Last updated on January 11, 2023
Who’s going to get bragging rights this year? The last two times we did this, Arch was the winner — and the first time we did it, Ubuntu took home the prize. Call out the troops and get bragging rights by making your favorite our “Best Linux Distro.”
Which of the GNU/Linux distros listed below would you choose to win the FOSS Force ‘Best Desktop Distro’ Award for 2022?
Total Voters: 749  Loading ... |
| If you select “other” because your distro isn’t on this list, please scroll down to the comments section below this article and send a comment with the name of the distro you support, which will count as a vote for that distro. |
[Editor’s note: Voting has been completed for this opening round for our 2022 Readers’s Choice Best Linux Distro poll. We will publish the poll for our final round of voting later in the day. Thank you for your participation!]
[Editor’s note: Don’t forget, if you select “other” in our poll, you should scroll down past the ads at the bottom of the article and post a comment with the name of the distro that would have received your vote if it were there. That way, it can be included in the second round of voting next week and will have a chance to win.]
It’s time to start the process of choosing the FOSS Force Readers’ Choice Award winner for Best Desktop Linux Distro for 2022. This is the fourth outing for what was once an annual poll here at FOSS Force, which began in a March, 2015 to decide the Best Linux Distro of 2014. That contest that was won by Ubuntu, which bested runner-up Linux Mint by only 11 votes. In 2016, we moved the voting up to January, in a contest which saw Arch Linux become our readers’ choice as Best Linux Distro 2015 (with elementary OS in second place). In 2017, the last year we conducted the poll, Arch again took the prize as the Best Linux Distro of 2016.
After that, there weren’t any more polls because FOSS Force went on a long vacation, as those of us who run it were forced to take jobs to keep the rent paid and all that. But this month we’re back, rebooting FOSS Force big time, and starting out by reviving the Readers’ Choice polls. But now we’re back, and we’re determined not only to bring back all of the informative articles that were our bread and butter, but the fun stuff, like these polls, too!
Just like in the past, this year’s polling will be a two round process. The first round, which begins with the publication of this page (meaning that if you’re reading this, it’s time to vote), is a qualifying round. In this round, we’re offering a field of 19 of the top 20 distros on Distrowatch’s famous “Page Hit Ranking” list. Those whose favorite distro isn’t included in the poll shouldn’t worry — your distro’s not out of the game. If your distro isn’t in our poll, vote for “other” in the poll, then go to the comments section below this article and put the name of your favorite distro in a comment, which will be counted as a vote.
Our admittedly unscientific poll is basically a fun way to add a little good natured competition between the distros and their users, as the grand prize basically amounts to bragging rights. This isn’t to say we don’t learn something in the process. Back when Arch won for the first time, that was surprise for a lot of people, because back in those days it wasn’t as visible a distro as it is these days. When it won again the following year, there was not question that this was a distro to be reckoned with.
Which of the GNU/Linux distros listed below would you choose to win the FOSS Force ‘Best Desktop Distro’ Award for 2016?
Total Voters: 8,176 Loading ... |
Results of first round voting in 2017 |
Here’s how it works: The voting for the first qualifying round will end at noon eastern time on Wednesday, January 28. On Monday, January 11. After counting both the votes from our polling software and the separate write-in votes, we will publish a second and final round poll which will include the ten top vote getting distros from round one to determine the FOSS Force Readers’ Choice Award winner for Best Linux Distro of 2022. The final round poll will close at noon on January 18, and the winner will be officially announced the next day. There will be no write-in votes in the final round of polling.
We will be attempting, as much as we can, to limit the voting to one vote per person. Our polling software will automatically limit the vote by IP address. However, because the software we’re using for the “write in” votes isn’t equipped to limit voting in this manner, we will filter the write-in votes by IP address before counting, and only count the first two votes from each IP address. This means that voters in a group write-in campaign should vote from separate locations instead of all voting at a central location like, say, the workplace.
Voting rules and other information: If your distro is in our polling software, simply mark your vote and click on the “Vote” button. Write-in voters for distros not included must submit their vote by using the comments section below this article. Write-in votes for distros that are included in our poll will not be counted. You are allowed to vote both in the poll and to submit a write-in vote if you desire. Write-in votes must be for a traditional GNU/Linux desktop distribution. Votes for BSD operating systems, Android and other mobile operating systems, or distros designed to run only on single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi will not be counted.
Let the voting begin…
This is where you vote for your distro if it wasn’t listed in the poll in the article. When the poll closes on Wednesday, we’ll count the votes here as well as the votes gathered by our software, then put the top ten together for our closing round of voting.
Trisquel Gnu/Linux. For sticking to its guns, and finally updating when they were damned good and ready.
My favorite desktop distro is Void Linux.
Slackware
Arch Linux
NixOS, for being from the future
BunsenLabs Linux
Crunchbang ++, BunsenLabs, and LiliDog Linux.
My favorite GNU/Linux operating system is Triskel. Only free software, kde plasma desktop, you can watch streaming movies and YT video (without proprietary crap).
NixOS
Slackware
Lilidog
CachyOS
gentoo
Devuan
Arch
Salix
Q4OS and the Trinity desktop
MX Linux
Artix Linux
Rocky Linux: https://rockylinux.org/
I use Rocky Linux. I used to use CentOS before that but currently use Rocky Linux.
Devuan
Artix Linux, I used to use Arch but systemd drove me to drink..
antiX
Lilidog Linux
Arch Linux
Rocky Linux.
Thanks for your guides too
Devuan (a better Debian)
Slackware.
Arch
Arch Linux, without a doubt.
Slackware64
Arch Linux. I have been using it on my main host since 2014 with rarely a hitch. I think people who say it is subject to frequent “breakage” are doing things wrong.
Slackware
Slackware
Xubuntu
Bodhi
Devuan
Linux Mint MATE – a Gnome 2-legacy distro retaining an XP-style taskbar and associated ‘productivity’ side-panel capability. No jingle, jangles, no wobbly bits, no niggles. From 2012 to 2022!
1.Mint XFCE
2.Sparky LXDE
3.MX Fluxbox
4.Antix
5.BionicPup
6.Runtu
7.Q4OS
8.wattOS
9.Salix
10.TinyCore
What I did use: Ubuntu, Neon, Debian, Knoppix, Solyd, Sparky, Mint, Arch, Manjaro, Gentoo, Calculate,… even Solaris.
What I would vote: NixOS. Its declarative. Other beasts are fine, but come on – nothing beats predictability (and overengineering (and laziness (and huge learning curve (all that in one)))).
EndeavourOS