[PCWorld]

Post your comments for As 2012 Dawns, Mint Leads the List of Top Linux Distros here

[JonathanCarter]

I wonder why people keep saying that Debian isn't as user friendly as the other distros. It's stability exactly *makes* is one of the most user friendly distros out there. Is something really user friendly if it has big shiny buttons but doesn't actually work?

[CaniblCat]

As the article implies (but for some reason refuses to point out specifically) the only reason Ubuntu fell to #2 is because of the unity Interface.
If there was still an option to use the classic interface, then it would still be on top. That's actually the reason I stopped at 11.04 and if 12.04 doesn't offer an option to return to the classic GUI, then I'll probably make the switch to Mint as well.

[kurkosdr]

JonathanCarter, on 28 December 2011 - 01:14 PM, said:

I wonder why people keep saying that Debian isn't as user friendly as the other distros. It's stability exactly *makes* is one of the most user friendly distros out there. Is something really user friendly if it has big shiny buttons but doesn't actually work?

+1. Debian is the only distro that actually has a chance of succeding in the market, seriously. It preserves compatibility with existing applications (unlike Ubuntu and Mint which break compatibility every 6 months) and upgrades don't break the OS. These are necessary conditions for an OS to succed, and the so called "user friendly" distros don't have them.

However, Debian doesn't pretend to be suitable for your grandma, be a drop in replacement for Windows or be more hip or "more advanced" than Windows, so it doesn't fit the freetards' agenda.

[kurkosdr]

@JonathanCarter

+1. Debian is the only distro that actually has a chance of succeding in the market, seriously. It preserves compatibility with existing applications (unlike Ubuntu and Mint which break compatibility every 6 months) and upgrades don't break the OS. These are necessary conditions for an OS to succed, and the so called "user friendly" distros don't have them. However, Debian doesn't pretend to be suitable for your grandma, be a drop in replacement for Windows or be more hip or "more advanced" than Windows, so it doesn't fit the freetards' agenda.

[TJCCPA]

I agree that Ubuntu's new interface is a big factor in the change. The other thing is that things just don't work the way they should.

[IanSantopietro]

*facepalm

DistroWatch doesn't publish actual usage numbers. They don't claim to, either. The any distro that gets more clicks on distrowatch will be higher in their numbers.

Most ubuntu users don't get ubuntu from distrowatch. Most don't even know what distrowatch is.

[ruel24]

Distros come and go at the top spot. Mandriva (then Mandrake) held it for quite a few years after nabbing it from Red Hat Linux. Popularity in Linux distros goes in cycles.

Personally, Ubuntu has lost favor due to arrogance. It was the fan base that made them and it was the fan base they turned their backs on, force feeding them things like the Unity desktop. What did they expect would happen? They're a victim of their own success.

[ruel24]

kurkosdr, on 28 December 2011 - 03:44 PM, said:

@JonathanCarter

+1. Debian is the only distro that actually has a chance of succeding in the market, seriously. It preserves compatibility with existing applications (unlike Ubuntu and Mint which break compatibility every 6 months) and upgrades don't break the OS. These are necessary conditions for an OS to succed, and the so called "user friendly" distros don't have them. However, Debian doesn't pretend to be suitable for your grandma, be a drop in replacement for Windows or be more hip or "more advanced" than Windows, so it doesn't fit the freetards' agenda.

Wrong... PCLinuxOS has been a rolling release forever, and unlike Debian, it's actually up to date. Debian is too slow to update for most. PCLinuxOS is made for the newbie without getting in the way of the experienced. No one distro is for everyone, though.

[WayneVining]

Check again! Linux Mint is Ubuntu with a windows like gui...

[WayneVining]

WayneVining, on 30 December 2011 - 11:33 AM, said:

Check again! Linux Mint is Ubuntu with a windows like gui...

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Linux_mint

[ithink314]

" 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.com was accessed each day, nothing more."

PC world could provide a service by using their own user agent data.

[waldojim]

ruel24, on 28 December 2011 - 07:45 PM, said:

Wrong... PCLinuxOS has been a rolling release forever, and unlike Debian, it's actually up to date. Debian is too slow to update for most. PCLinuxOS is made for the newbie without getting in the way of the experienced. No one distro is for everyone, though.

The goal of Debian has very little to do with 'up to date'. It has everything to do with STABLE.

[waldojim]

WayneVining, on 30 December 2011 - 11:33 AM, said:

Check again! Linux Mint is Ubuntu with a windows like gui...

No. There is very little, if anything close to Windows about Mint.

Mint was Ubuntu with CODECS and HARDWARE DRIVERS included that Ubuntu wouldn't touch. Now even that has shifted a bit, as Ubuntu bent to user demands and started including the drivers.. or rather, made them easier to acquire.

[crosswordbob]

waldojim, on 30 December 2011 - 10:50 PM, said:

ruel24, on 28 December 2011 - 07:45 PM, said:

Wrong... PCLinuxOS has been a rolling release forever, and unlike Debian, it's actually up to date. Debian is too slow to update for most. PCLinuxOS is made for the newbie without getting in the way of the experienced. No one distro is for everyone, though.

The goal of Debian has very little to do with 'up to date'. It has everything to do with STABLE.

Absolutely. Though from experience, I can say that it is a double-edged sword. Our company uses Debian for many of our production hosts because of this stability, but it does mean that we often have to either work around known and fixed bugs or maintain our own patched versions until the up-to-date versions make the distro. However, they are getting better at pushing releases out now—the delays between Woody and Sarge were pretty painful.

[bkerensa]

Why is it that people keep writing articles and basing distro ranking on distrowatch which really plays no valid role in ranking distros.

[waldojim]

crosswordbob, on 30 December 2011 - 11:16 PM, said:

Absolutely. Though from experience, I can say that it is a double-edged sword. Our company uses Debian for many of our production hosts because of this stability, but it does mean that we often have to either work around known and fixed bugs or maintain our own patched versions until the up-to-date versions make the distro. However, they are getting better at pushing releases out now—the delays between Woody and Sarge were pretty painful.

That was a terrible lag. While I understood the reasoning, it sure made it easy to think 'why not try something new!?'

[SamuelOrr]

JonathanCarter, on 28 December 2011 - 01:14 PM, said:

I wonder why people keep saying that Debian isn't as user friendly as the other distros. It's stability exactly *makes* is one of the most user friendly distros out there. Is something really user friendly if it has big shiny buttons but doesn't actually work?

I agree. I had always liked Debian but was more involved with the Ubuntu community. I realized the strict quality control and values that go into Debian are much more to my liking. I have switched to Debian full time and have encounted if anything less problems than with Ubuntu.

Also why does distro watch make the news? All their top list is relavant for is how many people click a page on distrowatch.

[Nexus]

kurkosdr, on 28 December 2011 - 03:41 PM, said:

JonathanCarter, on 28 December 2011 - 01:14 PM, said:

I wonder why people keep saying that Debian isn't as user friendly as the other distros. It's stability exactly *makes* is one of the most user friendly distros out there. Is something really user friendly if it has big shiny buttons but doesn't actually work?

+1. Debian is the only distro that actually has a chance of succeding in the market, seriously. It preserves compatibility with existing applications (unlike Ubuntu and Mint which break compatibility every 6 months) and upgrades don't break the OS. These are necessary conditions for an OS to succed, and the so called "user friendly" distros don't have them.

However, Debian doesn't pretend to be suitable for your grandma, be a drop in replacement for Windows or be more hip or "more advanced" than Windows, so it doesn't fit the freetards' agenda.

Debian is still missing something that Ubuntu and Linux Mint both have. Debian doesn't have the sense of "Completeness" that both those other Distro's do (Mint even more so than Ubuntu), in a global market that largely values instant gratification.

I've used all 3 Distributions and consider them all good but by and large I'll pick Mint as a superior distribution day in and day out. I like many want my computer for more than browsing the web, and checking my E-mail. I'm sure you guys aren't much different in that respect and where Mint and to a lesser degree Ubuntu surpass Debian is more functionality and less "work" out of the box to achieve those goals.

To make it short where Debian is losing out to the Mint and Ubuntu is in having what people want now, not after spending time on the CLI or package manager. New users will not appreciate the "Learning Experience" that comes with installing video and audio codecs, they just want their DvD to play. They want to install and play their games not worry about installing the latest version of WINE. These are areas Debian is woefully neglectful of, the desire of a large portion of the prospective new user base.

[waldojim]

Nexus, on 02 January 2012 - 04:30 PM, said:

Debian is still missing something that Ubuntu and Linux Mint both have. Debian doesn't have the sense of "Completeness" that both those other Distro's do (Mint even more so than Ubuntu), in a global market that largely values instant gratification.

I've used all 3 Distributions and consider them all good but by and large I'll pick Mint as a superior distribution day in and day out. I like many want my computer for more than browsing the web, and checking my E-mail. I'm sure you guys aren't much different in that respect and where Mint and to a lesser degree Ubuntu surpass Debian is more functionality and less "work" out of the box to achieve those goals.

To make it short where Debian is losing out to the Mint and Ubuntu is in having what people want now, not after spending time on the CLI or package manager. New users will not appreciate the "Learning Experience" that comes with installing video and audio codecs, they just want their DvD to play. They want to install and play their games not worry about installing the latest version of WINE. These are areas Debian is woefully neglectful of, the desire of a large portion of the prospective new user base.

They are not neglecting anything. They are refusing to use software that cannot be distributed legally. Right there is an issue that many don't really understand. Linux Mint, Mepis, and other similar distributions may be in violation of several laws in many countries because of the software they include - the US included. Debian avoids that stigma by not doing it.