Mint Overtakes Ubuntu for #1 spot

[Robin]

There's another important reason. People often don't want to change if Ubuntu works for them.

Bingo. The same applies to Windows and Mac. If it ain't broke and there's no compelling reason to change - especially to a new and unfamiliar system - they're not going to. And no amount of pressure from some rabid Linux Evangelist will encourage them to try it.

-Robin

[MALsPa]

There's another important reason. People often don't want to change if Ubuntu works for them.

So true.

An interesting thing about the DW rankings: Even though Mint is #1 in the page hit rankings, the Ubuntu forums are much more active than the Mint forums. It doesn't even seem close. I know that there could be various reasons for that, but looking at the activity over there, I find it difficult to believe that Mint is really as popular as Ubuntu. I know I could be wrong, but that's how it looks to me.

[exploder]

On the subject of the Ubuntu forums, if you look in the other OS section, Mint seems to be the leading topic of interest.

[RedLeg]

Although not as active, I have found the Mint forums to be much more helpful and friendly than the Ubuntu forums. A lot less smug in the room with Mint users.

[The-Wizard]

the Ubuntu forums are much more active than the Mint forums.

could be that mint being easy to install and run we dont have as many problems

wizard

[MALsPa]

could be that mint being easy to install and run we dont have as many problems

Sure.

For what it's worth, check out these stats from a few moments ago:


From the Mint forums:

In total there are 155 users online :: 16 registered, 0 hidden and 139 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)
Most users ever online was 333 on Fri Jul 23, 2010 11:58 am

Total posts 414307 • Total topics 68758 • Total members 49618


From the Ubuntu forums:

Currently Active Users: 14800 (549 members and 14197 guests and 54 Spiders)

Most users ever online was 43,695, August 5th, 2010 at 08:14 AM.

Threads: 1,620,604, Beans: 10,308,510, Members: 1,314,020, Active Members: 52,035

[nunol]

Out of curiosity I just checked the Distrowatch numbers

7 Day listing

Fedora 3795 (down)
Mint 3066 (up)
Ubuntu 1872 (down

30 day listing

Mint 2703 (down)
Ubuntu 2268 (down)
Fedora 47 (up)

Take a look at the 3 months data span, it shows Mint gaining on Ubuntu:
3 months listing

Ubuntu 2562 (down)
Mint 2504 (up)
Fedora 1800 (up)

All Mint needs to make sure it get's number one on these three listings it's a Mint release (KDE, LMDE, etc) or a review/news_article on Distrowatch in the next weeks. It just shows that this ranking means very little...

Take a look at the 3 months data span today:
3 months listing

Ubuntu 2531 (down)
Mint 2525 (=)
Fedora 1801 (up)

[Jesse654]

Just today (S1106.11), Linux Mint barely snuck into first place over Ubuntu in DistroWatch's 3-month list. I think this is important.

The 7-day term list on DW's home page is too variable, IMO. Even the 1-month list can change frequently. On the 1-month list, Mint was number 1 for a week in the middle of April, then returned to it's long-standing number 2 spot. (As others have mentioned, this is probably due to various release notices.) But for the last 2 weeks, it has jumped to and stayed in the number one position. Ubuntu actually fell to 3rd for at least the last week and a half (from at least last Wednesday), with Fedora taking the 2nd spot.

Now that Mint is first in the 3-month list, I believe this signals a longer, ie, more stable, trend. I hope that Clem and all the helpful people on the forums will take this to heart as many new users come across (from Ubuntu, no doubt). Ubuntu is reported to have many millions of users. If even a small percentage of them come to Linux Mint, Mint will grow by leaps and bounds.

Mint: Take a deep breath, then smile.

[MALsPa]

Now that Mint is first in the 3-month list, I believe this signals a longer, ie, more stable, trend.

I believe that it only reflects page hits.

[odo5435]

I believe that it only reflects page hits.

Well said. This thread should really be titled "Mint Overtakes Ubuntu for #1 Spot on a Web Site's List of Pages People Want to Look At".

For all we know there could be one fanatically dedicated Mint fan out there who is constantly clicking away at the Mint page link! Who knows whether any of the hits are now or will ever become Mint users?

@MALsPa's comparison of numbers of forum users seems to me to be a more accurate indicator of actual users of each OS. When those numbers start to become similar there might be something to crow about.

[nunol]

Because Mint releases are not at the same time for all editions Mint can get a steady flow of page clicks on Distrowatch and that helps Mint overtake Ubuntu. Don't forget that Ubuntu, unlike Mint releases each edition under it's own name so you had to add to Ubuntu all others *ubuntus (Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, etc).

With the next Mint KDE, Mint LXDE and LMDE new spin Mint should get a few more clicks.

[Jesse654]

According to DistroWatch, "Only one hit per IP address per day is counted. The figures...represent the average number of hits per day for the specified period." So this is one indicator of the success of Linux Mint. And since MInt leads in the 3-month column now, after a steady rise to get there, I think that's important and relevant, especially when looking at desktop systems.

There are many other indicators as well. E.g., Clem says in the "Monthly Stats – May 2011" blog entry, "Our website attracted 14% more people than usual and our user base grew by 10%." I think these are significant numbers as well.

[MALsPa]

"We're #1!!! Um... right?"

[exploder]

I noticed Ubuntu took the lead when they released the first 11.10 betas but Mint quickly regained the number one spot. I suspect that people just aren't that crazy about all of the bugs remaining in Unity.

[MALsPa]

And maybe it isn't just the bugs. Looking at screen shots and reading about things (I admit, I haven't actually tried it), Unity doesn't seem like something I'd warm up to, even if it was bug-free. But I guess a lot of people like that kind of desktop.

[nunol]

Yesterday Linux Mint 11 review at distrowatch should help Mint get some more HPD.

On June 30 Ubuntu releases the 11.10 Alfa 2 but Mint is supposed to release something soon, probably a KDE RC version as some ISO is already testing.

[exploder]

Unity isn't such a bad idea, it just constantly produces errors. Ubuntu is just too caught up in releasing on time instead of focusing on quality.

[samriggs]

Unity isn't such a bad idea, it just constantly produces errors. Ubuntu is just too caught up in releasing on time instead of focusing on quality.

Sounds like something micro$oft does all time, get it out there to make the money (except ubuntu doesn't make money)and worry about patching it up later
The thing I left ubuntu over was unity like a lot of others, not for it being buggy as hack but for the look and feel of it alone, it looked like a big ole tablet or something, They should give choices to leave it the old way and to have no side menu (it's just pretty much another shortcut link anyhow) that takes over way to much space even if it disapears, but for those who like another shortcut bar that way that is great for them, but give the rest of us a choice. Everyone likes it different, some like the bottom docking, I perfer a panel top and bottom some like one panel, so many choices but that is the great thing about choices, people can have it the way they like it. I tried and tested unity when it came out just to see if I could warm up to it.
Thats why I'm here now, I just wish I tried mint 2 years ago I would of never left it.
Sam

[AlbertP]

They have delayed Ubuntu 6.06 some months, why couldn't they delay Natty because Unity wasn't yet stable?
It looks like Mr. Shuttleworth has a different vision on this.

But anyway, we are at Mint right now, where many users are OK with keeping Gnome 2.32 for the time being. We do not have to follow Ubuntu in all its crazy decisions. And we don't have to release at a fixed date, when there are still bugs floating around. We can let Ubuntu fix some of them before releasing Mint.

[MALsPa]

Ubuntu is just too caught up in releasing on time instead of focusing on quality.

Yeah, that's Ubuntu's major drawback. But I sorta like that they release on schedule, as long as I'm avoiding everything but LTS versions (for the most part), and installing the LTS versions a month or two after they're released!

As long as they keep releasing according to schedule, it seems like much of the Linux world will be following, looking to see what Ubuntu's doing. Criticism comes with being a leader, and Ubuntu continues to receive its fair share of criticism. But they've certainly established themselves as one of the leaders in Linux, wouldn't you say? Seems like even Mint is still in a position where it mostly reacts to what Ubuntu does. Hope I'm not ruffling too many feathers here with my observations, but that's how things look from where I sit.