OpenSuSe is getting pretty close to Ubuntu on Distrowatch

[greggh]

It might knock Ubuntu to #2 soon

[Lord Illidan]

Nah...when Edgy comes out, Distrowatch will then soar again...anyway, who cares..hehe...I know which is best, and it ain't SUSE.

[lwr]

Distrowatch has a pretty limited way of judging which distro is doing best (they say on their site it's only light-hearted). I'm guessing the Ubuntu site isn't getting so many hits because so many people are already using it, and I don't think it takes into account the forums.

[greggh]

Yeah, I know it doesn't mean much. But I just like seeing Ubuntu at #1.

[arkangel]

that is cool. more people using linux , who cares which flavour, i love ubuntu it is my choice , but all distro are good linux is linux

[greggh]

linux is linux

I don't know about that. I think I would only try out Debian based distros at this point.

[Lord Illidan]

True...that is what is so good...I don't like being bound into 1 distro...change is the name of the game...in fact I am now typing from FC 5...

[Mathiasdm]

It might knock Ubuntu to #2 soon
Good for them. Competition is a good thing.

[TheRingmaster]

I live to see the day where Ubuntu is #1, Kubuntu is #2, Xubuntu is #3, and edubuntu is #4 on distrowatch.

[Lord Illidan]

Nah...boring...I'd switch, lol...Monopoly is never good, even in OSS.

[Kernel Sanders]

Nah...boring...I'd switch, lol...Monopoly is never good, even in OSS.

I'd happily support a monopoly that used its powers to promote freedom. It would be a refreshing change from all those monopolies that try to further restrict your freedoms :(

[%hMa@?b<C]

but, there would be less separate ideas, therefore restricting any new innovations. So, no I dont support a monopoly.

[kripkenstein]

The screenshot and data are for the last 7 days. Naturally, when you look at a short period of time, the statistics are less reliable. Also, there could be some specific openSUSE event (a release?) that created a lot of hits for them in the last few days.

Looking at the last 30 days, Ubuntu has 2362 vs. SUSE 1972. Last 3 months: 2364 / 1694. Notice not much change between 1 and 3 months... implying that things aren't changing much over time.

So, I wouldn't say that openSUSE is close to overtaking Ubuntu at distrowatch, it might be just that they had a few lucky days this week.

[darkhatter]

distrowatch is not a good thing to use when rating distro, they even say that. I know I'm going to get flamed but other then ubuntuforums I don't see anything else that is better then OpenSuse. Even speed wise I'm not seeing much of a difference. :confused:

[Kernel Sanders]

but, there would be less separate ideas, therefore restricting any new innovations. So, no I dont support a monopoly.

I disagree. The mozilla corporation was facing an uphill struggle against MS, and look what they've accumplished?

A monopoly *preventing* competition is what i'm against. Something good that saturates the market i'm all for :)

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I'd happily support a monopoly that used its powers to promote freedom. It would be a refreshing change from all those monopolies that try to further restrict your freedoms :(
It wouldn't really be a monopoly if it encouraged freedom of competition.

[Kernel Sanders]

It wouldn't really be a monopoly if it encouraged freedom of competition.

Not quite what I mean, I meant general freedoms, specifically software freedoms :)

[Bloodfen Razormaw]

Looking at the last 30 days, Ubuntu has 2362 vs. SUSE 1972. Last 3 months: 2364 / 1694. Notice not much change between 1 and 3 months... implying that things aren't changing much over time.
Correction: implying that things aren't changing much for Ubuntu over time. That shows a huge change in OpenSUSE. Ubuntu has gained 2 points while OpenSUSE has gained almost 300. That's a 16% improvement for OpenSUSE, compared to a .08% improvement for Ubuntu.

And while everyone knows that DistroWatch doesn't measure install base, it is clear that OpenSUSE is gaining popularity on the desktop at an incredible rate. There are aspects of it that lend itself to gaining on Ubuntu. For one, it is much more attractive. Ubuntu still can't get away from the hideously ugly brown color scheme. Blue is more popular for a reason. It has superior contrast (this is a significant accessibility concern) with typical UI colors (i.e. gray), and psychologically is less prone to causing exhaustion over long periods of time because it is a calmer, cooler color than orange or brown. Secondly, it emphasizes KDE, which is by a good margin the most popular UNIX desktop, yet also supports GNOME well. Ubuntu, in contrast, supports only GNOME well, and KDE support is poor (hate to hurt Kubuntu users' feelings, but it has buggy packages and customizations that hurt usability). Lastly, OpenSUSE has excellent custom software. Ubuntu does fairly well with this, too, but not quite up to OpenSUSE standards. Ubuntu is still easier to install, which is the source of most of its popularity, but OpenSUSE's beauty is really turning heads these days. If Ubuntu wants those users it needs to start giving some thought to looking attractive.

[bobbybobington]

Good, imo opensuse is an excellent distro.

[Bree]

Open suse is great. I didn't like it at first but it's really grown on me and it's the distro I'd use if Ubuntu suddenly disappeared.

[BuffaloX]

Open suse is great. I didn't like it at first but it's really grown on me and it's the distro I'd use if Ubuntu suddenly disappeared.

Open Suse has gained a lot in popularity lately, Novel claim to have increased their Linux business 25% since last year, and they deserve it.

I'd probably use Open Suse, if I didn't like Ubuntu.
I never had a problem with Novel, not their policies or products.
I hope both Ubuntu and Suse will do well, and also a couple of other distros.

I think Ubuntu will pick up again, if Edgy Eft is good.
It's best for Linux, if Ubuntu can be popular without hurting other distros.

[atrus123]

It might knock Ubuntu to #2 soon

:shock:

That is a big surprise. I'm not really disturbed by the notion, as I am a SuSE fan as well, but when it comes right down to it, I like apt better than yast.