Which Linux distro do you like the most?

[thebarisaxkid]

Which distro do you like the best and why? (Redhat, Mint, Gentoo, etc.)

[cariboo]

This isn't a support question, moved to the Cafe.

[andymorton]

Of the ones I've tried (Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint, Crunchbang, OpenSUSE and Puppy) I have to say Ubuntu. It was the first distro I ever used and I much prefer it to any of the others.

andy

[cap10Ibraim]

openSUSE

[ubunterooster]

Igelle, it is unique

[Storm Rider]

openSUSE

same

[TheNessus]

same

Same for openSUSE.

Wish I knew why when I install it on my new lappy, GRUB fails to see either Ubuntu or Win7, so I end up installing Ubuntu over it to bring back my lost OSs... (Or I should study Grub...)

[renkinjutsu]

listed from most favorite to least favorite


Funtoo
Gentoo
Debian
Ubuntu
Fedora
Arch

I like all the ones that I've listed.
Ubuntu was my first linux distro, so it'll always have a special place in my heart. Also practically any linux software vendor distributes a deb.

I jumped from Ubuntu to Fedora 12 after 9.10 Karmic. I really liked Fedora. The default artwork was nice. There were tons of administration tools loaded that were very useful. And at the time, they were the only distro that shipped with Nouveau and KMS for Nvidia... Also the delta rpm downloads were SWEET!

Arch... Honestly, I've only used Arch for one whole day (the day I installed it) and really.. But a few things I've noticed was that pacman was blazingly fast.. I why can't other package managers do this?! And I really never got into Arch because I had things going on, and I was too lazy to jump into another distro..
ADDITIONALLY, I found out that during my Arch install, the cdisk or whatever partition tool they include in their CD overwrote my MBR when I added a new partition. I had the impression that it would work like gparted, where the previous partitions would still exist in the partition table..

Ever since then, I avoided arch, and actually wiped it from the computer and went with Fedora.. But arch is still pretty cool, I have to admit.


Gentoo -- I'm not really sure how I got into Gentoo, but I'm glad I did. My main machine is running Gentoo right now, and the minimalistic aspect of Gentoo almost encourages me to play around with the system and have fun shell scripting and modifying the system.. Gentoo was a real breath of fresh air.

Funtoo -- I installed it on a test machine a couple days ago.. a Pentium4 Dell with 1GB of RAM, with some Nvidia (not sure what it is).. Funtoo is my breath of fresh air from Gentoo.. boot configurations are vastly superior and boot speed is also amazing, plus syncing the portage tree takes seconds compared to Gentoo. Other than that, it's basically the same as Gentoo.

Sooner or later, when I get a drive to back up my data, I'll be moving my main machine to Funtoo.

Edit: Wait.. no. I jumped from Debian to Fedora because I had some NFS problems with Debian.

[RiceMonster]

Fedora

[Bluesan]

Debian

[AoSteve]

Prolly Debian... Ubuntu is great as well!

[sujoy]

Arch - because of pacman, the simple and elegant init scripts, the community (irc specially) and just the overall customizibility of the distro.

[devondashla]

I used to change from Mint to Ubuntu every so often, but now I have settled with Ubuntu.

[chris200x9]

archlinux

[cjazz]

Arch ... but I run Ubuntu in a virtual machine.

[TNT1]

antiX

[Whistling Nixie]

Linux Mint, but I live in a country where the codecs included are probably not legal, so I use Ubuntu.

[linux-hack]

1) Arch Linux
2) Debian
3) Fedora
4) Linux Mint
5) OpenSUSE
6) Ubuntu

Ubuntu was my first linux install. But I put it in the last place cause after I saw other OS's how they work and how stable they are Ubuntu is just not stable enough. It is the best distro for beginners. But for more experienced users there are other distros that can make there day.

[CraigPaleo]

Pinguy OS (http://distrowatch.com/pinguy) for Gnome... everything works out of the box and is customized for beginners.

Kubuntu 10.10 in my opinion is the best deb KDE version & best version of KPackagekit.

Sabayon (http://distrowatch.com/sabayon) Best non-debian based distro that includes everything OOTB, including codecs, dvd playback, and proprietary drivers on the live CD itself. Also Compiz and KWin effects work directly from the live DVD without having to reboot.

[Spice Weasel]

Slackware. It's a very nice distro, it's just I don't have a very good internet connection for torrenting a DVD image at the moment.



Arch Linux/Slackware/Alpine Linux
Fedora, RHEL, CentOS
Debian (they keep oldschool pacakges! :D)

[Ahava591]

For daily "work," (i.e., screwing around,) I use Ubuntu. I am particularly attached to 9.04, (what we use at school when we do Linux stuff,) and 9.10, (the first Linux distribution that I used outside of a Live CD.)

I also use Fedora from time to time and like the differences between it and Ubuntu. It keeps things exciting. I've used Ubuntu-based Crunchbang and really enjoyed the experience. I don't know that I will ever love Debian, but when Debian-based #! is finally out of beta, (I think they're still in alpha,) I am going to use that, maybe with Ubuntu and Fedora.

The more I read and learn about the more "advanced," distributions the more refreshing they seem to me. It just seems like there are more elegant ways of doing everything that Ubuntu doesn't do; I haven't tried those yet, but probably by the end of the year I will have given Slackware and Arch a shot.

For now, I like and use Ubuntu the most.

[wkhasintha]

The only other distro I have used is Fedora. I for one would choose Ubuntu over it.

[limestone]

1. Debian hands down!
2. Slackware
3. Gentoo/Arch

I can't tell why, it's just one of those things :)

[m4tic]

Mandriva KDE is by far the most stable on any machine I've ever used and I still choose it over Ubuntu. I'm from Windows XP and it's still the best in most cases but I had to leave for obvious reasons. I moved to Ubuntu, the difference between it and windows is that whenever I use Ubuntu, it feels light, it's a feeling I cannot explain but it's there, it has a sort of paper feel which seems to not have changed still to this day and that feeling annoys me. Maybe I have Detective Monk's syndrome i don't know. Mandriva brought me back that feeling and it's so stable, the transitions it makes when detecting the video drives or what ever it is feels smooth and a pleasant experience, this in Ubuntu is a totally different story, always when it switches the display I worry my screen is going to blow off, it certainly has a static feel and I do not like that. Stability, Ubuntu crashes on me about twice a week, It has something to do with its power management since it seems to short my computer every once in a while but its no big deal as long as it recovers any unsaved documents. In Mandriva they seem to have identified this problem on similar machines and i haven't had a crash in weeks. I have Kubuntu and can say it's not that i'm a KDE man, and the experience is the same as in Mandriva Gnome.

I really wanted to test Maverick out for myself but unfortunately like most people the thing wouldn't boot on my desktop and Lenovo laptop. It seems the old hardware argument won't be put to use anytime soon hey. But from the reviews I've read i congratulate the team and everyone who worked on it.

[DeadlyWolf]

Sabayon for KDE and Sabayon for Gnome.

[Zoot7]

Debian and Slackware

[HermanAB]

+1 for OpenSuse

I only use Ubuntu for fun, since it is kinda incomplete and unpolished, but Linux is Linux is Linux...

[Simian Man]

Fedora far and away.

[swoll1980]

I found them all to be pretty much the same. Bugs differ from here to there. Package management is the main difference. I like Ubuntu, and Fedora because are way more progressive with their UI. I prefer Ubuntu for myself though, because it has always worked better for me.

[TBABill]

1. Ubuntu or Mint - can't decide which I like more but presently on Ubuntu
2. PCLinuxOS - just easy and my Broadcom works out of the box without installing driver (only distro I have found that does that so far)
3. openSUSe - haven't found a need to use it in a while since the others work so well

[wesamly]

My first distro was Redhat, then Mandrake, later Fedora.
Now I am using (K)ubuntu. :guitar:
best of them all :)

[NightwishFan]

I really like Ubuntu and Debian. Hopefully I can use Debian more as time goes by. (I still like the feel and release schedule of Ubuntu better).

Anything not Debian based I like OpenSUSE.

[Simian Man]

So far 20 for non-Ubuntu and 10 for Ubuntu (incl. derivatives). Pretty funny on the Ubuntu forums :).

[CraigPaleo]

So far 20 for non-Ubuntu and 10 for Ubuntu (incl. derivatives). Pretty funny on the Ubuntu forums :).

We can all talk here. Try recommending another distro on the PCLOS forums and see what happens.

[uRock]

Ubuntu
Fedora
Crunchbang(ubuntu, not Debian)
OpenSolaris
OpenSuse
Debian

Ubuntu is the best Linux distro I have ever used. It just works.

[Dustin2128]

slackware. I'm kinda liking arch to tell you the truth, but I still like slack more.

[98cwitr]

Ubuntu...duh Fedora's a close second though

[JOHNNYG713]

Ultimate Edition! :guitar:

[3Miro]

Used Ubuntu for years and it is the one I recommend for anyone new to Linux. I have great respect for what Ubuntu is trying to do.

I tried Fedora, I has Linux classes years ago and they were on Red Hat. While Fedora seems less bloated (which is a big plus), it doesn't have the community repository activated by default, so setting hardware drivers and extra software is more of an issue. Also, their HowTos were not very helpful. Overall, it is a great distro, but I find it lacking next to Ubuntu (except for security of course).

I tried openSusa, installed, worked, tried to install the proprietary ATI driver, broke the installation and X refused to start. I followed the instructions and I am not a complete noob. I am sure it was an issue of me messing up, but I totally blame their HowTo.

I only tried the free 32-bit version of Mandriva. This is not enough to form a meaningful opinion (and I don't feel like spending money on the full product).

Then I wanted to learn more about Linux and I mustered the courage to try Arch. First in VirtualBox, later on its own. Someone should give the Arch guys medals for their HowTo manuals, to this date they are the best I have seen (Ubuntu ones are also good, but they are aimed at a more Linux illiterate audience, so we are talking apples and oranges).

Then I lost my mind and decided to really delve into it. On the fifth attempt, I managed to install Gentoo and now this is my main system.

I am currently trying to get Lunar to work, if I succeed, I will move out of Gentoo (Lunar seems to be more XFCE oriented).

Other notes: Slackware had the best KDE I have tried and if I had seen Salix before I went for the source distros, I would have picked it out for the great XFCE support.

@CraigPaleo: How do you think PCLOS forum will react if I ask them about a 64-bit version. The only time that I tried PCLOS, I messed Grub and it wouldn't boot. Since they don't have a 64-bit version, I lost interest.

@Simian Man: you don't have to use Ubuntu to help Ubuntu users with simple problems and I think we should all support Ubuntu for what it is doing. I want to keep it real, Arch and Gentoo will never appeal to regular windows users, only Ubuntu comes as a good alternative for someone with zero knowledge and zero desire/need to learn. Ubuntu has the largest potential to gain Linux converts and the more people use Linux in general, the better hardware support and 3d party application support for all of us.

[wojox]

It's a tie between Ubuntu and Fedora.

[sydbat]

Which Linux distro do you like the most?

Whichever one I am working with at the moment.

[borth92]

I also have found most of them to be the same, with little glitches and bugs that need working around. Ubuntu has worked the best for me...although sometimes their default program choice makes me scratch my head every now and then. But freedom of linux, i just switch over to what I like...Ubuntu gets #1 in my book

[kio_http]

Kubuntu all the way. I started using it since breezy badger. Back then things were very nice and Kubuntu Hardy with KDE 3.5.10 was the best KDE 3 distro I ever used. At this time I had installed KDE 4 as my secondary DE, yes even the beta's of 4.0 series.

Then they left KDE 3 in favor of KDE 4. I found it lacking and quite unstable, but I saw great potential in KDE 4's platform. So I forced myself to use it as my main DE, providing lots of feedback etc.

KDE 4.4 took things back up in terms of features, now KDE 4.5 has really polished it to a state where I can say KDE 4 is almost ready. Kubuntu's KDE implementation was really poor in Intrepid to Karmic. Lucid was better but still lacking and Maverick is close to perfect.

[CraigPaleo]

@CraigPaleo: How do you think PCLOS forum will react if I ask them about a 64-bit version. The only time that I tried PCLOS, I messed Grub and it wouldn't boot. Since they don't have a 64-bit version, I lost interest.

According to this (http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=67780.315)they are planning a 64 bit version.

[3Miro]

According to this (http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=67780.315)they are planning a 64 bit version.

I will give it a try. Thanks.

Also, they do have a very different attitude on their forum.

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuse, Arch, Debian in that order.

[cap10Ibraim]

So far 20 for non-Ubuntu and 10 for Ubuntu (incl. derivatives). Pretty funny on the Ubuntu forums :).
I switched from ubuntu to opensuse but their forums sucks
it feels like home here

[xaegis]

Ubuntu
Fedora
Crunchbang(ubuntu, not Debian)
OpenSolaris
OpenSuse
Debian

Ubuntu is the best Linux distro I have ever used. It just works.

I used to use Open Solaris too, didnt Oracle squelch that distro and its community recently?

for me:
Ubuntu(waiting for Gnome3)
OpenSuse(KDE)

If I keep wandering I'll try Gentoo and FreeBSD or Haiku. (Yeah I know BSD and Haiku are not nixes! :p )

[thebarisaxkid]

This isn't a support question, moved to the Cafe.

I keep clinking the wrong link for each of my posts!

[unknownPoster]

(Yeah I know BSD and Haiku are not nixes! :p )

BSD is Unix, while Linux is not.

[NightwishFan]

I believe few of them are Unix anymore just posix-compliant or something.

[Sporkman]

Ubuntu for me.

[alend]

Gentoo (Because of its manual and portage)
Ubuntu (User friendly)
Debian (Because of package and stability)
Fedoro (for developing software)
Mandriva (Dynamic firewall)
Puppy (Because totally run on RAM)
Suse (For Yast)
Sabayon

[Stan_1936]

1) Arch Linux
2) Debian
3) Fedora
4) Linux Mint
5) OpenSUSE
6) Ubuntu

Ubuntu was my first linux install. But I put it in the last place cause after I saw other OS's how they work and how stable they are Ubuntu is just not stable enough. It is the best distro for beginners. But for more experienced users there are other distros that can make there day.

Ubuntu was my first linux install. AND I put it in first place cause after I saw other OS's, how they work and how stable they are, I realized that Ubuntu is just so DAMN stable. It is the best distro for beginners and average users --> people who don't want to waste their time "configuring" their system regularly (pampering it like a spoiled little child) and hoping that frequent crashes don't occur as a result of these "customized configs"!.

Conclusion: For average users, there is only one distro that can make their day: Ubuntu.

[mips]

Arch

[anticapitalista]

antiX

[DZ*]

Ubuntu/Fedora is a tie for me.

Ubuntu has larger software repositories although it doesn't have a couple of things available in Fedora that I really need, like ooolatex (which has been getting progressively more difficult to install in Ubuntu).

I like the way Ubuntu sets up encrypted home for new accounts with one click.

Ubuntu used to be "easier" to install and use, but these days everything is just as easy in Fedora.

Other things that have changed include

Addition of repos for many packages that Fedora "doesn't want to ship" amounts to a click on a link at rpmfusion.org.
Selinux hasn't thrown a single hiss in over a year. Distribution upgrades do work without breaking things.
"RPM dependency hell" is long over.

One thing where I've had a definitely better experience with Fedora is 64 bit OS. Perhaps it's my ignorance but I how do I install 32 bit packages on a 64 bit system in Ubuntu? There is an option in the dpkg to force a 32 bit install but that doesn't pull needed dependencies. The process of installing 32 packages is seamless in Fedora: yum just pulls all needed dependencies and 32/64 mixed stuff seems to always peacefully coexist.

[Spice Weasel]

Ubuntu was my first linux install. AND I put it in first place cause after I saw other OS's, how they work and how stable they are, I realized that Ubuntu is just so DAMN stable. It is the best distro for beginners and average users --> people who don't want to waste their time "configuring" their system regularly (pampering it like a spoiled little child) and hoping that frequent crashes don't occur as a result of these "customized configs"!.

Conclusion: For average users, there is only one distro that can make their day: Ubuntu.

Why don't you just accept what other people use and not put them down for their choices?

[gvoima]

I'm a developer and have a separate virtualized hardware for development and run Solaris/Debian on them.

But, I like my desktop to be easy to use and install without the need of any extra tweaking (quite bored of it already, actually), therefore I use Ubuntu on it. As it works for me and my hardware nicely. Newest LTS atm.

[Simian Man]

I like the way Ubuntu sets up encrypted home for new accounts with one click.

Fedora has had that option for a long time now, though I believe it only shows up if you do manual partitioning.

[DZ*]

Fedora has had that option for a long time now, though I believe it only shows up if you do manual partitioning.

Thanks. Do you mean an install option to encrypt the entire home partition, or is there something similar in Fedora to per-account encryption in Ubuntu ("adduser --encrypt-home" or a check-box "Encrypt home folder" in "Users and Groups")

[Simian Man]

Thanks. Do you mean an install option to encrypt the entire home partition, or is there something similar in Fedora to per-account encryption in Ubuntu ("adduser --encrypt-home" or a check-box "Encrypt home folder" in "Users and Groups")

Sorry, I did mean the home partition. I didn't know Ubuntu had that feature, that's pretty cool.

[baizon]

1. Arch
2. Ubuntu / Xubuntu / Kubuntu
3. Debian

[handy]

A poll would have been useful for this thread I reckon.

Arch.

[jshepherd]

Mint. But for some reason (loyalty I think) I install Ubuntu and use Mint on USB.

[Stan_1936]

Which distro do you like the best and why? (Redhat, Mint, Gentoo, etc.)

None of the ones you listed.

Answer:
1. Xubuntu (http://www.xubuntu.org/). it is faster than #3 that I listed below.
2. Lubuntu (http://lubuntu.net//). it is fast..very fast.
3. Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/). it feels complete.

[ubunterooster]

A poll would have been useful for this thread I reckon.

Arch.
A poll with 2000+ options! :shock: