What's Your Favorite Linux Distro?

[supashot]

dump dump!

[dharmabm]

no question about it, arch has emerged as my favorite for my own notebook for 5 years or more now, but i still play with several others - ubuntu server is still my choice for servers (only LTS of course), and i've been playing a bit with LMDE (mint debian) for my son's gaming machine and my xbmc box. i was pretty high on crunchbang and archbang for the last few months but got a bit frustrated with their update breakages (which turned me to LDME, because i really prefer the rolling release model). still can't help but play with others when i read smth interesting on distrowatch, but i just don't have that kind of time these days.

k

[supashot]

couldn't agree more!

[wimpy]

Mint Cinnamon.

[aarn]

Have tried many in past few months, dual-booting with win7 on an older toshiba notebook (2Gb RAM).

Using www.distrowatch.com for daily release announcements.

There are a lot of derivatives of Ubuntu 12.04 becoming available.

Fastest I have tried is zorin lite, released ~ 28 August 2012.

Otherwise the mothership Ubuntu 12.04.1 has all the bells and whistles. AA

[ITGabs]

Ubuntu for desktop

Centos for server

But real I am using Linux only for servers and is more like a work compatibility thing more than a choice, many of the server 3rd parties are fully supported for Centos, like Cpanel, preInstalled dedicated servers, etc. For desktop I am using win 7 but for the same reason, software 3rd parties not fully functional in Linux, I have my ubuntu but for work things I feel that I am losing time... ssh is enough for me.

[DrTuner]

I start with a CentOS and then turn it into slackware. A decent base to build on.

[JSixpack]

Lubuntu on my netbook has been great. I like Lucid Puppy on my emergency flashdrive--fast and secure.

Like LMDE a lot, was thinking to install it on a friend's antique, but now Zorin lite looks the way to go (tnx aarn).

May install Voyager on my main desktop or my laptop, the interface is so outstanding. (I'm too lazy to configure anything that good myself on another distribution.) And it is based on Xubuntu. Booted it from a flashdrive, did fine. Fairly light, too.

Edited August 31, 2012 by JSixpack

[hegenious]

I am running Linux Mint v9 in a VM on windows 'cause I want to stick as long as possible with gnome 2, really not liking gnome 3 and cinnamon and other desktops such as KDE. My workplace is a RHEL shop, v5.x and 6.x,in the cloud, we manage about 1200 servers, both virtual and physical ones. They all run in runlevel 3 so without graphical desktop as it is not allowed unless the customer signs a risk acceptance agreement with us.

Basically all servers are either Oracle db servers, a few are used to run MySQL, a lot of our customers switched from HP-UX and AIX to RHEL because of costs reduction, although in my opinion,enterprise grade linux distros have still a long long way to go when it comes to cluster solutions like HP-UX MC/Serviceguard or IBM's HACMP.

[linuxuser010101]

I'm very happy to see a Linux users group here in Chiang Mai. I am currently running Mint 13 (Maya) Cinnamon 64 bit on 2 of my machines and the 32 bit version on 2 machines. Linux Mint 14 (Nadia) is supposed to be released at the end of November 2012 at which point I will up grade my 2 notebooks but I think my home PC's are getting a bit out of date and possibly will not support all of the features properly. I just bought a New Dell which is Linux compatible however there are a lot of machines out there now that are not compatible and do not support wireless or Bluetooth drivers although the sales people will tell you it's fine. I noticed at Pantip Plaza there are a ton of new machines that have the Ubuntu logo and I am very happy to see that to say the least.

[Guest]

I'm using Ubuntu LTS for server and kubuntu for laptops.

Reasoning: I like apt and *ubuntu is popular enough that it's likely to have support and updates in the future as well.

[linuxuser010101]

I just burned my first ISO image to a USB drive (Mint 13) so I will be hunting a machine running Windows or Mac tomorrow to see if I can get it to run. I have been carrying 2 DVD"s one with Mint 13 and one with Ubuntu 11.04 to run on hostile machines when I am at work if I can not connect my notebooks. I used USB Image Writer which was installed in Mint 13 on my home PC, I will report back how it worked if anyone is interested.

[gpdjohn]

Mint 13 XFCE

Seems to work the best on my old P4

[schondie]

I'm going with Puppy Linux 5.2.8 and Mint 13. I've experienced a few minor annoyances with Cinnamon but I'll stick with it as I've got it looking how I like it.

[Chads]

I'm using Mint but I can't seem to update it or most of the programs that come with it, even with the package manager. Can anyone offer some advice?

Proud to be part of the Linux user gang in Thailand though!

[tollgate]

Sabayon, now on version 10.

[OxfordWill]

centos for servers and either backtrack or ubuntu depending on the work!

[schondie]

centos for servers and either backtrack or ubuntu depending on the work!

Backtrack (Live DVD) is a good one. "Depending on the work!" cough cough (free internet).

[jpinx]

debian - almost all the other popular distros are based on it

[Chicog]

I really liked DreamLinux but I think they've given up on it, so I just scan distrowatch.com occasionally hoping for another gem to appear.

[JSixpack]

I really liked DreamLinux but I think they've given up on it, so I just scan distrowatch.com occasionally hoping for another gem to appear.

Dreamlinux was updated in January, not that long ago; and you've got the update manager for the apps etc. They don't seem to have given up on it.

There are a number of similar gems out there already--unless the Brazilian aspect is really, really important.

[Chicog]

I really liked DreamLinux but I think they've given up on it, so I just scan distrowatch.com occasionally hoping for another gem to appear.

Dreamlinux was updated in January, not that long ago; and you've got the update manager for the apps etc. They don't seem to have given up on it.

There are a number of similar gems out there already--unless the Brazilian aspect is really, really important.

Ah, good on ya, I hadn't even noticed!

I'm trying out Mageia at the moment, it's quite nice.

[linuxuser010101]

I have been testing the installed OS on a USB drive and have had no luck with the machines running windows XP and Windows 7, I constantly get a message from Windows saying my USB drive needs to be formatted. I did not try it on a Mac because... I do not know anyone with a Mac nor could I find one. In any event the USB drive works great as a live disk on any machine running Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Red Hat, Zenix, openSUSE, Debian and Edubuntu.

[JakeBKK]

debian - almost all the other popular distros are based on it

i'll second that. no gui though.

Edited October 5, 2012 by JakeBKK

[jpinx]

debian - almost all the other popular distros are based on it

i'll second that. no gui though.

Stable-lxde with XP on a vm when I can get it to boot

Lots of time spent in screen sessions for the real admin work....

[JSixpack]

Fastest I have tried is zorin lite, released ~ 28 August 2012.

Nice recent review:

http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2012/10/zorin-os-6-lite-lite-fantastic.html

[Guest]

I installed Kubuntu to a new SDD and came to think why Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu.

The conclusion was that it's not KDE / GNOME preference. I simply like the Kubuntu's blue color more than Ubuntu's brown.

I'll promise never to laugh at the people who are buying their cars based of the colors...

[ItDontMeanAThing]

Mint 9 on my laptop. Haven't upgraded because I can use Gnome 2 without thinking.

PCLinuxOS - KDE on the netbook. Works fine for what little I do on the netbook. Tried Puppy, Easy Peasy and Ubuntu. Rejecte Peasy because it was way too dumbed down. Nixed Puppy for long forgotten reasons. Axed Ubuntu because most of the buttons on their install dialog boxes were off screen.

Both machines are dual boot with Win7. Windoze uses less battery and has better WiFi, essential for when traveling with the netbook. My camera manufacturer's RAW manipulation programs work only on Win but that's pretty much the only time I use Win at home. Except when I need to play solitaire.

[Crushdepth]

I used to prefer Ubuntu, but I am currently lost to Linux for desktop use due to multiple simultaneous attempts to reinvent something that just wasn't broken: The Traditional Desktop Environment.

IMHO the current generation of Linux desktops is embarrassingly bad - especially if you are running older hardware and/or a VM, and I'm not just bagging Unity here (which is an indescribable abomination). They aren't just ugly, they are slow as a starving hairless dog, even with the tricks turned off.

Server or headless no problem, but for desktop use...I want to shoot a whole bunch of so called designers. It's a crime what they have done. They have set the mainstream adoption of Linux back *years*.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Crushdepth

[Chads]

My Linux Mint runs so fast on this Dell though. Beats any PC, anyday.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Chads