Reasons that Ubuntu and Linux Mint stand out

[Murong_Yao]

Ease to use, huge repo, consistent updates, stability, hugh user bases, are amongst reasons that Linux Mint and Ubuntu and its derivatives are tops on Linux distro.
I witnessed the death of Dreamlinux; it is a little sad, but this distro doesn't have stand-out qualities to speak of. (OK, I occasionally use the Dream Linux icons, but hyrdoxygen remains my favourite by far.)
Can anyone tell me how many distros have declared their official death?

[Tadaen_Sylvermane]

I can't answer that question but it should be noted that Mint is also a derivative of Ubuntu, it is not it's own distro. LMDE is straight from debian testing though. But then to be fair again Ubuntu is a derivative of debian so....

[QIII]

Linux Mint is its own distro.

Just as Ubuntu is its own distro.

Debian is upstream of Ubuntu and Ubuntu is upstream of Linux Mint, but all three are separate distros.

How many have died? Likely hundreds.

[buzzingrobot]

...although Mint's sources.list uses Ubuntu repos, while Ubuntu's list does not use Debian's, although (almost all) the packages are brought over from Debian and rebuilt. All nicely symbiotic.

One important thing about distros like these, as well as Fedora and Opensuse and some others, is that they are supported/sponsored by real organizations and corporations, rather than by one or a few enthusiasts. Enthusiasms wane.

[Murong_Yao]

although Mint's sources.list uses Ubuntu repos, while Ubuntu's list does not use Debian's, although (almost all) the packages are brought over from Debian and rebuilt. All nicely symbiotic.

One important thing about distros like these, as well as Fedora and Opensuse and some others, is that they are supported/sponsored by real organizations and corporations, rather than by one or a few enthusiasts. Enthusiasms wane.

Ubuntu (including the various desktop environments), Linux Mint (multiple desktop environments as well), Fedora (Oh, well, java gets really tricky on Fedora, so I quitted long ago) and Opensuse happen to be the biggest distros. The little distros may live and die any time.
Ubuntu is quite mature by now; Linux Mint is somewhat green; I haven't tried Fedora and Opensuse for years! IBM uses Suse Linux, though.

[RichardET]

Linux Mint is its own distro.

Just as Ubuntu is its own distro.

Debian is upstream of Ubuntu and Ubuntu is upstream of Linux Mint, but all three are separate distros.

How many have died? Likely hundreds.

A linux distro never dies....it just fades away................

[uRock]

...although Mint's sources.list uses Ubuntu repos, while Ubuntu's list does not use Debian's, although (almost all) the packages are brought over from Debian and rebuilt. All nicely symbiotic.

One important thing about distros like these, as well as Fedora and Opensuse and some others, is that they are supported/sponsored by real organizations and corporations, rather than by one or a few enthusiasts. Enthusiasms wane.

Such as the death of BackTrack. I think I remember a fellow at one of the DefCons saying he maintains Pentoo on his own and that he releases updates twice a day, though I haven't run it enough to notice.

[Tar_Ni]

Ubuntu (including the various desktop environments), Linux Mint (multiple desktop environments as well), Fedora (Oh, well, java gets really tricky on Fedora, so I quitted long ago) and Opensuse happen to be the biggest distros. The little distros may live and die any time.
Ubuntu is quite mature by now; Linux Mint is somewhat green; I haven't tried Fedora and Opensuse for years! IBM uses Suse Linux, though.

Your forgot Debian. Without it, Ubuntu and Mint as we know them would not be possible..

[vasa1]

At a glance: futurist.se/gldt though I don't know how current it is.

[Murong_Yao]

Your forgot Debian. Without it, Ubuntu and Mint as we know them would not be possible..

The reason that Ubuntu and Linux Mint are higher than Debian on distrowatch is that people often prefer prearranged distros.