I rarely find the perfect distribution, Linux on the desktop is very subjective and I use various distributions generally chosen for the hardware I installed it on.

Best desktop Office/Work distribution

This is a tough and highly subjective, when I’m “working” I require a stable distribution with modern features. Ubuntu LTS based distributions are wonderful in this area until the second year when new hardware requirements are not reliably met. For instance I cannot easily mount a Nexus 5 or Nexus 7 using MTP without tweaking. As a result my favorite desktop distribution is now Linux Mint Debian Edition.

LMDE offers a hybrid desktop experience via Cinnamon with the added stability of Debian which limits annoying “ubuntu has experienced a … glich.”

In fact I’ve found it so incredibly stable that I pulled my SSD out of my laptop and dropped it into my netbook and finally my desktop without any tweaking or re-installation. Being based on Debian makes it more modern than an Ubuntu LTS based distribution by pushing updates more frequently without becoming unstable.

Best netbook distribution of 2013

Lubuntu revived my old netbook and I now use it as my daily mobile coding device. Running LXDE provides low resources without too much user compromise.

Feedly, Tumblr, and Gmail is constantly pin tabbed in Firefox so I can track research articles, email and tumblr entertainment.

I use it for WordPress research, theme coding and tracking vlogs. as well as some light YouTube video watching via VLC.

Best laptop distribution

This is a tough one as I require more keyboard usability from my laptop than any other device. In the past I would easily say Ubuntu Studio is my go to distribution however PeppermintOS narrowly bumped it down as its become a more polished experience. It easily merges cloud based services with desktop based applications. All while maintaining a lightweight LXDE environment which helps push a few extra minutes out of my battery. Ubuntu Studio has some odd glitches with the notification panel which can be fixed but should have been tackled before 13.10 was released.

Best user experience distribution

Easily this goes to Elementary OS which is the first well designed desktop experience I’ve had in Linux where I can slide my computer over to a non Linux user and have them pick up where I’ve left off. It’s clean design rivals MacOS while enabling the customization of an Ubuntu LTS distribution. Most of the geeky interface jargon is replaced with an enterprise grade desktop.

Best freedom distribution

Trisquel 6 is still my favorite Free Software Foundation supported distribution. I use it as my “long term storage distribution” to maintain my entertainment media library. I’m not a fan of their GNOME 2 interface and quickly replace it with XFCE.

This year has been great for Linux on the desktop. Various distributions are user friendly and provide an alternative to Windows, MacOS and even Ubuntu itself.

Worst of 2013

I’ll leave that to you guys in the comments.