As I said in the previous post, The past few months were the most exciting time of the Gnu/Linux. From the day when I first installed my first Red hat System, I´ve been hearing that the year of the Linux desktop has come. Every year we believe that it is the Year of Linux Desktop. But as the mass popularity to the Windows XP , that day was postponing to a uncertain date. But last year a Miracle happened. After So many years of development, Microsoft has released there newest OS Vista.
I think the release of Vista had a major impact on Gnu/Linux´s popularity more than the day Linus himself released the first version of his tiny kernel .
Even more, Microsoft hadn´t stopped from it. Just after that great help, they announced the Discontinuity of Windows XP on later 2008. So as now, the day has come. 2008 is the Desktop year of Gnu/Linux. Its now for sure as it is currently backing by a major Software company on the world [Microsoft inc.]
Therefore, every Major vendor, started from their full potential to create the ultimate Gnu/Linux desktop. Because of it, every day we hear about a release of a new version. [go to Distrowatch ad check the Daily news- they are full of them]. Some Like Fedora has even started to release customised versions for every specialised fields [Spins]. Therefore now we got full of distros to check and hack. But as we already know, we cannot check every distro by our self. So I thought, why not we get together and try them. therefore, I´m starting a poll to check ¨Who has got it right ?¨.
I tried to add every major distribution with their latest version, Some are betas while some are finalised versions. but almost every version is stable enough to check. So I ask you to contribute to this poll from the way you can. Please kind enough to vote the Best version that you think that has got the path to the ¨Ultimate Desktop Linux Version¨ correctly.

• Please Note that this is not a poll to check , what's the best disto. [Every Distro is equally weighted in their specialities]. The poll is only to check the best version currently running.
• Please do not vote just to get your favourite distro to the top. Vote Once only and Vote with reasons.
• Please Comment on the facts , that you have Voted on your choice. [Important- This is the objective of this poll - To find who has the best features ]
  
• To Ubuntu Community - We know you are Out there, So dont Just click ¨Vote¨ to tell that again. Vote with reasons.

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The News hasn't been faded away yet. Fedora 9 [Sulphur] has been released. The Most awaited version of the Fedora series. It has also been even Rescheduled for the sake of itś quality. Even During this Busy Days, I haven't Forgot to Download ASAP it was Released. This is my Journey...

The Download -
I have been fortunate to get the Fedora ASAP it was Released [before the Rush Began]. As there were less seeders at the beginning, I Used the http method to download the ISO [DVD]. But as my internet speed is not super fast, It took me 20 hours to complete it. The Downloading was uneventful unless for some several Refused connection to the servers as the more rush comes in. As my one of my previous post suggests, I didn't trusted the http download. Therefore I Checked the Downloaded DVD using the Torrent ISO and , fortunately there were some bytes missing from the ISO and it saved a Blank DVD from me.

Installation -
I Burned the DVD to a blank ,and Popped the DVD in to my DVD ROM. As soon as the machine booted, I was greeted by a familiar boot menu of Fedora. I choose the New Installation Method and Directly went to the ANACONDA [The system Installer of Fedora]. The Installation process was not changed a lot from the Fedora 8 unless to a few changes in partitioning options which I haven't tried. I´m a huge fan of Gnome and Never Really switched to the KDE. But as the new KDE 4 was a very promising one, and the Fedora 9 was the Only official distro that fully supported it, I chose to try it. So I Selected the both Gnome and KDE 4. As usually Fedora 9 took around 45 mins to complete the installation process [I really can´t understand, why do they take such a Big amount of time]. Finally , It was time to Reboot. So I did.

The Login -
As soon as the system booted, I was greeted with the familliar booting menu of Fedora with a little more darken blue theme of loading. Just from a little time, It took me to the Login menu where i have to select the user. I was very thrilled to try the new KDE4 , therefore I selected the Session as KDE and pushed the login button. The Splash screen and the login theme was great. It was a very pleasent welcome from my favorite distribution, From there on , I tested every corner of the KDE4 that I could find as fast as I can.

The Betrayal -
First of all I must tell you that KDE4 was indeed a great improvement from the KDE 3.5. But at the end, I Just hated it. I´m a guy of little fancy requiring. The KDE 4 was very much improved in this area. But even though the topping was greatly carved, the inner parts are still look like boxes with Sharp edges. It is true that the Title bars and all the front parts are very nice, but the backgrounds are very old looking and it did not pleased me. I know this is very unfair for a great DE. but it´s the way with me. What to do? But still this doesn't applies to others. And I didn't even checked the performance of it. So KDE lovers, just grab it and try it. This is only a comment from a Gnome lover. [Just neglect me :-)]. As now I´m very unhappy with the situation, I hated to thought that even I had installed this KDE with my gnome box. So after some deeply considerable moments, I finally decided to take the necessary actions [I haven't even logged in to Gnome yet.]. I decided to Re-install the Fedora9 ,. This time, without the KDE4. So it be. It took me another 45 mins to complete the re-installation.[How silly am I? I could have Just remove the KDE4. But that's how I am.]. But as now I think about the incident, I think it was a punishment to me for betraying my Gnome box in the first place.

The Promised Land -
After the [re]installation, I was again at the login screen with selected session as Gnome. The first impression was again very pleasant as the welcome theme music was great [I´m really in to these kind of Stuff]. I really enjoyed it. Again I checked every feature that I like in my Operating system and it all were working properly. According to me, Every feature is just perfect. Not too much or not too less with the bleeding edge of the tech. That´s how I like. Following are some of my best features.

• Firefox 3 Beta 5 [by Mozilla]
  
• World Clock Applet [by Gnome 2.22]
  
• Just the Corrrect amount of effect by the compiz. [Again, not too much or less]
• Specially the new Package Management tool.
• The New System Updating interface.
• Package management Handling which was a headache from the previous versions.[the new one is Correctly managing the multiple Package Requests]
• and so on....

First few hours -
Even the new Fedora 9 is a out of the Boxed version, Still I have some of my own requirements. So I Spent the First few hours Tweaking and installing them. Here are my list of them. Other than this, I needn't to do anything to the default system. It was and is still perfect.

• Removed Transmission and Installed Deluge [bittorrent Client]
• Installed Audacious [A Winamp like small media Player]
• Installed VLC -player, in case of an emergency. [But still uses Totem]
• Installed Skype
  
• Installed Liferea Feed reader [Really needed a light weight News reader to keep at every time running]
• Installed Wine [Ha Ha ! Don´t think it will be needed, But, Still...]
• And Wallpaper and a Icon theme [I just love them]

Here is a Screen of my Desktop
After these, I now have a fully working, personalized Operating system at hand and I dont think it will have a Rival until for another 6 months [Till fedora 10 :-)]

Advise ! ( :-o %#2 %@^ %$!@@!|@@#@~)
As you now already know, I´m a not very acceptable guy to give advise [Still I realy Hate KDE4]. But StillI have to try. ;-)
My Advise is that, if you are planning to switch to Linux, This is the time. There was not a better moment in the past and there will not be in the future. If you are not able to pay the price of Vista + It´s hardware Price, Then you should at now, be quick and find a place that you can take a break. This is the time. I´m not only talking about fedora 9. The New Ubuntu is out. The New Mandriva is out in the world. And Even the Mint has announced It´s new beta. So What are you waiting for. If you are ever going to switch, do it now. Every thing has a time. Don´t waste it.

PS : To Specially my Srilankan Guys. Guys I know that we had and are using the Windows XP , as we could purchase it for a very low price [Pirated Editions] - [Not to confuse, I´m still using an Original Windows XP version that has given to me by the Uni from the MSDN Acdemic Alliance Programme to do some Windows Specific tasks such as .net programming etc...]. But Do you know that they had started to raid the pirated CD´s in the open market where we buy our CDś . You know where I´m takiing about- [MC & UNITY ].So even at the time of writing of this post, there arnt even a single place you can buy a pirated Windows XP cd openly. So Think about the near future. Do u got $ to Buy vista? This is your time. Switch now or face the consequences.

Please feel free to place comments ...