this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 6 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (9 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

Mint is better Ubuntu

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Actually Mint is un-enshittified Ubuntu

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

My favorite edition!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

better Ubuntu

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Probably depends how you define things. Like, is Xubuntu Xubuntu or Ubuntu with Xfce included by default? How much change is necessary before it's not "debian with added bits"?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Probably based on how the OS defined itself. Steam is able to gather information like this easily.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I guess GNU/Linux, musl+busybox/Linux in not really popular

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I don't think that either of them count as 'Linux distributions'. And sadly, it matters. Even the bugs are not consistent across distros.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I think a lot of people just got trolled in this thread.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

snufkin linux

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Ubuntu 100%, if you count how many distros are ubuntu based (and collaterally debian based), but I believe it is the most used one even if you only count official ubuntu releases

Maybe arch would be quite high, if you count the steamdeck as desktop (maybe), and the big increase on arch users in the past couple of years (wen't from being rare to 1 in 3 users saying "I use arch btw")

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

In professional work space, ubuntu will probably be highest. Second place I would guess Fedora

As personal workstation I would guess arch (even without steam deck) followed by mint or some flavour of Ubuntu

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

I don't think Arch is more used than Ubuntu, unless maybe if you count all the Ubuntu flavors separately

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Ubuntu for sure, about every companies I worked at were using Ubuntu as main dev. And now in the new company I work for, it's WSL2 in Windows, using Ubuntu too.

Only non-Ubuntu I used in companies was CentOS.

So pretty sure Ubuntu is the most popular/used.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It's the only version I've come across as a pre-installed option for bought systems, particularly from Dell. A big thing going for it is if you search 'how to do X in Linux' you can pretty safely bet some or even most top hits are Ubuntu related.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

There is not a reliable way to determine that, by design.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's because SteamOS, the operating system preinstalled on the Steam Deck, is based on Arch.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't understand why they haven't offered a way to filter out the Deck from those results. It skews every category (CPU, GPU etc.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Not really..That's not a linux user metric it's a steam user metric. Seems fine to include the steam hardware platform

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Worth keeping in mind that the steam deck uses a distro based on arch, so it might be inflating the arch numbers in that steam survey.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

PC deez nuts

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (7 children)

https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/?ref=itsfoss.com#section-most-popular-technologies-operating-system says for developers: Ubuntu, then WSL, then Debian, then everything else, then Arch, then...

Android also has personal use that ranks higher than WSL but professional use that ranks a tiny bit higher than Debian. Not sure if it's a Linux distro, but it's tangential.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

@[email protected] pretty difficult as there are no accurate figures for Linux distro installs - many sit behind home or corporate firewalls, sharing the same IP addresses.

But back in 2015 Dell was claiming that 42% of their PC sales in China had their Kylin OS installed - https://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/1857948/chinese-os-last-more-40-cent-dell-pcs-china-now-running-homegrown. Kylin has been improving for 23 years now so is a pretty stable Linux OS too I guess.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

At least in the consumer market, most Chinese people still use Windows or macOS. These 42% may be the public sector.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If you count Ubuntu and all disto's base on it as one, then it would top the list.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago

you mean debian, right?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

define "most popular" please

for instance https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity, does that metric fit your definition?

Anyway whatever the answer it doesn't really matters, at the end of the day it is always Linux anyway, regardless of package manager, desktop environment or init.

I'd just warn you against Ubuntu, because its company Canonical is behaving a lot like a young Microsoft these days.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Thst depends in a lot of things.

What do you mean with "PC"? Is a smartphone a PC? Is a steamdeck a PC? The Laptop of a government employee? A Raspberry Pi? What about a TV-box or an e-reader?

Because if you mean in general on non-server hardware it's probably some weird Chinese/indian fork for their government PCs.

Otherwise it could be Arch due to the steam decks, but then again it depends on how tightly you define "distribution". As others have mentioned, is Xubuntu their own distribution or does it count as Ubuntu? What is Mint/Pop!_OS?

But no matter what, it's not MX Linux.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

A smartphone is not a PC I’d wager. People can treat them like ones but then we’d have to be annoying and broaden it beyond what anyone could possibly mean.

Most people mean a non-apple laptop or desktop when they say a PC. It’s widely enough accepted that it shouldn’t be too ambiguous when used.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

PC is a computer based on IBM PC compatible standard, so usually x86 processor architecture with compatible with it components.

The term is so common that in practical language people started to use it as a replacement of the "desktop PC" or overall anything that is not pocketable or Apple.

But I guess with such question from OP it does not matter, as computers at the edge of the definition (like x86 Android tablets) are in a fraction of percent and won't matter in "what's the most popular".

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Amongst Steam users, the most popular desktop distros are:

  • Arch Linux 64 bit 7.66% -0.49%
  • Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS 64 bit 5.54% +5.54%
  • Linux Mint 21.3 64 bit 3.77% +0.21%
  • Manjaro Linux 64 bit 3.42% +0.07%
  • Other 29.41% -1.37%

According to a recent survey.

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