Linux Journal says Ubuntu is tops... again

[BBQdave]

Linux Journal's annual reader's choice gives Ubuntu as the top distro. And Debian is runner up :D

Personally, I can not say enough at how impressed and happy I am with Debian 6. And before that, happy and productive with Ubuntu 10.4 LTS. Great community, Great distros :D

http://www.linuxjournal.com/slideshow/readers-choice-2011

[BC59]

Linux Journal's annual reader's choice gives Ubuntu as the top distro. And Debian is runner up :D

Personally, I can not say enough at how impressed and happy I am with Debian 6. And before that, happy and productive with Ubuntu 10.4 LTS. Great community, Great distros :D

http://www.linuxjournal.com/slideshow/readers-choice-2011

It's a surprise because Debian is not for the masses. It's not polished and is fairly difficult to handle. I don't know what is the meaning of


Whether it's because Linux Mint is making Debian more user-friendly because Ubuntu is a Debian system as well.

[BBQdave]

It's a surprise because Debian is not for the masses. It's not polished and is fairly difficult to handle.

Ubuntu is definitely more polished with a nice user desktop; but I think if you are proficient in Ubuntu, Debian is not difficult to manage. Ubuntu IMHO, is definitely more user friendly, and thus appeals to users starting to explore GNU/Linux.

I think at the end of the day, if you sort through all the survey data and adjust for newbies in and out of GNU/Linux, the only true pattern you see:

Ubuntu and Fedora have strong steady user bases, and I think that is largely due to the great communities around both distros :)

[Linuxratty]

I always thought Red hat was at the top. Quite interesting.

[BBQdave]

I always thought Red hat was at the top. Quite interesting.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the number one money earner of any GNU/Linux distro, though I am not sure if that equates to largest user base?

I am curious if you factor in RHLE and Fedora's user base, it would seem they have a larger user base than Ubuntu (especially if you factor out newbies who are in and out of GNU/Linux).

I did not think of that Linuxratty; but it is odd that magazines and blogs that conduct these surveys do not take into account the link of RHLE and Fedora, or that RHLE is approaching annual earnings of a billion plus US$ a year.

I guess it just fun to post a survey, then see the swarm of comments :P

[IWantFroyo]

Linux Journal's annual reader's choice gives Ubuntu as the top distro. And Debian is runner up :D

Personally, I can not say enough at how impressed and happy I am with Debian 6. And before that, happy and productive with Ubuntu 10.4 LTS. Great community, Great distros :D

http://www.linuxjournal.com/slideshow/readers-choice-2011

Debian 6 and Ubuntu 10.04 were really good. I'm using Debian 6 in the form of #! Statler.

@BC59
I suppose it depends on how far you're willing to go for a good system. Stock Debian is okay, but the real beauty lies in the Stability of the system and aptitude. After adding several repositories for more up-to-date stuff and swapping with the DE of your choice, if you don't like Gnome, makes it a really nice system.

[CryptAck]

I used to only use RH ten years ago or so. They were one of the best distros out there. About two or three years after they moved away from the personal desktop (focused primarily on enterprise and made Fedora), Ubuntu came in and completely changed the scene.

I've always wondered if RH were still interested in the Desktop whether or not Ubuntu would be as big today.

[BBQdave]

I used to only use RH ten years ago or so. They were one of the best distros out there. About two or three years after they moved away from the personal desktop (focused primarily on enterprise and made Fedora), Ubuntu came in and completely changed the scene.

I've always wondered if RH were still interested in the Desktop whether or not Ubuntu would be as big today.

+1

Funny too, that Ubuntu is trying to push into the Server scene (and other markets).
And RHEL (and Fedora) appear to have no interest in the personal desktop.

[khelben1979]

It's a surprise because Debian is not for the masses. It's not polished and is fairly difficult to handle. I don't know what is the meaning of

because Ubuntu is a Debian system as well.

I would say it's the opposite. Because of how long it takes for each version of Debian to get released, I think it's more than polished, and old arguments that it isn't user friendly enough is like looking at really old Debian releases where that statement is true.

Looking at how the whole Linux system behaves, Ubuntu don't spend as much time as Debian has on really testing the distribution so everything works good, they rather make fast releases which is based on Debian testing releases as it's core.

Ubuntu have made a really good job at marketing, but to say it's more polished, hmm.. I strongly disagree.

[marypi]

same here. I've heard of red hat even before I knew what linux was


I always thought Red hat was at the top. Quite interesting.

[CryptAck]

+1

Funny too, that Ubuntu is trying to push into the Server scene (and other markets).
And RHEL (and Fedora) appear to have no interest in the personal desktop.

I think that's because there is more consistency and simplicity in the server scene. On the PC Desktop, you have to deal with a variety of hardware vendors for each component with a ever-increasing number of product models. This causes the total number of possible combinations to be unfathomable.

Now, try and develop good stable software for that environment, that focuses on novice users; some of who don't even understand the basic principles of a file system.

In the Server market, you should have professionals who have a good understanding of the environment working towards finding compatible hardware/software to ensure stability.

[mikewhatever]

I would say it's the opposite. Because of how long it takes for each version of Debian to get released, I think it's more than polished, and old arguments that it isn't user friendly enough is like looking at really old Debian releases where that statement is true.

Looking at how the whole Linux system behaves, Ubuntu don't spend as much time as Debian has on really testing the distribution so everything works good, they rather make fast releases which is based on Debian testing releases as it's core.

Ubuntu have made a really good job at marketing, but to say it's more polished, hmm.. I strongly disagree.

It takes Debian long time to release not because of the extra polish, but because it supports more architectures then Ubuntu and because the development is done by volunteers. It's a good distro, and an even better base for derivatives, but more polished then Ubuntu, it's not.

[khelben1979]

It takes Debian long time to release not because of the extra polish, but because it supports more architectures then Ubuntu and because the development is done by volunteers. It's a good distro, and an even better base for derivatives, but more polished then Ubuntu, it's not.

I'm curious about your opinion, why is Ubuntu more polished than Debian? It is clear that we don't share the same opinion. :)

I've read so many times on this forum (a time period of years, actually) about problems regarding different kernel versions which have caused trouble in the sense that the sound for the Ubuntu system starts to malfunction as a new Kernel upgrade appears, and I've helped a friend where I saw this myself too.

Why would a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu allow the whole sound system to brake apart just because of a system upgrade? I think the term polished is very subjective and I think that no matter the opinion on this subject, I think it's something which shouldn't be part of any distribution if it's well tested before release. I've never experienced that problem with any release of Debian...

[*^kyfds(]

because of the sheer dominance of users held by ubuntu, i don't think it will ever be removed from the top position.