DistroWatch is a popular website which provides news, popularity rankings, and other general information about various Linux distributions as well as other free software/open-source operating systems such as OpenSolaris and BSD. It now contains information on several hundred distributionsTemplate:Fact.
The site maintains extensive comparison charts detailing differences between the package sets and software revisions of different distributions. It also provides some general characteristics of distributions such as the price and the supported processor architecturesTemplate:Fact.
Distrowatch has a monthly donations programme, a joint initiative between DistroWatch and two online shops selling low-cost CDs and DVDs with Linux, BSD and other open source softwareTemplate:Fact. Since the launch of the Donations Programme in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of $17,283 USD to various open source software projects[1].
Accuracy[]
It was originally published on May 31 2001, and is maintained by Ladislav Bodnar.[2] Despite Bodnar saying "I'd like to believe that there is some truth in the figures, but in all honesty, they really don't mean all that much and should not be taken very seriously",[3] DistroWatch's statistics are often cited as a guide to the popularity of various distributions. Its "page hit counter" has been called "the best 'barometer' of Linux distributions on the Internet".[4]
It has been pointed out that DistroWatch's system is prone to fraudulent statistics, and certain distros have been accused of attempting this.[5]
Top distro over the years[]
| Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Blue | #1 Rank |
| Light Blue | #2 Rank |
| Lightest Blue | #3 Rank |
| Year | Rank | Top Distros | Hits Per Day | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002[6] | 1 | Mandrake | 473 | Currently called Mandriva |
| 2 | Red Hat Linux | 453 | ||
| 3 | Gentoo | 326 | ||
| 2003[7] | 1 | Mandrake | 770 | |
| 2 | Red Hat Linux | 631 | ||
| 3 | Knoppix | 489 | ||
| 2004[8] | 1 | Mandrake | 1457 | |
| 2 | Fedora | 1202 | Community-based Red Hat Linux | |
| 3 | Knoppix | 910 | ||
| 2005[9] | 1 | Ubuntu | 2546 | |
| 2 | Mandriva | 1664 | ||
| 3 | SUSE | 1451 | ||
| 2006[10] | 1 | Ubuntu | 2640 | |
| 2 | openSUSE | 2027 | Community-based SUSE Linux | |
| 3 | Fedora | 1444 | ||
| 2007[11] | 1 | Ubuntu | 2519 | |
| 2 | PCLinuxOS | 2502 | ||
| 3 | openSUSE | 1596 | ||
| 2008[12] | 1 | Ubuntu | 2346 | As of Template:Release date and age |
| 2 | openSUSE | 1490 | ||
| 3 | Fedora | 1384 |
Example data[]
| No. | Last 12 Months[13] | Last 6 Months[14] | Last 3 Months[15] | Last 30 Days[16] | Last 7 Days[17] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ubuntu | Ubuntu | Ubuntu | openSUSE | openSUSE |
| 2 | PCLinuxOS | openSUSE | openSUSE | Ubuntu | Ubuntu |
| 3 | openSUSE | Fedora | Fedora | Fedora | Linux Mint |
| 4 | Fedora | Linux Mint | Linux Mint | Linux Mint | Fedora |
| 5 | Linux Mint | PCLinuxOS | PCLinuxOS | PCLinuxOS | Debian |
References[]
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ Groklaw - Some Facts about openSUSE and Distrowatch Figures - A Correction
- ↑ www.zenwalk.org - Pages
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
- ↑ DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD
External links[]
Template:Portal
- DistroWatch
- DistroWatch one of "Top 101 web sites" ranked by PC Magazine
Template:Website-stub
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