Is Ubuntu the most widely used Distro?

[whm1974]

For several years now various websites I've read keep saying that Ubuntu is the dristro with the largest user base. But I'm thinking a lot of users have switched over to other distros a long time ago for one reason or another since the Amazon link built into search awhile back among other things. For example Linux Mint was started because a lot of people didn't like the way Ubuntu was going.

Now I have never used Ubuntu proper as the first time I install it wouldn't work on my hardware at the time. But I have used Mandriva, Bodhi, Mint, and Xubuntu before settlingly on Manjaro. Mandriva is the one I've used for many years before they went belly up. I'm sticking to Manjaro due to not having any issues with it and also because it is a rolling release as well.

Now Ubuntu may have a large desktop user base, but I highly doubt it is as large as it is made out to be. Any thoughts about this?

 

[ArisVer]

https://distrowatch.com/

Never heard of them? It seems Ubuntu is currently 4th.

 

[whm1974]

https://distrowatch.com/

Never heard of them? It seems Ubuntu is currently 4th.

Well looks like Manjaro has been second place for six months and reaching first place a month ago. For those who don't know about Manjaro, it an Arch based distro that is much easier to install and setup then Arch is. Like I said, I have very problems with it and since it is a rolling release which makes it easy to keep updated.

 

[mv2devnull]

Hits per Day on the distrowatch site ...

Doesn't that merely tell how much potential users are reading about some distros? I have installed dozens of systems without visiting that site.

 

[whm1974]

Hits per Day on the distrowatch site ...

Doesn't that merely tell how much potential users are reading about some distros? I have installed dozens of systems without visiting that site.

I think you have to cast votes, but I'm not sure.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Server? I'd guess Centos since it's what most hosting companies use.

Desktop? I'd guess it's still Ubuntu (and Mint) for the vast majority of less-hardcore users who will never visit that "distrowatch" site. Ubuntu certainly gets the lion's share of coverage in the general tech press.

Fussing over Amazon is like refusing to use closed-source drivers because of teh evilness of closedness. Only the more extreme users care about that. The rest of us just want it to work

 

[whm1974]

Server? I'd guess Centos since it's what most hosting companies use.

Desktop? I'd guess it's still Ubuntu (and Mint) for the vast majority of less-hardcore users who will never visit that "distrowatch" site. Ubuntu certainly gets the lion's share of coverage in the general tech press.

Fussing over Amazon is like refusing to use closed-source drivers because of teh evilness of closedness. Only the more extreme users care about that. The rest of us just want it to work

The issue with Amazon is one of privacy, why would anyone need to know what files I have on my system anyway?

 

[lxskllr]

Distrowatch just measures clicks. It can be interesting to see what people are interested in reading about, but it isn't a reliable gauge of actual use. If I had to guess, I'd say ubuntu is most popular, especially if you factor in the variations, which I think is appropriate, since the specific desktop isn't a great reason to discriminate. Consumer focused stuff seems to center around ubuntu, both desktop and server. Business focused stuff centers around redhat, and its variants. There's also a healthy chunk of debian across both groups, but more focused on servers.

I personally value libre software, and I like the debian way of doing things, so I prefer debian when I have time to set it up. If I want to get something going quick, I pick xubuntu.

 

[whm1974]

Well from checking the Manjaro forum there are new users popping up asking questions all the time.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The issue with Amazon is one of privacy, why would anyone need to know what files I have on my system anyway?

Sure, and there are people who refuse to use Windows 10 or anything Google-related for similar reasons, but they are a small minority of all users.

 

[lxskllr]

Well from checking the Manjaro forum there are new users popping up asking questions all the time.

You don't hear from most users though. People just install their system, and use it. If they have problems, they search, and solve them. Judging by forum posts, you'd thing 80% of ALL computer users used arch, cause they won't stfu about it :^P :^D

Interestingly, manjaro is an arch fork. Coincidence? :^D

 

[whm1974]

You don't hear from most users though. People just install their system, and use it. If they have problems, they search, and solve them. Judging by forum posts, you'd thing 80% of ALL computer users used arch, cause they won't stfu about it :^P :^D

Interestingly, manjaro is an arch fork. Coincidence? :^D

After a few issues with Manjaro when I first started using in it Oct 2015, I settled on it as my only distro since I now have very few issues with, and it is really easy to keep updated. It also helps that their forum is very newbie and user friendly as well.

 

[lxskllr]

After a few issues with Manjaro when I first started using in it Oct 2015, I settled on it as my only distro since I now have very few issues with, and it is really easy to keep updated. It also helps that their forum is very newbie and user friendly as well.

That's all that really matters. Pick what works for you, even if only ten other people use it. As long as one of those ten is a developer, you're good to go. Arch documentation is second to none. I've never run arch, but I've used their docs numerous times. I appreciate what they've done, even though I'll likely never use their distro(or any forks thereof).

 

[Elixer]

Distrowatch just measures clicks. It can be interesting to see what people are interested in reading about, but it isn't a reliable gauge of actual use. If I had to guess, I'd say ubuntu is most popular, especially if you factor in the variations, which I think is appropriate, since the specific desktop isn't a great reason to discriminate. Consumer focused stuff seems to center around ubuntu, both desktop and server. Business focused stuff centers around redhat, and its variants. There's also a healthy chunk of debian across both groups, but more focused on servers.

I personally value libre software, and I like the debian way of doing things, so I prefer debian when I have time to set it up. If I want to get something going quick, I pick xubuntu.

Yeah, Distrowwatch is just unreliable for any solid information.

I would also think that Ubuntu is the biggest, and most of the others aren't that popular with new people.
However, once you have been playing around with linux, then things change, I see lots of people use Arch, debian, Fedora, and so on. It all depends on how much hand-holding you need IMO.

BTW, I forgot the name of it, but there is a distro that is on millions of devices for the embedded market, but I am having a brain fart, and don't recall the name of it.

 

[lxskllr]

BTW, I forgot the name of it, but there is a distro that is on millions of devices for the embedded market, but I am having a brain fart, and don't recall the name of it.

Distro, or toolset? Busybox is really popular on embedded devices. That's the gnu tools cut down to fit in less room.

 

[bamx2]

Ubuntu (Mint), best support.

 

[phillyTIM]

Raspian, in fact, may well be the most widely used distro.

 

[robvas]

Based on the amount of people on IRC and StackOverflow, Ubuntu is the most popular in real-world users

 

[whm1974]

Raspian, in fact, may well be the most widely used distro.

Well looking at how popular the Raspberry has gotten, that shouldn't be a surprise.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Based on the amount of people on IRC and StackOverflow, Ubuntu is the most popular in real-world users

You need to change that to "real-world non-business users". For corporations, Red Hat, CentOS, Scientific Linux are pretty much king, and they have a much larger install base than what home users have. Google is rolling out a custom Debian based build on all their desktops (moving away from a custom Ubuntu based build). I believe Facebook is still using a custom Centos or custom Red Hat certified build (as part of the Open Compute Project which Red Hat is a partner).

 

[sourceninja]

You need to change that to "real-world non-business users". For corporations, Red Hat, CentOS, Scientific Linux are pretty much king, and they have a much larger install base than what home users have. Google is rolling out a custom Debian based build on all their desktops (moving away from a custom Ubuntu based build). I believe Facebook is still using a custom Centos or custom Red Hat certified build (as part of the Open Compute Project which Red Hat is a partner).

While true, you would be surprised the number of companies hosting on AWS and azure that use ubuntu, especially when it comes to containers. I would say the top 3 linux distros I work with in the mid-market to fortune 500 space is ubuntu, then centOS, and finally AWS linux (which is based on cent).