DistroWatch

[DouglasAdams]

i look at the latest releases on distrowatch most days.
today i noticed this entry:

Fedora 15, a new version of one of the leading and most widely used Linux distributions on the market, has been released

"most widely used"?
really?

on the same page it shows ubuntu (orig) as most downloaded followed by mint, fedora is way, way down the list.
and that doesn't include ubuntu other flavours.

can anyone enlighten me as to why distrowatch have this, seemingly, unfounded opinion please?

[Barrucadu]

It doesn't say Fedora is the most widely used, it says "one of the leading and most widely used".

[Random_Dude]

on the same page it shows ubuntu (orig) as most downloaded followed by mint, fedora is way, way down the list.
and that doesn't include ubuntu other flavours.

I think that list is based on page views and not downloads.

Cheers

[ivanovnegro]

I think that list is based on page views and not downloads.

Cheers

Right. And I would not trust so much at the statistics on Distrowatch even if you can use it as an orientation.
And Fedora is indeed one of the mostly used OSs I think and also very popular, maybe not as Ubuntu.

[tjwoosta]

Exactly, the HPD (hits per day) list on distrowatch is not an accurate assesment of which distro is the most widely used, only which distro has the most users who visit distrowatch. Most of distrowatch's visitor base would be people looking into switching distros

[Random_Dude]

Exactly, the HPD (hits per day) list on distrowatch is not an accurate assesment of which distro is the most widely used, only which distro has the most users who visit distrowatch. Most of distrowatch's visitor base would be people looking into switching distros

Do you mean that they detect which distro are you using when visiting distrowatch.com?
I thought it was which distro page on distrowatch had the most hits.

[DouglasAdams]

cheers guys.

now you've got me thinking, why do i still keep looking at distrowatch?
... anyone know if there's a support group for distrowatch addicts plez?

it has made me wonder though, does anyone have figures on the number of commercial users of red hat and ubuntu plz?
or is that a state secret?

[Joe of loath]

On distrowatch I always click the interesting distros, not the most used one. I think most would agree with me here that there isn't really any way to gauge usage.

[handy]

I think that DistroWatch is a very loosely valid gauge. It really does give you a pretty good general idea of the popularity of the systems on its list. imho anyway.

Here's another site you can play with:

http://oswatershed.org/

[tjwoosta]

Do you mean that they detect which distro are you using when visiting distrowatch.com?
I thought it was which distro page on distrowatch had the most hits.

Ohh.. Actually that does make more sense. I may have misinterpreted.