Comments for Do Distrowatch's statistics equate popularity?

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#1 /* 15 months, 8 days ago */
Those numbers are just an indication of the level of interest. Ubuntu was instrumental in bringing a lot of people into Linux. Now, a lot of those newbies are looking around wondering if there is more to Linux than Ubuntu. The reports coming out of those trying PCLinuxOS have been mostly positive.

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=200 ...

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?board=45. ...

Therefore the interest and the number of clicks. No conspiracy. No need to get all upset about it. Ah, it is you Ohly. So, you are still carrying that ax against PCLOS. Please, give it a rest.
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Gravatar Justathought Anonymous User
#2 /* 15 months, 8 days ago */
It's obvious that Distrowatch's ranking system is skewed. If you look at all the distros that are primarily used for internet servers (Red Hat, CentOS), they rank very low. This is because they're out there doing their job as server machines, and don't have someone sitting behind them on a browser making visits to the Distrowatch site every day. Fedora ranks fairly well yet is basically considered the same as the two mentioned (no offense to Fedora fans).

I'd also like to suggest that since the use of live CD setups, it's become easier to fake out the ranking system. Someone can boot up a group of work or school computers very quickly using live CDs just to make hits on the site, and then revert them to their normal state.
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Gravatar rdeckard Anonymous User
#3 — Author comment /* 15 months, 8 days ago */
Justathought: perhaps I don't fully understand the mentality of finding out about distributions. If I read about a distro on LinuxToday or a review site, why would I go Distrowatch for more information? I would go straight to the distribution's home page but perhaps I'm just perverse like that.

I agree it's not a conspiracy. I'm not saying anything about the actual quality of any distro here or that certain distributions don'e deserve the traffic they get — quite the opposite. The issue I have is the statistics do not substantiate some people's claims, mainly: "this distro is more popular because it has more hits per day on Distrowatch!"

It may very well be true in some cases but it's severely flawed logic to take the HPDs and jump to a popularity ranking.
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Gravatar Oli Numero Uno
#4 /* 15 months, 8 days ago */
Justathought: perhaps I don't fully understand the mentality of finding out about distributions. If I read about a distro on LinuxToday or a review site, why would I go Distrowatch for more information? I would go straight to the distribution's home page but perhaps I'm just perverse like that.¨


Ohly, I agree completely with you, but apparently some people use Distrowatch as a sort of distro home page. See Jeff Cobb's first comment on the first link I linked for you. (Buy the way, why is the link broken? Let me try posting it again with taggs.)

The link


I agree it's not a conspiracy. I'm not saying anything about the actual quality of any distro here or that certain distributions don'e deserve the traffic they get — quite the opposite. The issue I have is the statistics do not substantiate some people's claims, mainly: "this distro is more popular because it has more hits per day on Distrowatch!"


Again, I agree that there may be some people getting the wrong idea about the meaning of the stats, but is it really that big of a deal? Why make such a fuss about a few misguided comments. I imagine that this article is part of the reason you posted this entry:

Is Ubuntu losing its crown to PCLinuxOS?

I think the author must have been surprised about the place PCLOS occupies in distrowatch's rankings and thought it was news enough to make an article about it. He even qualified his comments a bit.

It may very well be true in some cases but it's severely flawed logic to take the HPDs and jump to a popularity ranking.


You have to admit that, back when Ubuntu reach that place in distrowatch, the same thing happened with many over enthusiastic Ubuntu users. Big deal! No need to come up with conspiracy theories, or to rely on "anecdotal evidence¨ to paint a whole community as fanatical. Read the comments that were favorable to PCLOS on those articles and you will see, for the vastly most part, that they are very reasonable, level headed, and fair. The fact is that PCLinuxOS is grabbing a lot of attention because it has a lot to give. (Let me try to post that other link again as well.)

Happy PCLOS Users

Links fixed by Oli
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Gravatar Justathought Anonymous User
#5 — Author comment /* 15 months, 7 days ago */
No the system really hates your links! I caught the raw data on my magical admin RSS feed so I'll squirt the right links in place for you.
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Gravatar Oli Numero Uno
#6 — Author comment /* 15 months, 7 days ago */
They point where they should now? Anyway

but is it really that big of a deal?
No but it just niggles away at me and the amount of people that read it in one place and re-blog it as if it's Gospel. As I said to begin with, this post has been brewing for a long time and yes it was the Tectonic post that tipped me over the edge -- but that really is one of the more balanced posts I've read over the past few months and not really the style of post this is targeting.

Re: fanatics, you're reading too deep into what I really said. Yes every community has them but they are usually a tiny, yet vocal, minority. Yeah plenty of people would love PCLinuxOS - it's a great distro! My only beef was the level of maturity shown against some criticisms.

That episode was just an example of fanaticism. I've had similar, yet smaller doses of it from other people in other places for other distros. Perhaps I'm just abrasive and deserve what I get but there you go.

The important part over what I was saying about them is that different communities have different levels of fanatics. The older and more regimented a product is, the less sexy it seems and the less likely you're going to have people swinging from the rafters screaming about it.
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Gravatar Oli Numero Uno
#7 /* 15 months, 7 days ago */
What I had rather see is a day to day listing of what Os's and their collective browsers hit the DW page...I'd find that information much more interesting than their top 100 list.
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Gravatar Therat Anonymous User
#8 /* 15 months, 7 days ago */
Thanks for your honesty, it is refreshing. But, I really hope you are able to find inspiration on some other topic. How about that OOXML thingy going on, he? What do you think? They are sure trying to cement the lock-in don't you think?

ODF and OOXML: Something New to Ponder

Sayonara, bee good, peace.
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Gravatar Justathought Anonymous User
#9 — Author comment /* 15 months, 7 days ago */
Another good, yet irrelevant (here) example of proportionate fanaticism is the Apple community vs the Windows community... Hell even Apple vs Windows + Linux. They've practically got a religion going on over there!

The whole document standards debate is far bigger than choosing between two standards. It goes deep into the corruption of democracy through commercial lobbyists, something that is happening right across the board and something that something as socialist (in a good way) as FOSS has a hard time competing with because there just isn't the same amount of money on its side...

It would help if OpenOffice applications (et al FOSS MS-alternatives) were as good as their MS counterparts in terms of interface experience. You may disagree with me but I really think MS has made something quite beautiful and functional with Office 2007... They have the advantage of time but I guess it won't be long before Sun and IBM get OO and Lotus Symphony to the same level of user interface.

It's mainly that reason I haven't aired any views on OOXML vs ODF before. I think ODF is clearly the better standard but I totally sympathise with anybody for wanting to work in MS Office over OpenOffice. I'd get creamed if I pushed that sort of argument out as its own proper post =)
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Gravatar Oli Numero Uno
#10 /* 15 months, 7 days ago */
The was an artcile at reviewlinux.com inviting all to vote as the webmaster was comparing the distrowatch.com hit counter to actual people using the linux? I think this vote is not perfect a starting point and enough to raise a bit of conversation.

reviewlinux article: http://www.reviewlinux.com/?m=show&id=7516

Vote on frontpage: http://www.reviewlinux.com right side menu amoungst all the other stuff.
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Gravatar joey Anonymous User
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