We've seen plenty of "Best of the Decade" lists around, but not one is related to Linux distribution. So it's only fitting that we will give credit to the best Linux distros that dominated the last decade (2000-2009), or most part of it.
One of the best ways to measure a Linux distribution's caliber is to look at its popularity. Since Distrowatch is the only site that religiously measures the popularity of distros through its "Page Hit Ranking" system, let's take a look at first at some of its data gathered from 2002-2009.
Distrowatch Distro Rankings (2002-2009)
2002
1. Mandrake (Mandriva)
2. Red Hat
3. Gentoo
4. Debian
5. Sorcerer
6. SuSE
7. Slackware
8. Lycoris
9. Lindows
10. Xandros
2003
1. Mandrake
2. Red Hat
3. Knoppix
4. Gentoo
5. Debian
6. Yoper
7. SUSE
8. Slackware
9. Lycoris
10. Xandros
2004
1. Mandrakelinux (Mandriva)
2. Fedora
3. KNOPPIX
4. SUSE
5. Debian
6. MEPIS
7. Gentoo
8. Slackware
9. PCLinuxOS
10. Damn Small
2005
1. Ubuntu
2. Mandriva
3. SUSE
4. Fedora
5. MEPIS
6. Debian
7. KNOPPIX
8. Damn Small
9. Gentoo
10. Slackware
2006
1. Ubuntu
2. openSUSE
3. Fedora
4. MEPIS
5. Mandriva
6. Damn Small
7. Debian
8. PCLinuxOS
9. Slackware
10. Gentoo
2007
1. Ubuntu
2. PCLinuxOS
3. openSUSE
4. Fedora
5. Sabayon
6. Mint
8. MEPIS
9. Mandriva
10. Damn Small
2008
1. Ubuntu
2. openSUSE
3. Mint
4. Fedora
5. PCLinuxOS
6. Debian
7. Mandriva
8. Dreamlinux
9. Sabayon
10. Damn Small
2009
1. Ubuntu
2. Fedora
3. Mint
4. openSUSE
5. Debian
6. Mandriva
7. Puppy
8. PCLinuxOS
9. Sabayon
10. Arch
With a rough estimate based on the Distrowatch rankings, here are the best Linux distros from 2002-2009:
1. Ubuntu
2. Mandriva
3. openSUSE
4. Fedora
5. Debian
6. Mint
7. Gentoo
8. Slackware
9. Damn Small
10. MEPIS
You may also want to see this graph from Google Trends:
I think there's no doubt that Ubuntu is the best Linux distribution of the last decade. It started its ascend in 2005, and from then on its popularity has been astounding. But to those of you who don't agree with me (or with the stats), you may cast your votes below.
You can also share with us your thoughts via comment.
Other Related Pages:
Furthermore, the ranks on the distrowatch site, doesn't say anything about popularity as in usage.
But merely what visitors have clicked on.
Clicking doesn't mean USING. Heck, i even click on some distro's in the list, but do i use them? NO. I just want the read on the developments on that distro, nothing more.
The most common Distros on the netcraft survey of hosting providers are, in order of popularity, FreeBSD, RHEL/Centos, Windows (all versions combined.), Debian, Custom Linux distributions. other Linux distributions.
You give data for the most popular distro (as per distrowatch) and equate that to "The Best". Is Windows "The Best" operating system? (No) Its more popular than Ubuntu though.
My personal favorite would have to be Arch Linux as it's EXTREMELY flexible and is literally built for your system.
But as for "best" distro, I would probably have to say Ubuntu. It got me where I am today. I had many hardships with it over the years, but it was a major stepping stone toward learning about Linux.
Most Popular Band Ever (Beatles) == Best Band Ever
Most Popular MP3 Player (iPod) == Best MP3 Player
Most Popular Search Engine (Google) == Best Search Engine
Most Popular Linux Distro (Ubuntu) == Best Linux Distro
grow
I give your entry merit for a good start but I don't think you finished the article...
But Antix gives the best of both worlds. Lean and Mean with a full repository to choose from. Can't beat apt-get.
Or are we saying that original Wolksvagen Beetle is best car in the history?
http://www.cartype.com/pages/272/worlds_5_most_successful_cars
Or that Windows is best?
Calling the Ubuntu as the best distribution is like saying there is only one distribution needed for every situation.
from IBM Mexico
For me, Mandriva is the best.
Best Linux Distributions of the Decade (2000-2009)
Distrowatch Distro Rankings (2002-2009)
Some does not compute here.
Here's some way more interesting figures based on sales in 2000:
http://translate.google.no/translate?hl=no&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http://www.toolinux.com/lininfo/toolinux-information/economie/article/mandrakesoft-devant-redhat-aux-u-s
I think it should clearly indicate Mandriva being #1 in 2000, and implicitly 2001.. ;)
Ademas popularidad no es lo mismo que ser la mejor
I do not think that Ubuntu is the best of the decade, will be the most downloaded in the last 4 years, but to make an affirmation of decade, there should be ten years, which does not comply.
You popularity is not the same as being the best
Only the marketing could be better. Use Mandriva!
Now, what is the goal in producing these distributions? Is it to have as many people as possible using an open source OS or is it to have the technically best possible OS? If the former, then Canonical has done a pretty good job with Ubuntu. If the latter we'll have a few dozen linux geeks using the (currently) best distribution, but it'll only last for a few days at most until someone else releases its best and brightest. With open source it is just about impossible to "shoot the engineers and start production" as the joke goes.
Unless you can induce the masses to use it having a technically better product is only good for bragging points. The folks at M$ and Apple love the distro wars. Divide and conquer!
Seriously, is there really enough difference between Linux distributions to inspire this much partisanship?
I've used various distributions over the years since Slackware 3.0 and I think what is important is how far Linux and other free/open-source have come. The distributions of today are so easy to use and versatile. We should be thanking the people who contribute to all the distributions rather than arguing over which one is best.
I think I fell into a Mandrivan eFanzine...
All of the programs written by Mandriva are under GPL, since always unlike some others.
Despite Mandriva is a very small company (~70 persons), they contribute very often uptream to many projects ( kernel, kde, ...)
They provide a high level of security and the msec tool is really great.
I hope the company will recover the success it had.
greetings
palinux
(Happy Mandrake/Mandriva user since 1999)
Mint is derived from Ubuntu and is, IMHO, Ubuntu done right. My only quibble with Mint is that they should loosen the link with Ubuntu's 6 month release cycle. Still, I appreciate the extra time between Ubuntu's often problematic new releases and their cleaned up Mint derivatives.
PCLinuxOS, derived originally from Mandriva but constantly diverging, is my other favorite desktop. It does everything right and is a snap to set up for Windows refugees. It just keeps getting better and better.
Honorable mention for desktops should go to Mepis and Puppy. For servers, I much prefer Debian with honorable mention going to CentOS.
Besides everybody knows Debian is the one and only ;-)
Thank you Mdv and good luck to you. *with a gracious bow*
ubuntu marketing 1
*buntu: Primero la empresa y luego las distribuciones como productos.
Mandriva is all about Linux!
Go Mandriva!!
Even using only the 2002-2009 rankings with #1 = 10 points, #2 = 9 points, etc..., I come up with:
Year Ubuntu Mandriva
---- ------ --------
2002 0 10
2003 0 10
2004 0 10
2005 10 9
2006 10 6
2007 10 3
2008 10 4
2009 10 5
---- --- ---
Total 50 57
Winner = Mandriva
If you also consider that Mandriva was the most popular distro in 2000 and 2001, its more like 77 to 50 in favor of Mandriva.
There's no doubt that if this were a list of the most popular distros of the last half-decade, Ubuntu is the clear winner but that's not what this list claims to be.
pero a configuracion y facilidad mandriva :)
Pclinuxos es la mejor para mi y funciono super bien en una laptop nueva. que pena que no este en la lista porque mi voto es por pclinuxos.
IE: Debian > Ubuntu > Mepis/Mint
IE: Red Hat > RHEL > Fedora > Mandriva > PCLinuxOS
the rest slackware BSD and the rest are also great distributions depending on your need. not to mention the awe inspiring.
taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X
"Mac OS X is based upon the Mach kernel. Certain parts from FreeBSD's and NetBSD's implementation of Unix were incorporated in Nextstep, the core of Mac OS X"
We should be in support of Linux becoming popular. Unless you have an argument against Ubuntu as in it's open source frame work or it's intellectual property rights then seriously enjoy your Linux distro (the wonder of choice) and be glad that we are able to take with a popular distro on Apple and Windows.
Ubuntu, however, works well with the configuration I want. But it has a wonky concept of security. Almost mimicking windows administrator concepts. Which is extremely annoying. You can unlock root access, but it doesn't really get you much. It doesn't take care of the problem.
For example, Arch runs much more stable and much faster than Ubuntu, provides a full ports-like system to supplement its package management, affords the user an absolute maximum choice for whatever they need or want, is much leaner and makes no assumptions about what packages someone might use. This clearly puts it ahead of Ubutnu which takes the exact opposite approach and gets just about every approach to being a Linux distribution wrong. Yet Ubuntu tops the list and Arch BARELY made it in the top 10 of 2009.
Being the most popular does not automatically make it the best. IF anything, it just means that it is found accessible by the least common denominator, and that's usually a sign of piss poor quality in many places.
eugen9