Which Linux distribution do you primarily use on your Linux desktop?

I don't use Linux on my desktop
5% (1174 votes)
Debian
13% (3321 votes)
Gentoo
8% (2051 votes)
Linspire
2% (590 votes)
Mandrake
9% (2404 votes)
Red Hat
3% (881 votes)
Slackware
5% (1319 votes)
SuSE
17% (4397 votes)
Xandros
3% (739 votes)
Yoper
4% (914 votes)
Fedora
11% (2886 votes)
Libranet
1% (235 votes)
Other
19% (4980 votes)
Total votes: 25891
Carlie Fairchild - Thu, 2020-11-18 09:29.

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Arch Linux

I am using Arch, because it is a really great distro. I am also using Slackware and Debian, but Arch has become my main-distro.

Bjørn Erik (not verified) - Tue, 2021-03-15 05:00.

I also use Archlinux because

I also use Archlinux because of its flexibilty, speed and package manager =)

Travis Slack (not verified) - Wed, 2021-03-16 16:21.

My linux box

A friend of mine had a P3-450mhz, 13gig, windows 98 machine and was going to throw it away, I said "WHAAAA!!!!". So, I took it and up'd the ram to 512 and put in an ethernet card and wiped 98 of it like it was going out of style :-) I put Fedora Core 3 on it and it is like night and effing day! It runs like a dream and I have yet to get a single virus and/or spyware. As soon as Open Office 2.0 comes out I am as good as gone from being dependent on Windows at all.

Scott Ruecker (not verified) - M - , 2021-03-14 23:07.

Vector linux

love it, is faster than any before tested distro on my pIII 850
try'd yoper, this one almost burnt my harddisk
vector is also based on the best of the big distro's: slackware

Black Eagle (not verified) - M - , 2021-03-14 03:54.

Its Debian based and I guess

Its Debian based and I guess I should have checked Debian, but I use Ubuntu. I think with Ubuntu, I've found my distro.

An - ymous (not verified) - Sun, 2021-03-13 02:06.

Yoper!

I currently use Mandrake on the computer I use the most, only because I can't get Yoper to load on it. Mandrake and Xandros are pretty nice, but sooo slow. Yoper burns every other distro I've tried, without having to fiddle with things to improve speed.

Edward (not verified) - Sat, 2021-03-12 17:18.

I prefer Mepis, so "others=Mepis"

After a long search and at least 10 distro installed and evaluated in the last 6 months, at last i switched from Windows to Mepis.

Francesco (not verified) - Sat, 2021-03-12 13:32.

Mepis

Mepis is the distro of the 21st century just as the slogan says. Were all just waiting for proper gaming support now. Long live Mepis.

Beast2k (not verified) - Tue, 2021-04-05 13:13.

Knoppix, Peanut, DmSL, LNX-BBC

Anything that will let me configure junked, POS machines to give away to people who don't have the means, or can't find the 'any' key.

SuSE was my pick for my sister's family: Non-techies who don't want pop-ups by the dozen.

I am currently looking for a desktop distro (make my own?) to run on a 1991 Gateway Colorbook (386/33 with 800MB HDD - CDR via PCMCIA). This aught to be "fun."

An - ymous (not verified) - Tue, 2021-03-08 09:55.

Ubuntu?

Where's Ubuntu. I'm signing other

An - ymous (not verified) - Sun, 2021-03-06 15:58.

And MEPIS is missing too, ran

And MEPIS is missing too, ranking on 2 in distrowatch.com 's last month table...

An - ymous (not verified) - M - , 2021-03-07 17:40.

Ubuntu - The Debian I've always wanted

Indeed you should include Ubuntu in the pool. What started as an install for a quick look moved to all my machines!

An - ymous (not verified) - Sun, 2021-03-06 09:48.

WHERE'S UBUNTU?!

Ubuntu is the shizzznittle cabootle... serioulsy, I've tried suse, red hat, mandrake and others... but ubuntu really is tops of any other distro that I've tried. Its the one that finally got me to kick that nasty windows habit.

uberlaff (not verified) - M - , 2021-03-14 08:28.

no doubt ubuntu in da hizouse!

I used to be a gentoo and mandrake man, but one look at ubuntu 4.10 and it had me... voted 'other'

n00dles (not verified) - Thu, 2021-03-24 05:43.

Darwin

Has anyone tried Darwin on a PC yet? Darwin is the version of BSD
which is powering Mac OS X. So all you Mac OS X users, you're using
FreeBSD! Cool huh? Anyway, there is a distro of Darwin which runs
on PC, just wondering if anyone had tried it yet. Those of you who
have Mac OS X and don't know it yet, go under the Mac HD on the
desktop, Applications>Utilities>Teriminal and you will be sitting at a
Unix based prompt. All *nix commands work, and if you go to the
root filesystem, you will see many more directories than listed in the
GUI. How do you access them in the GUI?

suroot (not verified) - Sun, 2021-03-06 03:39.

Darwin x86

The hardware support is horrendous, from what I know. Also, it's very weak, get's little support, etc. You can't run OSX with a pretty dock or anything like that. You get the darwin kernel if you're lucky enough to get the thing to boot on your hardware. And a terminal. I'm sure it's possible to build a system from there...but why? It's really not as good as a standard BSD....

An - ymous (not verified) - Tue, 2021-04-05 12:51.

In your free time, check out

In your free time, check out the pages about- Tons of interesdting stuff!!!

An - ymous - Wed, 2020-06-15 10:39.

voted other == ubuntu

extend the poll to include ubuntu.
its a great distro, i use the live cd to try to convert my friends to linux

score until now : 9/10 :)

this rocks

Michel Daggelinckx (not verified) - Fri, 2021-03-04 09:32.

Blag anyone?

I'm very new to linux, though I have played around with it for a few years now, I havent dove in and took the plunge till now, I tried debian, but the install wasnt fun at all, slackware wasnt too bad, and of course mandrake, but I found blag while reading another thread, and tried it, I like it so far from what I can tell its based on redhat 9, and works pretty well, though I am having some java issues, I blame that on me beeing new to this :) but other than that it seems to do everything ok and its pretty fast on this old pentium 2. What do you all think?

Ed (not verified) - Fri, 2021-03-04 08:11.

Easy distro?

The only OSs I ever installed until I really got the
guts to try Linux, was Windowzzzz.
When I installed Xandros, I was amazed because
it installed easier than any Windowzzzz I've ever installed.
Couldn't think of an easier install for even a raw beginner
with computers, without any installation experience whatever.

skbarr (not verified) - Fri, 2021-03-11 12:30.

XANDROS A OK

Xandros is the best Linux a tried - as of now...
Xandros 2 OCE that is...
Not yet Tried Xandros 3.0 Thought

Its The first Distro that Ask mwe first what MODEM I have...

My Modem is working Perfectly with it...

An - ymous (not verified) - Thu, 2021-03-03 02:42.

Xandros is a good fit for ME

I've recently migrated my family's PCs from XP to Xandros after trying about a dozen other distros including RH, Suse, Mepis, etc. The notion that eludes many people about the user friendly (read newbie) distros like Xandros is that not everyone *wants* to spend the time tweaking their systems or getting apps to install correctly. After experimenting with apt-get and rpm I encountered numerous apps and utils that just didn't install correctly. So I'm OK with some other entity (Xandros) tweaking packages to ensure that they install correctly of my box. The rebranding is a bit lame, but hey, it's in the GPL that they can do that.

p0ke (not verified) - Wed, 2021-03-02 20:35.

I agree. I'm a Xandros user

I agree. I'm a Xandros user as well. I love it. It just works. You don't need to mess with command lines or any of the other techy/geeky stuff. But you still can if you want to. After all, it is a true Linux distro. So you get the best of both worlds here. You have ease of use similar to MS Windows and you have the power, stability, and customizability of Linux. Not to mention all of the great free software. Much of which can be installed automatically with the touch of a button by simply selecting it in Xandros networks.

Do to some propreitary business apps, I haven't been able to make the full switch yet from Microsoft. But with advances in the Wine project and Crossover Office I expect that I will soon.

If your a newbie or just tired of constantly tweeking your machine try Xandros. You'll be glad you did.

Fargo (not verified) - Thu, 2021-03-03 10:11.

Mepis does it for me

I use mepis as its the only distro that currently gives me most of what windows does. Having said that i am keeping a close eye on ELX (everyones linux) cos its so close to mepis and more polished & faster...

roadrash (not verified) - M - , 2021-02-28 16:10.

I still use mandrake because

I still use mandrake because that is what I started with back in the late 90's. but at some point I will be moving to a Debian distribution-- most likely MEPIS.
I am tired of the upgrade hassle. While Mandrake (and RH based distributions) new-install just fine, the upgrade process is a real pain. I understand this is less of a problem with Debian distributions.

An - ymous (not verified) - Thu, 2021-03-31 10:37.

main distro

I actually use two Mepis and Fedora 3. They each have their strong points. I have tried almost every distro less Gentoo cause I'm too lazy to
use their type of install.

pgk3734 (not verified) - Tue, 2021-03-01 21:28.

Voted "Other" == Ubuntu!

I voted "Other" since Ubuntu is my choice!

istoyanov (not verified) - M - , 2021-02-28 12:19.

Ubuntu!

Shame it wasn't on the list.
Ubuntu, baby.

LordofKhemenu (not verified) - M - , 2021-02-28 11:48.

Yoper POWWER !

Yoper I think is the most powerful Linux i have erer seen !

e X t 7 3 (not verified) - Thu, 2021-02-24 03:53.

Yoper ROCKS!

I have stacks and stacks of cds I've burned over the years of different distros.

I stumbled across Yoper last year and fell in love.

From the ability to play movie DVD's without a bunch of configuring to having Nvidia working perfectly from the start, its all these little things that makes Yoper stand above and beyond the rest IMO.

Yes, pop in the CD and be installed and surfing the net, burning CD's or doing email in twenty minutes.

Not only does it install fast, It runs with blazing speed!

The online community is the best I have seen.

You want Speed? You like Power?

Yoperize!

Tim

Timothy (not verified) - Wed, 2021-02-23 16:08.

XANDROS is a OK

Of all teh distro I've tried only Xandros was able to detect my softmodem...man WinXP have always mistaken it for a HCL...XANDROS is the Best...

An - ymous (not verified) - Wed, 2021-02-23 02:53.

Ubuntu is, IMO, the superior

Ubuntu is, IMO, the superior distro for any desktop Linux, and am disappointed it did not appear on the list, seeing how it won many awards at ArsTechnica and has one of the fastest-growing and now biggest communities in the desktop Linux field.

Quest-Master (not verified) - Tue, 2021-02-22 17:36.

Agreed. I installed Ubuntu i

Agreed. I installed Ubuntu in early December and have not looked back since...

Plus, it's got such an active community to support it :-)

http://ubuntulinux.org

Sean

Sean Miller (not verified) - Thu, 2021-02-24 01:19.

I've tried all of them... ..

I've tried all of them...
...and every one of them has some good ideas...
...and less or more bugs...
...but NO ONE of them is such fast as Yoper is...

Lagyo (not verified) - Tue, 2021-02-22 05:29.

Yoper for ever

Years ago, I was a Mac developper, then when OSX appeared, I tested and rejected it. I tried Linux for PPC (Suse, Yellow dog, etc.) then switched to a PC architecture installing Mandrake. I used several versions having troubles with most.
Six months ago, I discovered Yoper, after having tested Gentoo, ArchLinux, Mepis and others.
Yoper was my choice: easy to install, very stable (unlike MDK 10 which couln't even store my network conf!), fast and up-to-date.
I'm waiting for next 2.2 release which will be Win4Lin aware and I'm sure everything will be nice.

Daniel Fournier (not verified) - Tue, 2021-02-22 00:44.

PCLinuxOS

Of the distros I've tried, Mepis and PClinuxOS have been the best. I give the edge to PCLinuxOS though because it just feels better. It's a derivative of Mandrake, and well worth giving it a try. It works similar to Mepis in that it uses a live CD install so you can try it out to make sure everything works before putting it on the hard drive. It uses RPMs, but does have apt and synaptic.

Dave (not verified) - Sun, 2021-02-20 19:58.

I had 'tried' many, but now I 'USE' Linspire

I loved playing with all the different distros, but I'd still "use" Windows, because there were just too many things that didn't work with Linux. About 6 months ago I gave Linspire a try, again, just for fun, and I was amazed! Lsongs, Lphoto, Nvu, OpenOffice, Firefox, all one click away, and there to replace all the applications that I was needing to completely abandon Windows.

I love the in-line spell checking (it's checking my spelling on the fly as I type this post! No other OS does that, not even Windows or Firefox). Linspire adds all the nice little touches that really add up.

I find the $4.95 a month for CNR a BARGAIN, as not only can I install about 2,000 applications with one click, it also keeps them all updated and current. Linux software changes so fast, I can't imagine trying to keep current without CNR. With the $4.95 a month also comes great support from Linspire (usually same day response) and their forum is THE BEST! They have an amazing community.

Give Linspire a try, I think you'll like it.

Hans

Hans (not verified) - Sun, 2021-02-20 14:38.

linspire

lol, gotta love the trolls

redneck (not verified) - Thu, 2021-03-03 10:08.

Lamespire

Linspire's CNR scam goes against the principals of the open source community. They don't hesitate to "borrow" the efforts of the Debian community but want to charge a monthly fee to run an apt-get command. Do yourself a favor and use MEPIS instead.

An - ymous (not verified) - Tue, 2021-03-01 01:17.

Gimme a break!

Perhaps you should've posted this in a Windows user group or something - NONE of these features are something that other Linux distros don't have. Konqueror spell checks posts on the fly in Mandrakelinux, too.
I get "Michael's Minute" emailed to me. NONE of the features he has talked about are anything that I haven't seen in other distros - or, at least, in Mandrakelinux.
CNR is no "bargain" - even at $4.95 a month. Many of these apps (such as The Gimp or OpenOffice.org) are available for free off the Internet. Of course, CNR puts it all in one place, but there are many websites that also do this, and most distros have some sort of auto-update feature.
Also, why do you need the support? I haven't needed support for Mandrakelinux (or Fedora Core when I used it) except for minor issues with my laptop's wireless card and my USB key. Turns out they have madwifi for my wireless card and that the Sandisk 256-mb Cruzer Mini just doesn't play well with Linux.
On top of all this, I tried Linspire once, and I was really PO'd by its insecurity - it had me run as 'root' instead of setting me up with a less privileged account. (For those of you who are new to Linux, you shouldn't be running as 'root' unless you really need to. Otherwise, you could destroy your PC.)

Scott (not verified) - Tue, 2021-02-22 23:12.

SPAM

Linspire is the least INSPIRED of any distro I've tried,
and is just a big bundle of SPAM.

Just like that "comment" about it there. 5 bux a month
for what is free in nearly every other Linux distro out
there? Give me a break.

Jerry B (not verified) - Sun, 2021-02-20 18:17.

Arch Linux

After trying out various distros such as Caldera OpenLinux, SuSE, RedHat, I have settled on to Arch Linux which is fast and optimized.
Give Arch Linux a try. You may just like it.

Regards!

Amey Palav (not verified) - Sun, 2021-02-20 08:10.

Arch rocks

Actually, Arch is the fastest, easy to use once installed, bug free distro I ever used.
I gived a try to many others including Fedora, Mandrake, Yoper, Mepis...

Fangorn (not verified) - Sun, 2021-02-20 08:18.

Yoper

After trying numerous distros, I found Yoper. Its been in use ever since. Im sticking with this one.

permutati - (not verified) - Sat, 2021-02-19 15:29.

Yoper is Gentoo

Yoper "OS" Is the work of one guy repackaging gentoo. When I started picking through the config files that Yoper "OS" uses, I was shocked to see Gentoo all over the place.

What the people are doing at Yoper should be discussed. I felt like I was using someone elses work without proper credit being given to gentoo etc.

Linux is of course shared and open source, but to repackage someone elses work, and call it their own, and brag about it being the best "distro" is a shame.

An - ymous (not verified) - Wed, 2021-03-16 15:27.

Yoper ist build from scratch,

Yoper ist build from scratch, than its used hwconfig from knoppix and kuduzu from Red Hat, and last but not least sax2 from Suse.
Yoper will include all goodies from all Distros around to build a fast and secure GNU/Linux system. Its included also portage from gentoo.
Whats your problem?

Arnulf (not verified) - Thu, 2021-03-31 05:30.

Please visit some helpful in

Please visit some helpful info dedicated to...

An - ymous - Wed, 2020-06-15 08:02.

YOPER

I have been trying Linux Distros for about 3 Years now and Yoper stands out as the slickest
Paul

Paul (not verified) - Fri, 2021-02-18 16:47.

Yoper

Yoper by far is my first choice. Nvidia 3d working without loading any modules yourself, Support community always there to help and fast.
Install take about 15 minutes.

James (not verified) - Sat, 2021-02-19 08:16.

YOPER

Yoper get's my pick , i have gone through many many distro's and Yoper is the one , it has everything i need and it's just the best all around os , and it SUPER fast , even on a p2 400 mhz machine it smoke's other distro's ..

Yoper = Love

Ghostshadow (not verified) - Fri, 2021-02-18 22:23.