Poll results discussion.
 

Slackware may seem at times the grandfather of modern Linux distributions as one of the eldest maintained, but it goes to show you that common sense, good quality, and doing things the UNIX way all equal up to the Slackware way which can serve you well in Slackware and beyond.

Slackware might not have gotten 1st place with desktops, as Ubuntu took the lead this year, but Slackware did pull a close 2nd place to make it notable, and 1st place with servers which was interesting.

Kudos to Patrick, Robby, Eric, and everyone else behind the scenes at Slackware and SlackBuilds for keeping this a very popular, fun, and educational distribution of GNU/Linux.

Cheers!!!

:hattip:

Long live Slackware!!!

Well, before drawing conclusions, maybe you could consider other statistics...

At time of writing there are 1,113,418 posts in Linux forums @ LQ
At time of writing there are 468,345 posts in Slackware forums @ LQ (roughly 42%)

So, notwithstanding the fact that I am a happy Slacker, I take the results of the poll with a piece of salt ;)

Indeed, Didier Spaier is spot on. Slackware might be great but a poll about the best distro is basically meaningless on a site with unrepresentative number of Slackware users.

Clearly slackware is excellent distro, but about the poll I'm agree with Didier.

So whats the forum with a representative number of slackware users then?

I agree, what would be more representative?

Granted, LQ is home of the "official" Slackware forum, but still it is an open forum with sub-fora for most distros, and it is not owned and operated by Slackware. The fact that Slackware is heavily represented here is still a very valid indication of the interest in and active use of Slackware by many people.

If those users place Slackware high in an open poll it is still a very valid indication of satisfaction among a great many people - after all, they could just as well have turned out in droves to lynch one Patrick Volkerding - but they didn't! ;)

hm. A public enquiry (was made using phone calls) stated that nowadays everyone has a phone.

Greetz
It is my understanding that, given the documented (and documentable) number of actual Users, the most popular Linux Distro is Android, though few of it's users even know they are using Linux. I suppose this makes sense in a world where ever fewer automobile owners do their own tuneups, can change a tire, or even know what "Suck, Squeeze, Pop!, Phooey!" refers to.

I think this is a poor metric.
If the poll is skewed by the large number of users using the Slackware forum, then why did Ubuntu get the most votes for Desktop Distribution of the year when:
At time of writing there are 1,113,466 posts in Linux-Distributions forums @ LQ
At time of writing there are 74,257 posts in Ubuntu forum @ LQ (roughly 6.7%)

One which doesn't host the official Slackware forum perhaps? ;) Firstly, I'll clarify that I'm not criticising Slackware or LQ (as I am a fan of both), or even the poll itself for that matter when viewed as a bit of fun. Secondly, I have no intention of trying to suggest another forum for someone to try and pick holes in my suggestion thus resulting in a never ending thread. That entirely missed the point. LQ does have a Slackware bias IMHO at least (though generally I do not see that as a bad thing, far from it).

I will say this, in my entire life I have never met (in person) another person who currently uses Slackware (at least as far as I know). I do however interact with multiple Linux users in person on a daily basis. Similarly I do not encounter many Slackware users online, outside of LQ. Now you could argue that my personal observations are not statistically significant and you would have a point. I'm just saying it, as I currently see it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Anyway, I am not going to spend much time trying to convince anyone here. If you don't agree with me so be it.

Personally, I never vote poll threads.
I'll post in them occasionally, but never vote.

I never give much thought to what's been voted up or down.
Most polls are just a popularity contest, IMO, and I don't care what's labeled/voted "popular", or "best".
I'm an "under-the-hood" kind of Slacker anyway (I had to search engine "Suck, Squeeze, Pop!, Phooey!")

I use Slackware because of its heritage and legacy of stability.

Lies, damn lies, statistics/polls.

Edit: I vote where it counts, with my wallet.

Well, I think we should all switch to Ubuntu. Who wants the second best of anything?

There might be a way to adjust the percentages with the number of posts in each forum. I'll look into this.

As an unabashed dis-believer in lynch mobs and other, slower forms of democracy, I never vote in anything - except pointless popularity contests, and only here on LQ. ;)

I don't attach any deeper meaning to the results, but joining in a round of "Hooray for Slackware!" is about the extent of my participation in group activities... so I am glad to see there was happy a crowd turned out!

Indeed. In my experience, Pat and Slackware are held in high regard by other Linux users that don't even use Slackware personally. I even witnessed a thread at another (Debian-based) forum, wherein somebody compared the maintainer of another (Debian-based) distro to Patrick. That person was soundly trounced for even suggesting that the (Debian-based) distro maintainer was anywhere near the 1337 skill level of Patrick. :tisk: