Desktop Distribution of the Year
 

Which distribution do you think is best suited for a Desktop machine?

--jeremy

I had to pick Ubuntu over my oldest favorite, Fedora.

Simply based on how quick and easy I can get Ubuntu set up after a clean install, so easy with
the way they have it set up these days.

Fedora is easier than ever but, still needs some outside help to put the really nice finishing touches on it.

Jeremy, perhaps Salix could be listed with Slackware since it is backwards compatible and can act as an extra repo for Slackware. Quite a few of use both as well.

Slackware - it behaves the way I expect it to and it just works which is pretty much what everyone will say about their distro I guess

As this is my first post in 2018, happy new year everyone! Concerning the poll, simply put, slack is the way for another year :)

No CentOS 7? It is quite decent. I voted for Linux Mint since i have used it too.

Void Linux (as explained behind the link in my signature).

Ubuntu, due to its large repository and its PPAs. I use the Lubuntu variant.

Voted the same as every year.

I opted for Linux Mint, which does just about everything I ask of it in a reliable and intuitive manner....

Henri

Still Arch for me.

Running yaourt as a pacman frontend gives me AUR package updates and standard package updates together. Over the past 3 - 4 years I've never had a dependency issue. pacman is sensible enough to deal with dependencies and even to tell me when, after an update, some packages installed as dependencies are no longer required, and I can laugh at all those silly incantations that the ubuntu crowd put up with to add several separate repositories for one or two packages each.

Add to that the fact that the Arch wiki is second to none.

I've been really impressed with MX Linux this year, as well as Void. Still using Slackware, though. ;)

Easy choice for me: Debian!

AntiX

Devuan, great performance

MX Linux is the best. Install it and everything works without ever using the Command Line Interface.

For my desktop machines, the answer is Fedora.

Debian is my favorite during last years. Is stable an has large repositories.

openSUSE. Both Leap and TumbleWeed

As long as you do not have an nVidia graphics card, Tumbleweed is my choice. Fantastic how it keeps up with all developments and still offers a rock-stable development space. I have this on my laptop.

I have Leap on my workstations, as those require a higher grade of stability to port software from to other machines.

YaST2 might not appeal to some people, but it is a single-point of administration to everything on the system, much much much better than the myriad of tools one has to use on CentOS or Debian when one does NOT have a desktop available (like administration over ssh)

My third choice would be CentOS

+1.

This year it is a hard choice between openSUSE Tumbleweed and KDE Neon. But since KDE Neon is not on the list I voted or openSUSE Tumbleweed

Not to mention, you get to use the same operating system regardless of how stable or new you want your software to be. If you want stable, you can go with the stable branch. If you care more about having new software and a little less about stability, you can go with the testing branch. And if you don't care about stability and just want the newest software, there's the unstable branch.

I wonder if openSUSE Tumbleweed and Leap is worth splitting - it's interesting to see which is more popular, but splitting them will give each of them a marginal percentage.

I've heard of Tumbleweed work for some people, but it's a bit much over rural DSL, thus I save it for being the last remnant of SUSE on my 32-bit childhood machine.

Since both my recent discoveries, Deepin and Nitrux, are not on the list, I go for what I use most: openSUSE Tumbleweed

Yep, that's the best one - but I won't mind if you want to use a lesser distro on your computer.... :p

I use Slackware on my primary computer, but I also use Linux Mint on my "play" computer because Mint makes it so easy to install all sorts of stuff on it.
So I am a bit torn, but if someone were to ask me which to install on their desktop I would have to say Mint as it is so much easier to install, configure and use.

Debian for me, but that's not to say it's the best for desktop use, just what I like. First time I installed it was twenty some years ago when it was still at version one point something. The reason I picked it then was because of the low level package management system and is still the reason I use it now. Very well suited for those like myself who like to tinker. Though it comes at a cost, but can be fully automated with a little more tinkering.

PCLinuxOS, when not using tablet

Linux mint does a great job

Kaos

Ubuntu MATE not listed? I consider it, for my purposes as well as my friends', the ideal distro for complete n00bz as well as old Linux hands. MATE is available on a slew of distros, but Ubuntu MATE is the best way to experience the sublime MATE desktop.

Besides, the Welcome window enables the user to install graphics drivers and a lot of software. Ana MATE is quite lightweight: when booted and idle, it uses <500 megs of RAM.

I, for one, suggested it earlier on. I used to use openSUSE since 6.3 or so but the leaps were terrible in my opinion. From 42.2 which I never got to run acceptably I switched to tumbleweed -- and not never looked back but only with pity ;) and wonder. Tumbleweed is such a leap (sic!) forward from leap that it borders on the incredible. And rock stable at that with no "cutting edge woes", though a good Connection to the net is preferable ;).


And, for what it is worth you (or everybody else interested) can simply add the votes / percentages of leap and tumbleweed. Comments so far clearly favour tumbleweed with no vote for leap...

SolydK, of course. Rock solid and reliable.

flavor
 

Ubuntu Mate in particular

I think that Mint is the absolute b est for beginners, coming in a close second is Ubuntu.

There's just Ubuntu. If every distro had separate listings for each of its supported desktop environments, I imagine that there would be a very large number of choices!

Debian, because Debian 9 is working great, and the hard work of it's developers lay the foundation for Ubuntu and Mint, the two most popular distros.

You're Missing CentOS
 

I was surprised you did not include CentOS in this list, but included Fedora. I love CentOS 7.4 because it is STABLE, and does not change. Fedora changes every 6 months, and users live on the Bleeding Edge. I a Desktop STABILITY should count. Yes, CentOS 7.4 is a GREAT Server distro, buit it is also GREAT for workstations and as a serious Desktop distro as well.

Ubuntu for sure.

I’m a Manjaro user, which I guess counts as arch. I’ve had less problems with it than Ubuntu recently so Arch gets my vote.

I'm surprised that Manjaro isn't on the list. Although based on Arch, it's usually treated as a separate distro.

Manjaro has been added.

--jeremy

sparky linix
 

Where is sparky linux?

LOL, this list is morphing into distrowatch.....

:D It's got a wee bit to go yet.

Ubuntu gets my vote; I use Xubuntu on my desktop and the FSF's Trisquel Mini on my EeePC netbook.

Ubuntu because it's the only distro I have tried that supports Nvidia Optimus seamlessly out of the box.

It's also easy to install, stable and well supported. I have been trying a few rolling distros, but I work on my main machine and reliability is of paramount importance.

Oh, and I LOVE the decision to switch to Gnome shell, my favourite DE by far.

Slackware .

Bummer, KDE Neon is missing, I have it installed on 3 high end PC's and a notebook. Been using it for a couple years now.

I think Fedora satisfies my requirements very well. I used Ubuntu and Debian during 2017, Fedora seems to be a better one.