Mint overtakes Fedora on Distrowatch

[Reisswolf]

Isn't anyone else distraught over this development? Why is Fedora having trouble winning new converts?

[sideways]

Fedora is doing just fine, Distrowatch isn't exactly a scientific proof of popularity.

distrowatch isnt even consistent ,, you'll see Mint drop down soon,

[stevea]

My reaction is "Hurrah!". Fedora is a "high rate of change" and "high package count" distro and that means the updates regularly introduce problems. It contains all sorts of half-baked packages that are more than a few tweaks short of useful (gnash immediately comes to mind). We are all beta-testers for RHEL. Also it's a pretty heavy distro and requires a little experience to pare it down for older hardware.

I really hate seeing newbs starting with Fedora - it's a bad choice for people who aren't ready for some whitewater. Anyone who has been with Fedora for a few years has seen update whack their vid monitor or hose their USB or even jumble their disks. This is NOT a distro for folks who can't, or don't have time to repair a frag'ing update. or an install glitch.

Personally I'm getting pretty tired of seeing the constant stream of hihgly repetitive posts from newbs in grub, basic networking, disk partitioning/LVM etc.

[kona0197]

It doesn't surprise me. For newbies Mint just works out of the box. Fedora will probably regain it's spot over Mint sometime in the future.

Originally Posted by kona0197

It doesn't surprise me. For newbies Mint just works out of the box. Fedora will probably regain it's spot over Mint sometime in the future.

thats possible, fedora does have a way to go but i dont think redhats aim is to get Fedora to the Number 1 distro as Fedora is just a test Piece for RHEL

[RupertPupkin]

Fedora is already most likely the #1 distro in terms of actual number of people using it, not in meaningless numbers like distrowatch count or forum subscriber count.

[Dan]

Hmmmm.

If your distro is number one on distrowatch, and maybe even has been for a while, does that mean fifty cents will be enough to buy you a cup of coffee at starbucks along with the "distro popularity" discount?

Dang! Didn't think so, either.


Dan

Got any chocolate doughnuts to go with that beer?... I mean coffee

Wayne

[bob]

Once upon a time in a land not ruled by Redmond, the people all wore Red Hats and Distrowatch saw it was Good and #1.

Then there came a time when the Red Hat makers ceased to make their hats for the people and the people were forced to make their Fedoras and Distrowatch saw it was Good and #1.

But the people had to adjust their Fedoras greatly to accomidate their .mp3 players and longed in vain to go wireless and their very kernels were replaced almost daily and the people said "this is a pain".

And then came a wealthy man from another continent who said: "Take off your Fedoras and become Brown and I will give you your .mp3's and much, but not all of your hardware may now work" and Distrowatch saw it was Good and #1. And the people proclaimed "Sudo, Sudo" and joined in large numbers and life was somewhat easier.

Yet the people longed for another color and to have life's bounties handed to them on a silver platter. Then, poor, yet very talented men created PCLinuxOS and also Mint, which was Brown yet Green! And Distrowatch saw it was Good and #1

And the people had it all, yet they grew bored and said unto Distrowatch: "Whatcha got next?" and Distrowatch presented them with Gentoo 2008 and the people said: "Let us attempt to compile" and were never heard from again.

The moral is "Hold Onto Your Hats 'Cause Something New Is Always Blowing Into Town".

[Dan]

<----<<<< Rotflmao!

[forkbomb]

Originally Posted by Reisswolf

Isn't anyone else distraught over this development? Why is Fedora having trouble winning new converts?

I couldn't care less. And I think most Fedora users couldn't care less. Why do you care where it sits on Distrowatch? (that's a serious question, too, not a smart-***ed rhetorical jab) You do realize that the popularity on Distrowatch has mostly to do with which group of fanboys goes to the site most often to click on the link of their favorite distro, right?

If there's anything I'm distraught with, it's this apparent obsession with Distrowatch's "popularity meter." Distrowatch itself is a great site with lots of info, news, etc, but I couldn't care less about who clicks on which link most.

[Firewing1]

I've spoken about this a few times with a friend, and it basically comes down to what stevea said. From the Fedora Wiki's Overview page:

What is Fedora? Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It is built by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project. The Fedora Project is open and anyone is welcome to join. The Fedora Project is out front for you, leading the advancement of free, open software and content.

Fedora isn't about supporting MP3s, it's about being free (in both senses) as well as bringing us the new, bleeding edge, software. I don't want to generalize and say "most", but a large number of people expect mp3. wifi, java, etc to work out of the box so that's why Ubuntu and Mint (based on Ubuntu) are gaining ground quickly. Don't worry about it - Fedora isn't going away, it just has different goals
Firewing1

[Hlingler]

I'll also second what stevea said: I came into Fedora knowing that it was not a "newbie-friendly" distro, that the software is "bleeding-edge" (="beta"="buggy"), that it was 100% open-source and didn't come boxed with support for proprietary A/V stuff, and that it would take time and effort to maintain. Those are the reasons that I chose it. This may sound harsh, but anyone who slaps a Fedora install disk into their machine and expects everything to "just work", has not done their homework and deserves what they get.

As far as the distrowatch rankings, besides what's already been said, I was not aware that there was a popularity contest running.

V

[Dan]

Originally Posted by Hlingler

... As far as the distrowatch rankings, besides what's already been said, I was not aware that there was a popularity contest running.

V

Hmmmmm.

You've misseed a few staff meetings, haven't you? <....>