Which Linux distribution do you use?

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Your Linux distribution of choice says a lot about you. Of course, one of the many great things about Linux is the diversity of options you have to choose between. Maybe you like a slimmed down minimalist option. Maybe having all of the bells and whistles is important to you. Or maybe you just prefer a distribution that you find easy to use.

Whatever your preferences, chances are, there's at least one distribution out there that's a perfect fit for your needs. Because of the huge number of choices, which we couldn't possibly list all here, we relied up DistroWatch.com to provide us with a starting point of the ten highest ranking distributions from the past twelve months.

"The DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking statistics are a light-hearted way of measuring the popularity of Linux distributions and other free operating systems among the visitors of this website. They correlate neither to usage nor to quality and should not be used to measure the market share of distributions. They simply show the number of times a distribution page on DistroWatch.com was accessed each day, nothing more."

When we asked this question in 2015, over four thousand of you took our poll and many others joined the conversation in the comments.

So let us know: Which is your favorite distribution for daily use? And if your favorite isn't in the list, let us know in the comments below. More importantly, we'd curious to hear why you pick your chosen distribution: let us know why you think your distribution is a great pick!

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
8945 votes tallied
Mint
13% (1121 votes)
Debian
11% (965 votes)
Ubuntu
23% (2058 votes)
openSUSE
11% (990 votes)
Fedora
12% (1052 votes)
Mageia
1% (65 votes)
Manjaro
3% (225 votes)
CentOS
8% (683 votes)
Arch
13% (1182 votes)
Android-x86
0% (28 votes)
Other (tell us in the comments)
6% (576 votes)

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252 Comments

PCLinuxOS. Still systemd-free. End of discussion.

I always try to use CentOS on my linux installation. But if need to use a special software and it is only available for ubuntu then I use ubuntu. The application is more important than the os.

Gentoo and Funtoo

Xubuntu on my home workstation and HTPC, CentOS on my work workstation and servers, Raspbian on my Pi2, and SteamOS on my gaming PC. I'm also playing with Arch as I'd like to move to a rolling release distro at some point in the near future.

I checked the Ubuntu option, but really use its derivative Lubuntu.
Greetings from Spain.

Gentoo (replaced Slackware as primary Linux distro)

Scientific Linux short SL Version 6.6

openSuse and Ubuntu

That's same with me.

I was going to vote Ubuntu but thought otherwise. I use Xubuntu on all my machines old and new.

On Production Server CentOS & RedHat
On Production Desktop CentOS XFCE & Ubuntu Mate
Development and R&D of Linux in depth on Slackware
openSUSE & Fedora for latest package & feature R&D
on USB Pendrives Puppy Linux & knoppix for emergency

I use PC Linux OS. Why? Before, i was using Mandriva. My first distro was Red Hat 5.2.

Other = Slackware!

I use manjaro on my main computer and raspbian on my raspberry pi but will be moving soon to arch

I use Redhat based distros since the old DLD (Deutsche Linux Distribution ... which was acquired by Redhat) ... so its:
Redhat workstation
Fedora
Pidora
CentOS
and some Debian and Ubuntu occasionally

Ubuntu LTS for Desktops and Servers in the entire organization. I have two copies of Scientific Linux on servers waiting for me to find the time to rebuild them with Ubuntu this summer.

Ubuntu LTS is stable, well supported and feels "enterprise ready".

Elementary OS

Debian

Linux Mint, Ubuntu and Ubuntu Studio (Audio Processing)

ngin and q4os

Elementary OS w/LXDE

Trisquel GNU/Linux run free!

I selected ubuntu but I actually use lubuntu at home and where ever I can at work. Work officially uses Red Hat.

Bodhi Linux

This single survey should have been two surveys - one for servers, the other for desktops. I deal primarily with servers and their OSes, so if this survey is (mainly) about desktops then the reults are skewed by answers about server OS.

Been working mostly with Raspbian lately for a J/MRI project.

I'm typing from openSUSE 13.1 running KDE3, one of two of these beasts I have along with an old netbook with openSUSE 11.4 on it.

I have used most distros and I keep comming back to OpenSUSE. I have OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on my Desktop. Funtoo on my Servers.

I use Lubuntu 15:10 on EEPc 1001 laptop and Fedora 23 Mate on Toshiba R840

Kali 2.0 on all

Fedora - latest packages in a stable system. It can't get any better.

There is rpmfusion for the packages missing in the official repositories.

The installation is a lot easier than many other distros.

Gentoo ofc!

Ubuntu and Lubuntu has saved quite a few laptops from the salvage pile. Older Window$ machines have been rescued for people that cannot afford to buy a new computer. I have done several low dollar builds saving $100 by not paying homage to Micro$oft. Old XP machines with 1 gig of ram come back to life with Lubuntu and former Vista machines run very well on 2 gig of ram running full versions of Ubuntu. My Dell D-410 is running like new with Ubuntu 15.10.

openSUSE

fedora 23 on work laptop. RHEL 7 on work desktop. Both using MATE desktop environment.

GuixSD

PCLinuxOS MATE, rocks & rolling

I am using PC Linux OS on i5 machine
Its very smooth and user friendly

I use write a few, ubuntu, debian, zorin, citrix xen-server, cent-os...

opensuse Leap and Tumbleweed work the best for me!

Linux Mint Cinnamon is sleek and beautiful, my first choice.
Debian for my server.
Ubuntu Mate for PowerPC but also any older hardware, 16.04 alpha boots fast!!

antergos

1 machine with Debian (Work), everyone's machine at home with OpenSuse, 2 other machines wich Arch! .. and 2 RPi2 with Raspbian!

Antergos. I love it!

RedHat Enterprise Linux, Obviously. :-)

Slackware

Ubuntu in the Office & Elementary OS on home laptops. All the functionality of Linux with sleek lightweight distro great for laptops near the end of their lifespan.

elementaryOS

LinuxMint at work, and some LinuxMint at home along with Gentoo

Kubuntu all the way!