For me anything that uses the debian packaging system is good. I was in the past a SUSE user because I prefer kde and SUSE is more kde geared, but was never a fan of rpm packaging system, Kubuntu severs me well in both respects as it also allows me easy access to gnome apps where they are needed, and so its parent Ubuntu get my vote.

I would also like to make mention of DSL for specific purposes where a small footprint is required.

I voted SUSE, because out of all the other distributions, it was geared for both ease of use and bad-to-da-core development. I love YaST and it's unique way of managing hardware and software for Linux.

Ubuntu for ease of installation and friendliness of people on the forums.

It is true what they say: It is the lazy person's Linux... but I sure do love working with it.

I've used Mandriva (nee Mandrake) in more modern times, though I started life on Slackware many moons ago. Since I had a variety of PowerPC based machines, Mandriva distros served me well. It always seemed a very clean install, lots of device support, reasonable default application configurations and a good suite of admin tools.

Having said all that, I have just installed a Linux partition on my desktop XP system (partly so I can use all the Linux toys on the Midi soundcards, amplifiers and other hardware plugged into that machine) and I chose Fedora core 5 since I happened to have a DVD around the place (from a magazine) with the latest distribution on there. It did install, though the boot manager didn't work first time. There are a number of things that aren't installed by default, and Fedora seem to have an issue bundling some software, but since it is *so* popular there are a million sites out there to yum from. Quite impressed so far ..

I dislike all those Linux looks like windows. Something simple, fast, reliable. Life is too short to reboot.

I have been using slackware ever since I've doing my CS in university.

slackware is my favourite distro, simple, clean, stable, and nice.
If/when i have more time i make a LFS, but I dont have time for that nowadays

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Ubuntu of course... using Ubuntu Edgy Eft 6.10 with AIGLX/Compiz... its just awesome.

Like someone else said it all depends on what you want to do. I voted for RedHat/Fedora since I am mainly using Fedora Core 6 with Parallels (http://www.parallels.com) on my XP laptop and MacBook black. I also use and like Ubuntu (which is Debian underneath) very much. I also recently installed Debian in it's non-Ubuntized state. All these I have running under Parallels, which still has a lot of work ahead of them, but it's nice to be able to use the same virtual hard drive file on a Mac or a PC.

Damn Small Linux sure is a fun distro. Weighing in at just around 50MB. http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

I got my feet wet with Yellow Dog Linux for PowerPC. I think they put that dog to sleep though.

I don't understand this remark. Yellow Dog appears to be alive and well.

My bad. I should have clarified that I meant since Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel, Terrasoft no longer has YDL for Intel-based Apple hardware. But that may have been a blessing in disguise according to some articles. Terrasoft does have a healthy offering of products and services, the latest being Yellow Dog Linux for PLAYSTATION®3 : http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/

Redhat / Fedora - simply because I got involved with Linux with Redhat 5 when SCO decided to start charging for their OS on a user licence basis. When RH8 was released I bit the bullet and moved my clients servers over and have never looked back. I now have a mix of RHE and Fedora 3 thru 5 out there and a client base that is rapidly moving to Linux on the desktop as well.

I should add that another local S/W shop went with SUSE at about the same time and are as happy with their decision as I am with mine.

So different strokes for different folks and we seem to stick with what we are familiar with.

I use gentoo on my desktop pc at work and slackware on my sony vaio

both are great, I also tried debian and ubuntu several times, but I've always destroyed the package system

I cannot recommend gentoo for older systems, it took me two days to compile gnome + X on a pentium3 500

I use Ubuntu on my newly built deaktop and on my Thinkpad X24.
I use OS X 10.4 on my 2 PowerMacs (PPC) and on my 2 PowerBooks.

Me too. I remember using Mandrake... it was so outraged that I'd upgraded my kernel without permission that it refused to install anything ever again. Gentoo didn't miss a beat.

I have been a slackware user, since 1992.

This does not mean slackware is "better or worse" it is simple what I have used for nearly 15 years, LOL.