Linux world is not alone here. So many battles happened in discussions what is the best distribution. I expected another episode of the battle when published post "What is your best favourite KDE distro?". That post quickly became branch of PCLinuxOS forum: so many PCLOS users took part in commenting.
But that's human nature: we are so lazy to write sometimes... To give users of other distributions equal right and not to bother them too much, I opened voting on this blog, where users were not required to write anything unless they wanted to. Instead, there was drop-down menu with list of different KDE-based distributions.
Voting was opened 9 days ago and planned to be closed on 20th of August. It is now time to announce results. I must admit, results are not exactly what I expected. But they reflect true situation on the KDE "market", I can't object.
| Kubuntu | 17 |
| OpenSuSE | 17 |
| Debian | 9 |
| Other | 7 |
| Chakra | 6 |
| Pardus | 6 |
| Fedora | 5 |
| PC Linux OS | 5 |
| Slackware | 5 |
| Aptosid | 3 |
| CTK Arch | 2 |
| Mageia | 2 |
| Mint KDE | 2 |
| Gentoo | 1 |
| Mandriva | 1 |
You can see that both Kubuntu and OpenSuSE won competition with equal results, and these results have significant breakaway from rest distributions.
Once we can see the results, let me quote some comments left by users who took part in voting.
Ubuntu with Gnome/Unity (voted for Other)Sorry, but since what time GNOME/Unity became KDE distribution?
debian cu kde?:D lol (voted for OpenSuSE)What is funny in this combination? KDE is one of officially supported DEs for Debian.
I like debian for it's stability. Isn't CTKarch based on openbox? (voted for Debian)You're right, CTK Arch is based on Openbox. I don't understand why I put CTK Arch into the list of KDE distros. But it still got some points. ;-)
To me is slackware, I really like its simplicity. Mint KDE is also a good one, they are somehow opposite.You're right. Mint team puts everything to make system suitable for everyone. Sometimes even too much.
Choose Slackware if you want simplicity, and Mint if you want support for almost everything out of the box, but a more bloated OS in you PC (voted for Slackware)
+ Polished, Easy, Out of the box, Innovative, ORIGINAL, Humble CommunitySo much true!
- Small community, Small repository, Need more international/English support (voted for Pardus)
Voting form is still open, but I will not constantly review results. If I find anything interesting there, I will let you, my readers, know. Please stay connected!
UPDATE: new results were published!
If you decided to give any distribution a try yourself, you can always use Buy Linux CDs site to obtain CD with it. Many distributions listed in the voting are available on that site directly. Others can be ordered via special comments/order form.
It might be interesting to correlate how long a distribution has existed with the votes gained...just a thought.
ReplyDelete@Gladys:
ReplyDeleteMageia will lead the race then. Only 2 months old (since 1st of June) and already 2 votes, not counting my own.
@DD
ReplyDeleteChakra plans to release a v1.0 equivalent by the end of 2011 so I could argue that it is minus 4 months old. LOL!
@Gladys:
ReplyDeleteWr should either exclude not-yet-born systems from the list or count from conception date. In either case Mageia is a lead.
@DD
ReplyDeleteConception dates are hard to pin down...better to exclude. One thing this does reveal is how poorly some of the older distributions are doing in terms of hanging on to users...for instance Fedora wasn't in a good position in your initial assessment and if we look at it in durational terms it is doing worse still. Distributions that are derivatives of an older distribution could be seen as backing the derived from code so Debian would be very well represented if thought of in that way. In short there are quite a few factors at play here.
@Gladys:
ReplyDeleteI have a gut feeling that KDE is not Fedora's priority #1. As well as RedHat's. CentOS is only released in GNOME version with K coming as additional package.
I would distinguish distributions which come as KDE-only (Pardus), KDE-as-many and #1 (Slackware), KDE-as-many but not #1 (Ubuntu, Fedora) and and KDE-as-stepdaughter (CentOS). This split will allow as to weight the number of users proportionally.
My selection ended far away from the leader (Slackware), but, at least my comment was quoted :)
ReplyDeleteThanks.
@Guillermo Garron:
ReplyDeleteI did not know that's you...
"But they reflect true situation on the KDE market, I can't object."
ReplyDeleteIf you believe that a sample that small is a true reflection of the market, then you are extremely naive.
Well, I have little time w/ kde but, kubuntu & pclinixos seem to work fine on most things I toss them at, so I find I use them most of the time.KDE has more bells/whistles than I want to play with. That said, I drag in KDE on everything, k3b, k9copy, etc...
ReplyDeleteI want stuff to do what I tell it, if that comes from another DE...so be it...
This is on the dot! I am running Kubuntu and openSUSE on my laptop and can't seem to decide which one to boot every morning :)
ReplyDeleteI vote for Mageia. I use linux for 10 years now at work and at home and I find that Mageia fits better to my needs.
ReplyDeleteWell, the fact that I´m an openSUSE contributor and part of some openSUSE teams leads me to vote vor openSUSE too.
ReplyDeleteTo everyone:
ReplyDeleteYou may be guessing this post is a new voting place. No, it is not. Although, voting form is still open.
I am sorry, I can't and won't reply everyone on this post.
And then... special reply to Dave Given.
There were ~90 users voted by the closing time. This is good statistical figure itself.
Then, up until now there are ~25 users more, which makes total number ~115. And you know what? Top of the list is still: Kubuntu and OpenSuSE head-to-head. With Debian, Chakra and Others coming in the next three. Will you now object about incorrect sample?
Pardus should of been #1, then OpenSUSE.
ReplyDeleteKubuuntu is only top because more users are using it than any other OS,
If the users tried out all the distros in the list then voted, the results would be different
Wow, what a large sample. It looks like the bumtus got together and voted, but forgot to tell everyone else there was a poll.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure with a huge sample of users like this the accuracy must reflect the entire linux community, right.
I could have alarmed the kids at school and they would have voted for any distro I specified, just to get one more point on " history "
ReplyDelete@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteThe point is in statistics. Sample is large enough to eliminate any random fakes. Since sample grows without much changes in voting results, it proves itself to be valid.
Whole point of statistical fake in flash-mob happened in my first post got me to the voting idea.
Sample size isn't the problem with online polls. The problem is how respondents were selected. Google self selection bias.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, there were no requests at any forums or anything like that asking people to vote for particular distribution in the list...
that is not good i am user Mandriva it is the best system
ReplyDelete@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteI can't share your excitements about Mandriva. But that's your own preference. As you can see, somebody else shares your point too.
It would be nice to know what those "other" distributions are since they ranked so high in the results. Got any clue?
ReplyDelete@Jonquil:
ReplyDeleteYes, sure. Here are distributions listed in comments for "Other": Bluewhite64, Arch, Kanotix, Mepis.