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The Most Popular Linux Desktop Programs (zdnet.com)
The most recent Linux Questions poll results are in. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, writing for ZDNet: LinuxQuestions, one of the largest internet Linux groups with 550,000 members, has just posted the results from its latest survey of desktop Linux users. In the always hotly-contested Linux desktop environment survey, the winner was the KDE Plasma Desktop. It was followed by the popular lightweight Xfce, Cinnamon, and GNOME. If you want to buy a computer with pre-installed Linux, the Linux Questions crew's favorite vendor by far was System76. Numerous other computer companies offer Linux on their PCs. These include both big names like Dell and dedicated small Linux shops such as ZaReason, Penguin Computing, and Emperor Linux. Many first choices weren't too surprising. For example, Linux users have long stayed loyal to the Firefox web browser, and they're still big fans. Firefox beat out Google Chrome by a five-to-one margin. And, as always, the VLC media player is far more popular than any other Linux media player. For email clients, Mozilla Thunderbird remains on top. That's a bit surprising given how Thunderbird's development has been stuck in neutral for some time now. When it comes to text editors, I was pleased to see vim -- my personal favorite -- win out over its perpetual rival, Emacs. In fact, nano and Kate both came ahead of Emacs.
From: https://www.linuxquestions.org...
Desktop Distribution of the Year - Ubuntu (18.17%)
Server Distribution of the Year - Slackware (22.40%)
Live Distribution of the Year - Knoppix (18.31%)
Lightweight Distribution of the Year - Puppy Linux (29.75%)
Database of the Year - MariaDB (42.22%)
Browser of the Year - Firefox (57.84%)
Desktop Environment of the Year - Plasma Desktop (KDE) (27.83%)
Window Manager of the Year - Openbox (24.22%)
Audio Media Player Application of the Year - VLC (31.13%)
Digital Audio Workstation of the Year - Ardour (42.86%)
Video Media Player Application of the Year - VLC (68.01%)
Video Authoring Application of the Year - KDEnlive (
Network Security Application of the Year - Wireshark (33.33%)
Host Security Application of the Year - SELinux (35.71%)
Network Monitoring Application of the Year - Nagios Core (32.73%)
IDE of the Year - Geany (15.98%)
Text Editor of the Year - vim (28.32%)
File Manager of the Year - Dolphin (25.24%)
Open Source Game of the Year - 0 A.D. (17.31%)
Programming Language of the Year - Python (30.00%)
Backup Application of the Year - rsync (41.30%)
Log Management Tool of the Year - Logwatch (36.96%)
X Terminal Emulator of the Year - Konsole (22.01%)
Browser Privacy Solution of the Year - uBlock Origin (28.13%)
Privacy Solution of the Year - Tor Browser Bundle (37.21%)
Open Source File Sync Application of the Year - Nextcloud (36.92%)
IRC Client of the Year - Hexchat (33.02%)
Universal Packaging Format of the Year - Snap (38.67%)
Single Board Computer of the Year - Raspberry Pi 3 Model B (64.18%)
Virtualization Application of the Year - VirtualBox (64.53%)
Container of the Year - Docker (67.14%)
Orchestrator of the Year - Kubernetes (62.07%)
Linux/Open Source Podcast of the Year - Linux Action Show (16.00%)
Secure Messaging Application of the Year - Telegram/Signal (Tie - 38.46%)
Video Messaging Application of the Year - Skype (54.76%)
Vector Graphics Editor of the Year - Inkscape (68.97%)
Linux Desktop Vendor of the Year - System76 (63.49%)
Email Client of the Year - Thunderbird (63.45%)
I have yet to see any realistic alternative to Thunderbird. Most other local clients are so bloated I might as well just go to the gmail web panel. Thunderbird is the most lightweight email client that I can see. Too bad it has been abandoned.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Since TFA brought it up I can't wait for an evidence-based, rational discussion on the best text editor for Linux.
KDE has earned these results. For years now KDE development has been thoughtful and conservative; no iconoclasts have been permitted to blow up everything in another doomed attempt to reinvent the desktop. Small but crucial things have survived incessant pressure from well meaning but short sighted people, such as the fact that you can still turn off fucking compositing. I hope they can stick to this pattern for a few more years and continue earning trust.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Simple as this, "Popular" doesnt mean something is "Better", it just means it is more widely used and marketed. Marketing isn't just for selling products, it is also a way to influence others to be in agreeable with you on a particular idea. In this case, it is the marketing of "use my free software because..." and whoever has the loudest, furthest reaching voice generally wins.
For one huge example, the list has text editors. Emacs? Vim? Nano? And we're talking about desktop distributions? Hands down, none of those compare to the quality of Sublime Text as a text editor.
As others have pointed out in this post already, there isn't any "killer apps" for Linux out there. So the software being ran is all console software with a prettified multi-tasking window manager to organize all of those console windows. This seems to be the current mindset of all Linux is really used for in the desktop space.
It's true, Unix has never had a 'killer app': the 'killer app' was always Unix.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Saying KDE Plasma is the most popular app is like saying that Explorer is the most popular app on Windows. While technically true, it's also the default, and you can't really use the OS without it. Could you use other window managers? Sure, but I'm not sure a window manager counts as an app.
It actually is a bit of a surprise, the major distros tend to offer Gnome as the default.
I stole this Sig
Actually this list is rather surprising that there isn't any really popular Linux App, that isn't widely used in other platforms. This list is mostly just rather basic tools for 2018, Web Browser, Video Player, Text editor, and Windows Managers.
Back in the days. Macintosh had its Adobe Suits for desktop publishing DOS had its word perfect and Lotus 123 Windows had its Office Suite Amiga had its video tools
In general the other OS's seems to have a flagship tool that stands for how the product is primary meant to be used for.
Linux doesn't seem to have that. Probably mostly because it is heart it is a server OS. So what really probably should be on the list is Apache MySQL PHP Or whatever is more popular at the moment.
And Linux has LibreOffice. I've been using it for years for academic writing and creating learning and teaching resources (all my students have Windows or Mac). I haven't used MS Office for years and don't miss it one bit.
That said, Linux is sorely lacking in decent, productivity oriented multimedia editing software. Adobe still rules the roost in this department and doesn't support Linux and Wine doesn't work well enough with Adobe software. Unfortunately, I still have to dual boot Linux & Windows so that I can do multimedia editing when necessary.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
As you noted, Libre Office wasn't even on the list. Even in the article the most popular were computer management apps and no mention of productivity apps.
This is a large part of the reason I stopped using Linux on the desktop. When the computer was the ends, rather than the means, it was great. However, at this point in my life, the computer is the means, not the ends. When I just need to get work done, Linux just isn't the tool.
...Linux is sorely lacking in decent, productivity oriented multimedia editing software.
I use Kdenlive+Blender for this purpose.