Poll: The Great OcUK Distro/Derivative Poll VI

Take your pick:

  • Arch Linux

    Votes: 69 13.3%
  • BSD Derivative (FreeBSD, PC-BSD etc.)

    Votes: 11 2.1%
  • CentOS

    Votes: 40 7.7%
  • Crunchbang

    Votes: 17 3.3%
  • Debian

    Votes: 59 11.4%
  • Fedora

    Votes: 45 8.7%
  • Gentoo

    Votes: 20 3.9%
  • Mandriva

    Votes: 5 1.0%
  • MEPIS

    Votes: 1 0.2%
  • Mint

    Votes: 108 20.8%
  • OpenSUSE

    Votes: 24 4.6%
  • PCLinuxOS

    Votes: 3 0.6%
  • Puppy

    Votes: 12 2.3%
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

    Votes: 15 2.9%
  • Sabayon

    Votes: 2 0.4%
  • Slackware

    Votes: 9 1.7%
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise (Server or Desktop)

    Votes: 3 0.6%
  • OpenSolaris

    Votes: 5 1.0%
  • Ubuntu (Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, NBR)

    Votes: 243 46.8%
  • Other

    Votes: 20 3.9%

  • Total voters
    519
Ubuntu.

I voted for Ubuntu I have installed it 3 times as a dual boot operting system and I used it as my sole operating system for about 3 months, I just dont get it though but something keeps me coming back to it so maybe one day I will "get it", LOL.:D
 
I'm a recent OpenSUSE convert myself, considering its integration of Zypper, which is a breath of fresh air compared to the trusty apt and the rpm hell in particular which plagued this particular distro in the past.

Ubuntu and Debian would be my close second, but they are special too, as I cut my teeth on them and they are very good in their own right.

Not a fan of source oriented distros, at least not for home, personal use as a desktop OS. When I do try them, I spend too much time fiddling and tweaking to the point of mild obsession! Definitely not good when free time is at a premium. :D
 
Only just 'discovered' this poll, and I am quite suprised at the popularity of Arch Linux, which I have never even heard of before!

I have had a look at Ubuntu, (which works fine on my Dell netbook) but was under the impression that Mint is very popular at the moment, and as it had just been updated (Mint 12) it is the one I am tempted to try on my new desktop PC.
 
What if we're not talking distros? What if we're talking versions? Sure, Arch is easily the best distro i've used. But the best version has got to be Mint 7. That was the first Linux installation i ever had. I pitted it against Windows 7. And it won.

It was so polished, so easy to use out of the box. It was the perfect distro for a Windows user. And for the most part updates since then seem to have just removed features and made it harder to use. I mean, the software center could have done with an update. But everything else? I'm not so sure.
 
What is so good about Arch Linux that people keep going on about?

In the course of about an hour i've managed to remove half the packages that were propping up my system, find decent alternatives to everything that required those packages and find a simple fix for the whole problem anyway. At some point in the next few weeks i think i'll reinstall anyway just to try out those alternatives, that all seem a lot less resource intensive than what i'm currently using, and with a bit of configuration can look just as good/be just as nice to use.

This stuff is fun :D
 
Have to say, I really don't like Ubuntu, except for MythBuntu.
As a general OS, I don't get on with it, Mepis for me (or Fedora 14, new versions are awful).

To me though, Mepis just works. One of the only Linux distros that worked with my wireless out of the box.
 
Have to say, I really don't like Ubuntu, except for MythBuntu.
As a general OS, I don't get on with it, Mepis for me (or Fedora 14, new versions are awful).

To me though, Mepis just works. One of the only Linux distros that worked with my wireless out of the box.

But why would you want to use MythBuntu as a general OS, its designed mainly oo be a media centre OS for MythTV systems.
 
CentOS at work because of the RedHat/security/enterprise idea. I agree that it seems more locked-down by default than Debian etc, and the lack of installed packages makes it nice and compact and leaves less potential entrances. It also makes it a bit more of a pain, though.

Debian or Ubuntu when given the choice myself - I'm not sure why, it just seems to agree with me better than CentOS. CentOS doesn't do anything wrong, I just don't click with it - it does things I'm not expecting whereas Debian seems to make more sense.

I'm going to try Arch at some point, but I've never really got what it's differentiator is meant to be - what does it do that CentOS/Debian/Ubuntu don't? I've tried Mint but never got it working properly, and Knoppix a few years ago as my first linux experiment - but it seems to have dropped away a little now that nearly every Distro has liveCD capability.
 
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