Ubuntu – Most Popular Linux Desktop

No surprise there! But Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols says that others may be catching up. He also notes that the most popular Linux distros seem to be those that have large communities behind them.

Results from the 2006 Desktop Linux Survey

Steven, like me, thinks that other time, Freespire may catch up, but for now, Ubuntu with the regular Gnome GUI is tops on the list!

“What’s happening here? Well, if you take a look at which distributions did well, you’ll see they have one thing in common: they’re all community-based distributions. I think what we’re seeing with our survey is that the people who’ve invested something of themselves in their Linux desktop are the ones voting. The people who simply use the Linux that’s set in front of them, or just buy it, have less invested in it and so are less likely to vote. I have no doubt, based on all the Linux desktops I’ve seen in use at tradeshows, homes, and offices, that while Ubuntu is number one, SLED and openSUSE are clearly the real number two in the number of users, with Linspire in third place. I’d be willing to lay down a small bet that as Linspire’s recent community Freespire release gathers more supporters, and based on what I’ve seen of the distro, it will be near the top in our next survey.”