Distribution of the Year
 

And your favorite Distro is...

--jeremy

Ubuntu/Kubuntu

Centos on amd64

Just Slackware

I use LFS more than Slackware.......

would have been arch, but it needs a bit more work...maybe next year...

Gentoooooooooo!

So should everyone vote and then post what they voted... ? I don't really see the point in that, unless of course the idea is that we explain why we voted what we did or which distro is missing.
I can't say I have tried too many different distros this year (no more than half a dozen) but none of them gave me any good reason(s) to change my 'default'.

You don't need to post in the thread, but can if so desired. The thread in no way impacts the results though.

--jeremy

opensuse wins it this year, 10 blew me away with its speed and low memory usage and also a yast that works... totally!

I understand that this is for LinuxQuestions members, not DistroWatch members, but...

Kanotix is listed on Distrowatch
- ahead of Xandros,
- ahead of Cent
- ahead of Arch
- far ahead of Linspire

That's over the past 6 months, at least.

It is designed to be easy to install to hard drive.

Guess you have quite a different set of members here.

kanotix. i have it as my desktop and also my router.

All you can really say from that is that a lot of people clicked on the link. It really says little regarding actual usage. You might want to infer that interest translates into usage, but I wouldn't bet my house on it.

I would venture to guess that anyone that has used linux for an appreciable amount of time and has settled in on a distro of choice rarely, if ever, visits distrowatch. I would further guess that those that do check that site regularly are either new to linux or into trying new things and as a result, the actual usage of a popular distro on distrowatch may be short-lived.

Just my opinion.

I reserve the right to be utterly wrong. ;)

Kanotix......Kano is the man best hw detection around!

If I'd only known I was a trend setter.
 

Hi All;

At the time of my post there were no options available. Now there are, go figure. Now that I know that there is supposed to be options, I'll never do it again. :D

As far as why I like Ubuntu/Kubuntu so much:

- I like the choice of setting up the base system on a Gnome based platform or a KDE based platform. I actually prefer Windowmaker the most, so my slow machines get Ubuntu. I like putting KDE on my laptop because it is the fastest. I also tend to demo Linux on my laptop the most and KDE has more pizzazz (hold the pizza jokes). And it doesn't freak out the Windows users as much.

- I like the choice of applications in the base Install.

- Having to set up the universe/multiverse is a bit of a pain when you want add a package outside the supported list, but you know that you have to be more careful and that you might have to fuss to make it work.

- I've always set up sudo on any other distribution, I much prefer it. Ubuntu uses it by default.

There are more reasons, but I would like to write a review of it. I want to install it on a couple of other machines first.

Later
jer

I have the worst time trying to use, I never get it installed right, and it always breaks as soon as I get it running :( but I still love my Gentoo!! :D

Kanotix is in the LiveCD category.

--jeremy

Gentoo with the portage improvements in ~arch and the advanced package management

As usual, Debian! I've never been more satisfied with any other distro. Since I installed Debian, I haven't looked back!

Debian! They made a release in '05, so I'd definitly say debian :) If you look though, quite a few of the distros listed up there are based on debian, so debian should win, hands down.

my vote went for slackware.. as ive used it the longest and learned the most with it.

iv never used debian (besides ubuntu, but its not the same of course).. mainly for the fact that its 14 cds!? what is that.... this fact will probably make me never use or want to use debian

actually, assuming you've got a decent internet connection, it's 1 110MB CD. Ubuntu is not the same as debian, Debians better!

i know ubuntu isnt debian, i just mentioned i have used ubuntu because its debian based, thats it.

1 110mb cd? this is probably like ubuntu.. but that one is a 600mb or something cd, and after you install and boot for first time, it downloads, installs and configures tons of more packages.. which is afew hundred mb.. so its probably similar to what debian does, right?

i dont like how this happens. i like to think that once i have installed the OS and reboot for the first time.. i can use it; not have to wait and let it download more stuff and configure these new programs, etc.

i dunno, thats just how i thought about it and i disliked that, just my opinion.

yes, it's called a netinstall CD, it installs the base system, you reboot, continue with the installation, then reboot again, and you have a functional installation. There are 18,000 packages in Debian, thus the 14 CDs.

ok

maybe one day ill try it when im more interested in it.. but till then i just like how i have 2 install cds and once installed everything is ready to go!

everyones different :)

*Tinkster sings to the tune of "Forever young": Forever slack, I'd like to use, forever slack, do you really want to use forever, forever, foever slack ...

:}

Slackware++;

And another vote for Slackware. Still, I was tempted to go for CentOS since I love having a RHEL binary rebuild to use at work (for all the people who only know Red hat :D).

I use Debian on all my Linux boxes, so that's what I vote for :)

To be honest I don't know if I can vote for any one distro, I started out on mandrake for 2 years then found Suse then tried slackware and Fedora core 4. I found they all seem to have one thing the other distros don't have. And have atleast one of each distro still on a machine. Maybe have a poll for which one do people like for there desktop and which on for there servers.

Ubuntu
 

Almost nine years of Linux and Ubuntu makes me happy every time I use it. Shuttleworth is adding some great tools to the chain.

I've been a Slackware user for over 4 years. I just tested Arch Linux (derivative of Slack) and man that thing is a bullet!!
Even in my now 5 years old P4 1.7G it boots 25% faster that my beloved Slackware. It rocks.
And pacman (the package manager) it's outstanding. All in all it is easier than Windows,although I havent used in years now ;-)
I think I may "convert" to Arch.

Amen! Before, it was a toss up between Mepis and Kubuntu, but I recently discovered Kanotix and all I can say is WOW! I love it! Everything detected, runs fast, rock solid stable (at least for my self built system, your milage as with any distro may vary).

I also agree with another poster about Distrowatch not being the best gauge of a distro's performance. Just because its not at the top of the list, really has little to do with a distro's functionality. It's just that more people click on the hot distro of the week and the number go up. Distrowatch, IMHO, is more a gauge of a distro's exposure than actual performance.

The one and only Slackware.

Linspire 5.0

Arch Linux rocks :P

Mepis and PCLOS are live cds too, so shouldn't kanotix be on this list?

My favourite distro is Mepis, but being honest I would say distro of the second half of the year (2005) has to be kanotix with PCLOS second and Mepis third (Started great, but hasn't really advanced until end of 2005/beginnings of 2006)

Debian of course...or Slack ? :D

Debian, Vector

Rubix, Vector, Zenwalk, I love them all and wouldn't be here if not for Slackware, which I also love. I also like Arch, but like more stability. Pacman is the man

Debian Sarge gets the job done, fast, and trustworthy.

Slackware - rock solid :)

Arch :) - clean/simple, snappy, bleeding-edge, easy to update/maintain, adequate docs.

I have a gut feeling that Ubuntu will win this one because of the sheer number of newbies using it. Suse however, is the distro that I think has improved a lot over the years and is a pleasure to use on the desktop.

Gentoo has been my distribution of choice for two years now. I also use Suse 10 on my laptop, but my vote goes to Gentoo.

While I would never use it myself, I think Suse has made the greatest progress this year.

SuSE is the best thing I have seen for a very long time in the Linux world. Though I'm a FreeBSD only user now.

debian .... the heart of all that is greatness

/me

The first time I used Slack, I never looked back. I feel at home with it. Virtually everything is under your control. No complicated GUIs to tweak your system. Although, I have tried other distros, Zenwalk, VectorLinux and Whax. Hey! Aren't those still Slack? :D

Sorry, can't help it :D Those distros are all good! Specially VectorLinux. It's fast and has great hardware detection. VLSOHO 5.1 rocks! But it's still Slack that stays in my drive. :)

Keep Slackin'!

Ugh on my birthday I will find out that Ubuntu is the gratest of them all :)