Discussion on:

2011: A year full of right and wrong for Linux

Distrowatch is not an accurate representation of distro use. net-a-holics and distro-hopers often visit distrowatch. The website also explains that the figures only show the link to that distro.

To accurately know the actual usage is not possible by seeing distrowatch ranking or facebook or twitter. I can have both facebook and twitter a/c. So I will give 2 votes. After a month, I try Mint 12 and give it a like on facebook. Not even the number of downloads or CDs sold or distributed can accurately give the number of users. Some may copy CDs and give it to friends. Some share single CD to install. Not every user register at forums. In short accurate figure cannot be obtained from Online resources.

Best way to gain accurate statistics, IMO, is to have a registration from the OS. Like Ubuntu friendly. Just like windows programs and windows have an activation key. Since everything is free, so after every fresh install, if Ubuntu can automatically send statistics with all the data like version number and PC architect. This will give near accurate results, atleast much better than all these fuss. The point is will to Community accept this step, or is it too much privacy intruding.

To a certain point, I agree to the author and the negative remarks about Gnome 3 and Unity made me to visit distrowatch. So obviously, i will not look at Ubuntu, since I already have it installed. I am going to look for another distros and begin with *buntu derivatives. It is natural that Ubuntu's rating will stay or decline and hits of all other distros will increase. These negative comments made me to look for an alternative. Had Gnome 3 and Unity did not received negative comments, I would not have bothered to go for another distro. I have 10.04 and plan to upgrade to 12.04. As an end user, I do not tweak much than changing wallpapers

Regarding switching from Windows to Linux, I was prepared to learn new things. There is also a learning curve if you upgrade from XP to Win 7. IF Gnome 3 and Unity are not good DEs than better shift to another distro, mostly Mint.

As we have special packages upgrades, yo can count in a week, how many upgrades you had, and this way know how many - connected to internet and up to date users have -

That is not public, but they know how many are really using their distros.

Thanks for the info.

Completely disagree with you about Unity. I don't love it but I certainly don't hate it either. It's just a basic GUI to cover the needs of use on a tablet. The prejudice you express is just that, prejudice. Grow up...

In online discussions regarding Linux, be it a support forum or an email-list, I think it would be wise to take into consideration that a vast number of Linux-adepts tend to be somewhat autistic as well.

Bodhi Linux is from 2011, so I'd consider it a good year for Linux!

According to the email alerts I'm getting for this discussion, a number of comments are being posted that do not show up on this page, and (judging by the email alerts) are not spammy in content.

This year is a great success for Linux, Android is world smartphone leader and sooner or later will be at tablets too .

At servers Linux is even growing every day.

Ubuntu is making phone and tablets versions - there are an ARM version that can be installed native or inside Androids.

At desktops and at future phone or tablets versions as Android or Chrome OS did IT MUST BE PREINSTALLED in order to grow.

Normal computer users buy a product with whatever OS is installed on it an if it works, they do not replace it. Only a few install other OSs, even newer versions of the OS.

The great news are that Google is betting for Linux, and even games for chrome native client will make grow the casual or even hard gamers Linux users. Perhaps a 64 bit Chrome OS version would make Linux grow even more.

Ubuntu has recently been sold preinstalled at an ATOM machine that - as every ATOM - does not work well with MS WOS and Intel that knows this is investing in Tizen a special Linux for ATOM machines. HP has recently make WebOS opensource and the trend is going this way.

A lot of govs are migrating to Linux desktops, as Venezuela or Cuba, and some big enterprises are in their way.

The desktop linux year perhaps never will arrive, because desktop computers market will be the less important one, but it is the leader at almost all every other segment from pocket computers to servers.

Whereas there is no second opinion about Linux capturing server (70 %) and now android is leading the way in smart phone and tablet market, Linux based better GNU/Linux based Distros for desktop is still 1 % or may be 5 % (acc to one net survey).

There are many advantages of FOSS, still it has many weakness too. This is the reason why Linux Distros are not widely used i home / corporate and small / micro business sector. Easiest is to convert home users who use PC for simple works like net browsing, emails, watching movies, ripping / converting mp3s and burning CD / DVDs and occasionally edit photos.

The supercomputer market where Linux enjoys a 94% share. All of my supercomputers run Linux

Hi,
Never knew this fact. Pleasantly surprised

You area super guy

... time I've seen such a reaction praising Unity. Over all the majority of Linux users I know have tolerated it at best and jumped ship at worst.

And yes, Unity was a terribly low point for Linux this year, and it will continue to be well into 2012. The Unity interface isn't unified at all, its unintuitive and clunky. Many of the things that were easy to do became difficult, and there was a huge amount of problems overlooked and passed over by Cannonical. Heck, the application didn't even feel finished.

It was disappointing for me as an Ubuntu user, and has sent me looking for possible alternatives. I haven't jumped ship yet, as Ubuntu was the distribution that converted me over to Linux finally, and I don't think Cannonical is a zombie like the Linux Foundation. I'm just having to hedge my bets against further disappointment.

Only one of my pc's will run unity, and I don't like it. It doesn't give me the firm feeling of comfort and control that Gnome does. I have several pc's running linux as dual boot, one with xp, one with Vista, and my wife is running puppy 525 happily on a netbook. Her stuff is 90 percent Facebook, so for her a quick boot (45 seconds) and fast running puppy is good for her. Booting up windows 7 on the netbook is a really dreary experience after puppy. But the shining light of reliability, stability, and usability is ubuntu Lucid Lynx on my Acer 5315 laptop. My experience convinced me to finally ditch windows Vista completely on that one. Mint? I've tried several versions on several machines, always looks good and gives good multimedia results, but I have problems with Video drivers, particularly if I want high res, on my LCD tv. Also wireless lan is slower on my machines under mint for reasons I haven't been able to fathom.

I have seen many deep insights as comments. All, it's about the servers... If there is any place where Linux has a fat chance of becoming a top 3 finalist, it's on the server side.
Around me, I see more and more companies seriously looking at Linux on z/OS, not just a few, but hundreds of servers. The new IBM zBX box that runs Linux as well offer great alternatives for expensive Unix servers and Windows servers. Serious companies do this, only to see that the Linux community seems more interested in the fact that Mint is a better Gnome is a better Ubuntu.
Stop. Please. We want the industry to take us seriously, so we have to focus at the things Linux is recognized for, not for what a lot of people WANT it to be...

Gnome 3 is part of the 11.10 distro; I guess I don't understand all the hoopla about Unity and tossing Ubuntu because of it. If you don't like unity just install the gnome packages that are included in the distro and log in to gnome. It is simple, and you can customize gnome to your taste, just like any other distro. Sort of amazes me that people have this Ubuntu hate going all over Unity; seems like a knee jerk reaction to me, when they give you total choice; if you don't like Unity you do not have to use it. Ubuntu is and will always be my number one distro; it is the Linux distro that introduced me to linux and got me interested. Still IMHO the easiest and best for the non Linux geek. I tried MInt, but have to say it can't compete with Ubuntu in ease of use.