Fedora 12 is Awesome!!! I've installed it into my parent's computer and they prefer it over Snow Leopard! Awesome performance, security and compatibility, it totally rocks!!

A couple ways:

1) Lots of distros offer live CD's. Nothing you'd want to use day to day but good for a quick test drive.

2) Even better is to install for testing under a virtual machine such as Virtual Box. This is especially easy on OpenSolaris since with ZFS you can just create a new file system on the fly to house your Linux test installations. Set up as many as you have disk space for and then easy to hop back and forth comparing features and such. Obviously not going to get the level of performance off a virtual machine instance that you'd get on a dedicated install but since all are running on same host box you do get a good level field for comparison. Tired of playing and/or don't like what you see? Just nuke the virtual machines, zfs mounts that you created to install them on and be done with it. Without rebooting once.

Yes, gotfw. I know all that. But there are many who keep various distos going, or change from week to week.
I suppose my point is that there seems to be an obsession with flipping from one to another, rather perfecting the tool one has. As stated elsewhere, all distros pretty well run the same programs, and they vary only insofar as installation and package management. The beauty of linux (pretty well any variety), is it's configurability, and for me, the emphasis, if one has the time and inclination, is to get the best setup for the use one is to put it to.

The best operating system I've seen as yet.Microsoft is dying slowly.

Will the Chrome OS qualify as a desktop distribution, or should it be in a different category. What about Ubuntu Re-Mix. Personally I did not care for it, installing instead Ubuntu 9.04 on this netbook. What about tablet systems with touch screen only interface? How about Android? Does that qualify as a Linux distribution? I can see room for much discussion this year. Perhaps the discussion should start as soon as this poll finishes.

I found it very easy to create a boot memory stick from the Ubuntu Live CD. The boot memory stick was needed to install on this netbook.

And here I wasted all that verbiage trying to be helpful....

Anyhow, results of the poll were predictable... Ubuntu, as usual...

Actually, I was surprised that Slackware was so high. Outside of this forum, it's practically unheard of. A quick poll of Linux people I work with produced "Slackware? Is that still around?" - which should amuse the slack people on here

It's interesting. Slackware is definitely one of the most 'visible' distros here on LQ. One would think the same is true outside the forum, which doesn't seem to be the case at all.
Is LQ the last slackland? I don't think so... It's just the beginning...
LQ has already been slackwarised. First LQ, then EU, then US - there are no limits to what a few little slackbuilds can achieve...

Amuse??? AMUSE!?!?!? I'm seething with rage!!!!!!!

We're number 2! We're number 2!

I voted for Ubuntu, but I actually use the KDE version of Ubuntu, Kubuntu. Here is a breakdown of the distros I prefer to use when it comes to each desktop environment:

Gnome = Linux Mint
KDEe = Kubuntu (Sabayon is in a close second)
XFCE = Salix (great new distro, highly recommended)

I admit that I'm a distro hoper, constantly changing, but that is OK because I love having choices.

Last year also ubuntu got first with 35%. but this year only 30%.

I voted for Debian, though I actually ended up killing my Squeeze box and going back to Lenny.
Actually using PC-BSD for pretty much everything important now, and FreeBSD for the rest.

fedora is in 3rd position. its natural that ubuntu is first, but didn't knew slackware is so much used.