Readers' Choice votes are in! Compare your favorites with other readers and see if you're the oddball or everyone else is!
It's that time of year again. After 11 months of us telling you about products, services and companies, this month, you, the readers, run the show. We've formatted things a little differently this year, as we've gotten lots of feedback desiring a deeper look into the results.
The distribution category has similar results as last year, but it shows a trend. Other distributions, many still based on Ubuntu, are sneaking up the ladder. In fact, next year we'll have to break out the different official brands of Ubuntu, because if they were separated, I suspect the finalists would look a bit different. For that matter, if we lumped all the Debian-based distributions together, the spread would be huge between first and second place!
Ubuntu (any flavor, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, etc.): 30.1%
Debian: 14.7%
Linux Mint: 13.4%
Arch Linux: 10%
Fedora: 8.6%
OpenSUSE: 4.2%
Gentoo: 3.8%
CentOS: 3.3%
Other: 3.1%*
Slackware: 2.5%
Red Hat: 1.9%
PCLinuxOS: 1.5%
MEPIS: .7%
Bodhi Linux: .5%
Novell/SUSE: .3%
Pardus: .3%
Sabayon: .3%
Mandriva: .2%
Puppy: .2%
Chrome OS: .1%
Slitaz: .1%
*Mageia had the most write-in votes.
Although we kept the title “Ubuntu Netbook Remix” this year, it's really a misnomer, as Ubuntu has consolidated its Netbook interface (Unity) into its main product. With their tiny screens, every pixel counts, and Canonical's one-size-fits-all design works well on a Netbook. It's neat to see Android so high on the list, however. With laptop docks for phones and keyboards for tablets, Android is becoming a viable operating system for more than just making calls and checking e-mail.
Ubuntu Netbook Remix (any flavor): 25.9%
Debian: 14.9%
Android OS: 14.1%
ArchLinux: 12.7%
Other: 11.3%*
Puppy: 7.1%
Fedora: 3.9%
Chrome OS: 3.1%
MeeGo: 2.5%
PCLinuxOS (any flavor): 1.7%
Slax: 1%
Slitaz: 1%
Jolicloud: .9%
*Both CrunchBang and Linux Mint received many write-in votes in this category.
This was a tough category to create and even tougher to sort out. KDE is easy, as it's still KDE. GNOME, however, has splintered and been modified into a mess of gnomish environments that are sort of GNOME, but sort of not. We split GNOME 2 and GNOME 3 into separate categories, but Unity and Cinnamon have more in common with GNOME than they do with KDE. Should they be lumped together with GNOME? Here are the numbers; we'll let you decide. Whichever way you slice it, KDE's top spot is a bit suspect, since the many GNOME alternatives dominate the chart, albeit separately.
KDE: 25.9%
GNOME: 3.x 21.7%
GNOME: 2.x 15.2%
Other: 13.7%*
Xfce: 12.1%
LXDE: 3.8%
Openbox: 3.6%
Enlightenment: 3%
Fluxbox: 1%
*Unity and Cinnamon both received several write-in votes.
It seems as though the browser war is becoming the new GNOME/KDE war. Firefox is still the winner, but Google's browser is right on its heels. This past year, I became a Chromium convert, based mainly on its ability to sync so well and integrate with the Google lifestyle. I find many sites still work better with Firefox, however, so I'm thankful to have a choice when it comes to browsers.
Firefox: 50.3%
Chrome/Chromium: 40.8%
Opera: 4.7%
Mozilla Seamonkey: 1%
Rekonq: .8%
Konqueror: .5%
Thunderbird: 40.2%
Gmail Web client: 31.3%
Evolution: 7.5%
mutt: 5.9%
Kmail: 5.5%
Other: 4.1%
Claws: 1.6%
Alpine (pine): 1.5%
Opera: 1.2%
Sylpheed: .5%
GMX (Global Mail Exchange): .3%
Roundcube: .3%
The results here line up with last year's results, in that Pidgin is still the top pick. Surprisingly, the Microsoft-owned, completely proprietary Skype is still in second place with a healthy lead over the competition. I switched to BitlBee this year for all my IM needs, which falls into the “Other” category, but our favorite response, which came as a write-in from several people, was “Telepathy”. It's great to see our digital version has traversed the galaxy and garnered readers on Vulcan. It will be interesting to see if “Mind Meld” makes the list of e-mail clients next year.
Pidgin (formerly Gaim): 56%
Skype: 15.1%
Empathy: 9.2%
Kopete: 8.8%
Other: 7.8%
Gajim: 1.2%
Psi: 1.2%
amsn: .4%
kmess: .4%
pidgin: 31.2%
XChat: 27.8%
Irssi: 13.2%
Chatzilla: 9.1%
Konversation: 7.4%
Other: 6.8%
Quassel: 3.5%
KVirc: .8%
Gwibber: 36.8%
Other: 16%
Tweetdeck: 16%
Choqok: 13.9%
Pino: 5.2%
HootSuite: 5%
Seesmic: 2.7%
Jaiku: 2.5%
Nitwit: 1.4%
Spaz: .7%
LibreOffice: 73.3%
Google Docs: 12%
OpenOffice.org: 8.4%
Other: 3.8%
GNOME Office: 1.2%
Calligra Suite: .5%
KOffice: .5%
IBM Lotus Symphony: .2%
There were significant write-ins for LibreOffice Writer, which we should have lumped together with OOWriter. Or, maybe we shouldn't have. Nonetheless, based on the office suite results, it makes sense that LibreOffice Writer shares the top spot with OOWriter. Again in the second-place spot is AbiWord. If you're looking for a fairly robust, no-nonsense word processor, it's tough to beat the single-purpose AbiWord.
OOWriter: 27.2%
AbiWord: 18.6%
OOCalc: 13%
Scribus: 12.8%
Other: 9.6%
Gnumeric: 6.6%
LyX: 6.4%
KWord: 3.7%
KSpread: 1.2%
OOImpress: .9%
This year, GIMP tops the list again as the favorite graphics/design tool. Now that it supports single window mode, we suspect it will only gain in popularity. For some reason, folks found it difficult to navigate the many-window default layout of GIMP. If you're coming from Photoshop, that single window view makes you feel much more at home using Linux.
GIMP: 67.8%
Inkscape: 13.3%
Blender: 8%
ImageMagick: 3.6%
Krita: 3%
LibreOffice Draw: 2.3%
Other: 1.2%
OpenOffice Draw: .8%
digiKam edges out Picasa again this year, but since Google dropped the Linux version of Picasa, the number two spot will be gaping open next year. As the husband of a photographer, I have hundreds of thousands of photos to manage, and quite honestly, I haven't found a great way to keep track of them on any platform. digiKam and Shotwell certainly get better and better every year; the question is whether local native apps or cloud-based storage will truly be king.
digiKam: 22.5
Picasa: 22.2%
Shotwell: 17.3%
F-spot: 11%
gThumb: 8.4%
Gwenview: 8.1%
Other: 4.9%
GQview: 3.7%
Bibble Professional: 1.6%
gtkam: .3%
It still surprises me that VLC is on the list as audio player, and this year it even took top place! I've long used VLC as a video player, but never really considered it a viable audio player. I'm clearly not one of the cool kids, because VLC received almost 25% of the popular vote! Much like photos, a music collection can grow to be unwieldy. It's great to have such a wide selection of tools to tame the beast.
VLC: 24.9%
Amarok: 20.4%
RhythmBox: 14.1%
Other: 11.1%*
Banshee: 10%
Audacious: 6.4%
MPlayer: 5.1%
XMMS: 3.5%
Exalie: 1.6%
MOC: 1.4%
Totem: 1.3%
Last.fm: .1%
*Clementine had several write-in votes.
VLC: 69.1%
MPlayer: 15.4%
SMPlayer: 4.7%
Totem: 4.2%
Kaffeine: 3.3%
XINE: 1.7%
Other: 1%
Miro: .6%
Firefox Sync: 33%
Chrome Bookmarks: 32.4%
Google Bookmarks: 11.4%
xmarks (formerly Foxmarks): 11%
Other: 6.9%
Delicious: 4.8%
Weave: .4%
Google Docs: 61.3%
Wikis: 18.5%
Other: 6.9%
Zimbra: 5.9%
Kolab: 2.6%
Basecamp: 2.5%
eGroupWare: 2.3%
We love Dropbox, and it takes the lion's share of votes again this year. It's also great to see viable alternatives with a decent following. Will Dropbox continue to reign supreme, or will features like SpiderOak's baked-in encryption motivate folks to switch? Dropbox is certainly our incumbent, but with cloud-based storage being such a new market, it's exciting to see what the future holds!
Dropbox: 53.4%
Ubuntu One: 14.6%
Other: 12.2%*
Amazon S3: 8.6%
SpiderOak: 5.1%
Box.net: 3.5%
SparkleShare: 1.8%
CloudSafe: .4%
SugarSync: .4%
*OwnCloud and Google Drive both had many write-in votes.
Tux Paint: 42.8%
Gcompris: 14.6%
Scratch: 11.4%
Tux Typing: 9.4%
Other: 8.6%
Tux of Math Command: 7.9%
KTuberling: 5.3%
Oh “Other”, how we love you. Will Linux users ever get the Steam platform? If so, will that change the landscape of Linux gaming? It's hard to say. We just know it's exciting to see games that work well under Linux, when not too many years ago, that wasn't the case. If you haven't been paying attention to the Linux-friendly Humble Bundle charity drives, be sure to watch for its next offering. Linux users are always the top donators, and all the games are Linux-compatible, so it's a win-win for everyone.
Other: 17.6%
World of Goo: 12.9%
Frozen Bubble: 12.4%
Doom: 9.5%
Minecraft/Spoutcraft: 9.1%
Battle for Wesnoth: 8.7%
Tux Racer (Planet Penguin Racer/Extreme Tux Racer): 8.2%
Super Tux: 6.2%
Enemy Territory Quake Wars: 3.8%
freeciv: 3.8%
Urban Terror: 3.8%
Nexuiz: 2.8%
Maelstrom: 1.2%
This year we separated SQL databases from NoSQL databases. It seemed unfair to pit two different technologies against each other, when both are perfectly cromulent systems. We think the results are much more useful.
MySQL: 47.4%
PostgreSQL: 28.8%
SQLite: 12.2%
MariaDB: 4.1%
Oracle: 4%
Other: 1.8%
Firebird: 1%
DB2: .8%
MongoDB: 33.4%
CouchDB: 22.3%
Cassandra: 21.9%
Other: 12.2%
Redis: 6.6%
Dynomite: 1.8%
Riak: 1.8%
rsync: 41.7%
tar: 11.6%
Other: 8.9%*
Amanda: 7%
Bacula: 6%
Simple Linux Backup: 4.4%
Back in Time: 4.1%
Arkeia: 3.2%
BackupPC: 3.1%
rsnapshot: 3.1%
luckyBackup: 2.8%
rdiff-backup: 1.7%
cpio: 1.2%
Mondo: 1.2%
BakBone NetVault: .1%
*Deja Dup and “custom scripts” had several write-in votes.
VirtualBox continues to flourish under its Oracle ownership. Thankfully, the core product remains open source, and its compatibility with fresh versions of distributions seems to be fast and up to date. Although it's not something I'd use for a server room, VirtualBox does a great job of emulating desktop environments.
VirtualBox: 56.1%
VMware: 17.7%
KVM: 13.5%
Xen: 5.3%
QEMU: 3.9%
Citrix Xenserver: 1.6%
Other: 1.5%
OpenVZ: .4%
Scalent V/OE Software: .1%
Nagios: 51.8%
Other: 13.4%
OpenNMS: 7.9%
Zabbix: 7.2%
Zenoss Core: 4.9%
Uptime Software: 4%
Ganglia: 3.6%
Munin: 3.1%
Hyperic: 2.5%
Groundwork: 1.6%
Git: 63%
Subversion: 18.6%
Mercurial: 6.6%
CVS: 6.2%
Other: 2.7%
bazaar: 1.8%
monotone: .8%
darcs: .1%
svk: .1%
Python: 28%
C++: 19%
C: 18.9%
Java: 8.9%
Perl: 8.2%
Other: 6.1%
Ruby: 4%
JavaScript: 3.1%
C#: 2.4%
Erlang: .7%
Haskell: .7%
Python: 36.3%
Bash: 24.4%
Perl: 14.2%
PHP: 13.8%
Ruby: 4.8%
Awk: 2.2%
Other: 2.2%
Lua: 1.6%
Groovy: .4%
Eclipse: 26.7%
vim: 25.6%
Geany: 7.5%
Other: 6.9%*
QtCreator: 6.1%
NetBeans: 5.4%
KDevelop: 4.1%
Sublime 2: 3.1%
IntelliJ IDEA: 1.3%
Anjuta: 1.2%
MonoDevelop: .6%
Codewarrior: .5%
Zend Studio: .3%
Eric4: .1%
*CodeBlocks and Komodo Edit both received several write-ins.
Puppet: 42.5%
Other: 15.7%
Chef: 8.9%
OpenQRM: 8.9%
Spacewalk: 8.7%
Cfengine: 8.1%
RHN Satellite: 4%
Bcfg2: 3.2%
Remember back when HTML5 was little more than a fancy dream? It wasn't too long ago that the features of HTML5 seemed ridiculous and impossible, but here we are, in 2012, and HTML5 is the new standard. Web applications are becoming less and less “out there”, and much more immersive, thanks to the features of HTML5. Perhaps next year the survey will be “What non-HTML5 platform do you use?”, because otherwise, it's a no-brainer.
HTML5: 86.9%
Other: 4.7%
Gears (formerly Google Gears): 3.1%
JavaFX: 2.5%
OpenLaszlo: 1.6%
Mono Moonlight: .9%
ZK Framework: .2%
apt: 33.8%
synaptic: 17.3%
yum: 12.9%
pacman: 10.8%
aptitude: 9.2%
portage: 3.9%
YaST: 3.4%
Software Center: 2%
Zypper: 1.8%
Other: 1.7%
pkgtool: 1.7%
PiSi (Pardus): .6%
Smart Package Manager: .6%
InstallAnywhere: .2%
GPG: 59.3%
pgp: 30.4%
Other: 6.6%*
vim-openssl plugin: 3.7%
*TrueCrypt received several write-in votes.
tomcat: 60.1%
jboss: 21.9%
Other: 10.9%*
glassfish: 7.1%
*jetty had many write-in votes.
ext4: 78.8%
ext3: 10.9%
xfs: 6.2%
Other: 4.1%*
*btrfs had many write-in votes.
Nautilus: 49.8%
Dolphin: 26.9%
Other: 13.4%*
Thunar: 9.9%
*PCMan File Manager, midnight commander and bash/command-line/vim/shell all received several write-ins.
WordPress and Drupal and Joomla, oh my! WordPress takes the victory this year with its easy learning curve and plethora of themes and widgets. Drupal is right on its heels, however, with its flexibility and customization options. All of the CMSes in the survey do their jobs admirably well, and each has its niche to fill in the industry. The best thing to do with all these wonderful open-source options is to try them out and see!
WordPress: 34.9%
Drupal: 27.8%
Joomla!: 15.3%
Other: 8.1%
Alfresco: 4.4%
Liferay: 1.5%
Concrete 5: 1.3%
Mambo: 1.3%
TYPO3: 1%
CMS Made Simple: .8%
Documentum: .8%
e107: .2%
Silva: .2%
Zotonic: .2%
It turns out that our favorite Linux-Friendly Web hosting company is also our favorite Linux game! “Other” is the victor this year, followed by a whole host of Linux-friendly providers. Amazon takes the top non-“Other” spot, but not by as much as I suspected. Linux users are truly an eclectic bunch.
Other: 18.9%
Amazon: 17.7%
GoDaddy.com: 12.6%
Linode: 11%
Rackspace: 7.7%
1&1: 5.6%
Dreamhost: 4.7%
HostGator: 4.5%
Bluehost: 2.8%
OpenHosting: 2.6%
OVH: 2.3%
Hurricane Electric: 1.4%
Site5: 1.2%
Siteground: 1.2%
SoftLayer Technologies: 1%
Host Monster: .9%
Verio: .9%
NearlyFreeSpeech.net: .7%
Pair: .5%
Slicehost: .5%
NeoSpire: .3%
Server Beach: .3%
Arvixe: .2%
Codero: .2%
Contegix: .2%
It's great to see a big company like our top vendor, Dell, supporting Linux users, especially when it's obvious by the numbers that the company is doing a great job of it. Equally as exciting is to see companies like System 76 and ZaReason gain popularity by catering directly to the Linux community. Gone are the days when Linux-supported laptops were hard to find; welcome to the new world where we have choices, options and multiple brands!
Dell: 24.9%
System 76: 20.5%
ASUS: 19.1%
Other: 12.5%*
Acer: 7.4%
ZaReason: 5.7%
EmperorLinux: 5.2%
LinuxCertified: 3.1%
Linux Laptop Company: 1.4%
R Cubed Technologies: .3%
*Lenovo received many write-in votes.
Dell dominates this category as well this year. With more than a third of the vote, Dell is doing something right for our readers! The landscape of workstation vendors is even wider than the laptop world, and again, it's great to see familiar names like System 76, Penguin Computing and Microway making an impact as well.
Dell: 37.2%
System 76: 26.9%
Other: 14.8%*
Penguin Computing: 8.5%
Microway: 3%
R Cubed: 2.1%
HPC Systems: 1.8%
Pogo Linux: 1.6%
Advanced Clustering Technologies: 1.2%
MadTux: 1.2%
Open Sense Solutions: .7%
ASA Computers: .5%
Recompute: .4%
*As always, there were many write-in votes for “build my own”.
Linux is nothing new in the server room, and the results in this category show it. IBM takes top spot again this year, proving that when it comes to servers, IBM is tough to match. Dell and HP both garner significant votes as well, showing that Linux in the data center isn't a novelty; it's the norm.
IBM: 24%
Dell: 23.6%
Hewlett-Packard: 16.5%
System 76: 10.3%
Other: 7.4%*
Penguin Computing: 4.6%
Super Micro Computers: 4.2%
ZaReason: 2.6%
Sun Microsystems: 1.6%
iXsystems: 1.2%
HPC Systems: .9%
Silicon Mechanics: .9%
Tyan Computers: .7%
ASA Computers, Inc.: .4%
Microway: .4%
Rackable Systems: .4%
Aberdeen: .2%
RackMount Pro: .2%
SGI: .2%
*“Build my own” had tons of write-in votes in this category as well.
As in previous years, this category was write-in only, and this year, we had a tie for first place between long-standing-winner Linux in a Nutshell, by Ellen Siever, Stephen Figgins, Robert Love and Arnold Robbins, and the newly published The Debian Administrator's Handbook, by Raphael Hertzog and Roland Mas. Second place goes to The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook, by Michael Kerrisk.
I did my best this year to sneak up on Kyle Rankin's popularity. Heck, the editorial staff even gave me a second column, but added together, my votes paled in comparison to Kyle's. His relevant, timely, super-geeky column reminds us month after month why we love Linux. Hats off to you, my friend. Dave Taylor and I will happily take silver and bronze to your gold.
Hack and / by Kyle Rankin: 28.7%
Work the Shell by Dave Taylor: 15.4%
The Open-Source Classroom by Shawn Powers: 14.5%
diff -u by Zack Brown: 9.4%
At the Forge by Reuven M. Lerner: 7.6%
Other: 7.6%
EOF by Doc Searls: 7.4%
Current_Issue.tar.gz by Shawn Powers: 4.8%
New Products by James Gray: 4.6%
Samsung: 50.1%
HTC: 16.2%
Motorola: 8.8%
Nexus: 7.6%
Nokia: 6%
Other: 4.4%
Sony Ericsson: 3.4%
LG: 2.4%
Dell: .7%
Kyocera: .3%
Tablets have been around for a few years now, but the competition is getting more and more intense. Samsung takes the top spot this year with its passion for Android innovation. If there's one company trying to make sure Apple can't steal the tablet and phone market for itself, it's Samsung. The other company with a runaway number of votes is ASUS. If you add the write-in votes for “Google Nexus”, which is manufactured by ASUS, you can see the company has a very healthy second-place position. The real winner in this race? Linux users!
Samsung: 45.2%
ASUS: 28.7%
Other: 7.1%*
Motorola: 6%
Acer: 4.4%
Archos: 2.4%
Dell: 1.9%
Toshiba: 1.6%
Nokia: 1.5%
ViewSonic: .4%
Le Pan: .3%
Coby: .1%
SuperPad: .1%
Velocity Micro: .1%
*Google Nexus 7 (made by ASUS) received several write-in votes.
We're excited, and not at all surprised, to see the Raspberry Pi in the top spot this year. What a neat device, and what amazing potential it has as the core of cool projects everywhere.
Raspberry Pi: 47.9%
Amazon Kindle: 26.5%
Other: 6.6%*
B&N NOOK: 6.4%
TomTom Navigation System: 5%
Popcorn Hour: 2%
PogoPlug: 1.7%
Sheeva plug: 1.7%
Chumby: 1.1%
Kangaroo TV: .6%
Ben NanoNote: .3%
BUG: .3%
*BeagleBone and BeagleBoard both received several write-in votes.
Low price point, incredible design and nifty name, Raspberry Pi stole the show this year as the best new Open-Source Project. When the release day finally came, people were lined up outside the store waiting to buy their own Raspberry Pis. Of course, we're geeks, so “lining up” meant waiting at our computers to pre-order on-line, but the concept still was the same. To be fair, we should shine a little light on Cinnamon and OwnCloud, both getting a significant number of votes. Much like Fred Kaps, who followed the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, it would be easy to overlook some really great projects!
My fellow optimists, I'm happy to see you voted for Steam based on Valve's commitment to release a Linux client. We know Linux is a great platform for gaming, and if Valve can put its weight behind the support of our OS, it could mean the floodgates would open when it comes to available commercial games. Valve did it for OS X; let's see how it goes for Linux!
Oh, Raspberry Pi, we love you so much! You're our favorite new Open-Source Project, and you're our favorite Linux-based gadget. It only stands to reason you're the Product of the Year! We're excited to see the projects, experiments, modifications and integrations you'll be involved in. When you combine “low price” with “amazing features”, it makes for an equation that's hard to beat. We can't wait to see what the Raspberry Pi will do next!