The 7 best GNU / Linux distributions in 2012

GNU / Linux distributions

Very interesting this article (In English) published in Linux.com where its author selects, based on his experience and personal opinion, which are the best distributions of GNU / Linux 2012 the year.

The article seems very fair and sensible to me. The author also classifies the distributions in 7 categories, arguing the reason for his decision:

I recommend that you read the article. I quite agree with the result. What do you think?


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  1.   rob3r said

    How is it possible that a distro that has not even been 1 month since its release is chosen as the winner of some category ... do betas count?

    1.    sieg84 said

      Pure marketing

  2.   rudolph alexander said

    There should be more qualifications, but in the end we all win because linux is used. Although I do not use any distro, only the one from knoppix, the best live cd for my taste, although there are very good ones that take up fewer resources.

  3.   Windousian said

    You have not put "Best desktop environment and development infrastructure: GNOME".

    1.    Windousian said

      This message has been published incompletely and in response to Rodolfo but it was not my intention. I rewrite what is missing and add something:

      In the article it only puts screenshots of GNOME desktops (as an exception there is one LXDE) The author has an allergy to Qt (it seems).

      Friend Brian, you have made a very comfortable and docile classification. You have lacked to put "Best desktop environment and development infrastructure: GNOME" (because it is the most used and you are popular).

      1.    elav <° Linux said

        And the war begins Qt vs GTK 😀

        Man, that friend put it in his article. That selection is based on your personal experience. Maybe the error was mine, which I should have put as a title: The 7 best…. for Brian Proffitt 😀

        1.    Windousian said

          I do not wish to start any war, at most a skirmish 😛. I just wanted to point out that Brian Proffitt has very definite (respectable) tastes. Subjectivity is inevitable when you rely on personal experience. That is why I am amused by the articles opinion who consider "Y" the best "X". Where "Y" is anything the author likes and "X" is a category that contains several alternatives. Examples: distributions, browsers, file managers, software managers, ...

        2.    Ares said

          I just thought that when I saw the title I imagined it would be a list of desdelinux. Then when I entered I saw that it was not like that, although I do not know if instead of this being a disappointment, the best thing was that it was not like that.

          1.    KZKG ^ Gaara said

            The idea is not bad ... we should make our own list, explained and VERY objective and well-founded 😀

            1.    Jamin samuel said

              if so .. I am more than sure that neither ubuntu nor mint will be in the first rows ..

              but you have to do that analysis .. Without fear!


            2.    sieg84 said

              1. Debian
              2 ~ 10. Based on Debian.


            3.    jamin samuel said

              there are only 2

              ubuntu
              linux like


          2.    Ares said

            This answer is supposed to be for elav's (then) penultimate comment.

    2.    fernando said

      I don't think so, I think KDE is better structured GNOME has several fixable Bugs of course but KDE is more stable

  4.   Miguel said

    🙁

  5.   auroszx said

    And how can you say that they are the best distributions of 2012 if the year is not over? ee Of course, no distros like Debian or Arch are named because those practically do not change or release new versions (so often) ...

    1.    jamin samuel said

      But they are not disqualified….

      Debian and Arch are as friends Wisin and Yandel would say Secret weapon o The duo of History

      AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA xD

      Publication does not act for @Courages .. It can cause cardiac and respiratory arrests ^^ ahahaha

      1.    Manual of the Source said

        * apt.

        -1,000'000,000 for using Wisin y Yandel phrases to refer to Debian and Arch.

        1.    Manual of the Source said

          -1 to me for putting Debian and Arch in the same sentence as the unnameable ones.

          1.    Greenux said

            True Arch is light years away from reaching debian 😀

          2.    jamin samuel said

            Greenux I mean that Debian is better?

          3.    Greenux said

            "Better" is a very ambiguous term and especially when we refer to any system. As for arch, I have not tested it directly, only to the linux chakra which is based on arch but I have read very good comments about this distro. But if we talk about which distro has more experience and maturity, it could be said that they should, we are talking about a project that was born in the 90s and that still has great popularity among Linux users and for something it must be ... well that is my opinion and I hope I have answered your question.

          4.    jamin samuel said

            Done .. Thanks for answering 🙂

            By the way you use Debian?

            If the answer is yes
            So which branch are you pointing to?

            If not tell me what distro are you currently using?

            End

            ^^

          5.    Courage said

            Well it depends, if it is for Debian server, but for desktops and such, Arch.

            And that's it, put those pringaos from Wisin y Yandel ...

          6.    jamin samuel said

            I said it as a joke ...

            by the way you speak of the «Ubuntusos» and I see that you have mounted a religion to Arch ¬¬

            So normal ... one always has to speak well of Linux ..

            this is not a daddy war ... whoever is using X distro is already a winner because they are using LINUX.

            1.    Courage said

              I hope you don't run into many «Ubuntosos» around here, of course you were going to understand me ...

              I know it was in joke mode, but it's like comparing a Ferrari (Arch) with a Seat Panda (Wisin y Yandel).

              I do not have a religion mounted with Arch, for me with a distro being a rolling release and KISS works for me, what distros fulfill that? Gentoo and Arch.


          7.    Greenux said

            jamin-samuel if I use Debian Testing and it is the one that has worked best for me so far. I've already tried Ubuntu, linux mint and mint should have been very good distro those two, linux chakra, and one of the first ones I tried was suse, although not much, but hey, I'm a lover of .deb that is going to be: D. also debian testing is the one that best squeezed the hardware for me. ubuntu and mint get me a little 6000 fps and something in glxgears while debian testing averages me 8500 fps so this system is more prepared for Steam and what is coming hahahaha 😀

          8.    jamin samuel said

            Ahem .. I understand you 😉

            The bad thing is that the Testing branch enters the "ICE AGE" in a few months, that is, it will be frozen for 6 months .. it will not receive updates for a long time -> this happens because the Wheezy branch will be in the process of being stable. .

          9.    Greenux said

            Yes I am informed about that but I do not care as long as the distro does not break, all good

        2.    jamin samuel said

          Take easy men! …. ^ _ ^

          1.    Manual of the Source said

            -∞

          2.    proper said

            * take it easy

            : trollface:

      2.    v3on said

        you can mix linux + metal, linux + rock, if you're a bit sneaky linux + enya, but never, NEVER linux + reggaeton ,,, and less here

        1.    Courage said

          What if elav does not come and itches when his «music» is played

        2.    Kato said

          EXACT !, Hold on MEGADETH and Linux, hehe

  6.   BaNzAi said

    If Ubuntu 12.04 has just come out and is already the best distribution for laptops ??? I think it is there because the list could not go without Ubuntu ...

    1.    elav <° Linux said

      I agree, although it seems to me that the author chose it for Unity (which is available much earlier, although now it has matured a bit).. Thanks for stopping by 😀

  7.   Rita Gutierrez said

    I have always considered Debian as the best for business servers ... anyway ...

  8.   Chango said

    It's been a long time since I stopped reading this kind of comparison or "pick" from distros. It does not bring anything new: all known solutions. I think it's best to find the right distro from trial and error. Sometimes in an effort to discover "trends" the only thing these texts do is influence new dependencies. What do I know ... I'm wrong there.

    1.    elav <° Linux said

      Exact. In fact Brian proffitt He says it in his article: The best distribution is the one that meets our needs.

  9.   TDE said

    Does the one that they call "crap" tested from LiveUSB win on laptops? Weird the matter.

    1.    elav <° Linux said

      If we consider that Ubuntu has been working hard on ARM, and that in addition, a standard Laptop currently has at least 4Gb of RAMWell, I see the result logical.

      Oh and by the way, I already tried U installed on the PC, and it is still slow. Where did you get the word "crap"? I don't think anyone here has said it, or am I wrong?

      1.    TDE said

        Do you have anamnesis, Elav? I quote you: «These are some of the things that I saw at first glance. It is clear that there is still a long way to go for Ubuntu 12.04 to be “stable”. Many updates will have to come and all because of that mania of not delaying the launches, although the result so far is crap.

        And by the way, you say that the result is logical since currently the laptops in their standard have more than 4 GB, do not you consider that biased on your part? I tell you something, I have Ubuntu 12.04 from a mini HP with 1 GB of RAM, and I do very well with Unity 3D. I still have a desktop PC with the same RAM and a very old processor. Have you thought about the possibility that the Unity interface is perhaps the most comfortable for small screens (absence of bars, the dock down, and applets)? Or maybe the fact of being LTS?

        And I ask you: do you think that by a simple test from LiveUSB you can cross out the work of a distro as "crap"? Would it be ethical to say, for example, that Arch is crap because it takes me more than ten minutes to install it? You should know that a test from LiveUSB is NEVER the same as doing a pure installation. LiveUSB and LiveCD are designed for users who need to have their OS, without much customization, on a USB stick or on a CD, and willing to work on different parts. To do an installation implies to carry out a harmony between hardware and software, so that everything goes in accordance. And are you planning to cross out a distro as a "test" that ultimately doesn't prove anything?

        1.    Odos said

          blooooop they have shut your mouth (with all due respect) I agree with TDE besides that I have also installed Ubuntu 12.04 with PCs and laptops with 1gb of ram and a regular processor and the truth is that my clients have not had any complaints, such as I already told you before it is not only to test the livecd, but to put the distro with applications, making it work hard, trying to explode the system and the truth is I tell you the answer has been more than satisfactory. You have to put the Pre-trial aside Elav the truth is that.

          1.    elav <° Linux said

            @Odos:

            A very simple question that I have for you. What applications do your clients use? How many of them are open at the same time? What is the workload that your clients' PCs or Laptops receive?

            That I have no prejudice man .. how difficult it is to talk to users of Ubuntu Why Unity It does not work for me as I want, am I prejudiced? Please…

            1.    Courage said

              You see it?


          2.    Odos said

            @Elav

            I answer you, my clients have a normal use of the distro, I suppose that their use will be the same normal, the applications are libreoffice, a web browser (whichever they want) a music player, skype or some messeger client.

            Now I tell you my workload, I never turn off the pc (unless the power goes out and it happens very, very little) I have two servers in hopmod format and a suckerserv-v4, I use blender to create the odd animation (I am not well I'm just learning xD) in my free time I play the cube 2 sauerbraten (which by the way I don't know if you know it but I RECOMMEND it GAME)

            I am not just a Ubuntu user I am a Linux user and consumer.

            Actually I am a Philosopher by profession, but a lover of free software and all the cultural complexities that it brings, I give talk about it at the national level (I live in Colombia)

            I am part of a community in which our function is to bring a pc to homes with few conditions for acquiring one and of course it MUST have LINUX (a Kantian duty to be hahaha)

            Another thing depending on the pc that we get (features) for this home (family) we evaluate which distro can work better on its hardware (the pcs are normally old something like more than four years of use, as they are donations that we receive from the community)

            I do not know if I have answered your question, I hope you are well and that this is just a healthy discussion. a hug and always thanking you for this space.

            1.    elav <° Linux said

              @Elav
              I answer you, my clients have a normal use of the distro, I suppose that their use will be the same normal, the applications are libreoffice, a web browser (whichever they want) a music player, skype or some messeger client.

              Hmm I understand. It's not much of a burden actually and yes Ubuntu it can behave well with such users.

              Now I tell you my workload, I never turn off the pc (unless the power goes out and it happens very, very little) I have two servers in hopmod format and a suckerserv-v4, I use blender to create the odd animation (I am not well I'm just learning xD) in my free time I play the cube 2 sauerbraten (which by the way I don't know if you know it but I RECOMMEND it GAME)

              I understand that you have all of this running on Ubuntu with 1Gb of RAM or am I wrong?

              I am not just a Ubuntu user I am a Linux user and consumer.

              We are already two ^^

              Actually I am a Philosopher by profession, but a lover of free software and all the cultural complexities that it brings, I give talk about it at the national level (I live in Colombia) I am part of a community in which our function is to bring a pc to homes with Few conditions of acquisition of one and of course this MUST have LINUX (a Kantian implication of having to be hahaha) otherwise according to the pc we get (features) for this home (family) we evaluate which distro can work better on its hardware (the PCs are normally old something like more than four years of use, because they are donations that we receive from the community)

              Wow, great that they do such a job. Just to know, what are the distros that you evaluate when they are very resource-poor PCs?

              I do not know if I have answered your question, I hope you are well and that this is just a healthy discussion. a hug and always thanking you for this space.

              Yes, I think you did. Of course this is a healthy debate, don't worry .. Thanks for stopping by 😀


        2.    elav <° Linux said

          Do you have anamnesis, Elav? I quote you: “These are some of the things that I could see at first glance. It is clear that there is still a long way to go before Ubuntu 12.04 is “stable”. Many updates will have to come and all because of that mania of not delaying the launches, although the result so far is crap.

          The problem, dear TDE is that I never said that Unity o Ubuntu as such, it was crap. I said that Ubuntu launches its distribution within the agreed period, although what they have so far is "crap", I said it generally, and as I say Ubuntu I can say ... well, I think the only ones who strictly adhere to their release date are them.

          But nothing friends, if you were offended by the word "crap" you can replace it with "does not work", "does not work", "loaded with bugs" ... well, whatever you prefer.

          And by the way, you say that the result is logical since currently the laptops in their standard have more than 4 GB, do not you consider that biased on your part? I tell you something, I have Ubuntu 12.04 from a mini HP with 1 GB of RAM, and I do very well with Unity 3D. I still have a desktop PC with the same RAM and a very old processor. Have you thought about the possibility that the Unity interface is perhaps the most comfortable for small screens (absence of bars, the dock down, and applets)? Or maybe the fact of being LTS?

          I did not say you have "more", I said you have "at least" 4Gb of RAM. You're still engrossed in what Unity It bothers me and it doesn't, in fact, I've always liked it since it came out, and I share the idea that it is ideal for small screens.

          But I tell you more, you Hardware is hardly identical to mine What makes you think that Ubuntu Will it work for you, the way it works for me?

          And I ask you: do you think that by a simple test from LiveUSB you can cross out the work of a distro as "crap"? Would it be ethical to say, for example, that Arch is crap because it takes me more than ten minutes to install it?

          You should know that a test from LiveUSB is NEVER the same as doing a pure installation. LiveUSB and LiveCD are designed for users who need to have their OS, without much customization, on a pendrive or on a CD, and willing to work on different parts. Doing an installation implies carrying out a harmony between hardware and software, so that everything goes according to plan. And are you planning to cross out a distro for a "test" that ultimately doesn't prove anything?

          What does ethics have to do with all this? Now do I have to shut up what I think or what I see according to the experiences I have had? Ubuntu with Unity It didn't work for me as I expected. Isn't it funny that from a LiveCD Xubuntu o Lubuntu run so smoothly? But I keep telling you, on the same LiveCD I tried U and except for the transition when switching desktops, everything else worked pretty fast.

          But in case you did not read it, I quote myself again in my comment:

          Oh and by the way, I already tried Unity 3D installed on PC, and it's still slow.

          Let's not try to cover the sun with a finger. Maybe with your old processor and 1Gb of RAM, Unity it works fine as you say, but now Unity it is not intended for that type of hardware. There you if you don't want to see it.

          And please, I repeat, we do not have the same hardware, we do not think the same, we are not the same, for me "that test" was very useful.

  10.   Merlin The Debianite said

    Those of 2012 do not count, the year is not over and they need to include Debian 7 Wheezy and there is little left to come out.

    It's a bit unfair as distros like arch and debian don't release versions very often.

    also because red hat linux where was fedora?

    1.    Nonamed said

      wheezy is scheduled for 2013, and in debian they are not usually anticipated, rather the opposite xD

  11.   faustod said

    Regards,

    But there is Debian missing 🙂

  12.   ariki said

    As already mentioned, I consider that it is not the time to catalog which is the best distribution, since we are less than a month away from the launch of fedora 17 and considering that there are about 7 months left to finish the year it is half a stretch of the wicks to create a Article with the best distro of 2012, now I agree that you cannot not have debian and arch but please compare them with reggaeton is not what I would consider transcendental, in that case I would put something like Metallica and Iron Maiden, or Rolling Stones with The Who, bands that exceed 30 years of career !! 😀 greetings to everyone

    1.    Courage said

      Do not talk like that about the regayton that the elav carcamal gets mad, you know hahaha.

      1.    elav <° Linux said

        I think ariki didn't say reggaetonBut reggaeton, and you keep going through the lining the mail that I sent, right?

        1.    Courage said

          I pass it through the lining because it was your fault.

          Complaints and suggestions by MP.

  13.   Juan Carlos said

    Fedora 16, which was not released in 2012, is the best Distribution for Laptops. And for the record, now I'm with Ubuntu 12.04 because of the LTS issue in mine, and that although it works very well for me, I think that about Fedora 16, but I got tired of giving it every 6 months, so my vice of the blue hat goes to the desktop PC.

  14.   fernando said

    in a certain part if they are right that they are the 7 best GNU / Linux distributions, as for ubuntu 12.04 LTS it showed a great improvement with its unity which I never liked but I also don't dislike it, I just don't like it, I prefer gnome 3 (shell) although I do not use gnome 3 either, I am usually a Fedora 16 user with cinnamon well modified and arranged to my liking, but in terms of user experience I must give a big applause to linux mint and red hat who have done a great and enormous job but the truth is that There are other and very good distributions that are taking windows and mac ahead, we are more and more in the world of free software and I must congratulate Canonical with its ubuntu for that user experience, linux mint for being better than ubuntu and network hat for continuing to maintain that robustness and supporting Fedora, my favorite distro.

    1.    jamin samuel said

      Brother that's right 😀

      \ O / \ Ø / \ O / \ Ø / \ O / \ Ø / \ O / \ Ø / \ O / \ Ø / \ O / \ Ø / \ O / \ Ø / \ O / \ Ø /

  15.   Hernando sanchez said

    It's hasty to rate this year's distros, because you don't have enough time to rate them; the most accurate would be their behavior during the immediately preceding year. Although I have tried most of the ones listed and all of them are excellent to me, I don't risk disqualifying any of them.

  16.   mac_live said

    Do not worry next year we will level up, with so many things that are being improved with the versions of fedora and the stability that we have, it does not mean anything to wait a year or two to be able to show what they have developed and how it has helped that other distros can solve.

  17.   Courage said

    I quite agree with the result

    You as always.

    The original author has screwed up, because the year is not over and because he has chosen distributions full of crap that perform worse than those that do not.

    Come on, choose BackTrack ... Heh heh

    1.    jamin samuel said

      Hey no teasing ok? Back Track is good …… I would say too much ..

      more than an OS it is a powerful tool ..

      1.    Courage said

        The fact is that this distro was based on Slackware and they have passed it to Ubuntu

        Who would think? More if it is oriented to security, that Slackware is the most stable there is

        1.    CubaRed said

          Backtrack is true that now it is based on Ubuntu but the Tools it has in it can work in any distro, although so far Backtrack has not been able to do anything to my Linux Kerio hahaha xD

      2.    KZKG ^ Gaara said

        +1

  18.   saul said

    I need your help, what distribution do you recommend me since I want to switch to Linux, thanks for your support. Cheers

  19.   artillery said

    Fuck! that if such a distro, that if which distro you have to give a reason not to get drunk among all although it is fun to read some of the opinions and for everyone to shoot in the same direction I use güindous.
    CP: with all my affection «a Debianita»

  20.   Alexis said

    Debian is recognized as the most stable and robust distro, it is widely used, and the only major distro that is truly free.
    KDE 3, continued as Trinity Desktop, is for me the best desktop system: very complete and powerful, and at the same time quite light.
    The combination of both makes my recommendation go for VENENUX and EXE GNU / Linux ( http://miscelaneanatural.org/informatica/software-libre/escoge-tu-sistema-operativo-libre )

  21.   Smith said

    I think it is not good to rate the distributions of the current year, as several have already said, there is still time to go and it seems to me it is only marketing. It also includes ubuntu 12.04LTS in the list I tried it and it is a distro full of Bugs until a Kernel panic I got, I do not want to rant I just say my experience and canonical apparently it is including packages of the unstable branch they should have more than normal in their Ubuntu distros . I use debian and using the virtual box point to the unstable branch and I got bugs similar to ubuntu 12.04LTS. And just in case I tried the ubuntu 12.04LTS distro on two different PCs getting similar results.

  22.   ewebs - online store design said

    The most important thing is not which distribution is being used, but the flexibility that Linux has to adapt to all types of environments and we are the ones who decide which distribution to install.
    For me, for home environments, linux mint and ubuntu are good options, although if we bet on stability I'll stick with debian. For office environments, it is preferable to rely on two well-established distributions such as Red Hat Linux and Suse Linux, as well as for servers, although here I would also include BSD, which has robustness, security and stability.

  23.   arturo (the one with the PURE) said

    And meanwhileoooo …… .. Julian doors and they are working (dep), they gloat, one in his chair and the other in his grave…. fight (they say), fight ..., 17 million distros give us the reason ... (they say)

  24.   phytolink said

    I do not agree that Ubuntu is the best for laptop it did not help me at all

    I would put the best distro in performance and consumption