Best distro for you?

[~sHyLoCk~]

I know this an Ubuntu forum, but I'm taking a survey of which is your favorite distro and if you could please write a line about why this is your choice it would be helpful. This is for a new upcoming site which is supposed to help new/existing Linux users in comparing/choosing the right Distros + Lots of guides and help. Consider this not as a spam, as I have not posted any links. :)

Cheers

[.Maleficus.]

Arch for me. It's simple to use, really fast, is rolling release and comes with everything I want and nothing I don't.

[Daisuke_Aramaki]

Lunar/Sorcerer and CRUX. nothing else works for me.

[liamnixon]

Slackware would be my favorite, but I'm using Mandriva '09 as of the moment. I find that, for whatever reason, I just don't like .deb based distros. RPM OS's just behave better on my computer, and don't try to uninstall my GUI because I want to remove some little program.

[irv]

There is already a poll going on this subject: go to:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=976659&highlight=Poll%3A+Distro

[linsux]

Fedora.

Why: Bleeding edge, blue and generally works quite well for me. Plus, I started on Red Hat.

[hatten]

There is already a poll going on this subject: go to:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=976659&highlight=Poll%3A+Distro
That is completely different question, this is about YOUR favourite distro, that one is which linux distro will be popular?

My myself say arch linux.

[billgoldberg]

Fedora.

I could say Plymouth, fairly bleeding edge, SElinux, ...

But I just like it that much now because it's not Ubuntu.

I've been using Ubuntu for years, it's nice to use something different.

But it's not that different, it's all Linux after all.

[WatchingThePain]

Arch.

Small, fast, very few bugs, awesome package manager.

It just runs and runs where other distros have copped out on me.

Arch takes all the crap I throw at it and then says "is that all you got buddy?".

[Hallvor]

Debian. Stable, fast and rolling release. Takes a little longer to set up everything the way you want, but it will run for a very long time.

[JordyD]

Ubuntu. Arch always messes up my xorg.conf, and nothing else can install my video card drivers for me without much hassle. (NVIDIA)

[~sHyLoCk~]

Thank you all for your replies! :)

[Dragonbite]

Wow.. where to begin..? That is a tough question because I keep flip-flopping and it in part deals with how I want to use it.

For desktops:

Ubuntu Easy to get running
Easy to set up
Strong community support
Good hardware recognition
Reasonably up-to-date packages and quick release cycle
Coolness factor of market recognizability
I like brown (kidding,.. but their theme does look pretty good)Fedora
Strong FOSS principals
Good hardware detection
SELinux and more security orientated
Connected to a great company
More up-to-date packages (with slightly less stability)
blue
Pretty good community support
Good artwork team (backgrounds are some of the better ones out-of-the-box)
oh, did I say blue?openSUSE
Enterpirse ready
Good hardware detection
Strong KDE implementation
Mono connection (for if/when I ever get around to doing any programming at home, since I use .NET at work)
Great (friendly) community and support
Looks pretty good
Interoperability
green ;)

For Servers:

CentOS Enterprise ready, built by Red Hat
Stable, even if slightly older versions
Extra configuration tools I don't find elsewhere (for Apache, Samba, etc.)
Can't hurt to have experience, if end up looking for a job in the near future...Ubuntu Server It's Ubuntu!
Good Community Support
Extra documentation from non-Ubuntu/Canonical sources (personal Blogs, etc.)openSUSE
Built for an Enterprise
Yast is 100% functional in a CLI as it is as a GUI
Mono support (for in case I decide to set up a Mono web server and run some .ASPX pages)

[izizzle]

I love using Kubuntu. Great Debian/Ubuntu base, and it uses KDE!

After that, I'd say Elive. E17 is my 2nd favorite WM.

[ZackM]

I'm between Ubuntu and OpenSuse myself. They're both pretty easy to use and configure for personal use. I've been using KDE on OpenSuse and Gnome on Ubuntu. I like both setups really.

[SuperSonic4]

Arch for me. It's simple to use, really fast, is rolling release and comes with everything I want and nothing I don't.

Arch for the same reasons as well as Pacman and being able to easily switch DE/WM

[kk0sse54]

Gentoo for me, although I'm really liking my Arch setup despite the fact that Kdemod is horrible and was just one big disappointment for me. Best OS for me is FreeBSD, nothing comes even close, although I do love NetBSD :)

[ZackM]

Gentoo for me, although I'm really liking my Arch setup despite the fact that Kdemod is horrible and was just one big disappointment for me. Best OS for me is FreeBSD, nothing comes even close, although I do love NetBSD :)

I agree with the FreeBSD comment. I started with it, so I'm partial to it.

[walkerk]

sidux. Rolling release (more stable) version of Debian Sid. I switched about a year ago and I've never looked back...

[Twitch6000]

Humm this is a hard question for me...

Seeing as I can never stay on one distro lol...

I guess I will just list three.

Linux Mint: A great distro for any newcomer or long time user. It has alot of nifty "mint" tools that give you a quick way to do things. Its default theme is also pretty nice aswell :).

OpenSuse: Even though for myself it didn't work out to good,I can say it comes with anything you could need by default. Its gnome and kde versions are both very clean and sleek. Plus there help files are very well.. helpful :p.

Mandriva 2009: I would say PClinuxOS,but their 2009 release for me was fail. Anyways.. Mandriva provides three version a free edition,one edition,and powerpack.I personally like the powerpack edition due to the installer.Anyways when you get it all setup if it does not detect your wireless it has a tool to get a windows driver working instead.Last,but not least its control panel is epic win :p.

[nothingspecial]

Ubuntu of course.

Arch is boring to set up.

Fedora didn`t work well on my system (last time I tried)

I like Puppy and dsl and use them at work. (not for work)

Moblin is cute.

Suse is the name of my wife

Edit - Oh I forgot, I love zenwalk - I have a little partition for it on my netbook and use it from time to time.

[lzfy]

I'm waiting for Pardus 2009. It's going to be the best KDE4 distro. Till then I'll stay with Kubuntu.

[.Maleficus.]

Arch for the same reasons as well as Pacman and being able to easily switch DE/WM
I could have sworn I mentioned Pacman, but I guess I didn't. Add Pacman to my list as well, because it is by far the best package manager I've use (and in conjunction with ABS it's unstoppable).

[Amilo1718]

UbUnTu

[liamnixon]

...Arch always messes up my xorg.conf...

I always have X.org issues with Arch, too. I have so much trouble with it, and I don't even have a dedicated graphics card.

[SuperSonic4]

Ubuntu. Arch always messes up my xorg.conf, and nothing else can install my video card drivers for me without much hassle. (NVIDIA)


I always have X.org issues with Arch, too. I have so much trouble with it, and I don't even have a dedicated graphics card.

I guess I must be lucky because
pacman -S nvidia worked for me when installing the nvidia drivers

[~sHyLoCk~]

What's your thought on Frugalware? Since nobody mentioned about it. Anyone tried?

[Amilo1718]

What's your thought on Frugalware? Since nobody mentioned about it. Anyone tried?

nope...
i keep myself tidy & clean
everyday
no... that's a lie

[raul_]

Arch.

Arch = Linux + Package Manager

[dgrouch]

Linux Mint:
1. Everything just works out of the box.
2. Longest installed distro where I didn't @#$% up anything.
3. An Improved Green Ubuntu :)

[avaralom]

I really like Crunchbang. It's based off Ubuntu which I'm already familiar with but has the openbox/fluxbox desktop which I really prefer over Gnome and all the applications included work very well with that.

I've tried Arch, and would definitely be interested in installing it again, but that's more for fun and a learning experience than actual usability.

[xuCGC002]

Debian. Although it takes some time to set up, I don't have any problems with it like I did with Ubuntu.

[Clorow]

Debian. Very, very base, but stable, and has a great package manager.

[ericab]

I've tried Arch, and would definitely be interested in installing it again, but that's more for fun and a learning experience than actual usability.

you obviously have alot more to learn about arch

[evermooingcow]

Gentoo. I love being able to pick components to compile for a custom installation.
I first realized how valuable this can be when I noticed that mplayer with multi-threaded and vdpau support are just built-in USE options that can be set when installing them and dependencies are still automatically resolved as necessary.

The major down side is that setup takes longer.

[gymophett]

Linux Mint is my favorite. As far as I know.
It's just like Ubuntu, with all the pre-installed codecs and MintTools.

[~sHyLoCk~]

I really like Crunchbang. It's based off
I've tried Arch, and would definitely be interested in installing it again, but that's more for fun and a learning experience than actual usability.

I love Arch Linux. Why?

1. Built it from scratch
2. Supports all my hardwares
3. No extra unnecessary apps like bluetooth,cups,etc.
4. Really fast!

[Greg]

I love and currently use Arch, although something like Crux, or Lunar, or Slackware might be better for me (to be tried later).

[stwschool]

I've tried out all the usual suspects and always come back to Ubuntu. I want a system that's pretty, works perfectly, and lets me get my work done, while offering a quality development environment. For me, Ubuntu fits the bill.

[rkirk]

Ubuntu, but only because it's the most popular distro (and is thus guaranteed the most active community-centered development to give it that special polish and shine). If Fedora or Mandriva (through some miracle) jumped ahead in popularity of Ubuntu, I'd switch distributions in the blink of an eye. But, this is highly unlikely to happen, so I'm an Ubuntu loyalist... for now.

[dragos240]

Arch and ubuntu.

[Eisenwinter]

Arch Linux, it is simply superior.

[khelben1979]

Debian has always been my favourite. And here's some of my reasons:

1. It's very robust and stable.
2. It's well made.
3. I have always liked their way of thinking about quality.
4. It's totally free, no hidden costs.
5. Commercial software isn't included unless non-free is activated.
6. I've used it since it was released in the 90's and it even worked on the old Amigas, that's nice.
7. Debian Developers has always been very helpful from the time that I have had contact with them concerning bug reports and similiar.
8. It runs on this old Powerbook.
9. Software upgrades never brake the system (at least not in stable which I'm always referring to).
10. No distribution contains so many packages as Debian has to my knowledge, which makes my own choice about which software I would like to use pretty big, indeed.

+ more.... :)

[mmix]

cross linux from scratch x86_64 (no multilib) using slitaz.
currently, i am using it.