Other: "It's not Windows!".

I'm currently using Ubuntu- because I was sick and tired of Windows, and I don't care for Apple products- so I took the Linux plunge with what seemed like a good OS for a Linux newbie...and it indeed is.

After 7 months of Ubuntu, I think I am ready to move on to full-fledged Debian.

I LOVE Linux!

(Had Linux not been invented, I likely would hasve given up computing rather than putting up with the endless frustrations and maintenance of Win-D'ohs!)

Well said, I echo these sentiments

It offers something the others do not
 

It is the only distribution that worked first time on my system. I have tried for the last 5 years to find a distro that would recognise all my basic hardware. I am not too keen on the chosen distro (ubuntu) it seems very bloated, however it took to my system first time recognising both my wifi and laser printer. The support forum and repository are very, very good, so credit where it is due. Given a choice of all the distros, too many too list, that I have tried in the past 5 years. Debian, Puppy and Slitaz I liked, I am not a power user just an old guy who likes to keep in touch with the ever changing world around me without resorting to programming to do it, or replacing hardware that is in good working order just to suit a distro I may not like. I have found Linux in general to be far better than Win XP, if only for the very fast boot up and lack of 'mommy please can I' nagging that MS shovels into its software every time you want to go out of a programme. So I am one happy guy and MS is one conned customer less. Deltabravo. I would like to add that many years ago I ran an XT computor running that lovely usable linux like, aka slim and fast, DR dos.

Mandriva can access wireless networks out of the box. Ndiswrapper was never easier.

Mainly because it just works.

Its reliable.
 

Others might suit me better but this works, so no need to change. When the requirements change and I use this server (ubuntu) for something different I might switch.

Arch
 

I use both Ubuntu and Ubuntu Server at the moment. Ubuntu as desktop for about a year now and Ubuntu server for about a few months now. I will probably switch to Debian (my server) and stick with Ubuntu for a while.

I chose 'Its reliable'.I use my BlackBerry to do my server stuff most of the time and I never had any problems connecting once my BlackBerry was setup correct.

I still love the way I can pretty much rely on the server to be around when I want to fiddle with it. And I use Ubuntu just to mess about, see what happens when I delete certain files or change them or something. I got a LiveCD which has almost turned grey after the amount of times re-installing Ubuntu...

What does reliable have to do with it compared to the dominant OS? That should be a given for everyone!
"Fun" is the logical choice, given "reliability" is something the former does not have (lol!)

EDIT: hope this post skewed the results

My original reason to switch to gentoo was the rolling-release update method.

I had to answer Null. Only because I don't really have one specific Distro I like. Currently I am jumping from Debian to Arch to Ubuntu to Opensuse. But that changes often.

Over all I like the freedom, the stability and security of Linux in general and all just as equal as the other.

To me Linux Distros just have different perspectives but the same foundation.

It is funny how we all tend to step up to defend "our" respective desktops/OS - boy we are lucky to have the smorgasboard of distributions that we do.

On OpenSuse (purevw). I have run it often when I am looking for a good KDE implementation as I still think that OpenSuse is one of the best for a KDE experience although latest efforts seem to have introduced a few bugs along the way. I find it doesn't seem to work as well with other operating systems/distributions as some of the other Distributions do. So until things settle down there I am staying away from installing it, I generally checkout the LIVECD's when they arrive but until things change a bit I think I will stay away. I hope they do sort it though as like .t when it is up and running.

So I have at this point in time returned to using Ubuntu as I find it is the ONE distro which allows me to run just about anything and be able to pull help from forums and blogs if and when I need it. It is pretty respectable in speed and it has good repositories and you can get binaries for just about any package in no time flat. I prefer distros with KDE desktops but alas kUbuntu is atrocious of late and tends to break and not be anywhere near as well behaved as Ubuntu itself. It doesn't even locate my Windows OS which I use for my Genealogy, on a completely separate drive. I find this unbelievable when you consider that Ubuntu finds everything else installed on the PC and goes about setting up Grub2 Menus without so much as a blink of an eye. Also kUbuntu seems to lack style, it just seems to be plain vanilla which is a bit of a shame as things like the actual Initial Install Routine (with exception of other OS recognition) are really very slick. I think a few other distros would do well to check it out and see just how well it does it. It looks beautiful, lets you know what it is doing and finds Printers including Network printers and sets them up really easily. I have a setup where I have some of my printers attached via a Netcomm Print Server box and it tends to throw some systems and requires a bit of nudging here and there to make things work whereas kUbuntu and Ubuntu pick everything up really nicely - easy.

My other preferred KDE desktop is PCLinuxOS as it is a good stable setup and the users/forums are really very helpful. I have stopped using it at the moment until they finalise their 64 bit version which is in the works as I like to make full use of my 6gb of memory which the 32 bit current version doesn't allow which is of course a waste. PCLinuxOS is a darned good distro which usually just works, not dissimilar to Mepis in that, although the poor users of Mepis are having a few hiccups just of late. Mepis is a lovely distro which usually just boots up and works.It keeps a lot of its users happy and that is after all what it is all about.

I have tried a few others like Fedora, CentOS, Sabayon, Puppy, Xubuntu, Knoppix, PClinux e17 (very nice), eLive (again nice uses e17), Mint, Vector, Dreamlinux, Mandriva and briefly Slackware and a few others for very short times. I do enjoy the varying experiences but for my everyday OS I do require something that isn't going to junk all my thousands of digital photos (currently just on 25,000). I do keep backups of my data BUT I don't like pain and when a system falls over and requires you to haul out the backups and reinstall the lot etc it is a pain, so I am playing it safe at the moment.

I am currently using a Gnome desktop with a lot of my own customisation to give it more the feel of KDE and have also added various utilities etc from KDE libraries that I like as my favourites. Come on kUbuntu, sort it out and spruce it up as well. Some speed and some style would be lovely thanks.

The one distro I have found to be absolute rock solid is Debian but the price you pay for that is that things are basically nowhere near the cutting edge. I do like to get my hands on latest software as I am a bit of a software junkie harking back to my very early days in computers when I used to run my own Shareware business - before the days of CD's and DVD's. As I used every piece of software before putting it into my library for sale/distribution I have become addicted to playing about with software.

So I tend to use Debian for my Notebook which I mainly use whilst on holidays for trip notes and for storing my photos and editing them etc. For this Debian is brilliant. I found it to be really good at establishing my Wireless setup over a lot of the other distros at the time and have stuck with it ever since. Now if you are chasing some software to play about with and like a stable environment then Debian is the one for that.

A very informative post!

I'm planning on graduating from Ubuntu to Debian, soon, and what you stated above is exactly what I'm looking for- so methinks I've made the correct choice!

Well my jumping around now includes Fedora :)

Distribuion euphoria found
 

I too did quite a lot of distribution hopping, But whe slack ware 13.1 cam out i decided to stop Distribution hopping and settled into slackware for the long haul for stability and hardware compatibility slack ware IMHO is the best of the best as far as Linux Distributions go.