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-   2013 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/2013-linuxquestions-org-members-choice-awards-109/)
-   -   Desktop Distribution of the Year (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/2013-linuxquestions-org-members-choice-awards-109/desktop-distribution-of-the-year-4175488201/)

jeremy 12-16-2013 09:11 PM

Desktop Distribution of the Year
 
Which distribution do you think is best suited for a Desktop machine?

--jeremy

sycamorex 12-16-2013 09:18 PM

No brainer here!

astrogeek 12-16-2013 09:19 PM

Yep - one choice only, IMO!

kooru 12-17-2013 01:47 AM

Clearly slackware!

k3lt01 12-17-2013 01:52 AM

Debian, the distro that offers the widest range (choice) for users.

coskibum 12-17-2013 04:46 AM

Still a dedicated member of Ubuntu. It's the one that got me into Linux and I have been loyal ever since. Is it perfect no but, it's still the one.

Captain Pinkeye 12-17-2013 05:48 AM

Debian, the universal distro.

gax7497 12-17-2013 06:23 AM

Linux Mint

zsd 12-17-2013 07:25 AM

"Debian, the distro that offers the widest range (choice) for users."

i.e.,
- outdated
- really outdated
- really, really outdated
- archeological


... just kidding...

ozar 12-17-2013 07:39 AM

Still preferring Arch over all others.

ryanpcmcquen 12-17-2013 09:48 AM

Keep on Slackin'!

michael.reed 12-17-2013 10:20 AM

I've tried Fedora (4 years); ZorinOS (3 years); Ubuntu with Gnome classic Desktop (2 years). I've settled on Ubuntu -- its clean, flexible, fast, reliable. Cons- have to do a lot of app installs myself that don't come with package. But then tha is also one of it's Pros (I can choose!).

jezzivi 12-17-2013 10:24 AM

Debian +1

G13man 12-17-2013 10:27 AM

Ubuntu +1
 
being a user but not a programer , I Have settled on Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS , ie a long time supported OS . my complaint with Windows was they wanted me to pay for another OS every 3 to 5 years and relearn every thing and replace everything . I have been trying various flavors since 1998 and none were simple enough for me to use until 12.04.1 .. HOw easy is it , I have now got a friend serfing the net with 12.04.4 version and he loves the speed of it and the hackers have been cut out of his system . As for me , it plays DVD , youtube , AND Tradingveiw.com works . If it was not for older games , i would drop my Win98SE and XP systems . As it is , when trading , I put a lubuntu disc in these older systems to use them [ it has suppport for these older comps where as 12.04.x does not.

gevera 12-17-2013 10:37 AM

one word <!FEDORA!>

jaap.rj 12-17-2013 10:38 AM

Do you remember your 100 pools?
 
That is exactly the case. The distribution of the year should follow some specific criteria, like "for begginers", "old hardware", etc. My choice was focused for the general "day-by-day" activities: Linux Mint. Mint has the best match between "easy to use" with "estability" and "quality of resources". This does not mean that in the "Distrowatch Paradise" there is no other beatiful landscapes...

Zyblin 12-17-2013 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gevera (Post 5082460)
one word <!FEDORA!>

Yep. Fedora first and Debian second. I would love to put them both first if I could.

bhupendra 12-17-2013 12:47 PM

I use both xubuntu and Manjaro. Manjaro is quite impressive.

albinard 12-17-2013 01:05 PM

Xubuntu (Ubuntu as the engine, Xfce as the boby of the car)

hei14 12-17-2013 02:04 PM

I like Puppy Linux it is small fast and is able to do most of what I want and need.

TerryP 12-17-2013 03:41 PM

Debian IMHO because it's stable doesn't bitrot like Cent OS / RHEL seems to or seem to break as often as Ubuntu.

meneer 12-17-2013 04:22 PM

SolydXK, they emerged this year as a an interesting mix of debian testing and mint.

brewmaster1234 12-17-2013 05:23 PM

Slackware

Fnux 12-17-2013 05:24 PM

Both Manjaro and Linux Mint.

gilead 12-17-2013 06:31 PM

Slackware!

cowlitzron 12-17-2013 07:47 PM

Slackware for its stability and longevity.

parcox 12-17-2013 07:54 PM

+1 Slackware

bothybandfan 12-17-2013 08:36 PM

Mint with Mate. Gnome 2 lives on! :-)

d.slackware 12-17-2013 09:25 PM

slackware

GoinEasy9 12-17-2013 09:47 PM

I don't see "siduction" listed. Debian Sid with a lot of extras. My favorite rolling release.

Tux! 12-18-2013 01:47 AM

OpenSUSE

I must however make a remark. On desktops it is my choice because I also use it for servers, so maint is much easier. "zypper" rules and makes administration over ssh a breeze. I have done admin on quite a few distributions the past year, and I most hate Ubuntu, because there is no *single* command line utility for system administration and one has to learn a lot of those. All instructions on the internet start with "click her" and "click there": quite useless in xterm over ssh.

For a laptop, I still do not really like the way KDE (OpenSUSE's default choice for WM and I like that) now prefers kscreen over krandr/krandrtray. I don't know who to blame SUSE or KDE, but connecting to a beamer suddenly becomes quite a burden. No popups, nu easy applets in the taskbar. OpenSUSE 12 already was pretty easy in the upgrades/updates, but a "zypper dup" to 13.1 went flawless!

A special reward for "Worst distribution" IMHO may be awarded to "Oracle Linux" on which even installing a recentish java is hard to do, even if java is distributed by Oracle itself. HATE!

mad4linux 12-18-2013 05:30 AM

Kubuntu missing
 
should have been among the choices.

brianL 12-18-2013 08:22 AM

Two syllables: first one rhymes with black, second one rhymes with wear.
Got it yet?

thim 12-18-2013 12:36 PM

Slackware

sycamorex 12-18-2013 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianL (Post 5083239)
Two syllables: first one rhymes with black, second one rhymes with wear.
Got it yet?

Pluck hair?

brianL 12-18-2013 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sycamorex (Post 5083427)
Pluck hair?

Pluck rhymes with black? Not in Oldham, it doesn't. :)

sycamorex 12-18-2013 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianL (Post 5083433)
Pluck rhymes with black? Not in Oldham, it doesn't. :)


What does it rhyme with in Oldham?

brianL 12-18-2013 02:52 PM

Pluck? Luck. Suck. Muck. F...f...forgot what else.

sycamorex 12-18-2013 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianL (Post 5083448)
Pluck? Luck. Suck. Muck. F...f...forgot what else.

LOL. I get the idea...:)

fschmeisser 12-18-2013 04:45 PM

Manjaro
 
There are many distros I've been impressed by over the last year; Sabayon, PCLOS, the awesome package handling by Debian's gdebi; but ultimately, Manjaro's ease of harnessing Arch's speed and stability, along with its clean Openbox desktop won me over. Besides, I like the concept of a rolling release.

denydias 12-18-2013 09:54 PM

After many years as lurker, registered myself just to vote on Slackware.

Now that I'm registered (which is easely verifiable as I'm actually posting this), I can't vote. It reads on the poll panel:

Quote:

You must log in to vote in this poll.
Anybody know why I can't vote with a registered account and at least one post as it is required by the contest rules?

[UPDATED] Nevermind. It's already working right.

firekage 12-19-2013 08:59 AM

Arch.

Why? Several reasons.

First thing first : pacman. It is something that i waited for using linux (Slackware, Ubuntu with its clones (Mint, Kubuntu, Xbuntu, Lubuntu), Bodhi, Chakra, Sabayon etc). Pacman is one thing that made me switch from Ubuntu (that i really liked and used from 11.04 to 12.10). Also, wihile upgrading, while downloading pacman shows me "bar" with file being downloaded, and what's more - when there are several, dozens of packages in "package" i can select only the one that i want, not all of them (placing numbers). I haven't seen somethingf like this on other distros (that are not based on Arch).

Second thing is feeling that i have control over everything (just like in Slackware, when i used it, and still use it since 13.37). No matther how many apps i would like to install, i have total control over booting process, over starting them (i found on Ubuntu one funny thing: with lots of apps installed, system booted slower and slower, it looked to me like apps are being started automatically after installation when i did not wanted it or permitted it). If i activate process - it is avtivated. If i deactivate it - it is deactivated, switched off.

Third thing : it just fast and lightweight, so much that i can have it also on my Intel Atom notebook with Atom N2600 (two cores with HT and GMA 3600 graphic from PoverVR). It just fast, fast, and fast! Responsivness is great.

Fourth thing is realted to pacman. Arch is not based on metapackages. When i wan't to delete package, remove it, i can safely remove it with or without dependancies and config files. I'm not concerned that when i delete, remove something, i will lose half of the system (i still don't understand why removing Lightdm from Ubuntu cause LibreOffice apps to being removed with it...geez!).


Arch is distro that i searched for a long time (i started my journey with Linux from Slackware, and in fact, i still have it, still like it but i wanted to have better package manager - pacman is just great, i don't have it on Slackware - and one more thing, Arch has good dependancy menager built in pacman. Maybe if i could how to do something similar on Slackware (slackpkg was not just like it) i would stick to it because it is really fast, and something more - rock solid and stable, but it has no dependancy manager so if i would like to install it again, on a different machines, installing apps that i use would take too much time: dependancies for dependancies for dependancies...i don't have time to compile it from slackbuilds.org). What is worth mentioning, now there is something similar to Arch - Manjaro and Anteregos ;), tried it but i prefer Arch because it is Arch.

professor 12-19-2013 06:06 PM

SolydXK (based on Debian testing).

fleabus 12-19-2013 07:03 PM

My vote is for SolydXK. Definitely. Gotta be SolydXK.

baldheaded-yeti 12-19-2013 07:05 PM

Get Slack!

john2 12-20-2013 06:20 AM

SolydXK first, Kubuntu second, but neither are on the list - and SolusOS and Fuduntu are both on the list, but are no longer active (both were great while they lasted though).

grizzler 12-20-2013 07:31 AM

SolydXK, definitely. Secondly, Linux Mint Debian Edition (with MATE desktop). Neither appear to be among the poll options, which is weird considering the defunct SolusOS *is* listed.

jeremy 12-20-2013 09:51 AM

SloydXK has been added.

--jeremy

gengisdave 12-20-2013 12:24 PM

slackware (Chuck Norris approved)

chirpi 12-20-2013 01:03 PM

Slackware..


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