Comments on: The most popular Linux desktop? The numbers might surprise you

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:16:40 +0000

it doesn’t matter which distro it is , in the end it is importand ” THAT IT WORK ON YOUR PC !!! “

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:28:32 +0000

Well, I just received my subscription copy of Slackware 12.1 last week.

Does it count I have Slackware installed on around 20 computers using the same distro disks as 20 installs or 1 purchased subscription copy?

By: joncrndl

joncrndl — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:48:26 +0000

Each distro has strengths. I have used Ubuntu 8.04, Fedora 8, OpenSuSE 10.3 and of Knoppix for rescue work when nothing else does the job. I will be downloading OpenSUSE 11 shortly. Ubuntu strikes me as the easiest that I have seen for newbie venturing into the Linux world to escape from Windows and Internet Exploder. For me, I prefer a distro that makes it easy use LVM to configure file systems. That is one area, where Ubuntu is behind OpenSUSE and Fedora. I have been using Linux Thinkpads and other notebooks for past 10 plus years. The question is always which distro has figured out the new hardware first. I prefer KDE for the desktop, which puts OpenSUSE at the top of my list. OpenSUSE has consistently done the best job with implementing KDE for my daily use. I am looking forward to seeing OpenSUSE 11.

By: Hugh E Torrance

Hugh E Torrance — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:19:28 +0000

How do you count the fact that I have eight distros and love them all… !

By: happy-eee-user

happy-eee-user — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:24:47 +0000

I have been a happy EeePC user – but had little patience for the Xandros Eee version. Like many others – putting a different linux distribution on it has been a fun (and mostly) rewarding exercise.

A group of us at openSUSE are working at enabling op-enSUSE 11 (due out in two weeks) to have the necessary drivers for EeePC available.

I am running the release candidate of openSUSE 11 now – and of the five different operating systems I have tried, it has been the best overall experience.

By: tanner

tanner — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:14:02 +0000

We all know Slackware rules the roost. Install it, and open up the case once every couple of years to blow out the dust.

Oh wait, you mean “desktop” Linux (as if there was such a thing – I’ve never seen a “desktop” kernel release).

Never mind.

By: Richard Harvill

Richard Harvill — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:14:13 +0000

Popularity contest? Sounds like a So Cal thing. More than two years ago I weaned my wife from Msoft because of virus attacks. At that time I chose AandRos because it was stable, and would be an easy transformation for her. Was that a good decision. Has not missed a beat yet. I was trying OpenSuse 11, but do not want to compile drivers, so switched to Mint beta…and WOW. And I thought Ubuntu was on the right track.

By: Jose_X

Jose_X — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:47:59 +0000

I’d never imagine there would be that many people that would know how to or be able to install XP on those machines and get it to work properly. If your friends are employees of Monopolysoft, then that doesn’t count since I doubt this is a large percentage of all “friends” out there buying these machines.

By: Maarten

Maarten — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:54:12 +0000

That’s exactly how Microsoft will say the sales of Vista is going up like a rocket: You can not buy XP anymore, and even if you buy Vista and downgrade to XP,this will count as a Vista sales……
However I guess indeed that the percentage that installs other OSses will be small (and the percentage that will install (illegally) XP on it might even be higher…

By: Brian Masinick

Brian Masinick — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:25:39 +0000

Xandros and various versions of SUSE – SLED, Slick, and openSUSE – have been among the systems that Steve has used and praised in previous reviews. He has also positively reviewed SimplyMEPIS in the past. He seems to keep either a version of Xandros or SUSE of some flavor on at least one of his systems and some version of Windows on another. Clearly he is pragmatic in his views, and he can speak from experience in running and using both Windows and desktop Linux systems. I think his opinions are worth evaluating and respecting, whether you happen to agree with them or not.

Personally, I have agreed with many of his reviews and speculations. He tends to be a bit more optimistic than I am about the imminent rise of Linux to higher percentages of use. I tend to think that Linux will continue to etch out bits and pieces of markets here and there, but I also do believe that anyone who is serious about running Linux, whether on desktops or servers, could do it today.

At my place of employment, we run many important server applications using Linux server software, but we have not made any corporate leaps to using Linux on the desktop, though we have had several advanced research projects to assess the feasibility of storing critical company data on back end storage devices, then utilizing any number of thin to thick clients for the desktop software. If fully realized, this could open the doors to a Linux option on the desk in our company.

At home, I definitely use desktop Linux software in preference to Windows or other software. Even at those times that I do run Windows, it is generally to access some proprietary software in order to retrieve information stored that way from others. If I even stay on Windows after that, I use free software such as Seamonkey, Firefox, or Thunderbird for browsing and Email, and a Windows ported version of Vim and/or Emacs for editing.