I think that WinBlows is included in the "Other" option. So, because of the score of this "other" option, I think that there is no need to split the "other" option into sub-options like "WinBose", "AIX", Sun-OS and HP-UX.

It doesn't really matter, but ya, Windows (Windoze, Winblows) is not a UNIX OS, nor is it a Linux distro, but it's a poll to see what you use.

xboxrulz

I have to say, I started with Mandrake, a couple versions of RedHat, but the recent release of Ubuntu is much easier of an install then any previous installation I have done. The added ability of the system to maintain it's software, through Synaptic Package Manager makes program installation a breeze. So far, I have installed several packages (I was setting up a Joomla testbed to work on some things for a site I manage) and several of the things required dependencies to be fulfilled. (5 packages to install, required 19 in all).

I think with the ability to download the ISO and burn it to CD and have a single disk install process is finally taking Linux to a user friendly place.

I am a Windows user, but I'm switching to Red Hat Enterprise Linux thanks to a friend that is teaching me how to administrate that system.

Also, I consider to install CentOS5 in my PC, because is binary compatible with RHEL.

I've been a windows user for a long time. Recently I switched to linux (ubuntu 7.10) and I must say I'm impressed. I have it installed on my laptop working as a web server (LAMP) though I must say I didn't know anything about linux and ubuntu makes it easy for you, I had to research a lot over the net to be able to do all the stuff I wanted to do, like, to open a root window without switching to root account and stuff like that.

It's been working well for over a week.

On my laptop I have a windows/ubuntu dual boot, because I still use lots of games for windows, though some of them run with wine on ubuntu, but some of them don't.

For any who is tempted to switch, DO EET! its easy, I suggest ubuntu, as it is amazing linux distribution, its better than vista, believe it or not.

Now thats a broad question. I am a CNA [computer network administrator] and as such I really dont use unix based os on my desktop systems, I use them as servers. Now depending on the type of server you are looking to build, this informs your choice of distro. For a gateway server with security features such as time based internet access, bandwidth control, and ip-based internet access on a network having say less than a hundred users I would use Ubuntu without the gui ofcourse.

For a vnc server to provide remote desktops for about a hundred thinclients ina digital center, i would use Fedora Core 3 this time with the gui in place.

For a file server/database server where I would want to implement raid say 5 for instance, I would use Mandriva linux. and so on. The peculiar scenario ultimately determinse which distro is deployed.

For a desktop system however, I would choose Freespire/Linspire anyday.

Best Regards

can i just say something?

one answer i can give u to this question is this, not centos! its meant to be professional isnt it? i hate it! maybe for a server but no one could seriously want to use it just for their computer. its disgusting. and every version seems to get worse. do they downgrade their version of kde and gnome in each version? it still looks like fedora 1.

Exactly the same goes for me - except I installed it on a desktop machine, not a laptop one. So far, so good. Makes web development and site administration (i.e. through SSH) easier and faster than in Windows.

this is not likely to be an issue on whats what and whos who... everyone has their own preferred distro. thats why there are hell of a bunch of them. with all the features and issues with it.. i have been in so many distro and a regular visitor of www.distrowatch.com and i love the way every distro compete. about 8 years ago when the linux scene became to increase the number of users, i also eager to join except that i dont have broadband before and access to it would really be time and money consuming. but for those linux geeks out there, here is my best choices of distro for different uses.

High End System - 3Ghz Processor, 2Gig Ram, 512Mb Video
Sabayon - With its fully functional 3D graphics out of the box!

Mid Range System 2Ghs Processor, 512 Ram, 128Mb Video
Ubunto - Very Easy Interface with easy to update and install programs and becoming industry standard(never mind about the criticisms from the geeky linux PROS)

Low End System - Basically what you can get from the garbage can which I have a lot of them
Zenwalk - So damn easy to use and install that has everything a standard PC OS should have. Really fast and no crap linux under 500mb! Great people and support! A++ even for newbies

I'd say have to say fedora core, it's a good mid-range distro and is neither too hard nor too easy, and althought I found setting up NDISwrapper hard (my wireless network card isn't directly supported), it's still a good distro. I dual-boot it with windows XP.