Which is the best suitable Top Linux website? DistroWatch is so wrong.

[l1n4x]

Becouse DistroWatch uses the number of hits(visits) to each distro webpage inside their webpage, it is not a good calculation to determine the most used linux distro.
For example CentOS is the number 42 most used Linux based OS. That is quite suspicious, knowing that CentOS is one of the most typical and used in training centers and server projects.

What do you think about this topic? Is there a better way to know which operating systems are the most used?

Mod Edit: Removed some links. The subject is still worth discussing.

 

[forester]

Distrowatch simply counts numbers of downloads per distribution.
It's a daily thing. Statistics.

Take it or leave it. I do not care what is the most popular except as it relates to users of which distro users ask for the most help with.

You're free to care about whatever you want re: GNU/Linux

Welcome! and Best wishes!
forester

 

[bob466]

I don't take notice of what is the most popular or least popular...it's what I like that counts. Of cause the main stream Distros such as Linux Mint has a large support base to help with problems and this Forum too.

 

[Condobloke]

Becouse DistroWatch uses the number of hits(visits) to each distro webpage inside their webpage, it is not a good calculation to determine the most used linux distro.

This just yet another form of "which is the best linux disro etc etc etc"......

Again....the best etc etc linux distro is the one that fits your needs.

No one elses.....Yours.

 

[KGIII]

This just yet another form of "which is the best linux disro etc etc etc"......

I do not read it as that. I read it as, "Which distro is the most used?"

Which is *almost* as silly - but not quite. See, it's gonna vary. Which is the most used *for what*?

The most used would be the kernel included in Android, hands down.

The most used on enterprise servers would probably be RHEL.

The most used on the desktop would probably be Ubuntu.

The most used by folks concerned about security would probably be TAILS.

The most used by 'tech-savy' users would probably be Arch.

The list goes on...

 

[wizardfromoz]

Distrowatch simply counts numbers of downloads per distribution.

No, it doesn't.

The DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking statistics are a light-hearted way of measuring the popularity of Linux distributions and other free operating systems among the visitors of this website. They correlate neither to usage nor to quality and should not be used to measure the market share of distributions. They simply show the number of times a distribution page on DistroWatch was accessed each day, nothing more.

Wiz

 

[Condobloke]

There you go @l1n4x ....your answer is above this post.^^^^^^.....posts by @KGIII & @wizardfromoz No need to look further than Linux.org

 

[sphen]

I do not read it as that. I read it as, "Which distro is the most used?" [...]

I did not read it as that either. I read the original post as "I am shilling for a couple of websites, one of which is Linux-related, so I joined this forum and spammed it in my first post and thread."

The OP claimed to use a better, generalized method to rank Linux distro popularity, whatever that means. I looked at the two sites (from a secure host). I was not impressed. Trust me, you won't feel bad that the moderators deleted the links. By the way, the Linux website is in Spanish. The second site showed a list of all the different "ranking" websites that uses their method/engine - they "ranked" more than just Linux distros.

 

[Condobloke]

I did not read it as that either. I read the original post as "I am shilling for a couple of websites, one of which is Linux-related, so I joined this forum and spammed it in my first post and thread."

I am impressed @sphen !! ...good insight.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Actually on face value, the OP's question on

...which operating systems are the most used?

is simple.

Windows, Macintosh, and GNU/Linux.

If he (likely) means

"What Linux Distributions are the most used?"

then David G. @KGIII 's answering a question with a question or 5 is most valid.

I could debate (but not here) that once (Google's) Android made a Linux kernel proprietary, over open source, it was no longer Linux, but just a bunch of code.

Cheers

Wizard

 

[MikeWalsh]

Personally, I couldn't care less. I use what I use, and other folks' opinions make zero difference to me.

What IS this "obsession" with 'popularity', huh? Who cares? Do people only feel comfortable in the anonymity of the 'herd', so they MUST use what everybody else is using?

Seems it matters a great deal to some people. Whatever happened to individuality? It appears to be a dying trait....

(I do like sphen's summary above. Blunt, and to-the-point....)


Mike.

 

[DexTheDog]

No, it doesn't.



Wiz

Could you track visits to the download links/mirrors?

 

[Deleted member 137406]

Personally, I couldn't care less. I use what I use, and other folks' opinions make zero difference to me.

What IS this "obsession" with 'popularity', huh? Who cares? Do people only feel comfortable in the anonymity of the 'herd', so they MUST use what everybody else is using?

Seems it matters a great deal to some people. Whatever happened to individuality? It appears to be a dying trait....

(I do like sphen's summary above. Blunt, and to-the-point....)


Mike.

Well put Mike Walsh.

 

[ML_113]

I have 4 criteria to choose an OS:

1- Works with old hardware (reasonable speed)
2- Relatively Secure - support my VPN if possible
3- Support my country keyboard + English (fcitx)
4- Easy to add Apps, that don't require a PhD brain

So far none satisfies the above so I dual boot EasyOs and MX.
I don't care about how others choose theirs. I chose MX thru my nephew's recommendation, not thru Distrowatch.

 

[darry1966]

Best way is to test different distros on the target machine and go from there. All machines are different.

Based on this most popular distro is irrelevant.

 

[dos2unix]

For personal use, I get to pick what I want.
For job related use... the company has a lot more say in it than I do. I do have some say.. but at the end
of the day it's really a team of people, and some of them aren't all that technically savvy.
They wants something that's been around and has a good track record for support.
They want stability, compatibility, good development support, and mostly has enterprise
features like clustering, NIC bonding, kernel-rollback, RSA-approved security features, and over the wire
installation (kickstart). (Can you imagine installing 6,000 servers by hand?)

Our company builds software. We started out of RedHat compatible systems, so all of our software is RPM based.
We have RPM build tools and libraries, RPM based build pipelines, and RPM based repositories.
All of our developers, and our entire development team would have to change some technologies in order
to support different flavors of Linux.

I agree that "most popular" doesn't always mean the best. But for business "one of the most popular"
means a good stable products that's been around for a long time, and likely will continue to be around,
and be supported.

.. how many Linux distro's don't even exist anymore?

 

[Anawilliam850]

It is true that DistroWatch's method of determining the most used Linux distributions based on the number of hits to each distro's webpage may not be an accurate representation of usage. This is because the number of visits to a website does not necessarily correspond to the number of users of a particular operating system.

A better way to determine the most used Linux distributions would be to gather data from a variety of sources, such as:

1. Surveys: Surveys of users and developers can provide a more accurate picture of Linux usage.
2. Market share data: Data on market share of Linux distributions can give an idea of the popularity of a distribution. However, this data may not be entirely accurate as it can be affected by the distribution of the Linux market in a specific region.
3. Cloud and server usage: Linux is commonly used in cloud environments and servers, this kind of data can give us a good idea of the popularity of Linux distros.
4. Analytics data from Linux software and package repositories: this can give us an idea of the popularity of a distribution based on the number of downloads, package updates and usage of certain software.

It's important to note that no single source of data is likely to provide a complete picture of Linux usage, and different sources may provide different perspectives. Therefore, it would be best to gather data from a variety of sources to get a more accurate picture of Linux usage.

 

[l1n4x]

Toplinux.org solves this becouse order the OS using metrics from their websites ranks. DistroWatch make no sense when the people use It like a metric.

 

[osprey]

Linux found by this statcounter to run 2.91% of desktops:

Desktop Operating System Market Share Worldwide | Statcounter Global Stats

This graph shows the market share of desktop operating systems worldwide based on over 5 billion monthly page views.

gs.statcounter.com

BSD ... 0%.

 

[MikeWalsh]

Linux found by this statcounter to run 2.91% of desktops:

Desktop Operating System Market Share Worldwide | Statcounter Global Stats

This graph shows the market share of desktop operating systems worldwide based on over 5 billion monthly page views.

gs.statcounter.com

BSD ... 0%.

Microsoft can get a pretty accurate idea of how many people are running Windows, because of the way every set-up procedures registers a machine on their servers.

This has never been the case with Linux.....and, moreover, figures have never been accurate because a lot of people use Windows for work & Linux at home (and won't admit to the latter, almost as though it's something to be embarrassed about).

You also find Linux being used in the most unexpected places. I was talking to my cousin's husband at her brother's funeral - early 50s due to undiagnosed, advanced diabetes. The husband works for a highly-respected firm of quantity surveyors in Rugby, and it transpired that his office had transitioned from Microsoft to Ubuntu some years previously..... Not somewhere I would have expected to hear of Linux being used, because quantity surveyors are one of those notoriously conservative professions.

I was surprised...!


Mike.