The Linux desktop landscape is a diverse place. As an open-source operating system, anyone can take the code, make whatever changes they want, and release it as their own custom distribution. A land of diversity, however, also has its pitfalls. Mandriva Linux seems like the most recent candidate to fall, with the company purportedly going under on January 16th if it doesn’t receive an infusion of funds. The funds are being blocked by a shareholder dispute, and it will be a sad story for the once-popular Linux distribution. How many Linux distributions have gone quietly into memory, and which have stayed? What makes Ubuntu so popular? Let’s take a quick look into the the history of Linux on the desktop.

As you can see from GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline, there are a number of huge Linux distributions. Most are derivatives of an earlier base, so first mention should go to the big players that are still around since the beginning: Slackware, Debian, and Red Hat Linux.

Slackware Linux began in April of 1993, and its goal was (and still is) to be the most Unix-like Linux out there. It’s based on SLS, which was the first real Linux implementation. Slackware was a “cleanup” of SLS and ended up completely superseding it. Slackware is still in use today, and a number of distributions are based on it (not many that are considered popular, however).

Debian Linux also began in 1993, and was created in response to the lack of support and bugs in SLS. As the timeline above testifies, Debian Linux is known as the most forked Linux distribution available, with an extremely large developer community. Many forks of Debian have gone on to become widely popular in their own right, such as Ubuntu Linux and Knoppix, both (nearly) household names. Ubuntu, the most popular desktop distribution out there, is even planning on developing for the tablet, smartphone, and television market.

Last but not least in the top three base Linux distributions is Red Hat Linux. Red Hat Linux has claimed its space as the top server distribution, known as a top-notch commercial grade operating system. In 2003 Red Hat discontinued their desktop offering, choosing to release only Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It sponsored Fedora Core (now just Fedora) to continue to be the community-driven RPM-based Linux offering that has become popular for its upstream-only distribution cycle.

But what is it that actually makes a Linux distribution popular? That’s not an easy question to answer. Communities align themselves around goals, features, functions, and other criteria that make pointing the finger at one thing difficult. Ubuntu’s #1 bug is that Microsoft’s Windows has a majority of the desktop market share, and that is a force that drives its community and developers towards claiming market share for desktop Linux. Mint’s popularity is rising as a storm against Ubuntu Unity desktop, and derivatives like Kubuntu offer KDE instead of GNOME. Linux users are fiercely loyal to their own favorites, and the internet is alive with debate over which distribution is the best, based on preference and perceived benefits.

It is likewise difficult to judge adoption of a particular distribution. One download of an ISO can be used to install on innumerable desktops, and many desktops are not connected to the internet directly, so multiple installations can be hidden behind one router. Websites that judge installations tend to not be a good representation of users due to the additional content that they provide. Without the licensing activations that Microsoft uses, Linux is hard to nail down in any measurable fashion.

One of the best things about Linux is that if you can’t decide on a particular distribution to place your banner behind, you can always build your own. Success doesn’t always mean the most number of users, after all. Do you have a favorite? A gripe with a particular flavor of Linux? Let us know.