Distro Ranking?

[PartisanEntity]

Anyone know of good sites with rankings of the top/most popular distros?

[Dr. Nick]

like http://distrowatch.com/

[PartisanEntity]

like http://distrowatch.com/

I actually looked at that site but I can't seem to find a ranking based on votes? (All I could find so far was the page hit ranking on their main page, on the right hand side down the middle of the page?)

[Brunellus]

I actually looked at that site but I can't seem to find a ranking based on votes? (All I could find so far was the page hit ranking on their main page, on the right hand side down the middle of the page?)
what would a vote prove?

[PartisanEntity]

A vote would highlight popularity, and I am looking for statistics or rankings concerning what are/is considered to be the most popular distro(s).

[fuscia]

I actually looked at that site but I can't seem to find a ranking based on votes? (All I could find so far was the page hit ranking on their main page, on the right hand side down the middle of the page?)

there are a couple of threads here, in the 'other OS' forum, that discuss the best and the worst distros. that might interest you.

[tbroderick]

You could look at the the member choice awards at linuxquestions, but some might say they are slightly bias towards slackware since the slackware section on the forums has by far the most posts.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/forumdisplay.php?f=76

[PartisanEntity]

there are a couple of threads here, in the 'other OS' forum, that discuss the best and the worst distros. that might interest you.

Actually I don't need arguments, I just need rankings and statistics, preferably on sites other than Ubuntu in order to ensure impartiality :)

[karellen]

the best ranking is YOU. download it-install it-use it-like it or not. you are the supreme judge, not some doubtful statistics ;)

[PartisanEntity]

the best ranking is YOU. download it-install it-use it-like it or not. you are the supreme judge, not some doubtful statistics ;)

I am already a user of Ubuntu, I need the rankings/statistics. So if anyone knows of good websites with rankings or statistics on the most popular distros out there please share them :)

[zubrug]

try using googles trends search for linux

[PartisanEntity]

Okay thanks for all the input so far, I was hoping that there would be some easy to glean statistics somewhere, but apparently that's not the case, I'll try the suggested Google trends method.

[Brunellus]

Okay thanks for all the input so far, I was hoping that there would be some easy to glean statistics somewhere, but apparently that's not the case, I'll try the suggested Google trends method.
A Linux census is very difficult because the terms of the license are very permissive. We simply have no way of knowing who is using what distribution in many cases because there is no hard-and-fast way of estimating the number of users.

Ubuntu can make a reasonable guess at its installed base by looking at unique hits to their apt-get repositories. I imagine Fedora and SuSE could do the same, as they feature (now) similar package management systems. But that would still undercount those systems that arre installed but not internet-connected.

[PartisanEntity]

Thanks for the input. I was discussing Ubuntu with a friend of mine and we were wondering how one could find out which distros are the most popular.

The first idea that came to mind was that there must be some kind of ranking somewhere based on user votes for example, or a poll of some kind.

[igknighted]

Thanks for the input. I was discussing Ubuntu with a friend of mine and we were wondering how one could find out which distros are the most popular.

The first idea that came to mind was that there must be some kind of ranking somewhere based on user votes for example, or a poll of some kind.

A nice thought, but you will never find a linux site that is not biased towards a particular distro - linux users using similar distros tend to clump together. I think distrowatch is as close as you can get, but its page hit rankings aren't perfect.