Join the celebration of the fifth Unplugged Tuxies, recognizing the best in the Linux community. Discover the community's favorites, from leading text editors like VS Code to rising stars like Helix. Explore trends in self-hosting apps driven by privacy concerns, with highlights on Home Assistant and NextCloud. Enjoy insights on balancing security and productivity in modern work settings. Plus, appreciate the community spirit fueling podcasting through direct listener support and engagement!
The fifth annual Tuxies awards demonstrated strong community engagement with 1,587 votes cast across various categories in the Linux ecosystem.
NixOS won the best desktop distribution for the second consecutive year, reflecting its growing popularity amidst stiff competition from other distros.
Matrix, maintaining a leading position in community chat platforms, highlights the community's preference for decentralized communication solutions focusing on privacy.
Deep dives
Fifth Annual Unplugged Tuxies Celebration
The fifth annual Tuxies awards highlights key preferences in the Linux community as determined by audience votes. This year sees the removal of the Hall of Fame, allowing all contenders a fair chance, which generated excitement among participants. A total of 1,587 responses contributed to this year's awards, indicating a robust engagement from the community. The episode kicks off with the announcement of various categories, including favorite Linux distros, desktop environments, and self-hosted applications.
Best Text Editor Results
The best text editor award showcases a competitive landscape, notably with VS Code taking the top spot for the second consecutive year. Following VS Code, there was a significant shakeup, with NeoVim claiming second place while Kate, Vi, Vim, and Nano tied for third. The podcast hosts expressed surprise at the outcomes, particularly the strong showing of NeoVim amidst a crowd of popular text editors. This reflects a diverse community of users enjoying various editors, emphasizing the strength of the overall selection.
Best Desktop Distribution
In the category of the best desktop distribution, NixOS emerged victorious for the second year running, echoing the audience's growing fondness for this distro. Asahi Linux made a notable appearance in this year's standings, coming in at second place and indicating its rising popularity, particularly among users of M-Series hardware. Arch saw a slight dip in votes, while both the Ubuntu family and Fedora garnered less support compared to previous years. The tight voting margins among these distros underline the competitive nature of the category.
Best Community Chat Platform
The best community chat platform category saw Matrix, also branded as Element, maintaining a commanding lead with an impressive 48% of the votes. Discord and Telegram followed, showing strong user retention and engagement, but Matrix's growth signifies increasing interest in decentralized communication. The discussion among the hosts highlighted the unique benefits of using Matrix over other platforms, especially in terms of privacy and community-building features. This reiterates the community's preference for platforms that prioritize user autonomy and security.
Emerging Technologies: Highlighting Home Assistant
Home Assistant claimed victory in the best self-hosted app of the year, signifying its potential to positively transform users' household management. The app’s capabilities were highlighted, including local voice control through newly released hardware, which underscores its innovative advancements. Surprisingly, Nextcloud fell to the fourth position this year, demonstrating how competition in self-hosted applications is evolving rapidly. The conversation around Home Assistant suggests a growing user base prioritizing comprehensive home automation solutions.
It's the fifth annual Unplugged Tuxies; our community votes on the best projects, distros, and desktops of 2024. Join us for the final Tuxies, and the second annual Boosties!