Or I could just make changes to the Kernel. I could also make changes to the kernel and then distribute it... I could also just make changes and submit them for approval. Also, Torvalds does not do all of the work anymore. He hasn't for quite some time. Linux is the way it is because corporations say it needs to be and the kernel developers and maintainers bend over to their requests.