How many distros you checked before you knew what is the right for you?

[computerophil]

How many distros you checked before you knew what is the right for you?

I for myself checked dozens of LiveCDs.
It's not easy to decide but my favorites are:
Puppy,
openmamba,
Mandriva,
Knoppix,
Slax,
SAM,
Linux Da Vinci

and I still use them in different context.

How did you make your decision? You checked yourself or followed recommendation?

[Lakshmipathi]

I think i was lucky,When i started with Linux I know only Fedora core 2 .
(redhat is commercial one) so used it for 3-4 years Fedora remained as my choice . I never really bothered about other distro. because most of them are similar when it comes to programming/development.

Just in last couple of years , I started to trying other distros, Though I have Fedora in One partition for sure.When I want to play Music / Video I will switch to Mandriva partition.For testing or games,I will be using debian.

It's about your choice,if you like mint or puppy linux , Just keep them in one partition for ever and whenever you get new distro try them on another paritition.

Now you have virtualization you don't need to do partition stuffs.You can also try USB installations for fun.

[reed9]

I don't know if I can remember everything I tried on the way to Arch.

Ubuntu (K, X, and U)
Mint
Fedora
OpenSuse
Wolvix
Pardus
Puppy
Debris Linux
Vector Linux
PC BSD
Mandriva
Debian
Zenwalk
Sidux
PCLinuxOS
Crunchbang
MEPIS
Foresight
GoblinX
SAM Linux
SLAX
NimbleX

[bigtomrodney]

I started back in 2003 if I recall correctly, though I may have some posts contradicting that around the forum. I started out when online repositories were less in use (and I didn't have broadband anyway).

I voted for 10 or more but I suspect it may have been less if I started out more recently. At the time drivers weren't as good as they are now so you literally had to either switch distros and hope your hardware worked next time or built a kernel with your drivers yourself.

My last switch was from SUSE 10.1 - I really didn't like 10.2 so I went with Ubuntu. I had been toying around with Ubuntu in a more serious way since 6.06 so it was an easy transition.

[techieMoe]

I can't really answer the poll because I haven't made my decision yet. I've gone through 40 or 50 distributions and found a few favorites (Ubuntu) but still nothing completely perfect for my situation. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I keep trying, and the trying is the fun part. It's the journey, not the destination for me.

[oz]

10 and more

[elija]

I was lucky in that I found my favourite quite quickly. That hasn't stopped me flirting with others though, I have fun and who knows I may find a new favourite

[techieMoe]

...That hasn't stopped me flirting with others though, I have fun and who knows I may find a new favourite

Slut.

..........

[devils casper]

I can't really answer the poll because I haven't made my decision yet. I've gone through 40 or 50 distributions and found a few favorites (Ubuntu) but still nothing completely perfect for my situation. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I keep trying, and the trying is the fun part. It's the journey, not the destination for me.

Same here.
I have tried, tweaked a lot of distros but couldn't find perfect one. Still searching..... I think its really good for me at least. Try new distros and learning new stuff..

[jayd512]

Not sure of the exact number... I'd say 7 or 8. I have 2 faves right now, but I still like to try out other distros once in a while.