Ubuntu losing interest?

[Dragonbite]

Was looking at Distrowatch (http://www.distrowatch.org)'s Distribution Page Hiting Ranking and noticed a wrangling going on between Ubuntu (not including Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu CE and Xubuntu) and openSuse for #1 position!

I clicked on their More Statistics (http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity) link which breaks out the page hits by 12/6/3/1 month increments. The front page also includes past 7 days.

The More Statistics link shows Ubuntu hanging between 2,234 and 2,640 average page hits while openSuse ranges between 2,017 and 2,552 with openSuse's highest happening when Ubuntu is at its lowest.

12 Months

Ubuntu = 2640
openSuse = 2017
Fedora = 1439

6 Months

Ubuntu = 2442
openSuse = 2092
Fedora = 1423

3 Months

Ubuntu = 2508
openSuse = 2400
Fedora = 1658

1 Month

openSuse = 2552
Ubuntu = 2234
Fedora = 1303

7 Days

openSuse = 1980
Ubuntu = 1964
Mint= 1561
Fedora = 1331

Of course to get a better picture would have to see when certain news releases happened when such as the Novell/Microsoft deal I am sure sent people to go look at openSuse and that may even be a major portion to these statistics.

Also, you add in Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu CE and Ubuntu Satanic (should we count Mint?) and that blows openSuse out of the water. Fedora is a distant 3rd with the advent of Mint challenging that.

I just find it interesting though I know it doesn't have any real bearing on anything so long as the system works for me when I turn the computer on (and syncs with my iPod when I figure out how to get that working).

[loell]

rankings on distrowatch is unreliable , many distributions agree on that. so if you must visit distrowatch don't mind the hit rankings, just watch out for news and new distros :)

[Blondie]

As well as the Microsoft deal OpenSUSE 10.2 has just recently been released, which includes many shiny new features "out of the box" that people may be wanting to check out - SLAB and the new KDE launch menu, Beagle, XGL / Compiz at the press of a button, Xen, Mono etc. Sure you can get these in other distros, but not as a no muss no fuss, designed and put together default setup that you can get going without touching the command line.

I've tested it. It's a very good desktop distro but I found it somehow less robust than Ubuntu and package management in Ubuntu is just superior and with more centralised sources.

Right now though my opinion is that for the top free desktop distro spot it's currently a two horse race between Ubuntu and OpenSUSE, which is pretty much what distrowatch seems to be saying.

I'm sticking with Ubuntu, it just seems to take my abuse better :twisted:

Also Ubuntu plays better with DVB for me.

[ComplexNumber]

1 Month
openSuse = 2552
Ubuntu = 2234
Fedora = 1303it looks like either ubuntu is losing its hype and/or opensuse is gaining interest. only about a week ago, ubuntu was number 1 for the previous month (if distrowatch is to be believed)

[Redlance]

Its really all irrelevant. I mean Seriously add up All flavors of ubuntu and its derivitives.
(mint, Isnt PClinux or was it Some other distro that now uses Ubuntu?)

then for a better picture look at all debian based add em eup.
then look at all Gentoo based
then look at all BSD based and thats the real landscape. Debian at the moment is very popular. And besides the stats fluctuate most people play with more than one distro thats the true power of the linux monster. Freedom of choice and the ability to make your own.. and if you stop to think all the stuff you add in disable and modify your copy is in a sense an 'UNPUBLISHED' distro :):-D :p :cool:

[JurB]

Yay! another Distrowatch thread!
we should start another sub-forum for these.... really..... :rolleyes:

[maxamillion]

Its really all irrelevant. I mean Seriously add up All flavors of ubuntu and its derivitives.

Well then wouldn't debian be the most popular distro on the planet and all this "hype" around Ubuntu be irrelevant?"

[KingBahamut]

Using Distrowatch's ranking system to determine a distro's viability is both sad and uninformed. A distro's popularity is based on the users that use it, not on the number of hits a website gets.

Gentoo's forums have 103,873 registered users
Ubuntu's forums have 213,800 registered users
Fedora forums have 84,347 registered users
Suse Linux forums have 26,640 registered users (approx)

However, LinuxQuestions dot org has 270,060 which acts as a forum for a variety of distros.

So its really hard to say just how is loosing ground and who isnt.

[Polygon]

those numbers come from how many people click the link to go to that distros website... not really how popular it is.

a intrestering project would be to create a program for ppl to download and then just run, and it sends a message across the internet on what distro your using, and then if a bunch of people do it then you could get a more accurate count on what distro is the most popular

[Dragonbite]

Another thing to note is that Ubuntu has been over openSuse by around 400 and now openSuse is over Ubuntu only by 20!

The other problem with this ranking is that it is a popularity contest of people that go to distrowatch. How many Red Hat users are there that never go to DW? Probably a huge number of them!

As for adding up all of the derivitives, doesn't that bring it down to like 4 (Red Hat based, SuSE based, Debian based and Gentoo / source based)? Not sure if Slackware is anything-based.

[K.Mandla]

those numbers come from how many people click the link to go to that distros website... not really how popular it is.

a intrestering project would be to create a program for ppl to download and then just run, and it sends a message across the internet on what distro your using, and then if a bunch of people do it then you could get a more accurate count on what distro is the most popular
We could call it "Linux Genuine Advantage." :p Just teasing. :roll:

And not to deflate the OP, but this has been discussed quite a bit in recent months.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=290428

[Shay Stephens]

My question is why does it matter? What changes if xyz distro is used more than abc? Does that allow one to download an iso faster or something?!?! ;-)

[plb]

My question is why does it matter? What changes if xyz distro is used more than abc? Does that allow one to download an iso faster or something?!?! ;-)

Some people are under the impression that most used == the best.

[Johnsie]

Windows is more used thatn all of them put together prolly :-p

[mostwanted]

Some people are under the impression that most used == the best.

Adding to that...

The best distro is the distro that is best for me. The best distro is the distro that is best for you. There is no single best distro, "good" is subjective.

[SuperMike]

Remember -- you can get a box of Suse usually at most computer stores, but I can never find one for Ubuntu. Perhaps this install is going back to the OpenSuse site to change their download numbers?

Now if Jono Bacon could figure out how to get Ubuntu + the popular Ubuntu Linux book in a bundle into stores like BestBuy, CompUSA, OfficeDepot, Wal*Mart, etc., that would really be fantastic.

And if Jono can also figure out how to get Ubuntu preloaded on low-end, online orders of Wal*Mart laptops and PCs, that would be another good deal for Ubuntu.

[amo-ej1]

i'd say it's only media, suse has been a lot more in the media lately with their m$ deal and such. And they have an upcoming new release (or recently released something). While Ubuntu's last release is already 2 months old. The entire thing has been pulled out of perspective (imo that is).

[neowolf]

Well seen as openSUSE 10.2 was released in the last month I would expect it to have gained mroe interested...

Also, Slackware isn't based on anything as it was one of the first distro's, before even Debian I think.

[bobbybobington]

Well legally anyone could sell a boxed version of ubuntu, since they're just selling the medium its on. But I think it would be wise for canonical or some company they partner up with to sell boxed versions at retailers for consistency and quality sake. Then they could they could use the meager profits to help offset the costs. Think of it as buying the convenience of just going to a store to get ubuntu. This would be a really awesome idea to look into, and a lot of people will also trust software in a store than something off the internet that is free.

[Hex_Mandos]

Vector is based on Slackware, I think, so I'd consider Slackware a "family" too. However, I think we could consider Ubuntu's very close derivatives as a subgroup within the Debian based distros This subgroup would include Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu CE, Impi, Mint, and maybe others. All these are much closer to Ubuntu than, say, Ubuntu is to Debian.

While I agree that "most uded=best" is an ad populum phallacy, I like Ubuntu to be widely used. It gives us a better shot at getting support from, say, ISPs, and software vendors making .deb packages, etc.

[Gargamella]

they count the hits...surely an user don't hit 2 time ubuntu page...anyway suse is very advertised...it doesn't impress me...

by the way I've tried it and I didn't like it