<p>Hello all,</p>

<p>I wanted to get a poll of what distros are currently popular with researchers working in bioinformatics and related biological data mining fields. </p>

<p>Mainly: </p>

<ul>
<li>What linux distribution do you currently (or have previously) use(d)? </li>
<li>What software and language (packs) do you use on a daily basis? -</li>
<li>Where does this distro outperform the rest? Where does it fall short? </li>
</ul>

<p>I'll start; I currently use Ubuntu and have for the past two years. I mainly use vim with BioPerl scripts. Ubuntu, which is debian based makes installing foreign libraries almost painless. It falls short when it comes to software updates.</p>

<hr />

<p><a href="http://nebc.nerc.ac.uk/tools/bio-linux/">BioLinux</a> works very well. It is equipped with a lot of bioinformatics-related software, and is based on a Ubuntu system. You can also use an Ubuntu system directly, and use BioLinux as a repository for bioinformatics software.</p>

<p><img src="http://nebc.nerc.ac.uk/tools/bio-linux/portal_skins/nebcHomeTheme_customplonetheme_custom_images/bio-linux_dvd_2.png" alt="alt text"/></p>
