I voted for Red Hat. Fedora 1 just came out so I haven't had enough time with it yet.

I've been through about 10 distros in this, my first year as a Linux user. I started with Slackware 8.1 and just keep coming back to Slack. When I put together my new box I thought the increase in speed over my old 900 Mhz machine would make the speed difference between distros a moot point, but even with a 2800, a gig of fast RAM and all that, you can still tell the difference in speed.

And with Dropline Gnome installed, it's as pretty as any desktop I've ever used, including my OS X system at work. I was a Mac user for 15 years and have a G5 dualie at work, but I prefer my home-built box with my hand-jammed Slackware setup. As Steve Jobs supposedly said, you have to control the whole widget. Little did he know he was talking about Linux.

Just Gentoo, you'll be asimilated ;-)

Gentoo, for desktop, servers, and anything you want, is pretty impresionant. It's versatil, fast, don't need to compile all source code or even download it from internet at all... is just great.

What? Where's FreeBSD?

Free BSD isnt a Linux distro, its a BSD distro (kinda).

Although it would be interesting to see the results of a poll between BSD and Linux.

The word, "Distribution" doesn't mean Linux(TM) distribution or rule out the use of FreeBSD... even though this is a Linux form. I prefer to think of it as *NIX distribution... and with that said, FreeBSD just has a better kernel and release management than Linux... and src code control, and architecture, and performance, and stability, and ... oh I'll stop now...

You realise with Gentoo you do have to compile the kernel.

Knoppix is a great distro... for being in a single CD.

And debian... wow....

But my vote goes to Knoppix, because has helped to promote the use of linux (and helps me to work when i'm in a dark place without linux in 100.000 miles )

Gentoo, The faster distro I've had

Same here. I would have guessed 4th or 5th place for Slack.

I have been wearing a Red Hat since v5.2. Tried MDK, SuSe, both good. I stuck with RH because I also help support a few servers running RH at work. But I feel a bit unsure about staying with RH due to all the recent changes they made.

Coincidentally, I started a d/l of Slack 9.1 iso's earlier this morning before I saw this thread. The RH changes gave me the urge to try something else, and I decided to experiment with Slack.

I'm gonna hold off on voting for a few days...

Simplicity is devine. Slackware.

Slackware is my favorite distro, but the only reason I use Arch is because of the intuitive package management. Otherwise it's a lot like Slack. Swaret never did anything for me. I needed something with native dependency checking and the ability to upgrade the system with a simple command. Pacman does that. It's somewhat like emerge in Gentoo as far as the interface is concerned. If Slackware used Pacman or something like it, I'd go back to Slack.

The easyness and efficiency of Yast...

I love Mandrake but surprisingly, I started grabbing Slack 9.1 to do a comparison w/ my MDK before I came here to see the polls. LOL Maybe I'll change back to the distro that got me started way back in '94.

Slackware, there is no substitute. I like other distros for different reasons, but when it comes to getting the job done Slack has always been there for me. It strikes the right balance between helping me and not getting in my way.

Honorable mentions to Knoppix, an outstanding distro to introduce someone to Linux with, and Gentoo, to show just how different Linux is from MS Windows.