Poll
Best desktop Linux distribution:
Arch
3 votes (8%)
Chromium OS
1 vote (3%)
Debian
9 votes (23%)
Fedora
2 votes (5%)
Gentoo
2 votes (5%)
Mint
5 votes (13%)
openSUSE
1 vote (3%)
Red Hat Enterprise / CentOS
1 vote (3%)
Slackware
3 votes (8%)
Ubuntu / Xubuntu / Kubuntu / etc
9 votes (23%)
Other
4 votes (10%)
12 comments
40 votes
Reply 12 comments

Does Chromium even qualify as a distro? (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-05-12 16:21 (#1HD)

I'm within days of receiving a new HP Chromebook I ordered. But it's only going to run ChromeOS for about 1 millisecond before I wipe it and install a real Linux distro. No hard feelings to Chrome - I'm just not its target audience. I made a list of things I do on a computer and Chrome doesn't do any of them. My folks, on the other hand ... they've got an aging Mac and I'm thinking it's high time I start thinking about its replacement. Chrome is an option, potentially.

Re: Does Chromium even qualify as a distro? (Score: 1)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-05-12 19:28 (#1HJ)

I recently got an ASUS ChromeBox to play with and was quite impressed. It satisfies a growing number of use cases and may finally enable the elusive "year of the Linux desktop."
  • Instant On
  • Zero software maintenance (apps synced cross device, no antivirus needed, nearly invisible upgrades)
  • Zero hardware maintenance (no hardware upgrades needed, nothing stored on disk)
ChromeOS is still missing one crucial feature: Access to local network filesystems (cifs or nfs) - If they add this, they will win.

Re: Does Chromium even qualify as a distro? (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-05-13 10:36 (#1HZ)

Funny, I just received my new Chromebook yesterday - an HP 14. Ive only played with it a few hours but am pretty darned impressed. That said, Ill probably wind up wiping it and installing Linux. Im a Usenet fan and there are no workable Usenet Chrome apps, I do a ton of work at the console and it doesnt have a great terminal app that I can see, and it doesnt seem to have a good text editor. But I admit Im not exactly the target user group for a Chromebook. Other than that, if you are willing to stay within Chromes use cases, its pretty nice, and the HP machine is surprisingly good hardware for $200. Keyboard is decent (better than my HP laptop at work, actually), fast on and off, quick wireless, etc. Im more impressed than I thought Id be.
If I wipe it, Im installing BodhiLinux, which is a Ubuntu core with E17 (Enlightenment) on the desktop. Its a lovely distro, and E17 is way more usable and configurable/tweakable than either Gnome3 or Unity.

Re: Does Chromium even qualify as a distro? (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2017-02-21 13:19 (#2DDXD)

I went with ubuntu on the desktop and except for systemd don't regret it. Will look into bodhi for next time.

For what purpose? (Score: 1)

by omoc@pipedot.org on 2014-05-12 17:18 (#1HG)

To answer this generic is almost impossible, what are we talking about, desktop/server/embedded...?

Arch was the best choice for the desktop until they shoved systemd down your throat and completely abandoned the BSD parts. Viable alternatives are Gentoo (with openrc) and OpenBSD. The latter is actually much better on the desktop than most people would think.

For the average Amazon AWS server an Ubuntu LTS is very comfortable these days and you can luckily avoid RHEL/CentOS completely.

A router should be OpenBSD for me, everything else is just a security nightmare in comparison.

Re: For what purpose? (Score: 1, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-05-12 19:31 (#1HK)

Best desktop Linux distribution:

Would like to have seen a *BSD option (Score: 1)

by codersean@pipedot.org on 2014-05-13 16:21 (#1JC)

PC-BSD is my choice. But if I had to pick a Linux it would be Debian or Arch.

Re: Would like to have seen a *BSD option (Score: 1)

by stderr@pipedot.org on 2014-05-17 02:47 (#1PC)

A *BSD option would be a bit weird when the poll is about the "Best desktop Linux distribution".

Re: Would like to have seen a *BSD option (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-10-25 08:08 (#2TPT)

Yes. Exactly. His was a good answer.

Re: Would like to have seen a *BSD option (Score: 1)

by greenfruitsalad@pipedot.org on 2014-05-17 06:58 (#1PF)

and how is that the best desktop distribution? this poll isn't about your preference but about an objectively quantifiably best distribution for a desktop user. and this is hands down ubuntu. you or i may not like it, but:
  • most software is packaged for what? (including commercial software)
  • most help on the interwebs is for what?
  • best out of the box hardware support?
  • easiest to use package management (PPAs, ubuntu software centre)
  • etc
this really isn't a question where other options come even close (and no, i'm not an ubuntu fanboi, i've been a debian user for the last 13 years.)