Definitive: Which Linux distribution do you prefer? (2012 edition)


  

253 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Linux distribution do you prefer?

    • Debian GNU/Linux
      33
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      1
    • CentOS
      9
    • Fedora
      19
    • Arch Linux
      37
    • {K-, X-, L-}Ubuntu
      87
    • Linux Mint
      40
    • Gentoo
      4
    • Slackware
      6
    • Mandriva
      0
    • Mageia
      0
    • openSUSE
      10
    • Other (specify below)
      5
    • I'm rolling my own distribution.
      2


Recommended Posts

any good gudie for installing arch?

The Arch Wiki is great documentation, the best I've ever found for a Linux distro. There's a whole section on installing the most common things (the OS itself, drivers, GUI, etc). They have a beginners guide for people new to Linux and advanced Linux related stuff

Just a tip : Get Linux app for Windows

Get Linux is a brand new program for Windows that provides

download links and additional information for more than one

hundred different Linux distributions. When you start the

portable program for the first time you are presented with a

list of Linux operating systems on the left side. A search

form is available which you can use if you are looking for a

particular distribution.

Each Linux version is displayed with its name, the available

version, desktop version, file size and country of origin.

The description offers a first overview if the selected

Linux distribution....

http://getlinux.sour....net/index.html

post-376446-0-98484500-1325831228.jpg

Switched from Ubuntu to Debian when Unity became the default login for Ubuntu because for some reason even the "Classic Gnome" option felt really slow compared to earlier releases, and I didn't want to regress to an earlier version that wouldn't be supported in 6 months, so I made the move to Debian. I love it.

Elementary OS. I really think that these guys ideas and implementations for Linux it's the future all Linux distros should embrace.

I urge people to give them a try and get involved, this is how Linux should progress guys.

http://elementaryos.org/journal

  • Like 2

I voted Ubuntu. I am using Bodhi Linux, which is based on Ubuntu 10.10 and is using Enlightenment. I love Enlightenment. I have grown to dislike Gnome and Unity and KDE. I don't see myself ever using them again.

ubuntu here! i just shot my fedora 16 installation few mins ago. but all i did was trying to install an ati driver for my x1650 card. booted from installation cd aferwards but no option to repair the installation, also i can only install it after having completely deleted the old one.

thats such a no go, i had my small troubles with ubuntu too but i NEVER NEVER NEVER had shot the whole system dead by just installing something wrong.

I was on Ubuntu Gnome 2 for a long time and then went for a few months with Ubuntu Unity. It was okay but rough around the edges. It felt also even more simplified and less configurable than Gnome, and that was not the direction I wanted to go.

Now I am using KDE on Kubuntu and it is awesome. :D

I chose Mint. But, (yup, there's always a but.) I have a very old lappy running Ubuntu Hardy. Yea, I know Hardy is dead, but if you have a choice between XP and Linux, I always choose Linux.

Anyways, my actual prefrence these days would be if I had a system that would run it is Mint 12 with MATE DE as default. As second runners up would be Fedora.

I tried Arch several times, but never cared for it. I used the original Shift Linux and loved it. Was heart broken when it was changed to a new base.

LT

Ubuntu, only other distros iv used is MadDog on previous PS3, before I switched to Ubuntu on it, and Mandrake 3 long time ago ( mandrake turned me away from *nix as a whole wasn't until Ubuntu 8 I think that I started Using it again

Arch is really nice but due to time constraints its just not a viable option for me anymore. I switched from Ubuntu to Arch due to Unity.

But Arch became a bit wonky after time, might have something to do with me not merging config files when asked :shiftyninja:

Anyway I decided to give Ubuntu a spin again and Unity really Improved. And once it starts to annoy me I'll check out Elementary because it has a lot of potential.

So yeah, you guys just have to wait until the end of the year once I have made up my mind :rofl:

Arch Linux. It melds the best of a source distribution like Gentoo with a binary distro. It also has just about every package under the sun in it's AUR.

yaourt -Syu ;)

Archlinux.

Aaron Griffin put it very nicely: "If you try to hide the complexity of the system, you'll end up with a more complex system."

That's very true.

Rocking Ubuntu with Unity here. Looking forward to the 12.04 release.

Heres my hopes for 2012:

> Wayland gets official graphics vendor support and is included in the 12.10 release.

> Stable version of Compiz 0.9.

> Valve release a preview of its steam client for Linux :p.

> My LibreOffice stops crashing in print preview mode :/

I started with Ubuntu years ago, but I have used Debian primarily for a couple of years now. I have Debian Stable (Squeeze) on my laptop (one of the many reasons I love Debian is that it is one of the few distributions that still supports the PowerPC architecture as a primary release target), and Debian Testing (Wheezy) on my more powerful desktop (AMD64, not PPC). If I could vote for another distro, I would go with CentOS because I use it on my server due to its stability, support, and SELinux security policy.

Edit: For me, the best things about Debian are its rolling release repository (testing), stability, insane architecture support, and its repository utilities (Aptitude and Synaptic).

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • GitHub removes manual model selection from Copilot free and student plans by Karthik Mudaliar GitHub is removing the ability to manually select an AI model from its Copilot Free and Student plans, making its automatic routing system the default and only way to choose a model. This means users on these tiers will no longer be able to deliberately select a particular OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or Microsoft model for a task. In its announcement, GitHub said Copilot Auto will dynamically choose what it considers the best model for each request. Free and Student accounts will retain access to models from multiple families, although the available selection will continue to depend on the restrictions attached to each plan. GitHub did not identify a fixed pool of models that Auto will always use, and its documentation warns that model availability can change over time. GitHub describes Auto as more than a random fallback system. On supported surfaces, its task-optimization technology evaluates the complexity of a request alongside real-time information about model health and availability. Straightforward prompts can be routed to faster and less expensive models, while more demanding coding tasks may be sent to higher-cost reasoning models. The company says this approach should reduce rate limiting, latency, and failed requests. Auto generally selects one model along natural prompt-caching boundaries rather than repeatedly switching models during a session, as GitHub found that mid-session changes increased costs without producing sufficient improvements in output quality. Users can still check which model generated a response. In Copilot Chat, the information appears when hovering over an answer, while Copilot CLI and the Copilot cloud agent display the selected model alongside their output. Auto is available in Copilot Chat, Copilot CLI, and the cloud agent, with the exact implementation and release status varying between supported development environments. The latest restriction follows several months of adjustments to Copilot’s individual plans. GitHub temporarily halted new Pro, Pro+, and Student subscriptions in April as it sought to manage demand and service reliability. It later introduced token-based billing and began gradually reopening individual-plan registrations on June 17. Alongside the picker change, GitHub is retiring the “Preview” label from Microsoft-developed models. It argues that the label is no longer necessary because Auto handles model routing and models are continuously updated behind the scenes.
    • Look up 'inflation' kid. Ask an AI for the numbers between both games.
    • Google reportedly set to lose two key Gemini and DeepMind researchers to Anthropic by Karthik Mudaliar Google is reportedly preparing to lose two more prominent artificial intelligence researchers, with Gemini contributors Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel planning to join rival AI developer Anthropic. According to a report from Bloomberg, both researchers are viewed internally as important contributors to Google’s flagship Gemini model family. Adler worked on Google’s AI coding efforts, while Pritzel was involved in the process used to train AI systems. Neither company has publicly confirmed the moves. The report also does not say when the researchers will formally leave Google or what positions they will hold at Anthropic. Training a large AI model requires decisions covering its architecture, data preparation, distributed computing infrastructure, and post-training methods that shape how the finished system behaves. Researchers with experience operating at the scale of Gemini are consequently difficult to replace quickly. Both Adler and Pritzel have previously contributed to Google DeepMind’s scientific research as well. They are listed among the authors of the company’s work on expanding AlphaFold protein-structure predictions across entire proteomes, alongside AlphaFold researchers including John Jumper. The reported departures arrive shortly after another important change within Google’s Gemini organization. Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer is leaving Google for OpenAI, after returning to the search company in 2024 through its deal with Character.AI. Shazeer is particularly well known as one of the authors of the Transformer paper, whose architecture became the foundation for most modern large language models. Anthropic, meanwhile, has been recruiting recognizable figures from other leading laboratories. OpenAI co-founder and former Tesla AI director Andrej Karpathy joined Anthropic’s pre-training team in May. His move, followed by the reported recruitment of several Google researchers, suggests Anthropic is strengthening the research teams responsible for the core capabilities of future Claude models rather than concentrating solely on product and enterprise sales. The competition is complicated by the companies’ extensive commercial relationships. Anthropic competes directly with Google’s Gemini models, but it also relies on Google as an infrastructure partner. In April, Anthropic announced an expanded agreement with Google and Broadcom covering multiple gigawatts of next-generation Tensor Processing Unit capacity. TPUs are Google-designed accelerators used to train and run large AI models. via Bloomberg
    • This article makes my head hurt. Lots of confusing words
    • Google adds built-in computer control to Gemini 3.5 flash by Karthik Mudaliar Google has added Computer Use as a built-in tool in Gemini 3.5 Flash, giving developers a single model that can reason about a task and operate graphical interfaces across browsers, mobile devices, and desktop environments. The feature is available through the Gemini API and Google’s Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, although it remains a preview feature for now. Computer Use enables an AI agent to examine screenshots and return actions such as mouse clicks, scrolling, and keyboard input. A developer’s application must execute those actions, capture the resulting screen, and send it back to Gemini, creating a continuous loop until the task is completed. Google says the integration can be used for activities including repetitive form filling, application testing, research across multiple websites, and longer enterprise workflows. Gemini 3.5 Flash can work with browser, mobile, and desktop environments, whereas Google’s earlier standalone Computer Use model was primarily positioned around browser interaction. The main change is consolidation. Computer control was previously offered through the separate Gemini 2.5 Computer Use preview model. As Neowin reported when that model was introduced, it was designed to interpret a visual interface and generate actions without requiring a website-specific API. Google later brought Computer Use to preview versions of Gemini 3 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash in January 2026. The latest release now incorporates the tool into the stable Gemini 3.5 Flash model rather than requiring developers to select a specialized model solely for interface automation. Gemini 3.5 Flash itself was announced in May as Google’s latest fast model for coding and multi-step agent workflows. It supports a one-million-token input context window and up to 65,000 output tokens, along with adjustable thinking levels that let developers trade additional reasoning for lower latency and cost. Google also added that Gemini 3.5 Flash received targeted adversarial training for computer-use scenarios. The company is also offering safeguards that can require user confirmation before sensitive or irreversible actions and automatically stop a workflow when suspected prompt injection is detected. Its developer documentation describes configurable protections for areas such as financial transactions and changes to sensitive records. Google isn't the first to bring Computer Use to its platform. Anthropic has made computer control available through Claude, while OpenAI has continued improving computer-use performance in its recent models. Microsoft has also applied the concept to business workflows, including a Computer Use capability for the Researcher agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Dedicated
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • First Post
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      D0nn13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Rookie
      +ChiefOfNeo went up a rank
      Rookie
    • One Year In
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      One Year In
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      463
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      177
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      124
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      79
    5. 5
      Xenon
      76
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!