DEFINITIVE: Which Linux Distro? (poll for 2006)

[attiladehun]

Recommend Ubuntu, use Debian (testing/etch). I use Enlightenment/twm for wm's.

Reason for all the Linspire folks is the following:

Post subject: Vote for Linspire on Neowin! Which includes a link to the current poll.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Recommend Ubuntu, use Debian (testing/etch). I use Enlightenment/twm for wm's.

Reason for all the Linspire folks is the following:

Post subject: Vote for Linspire on Neowin! Which includes a link to the current poll.

Do you have a link for that? They really ought to not be spamming our poll.

A shame that other *nix users would factionalize so much that they want to skew silly poll results on sites not their own. :no:

[nvllsvm]

I would have to choose ubuntu as the distro. ubuntu is rock solid and very easy to use. I would have to say Gnome for desktop enviroment because it is easily customized and my attemps with xfce resulted in many crashes.

[Ethere]

I just noticed the same thing markjensen...those linspire fanboy posts seem like they would be coming from the same people.

For me, it's Ubuntu. It's the first distro I've used that found all my hardware in one shot. No playing around with making things work. It just works. The only thing that's holding me back from switching completely from Windows is the lack of multimedia compatibility. I have tried everything in Ubuntu to get DVD's to play smooth, and for the life of me, it just doesn't work right. It's jumpy, and the sound always lags behind the movie. I am running a pretty decent system too.

AMD Athlon Barton 2500

640 MB Ram

120 GB WD Caviar HD

ATI Radeon 9500 Pro (Soon to be eVga 7800GS) :) :)

And I love Gnome. It's simple, and minimalistic, which I like. I don't need all the KDE eye candy.

[Tha1]

I'll have to say Arch. :D I tried it and loved it. I also like Vector. :)

[markwolfe Veteran]

My goodness! That thread is here: http://forum.linspire.com/viewtopic.php?t=419591

Not surprisingly, it was started by my buddy Popoff. No real shock there.

The part that really surprises me is that Kevin Carmony, President and CEO has encouraged people to sign up and spam us in his post in their thread.

I voted. Registration is free and easy.

Linspire usually doesn't do very well with these type of polls, because our target user isn't usually visiting these kinds of sites. These polls always give a skewed view of things, so we appreciate it when you help us out by voting for Linspire.

Thanks all,

Kevin

The funny part is, I have an account on Linspire from at least since Jan 22nd, 2004, but their site won't let me into their forums except as an unregistered guest. I can sign in to the main site, but the forums then keep showing me their login failure page

You have specified an incorrect or inactive username, or an invalid password.

Click Here to try again

Click Here to return to the Index

and won't let me out, unless I sign out of the main site.

Appears to be some issues over there.

[mitch00]

This is pretty pathetic of Linspire geez.. this is something I'd expect to see from Microsoft in a "Favourite OS" type poll... but seriously, we don't go on their baords and start spamming... hey that gives me an idea ;)

Anywho, I voted for Arch Linux (I've finally found a distro I'm able to call home :D) with Openbox

[Aaron Veteran]

http://forum.linspire.com/viewtopic.php?p=495636#495636

:whistle:

[JaspSoft]

Hi there :)

I saw the post on the Linspire forums and registered here just for the purpose of voting. (I didn't vote for Linspire though.) There are plenty of people on the Linspire forums who don't think Linspire is the best distro in the world I am sure, so maybe your figures won't be skewed too much.

Well I hope you don't mind that I registered, and you'll let me back here to enjoy your fabulous forum... but I think I may have forum overload... so many forums... such little time.

Happy Hacking :)

[SLeeM@N]

Arch linux its a good choice

[S3Indiana]

j/c what site would be appropriate for anyone who registers to vote (if not here, where)???

[CaKeY]

Have your friends at the linspire board start a similar poll and we here at neowin will signup just to vote on it lol.

...would be funny... linspire not even making the top 5 on a poll posted at their own site.

[cork1958]

Vote for Ubuntu and Gnome here!!

Tried that Linspire just before doing Ubuntu. Man, does Linspire stink!! Tried Suse 8 & 9 before also. Wouldn't recognize half my stuff.

When Dapper comes out in April, I plan on making the full fledged switch to Linux by reformatting everything on all 5 of my systems and installing it as my ONLY OS.

[S3Indiana]

Could the Ubuntu/Kubuntu numbers be a coincidence???

[Phantasman]

Thanks, Jasp. I joined just to vote.

I've never seen this forum, but it is interesting and a lot of good tips here.

I voted Ubuntu. I have tried about 30 different distros in my Linux search, and when I had three distros at once they were PCLOS, Kanotix and Ubuntu. It seems like only a year ago that Mandrake was the superLinux (oh...it was a year ago) but Ubuntu keeps getting better on a weekly basis.

[CaKeY]

Could the Ubuntu/Kubuntu numbers be a coincidence???

Not sure what you mean, but the results are looking similar to last years poll.

[bicol_willem]

I voted Linspire (and KDE). Its just setting the standard to me. Linspire/KDE/CNR is just the easiest thing around, yet powerful as any other Linux. Ease and convenience = Linspire. ;)

I am actually also using SuSE 10 (which is great as well) but .... its Linspire for me, while I really try to figure out why still so many somehow refuses to recognize Linspire as a very valid and capable alternative. Best guess: A whole lot might have "tested" it, just scratching the surface ........ ;)

[Ethere]

That post on their forums is rediculous. Someone said they don't want to have to learn all the commands. If that's the case, then stick with Windows. There's no need to go with Linspire. I went with Ubuntu to ease into Linux. And I love it. I want to learn how to use Linux, and eventually move to linux completely. Just need to work out a few bugs.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Tried that Linspire just before doing Ubuntu. Man, does Linspire stink!!

I have stuck up for Linspire before, and looks like it is time for me to do it again (even though I find the fact that their CEO encouraged their members to sign up here to vote Linspire questionable).

Linspire has a target market, and they do provide a decent product for that market - I know one person where I work that had discovered and liked Linspire (then Lindows) before he knew anyone else that used Linux (namely me). It was simple for him to install and use, and their license allowed him to install on multiple PCs (not sure, but that is probably still the case). He is not an overly "computer guy" person, and just wants to use his PC and was fed up with Microsoft for his own reasons. Most Neowin members are not their primary target market (as we tend to like to dig in and tinker).

Linspire does contribute back into the Linux community through their support (financial and otherwise) of various open source products.

My position here is clear: any problem with the sudden influx of new registers encouraged to vote a specific way is not related to their product (which anyone here is welcome to start a thread for honest discussion on, should there be that much energy about it).

Although I have recently set aside my staff duties here, I still am an active member, and very involved with what goes on here. I do not want to see "factionalization" of distro versus distro here. It isn't appropriate.

[JoKo]

I still prefer Gentoo over Ubuntu, but I have to admit that Ubuntu is so easy and simple that even newbies can install and use it.

[Aaron Veteran]

I have stuck up for Linspire before, and looks like it is time for me to do it again (even though I find the fact that their CEO encouraged their members to sign up here to vote Linspire questionable).

Linspire has a target market, and they do provide a decent product for that market - I know one person where I work that had discovered and liked Linspire (then Lindows) before he knew anyone else that used Linux (namely me). It was simple for him to install and use, and their license allowed him to install on multiple PCs (not sure, but that is probably still the case). He is not an overly "computer guy" person, and just wants to use his PC and was fed up with Microsoft for his own reasons. Most Neowin members are not their primary target market (as we tend to like to dig in and tinker).

Linspire does contribute back into the Linux community through their support (financial and otherwise) of various open source products.

My position here is clear: any problem with the sudden influx of new registers encouraged to vote a specific way is not related to their product (which anyone here is welcome to start a thread for honest discussion on, should there be that much energy about it).

Although I have recently set aside my staff duties here, I still am an active member, and very involved with what goes on here. I do not want to see "factionalization" of distro versus distro here. It isn't appropriate.

Yeah, what he said. We should make Mark a mod or something...

[user.foo]

So what was the point of the poll?

I saw a link to this thread and saw a site that I would like to participate with. Nine votes I saw for Linspire so far and people are complaining. If voting for Linspire (like I did) was that big of a deal, then why was it a choice in the poll?

I would agree that having a group of people or whatever sign up for the sole purpose of inflating the poll is jacked_up.

So because I use Linspire, should I even bother to continue participating here?

[mitch00]

user.foo, I think there's been some confusion. I don't speak for all of Neowin, but I'd like to just clear some of this up, in my opinion anyways. I don't have anything against Linspire, nothing at all, it's a very good product for what it's designed to do, as markjensen previously said (getting new users to use Linux hassle free). Some people (so-called elitists) think that this is a bad thing and don't want their favourite OS being "dumbed down". But I don't think even that was the problem here, the thing I was mad about most was how people just signed up to a site to change the results of a poll that was trying to see what Neowin Members thought is the "Best Linux Distro". If you would sincerely like to join the Neowin community, Welcome! But otherwise we don't need spammers advertising what their favourite distribution is. Make your own poll on the Linspire website if that's soemthing you'd think your users would enjoy. Anyways, welcome to Neowin!

-Mitch

[attiladehun]

So what was the point of the poll?

I saw a link to this thread and saw a site that I would like to participate with. Nine votes I saw for Linspire so far and people are complaining. If voting for Linspire (like I did) was that big of a deal, then why was it a choice in the poll?

I would agree that having a group of people or whatever sign up for the sole purpose of inflating the poll is jacked_up.

And WHY are there nine votes for Linspire, other than due to the posting in your forum and encouragement of your CEO?

Sounds like "a group of people or whatever sign up for the sole purpose of inflating the pol" to me.

[markwolfe Veteran]

And WHY are there nine votes for Linspire, other than due to the posting in your forum and encouragement of your CEO?

Sounds like "a group of people or whatever sign up for the sole purpose of inflating the pol" to me.

Now, that is misleading and inaccurate.

Linspire has been in our polls before, as this thing has been done over the past few years. Linspire doesn't top the results here at Neowin, but they perform well enough to be on the poll 2 out of the three years, I believe.

Sure, some have signed up just to vote and leave. Some to vote, make a post and leave. Some may stay and participate in further discussion.

I mentioned the odd and sudden influx of pro-Linspire users, and thought there must be a reason. There was. If they come here to do it, then they come here to do it. Not much that can be done about it. Flaming people or their distro choices is not allowed here, so just let it drop. Any one-hitters will be gone as soon as they post, just as long as that thread over there doesn't keep inspiring more and more.

Regardless, the one-hitters will likely not even log back in to discuss or read replies. Anyone who does discuss their posts is obviously a returning member now (even if only for a while) and deserves a bit more repect as an individual - even if you don't like the sudden influx from one particular site.

But that's just my not-a-moderator-any-more opinion. ;)