Linux Mint is now the #1 distribution on DistroWatch. What does this mean?

  • After a long time, MX Linux stops being #1 on DistroWatch
  • Linux Mint, new leader of this ranking.

Linux Mint, number 1

There is a change of leader in the league DistroWatch. It's been more than a year now, here at Linux Addicts we publish an article about MX Linux, which was the perennial number 1 on DistroWatch. We published it because it had been at the top of the chart for a long time without anyone seeming to be able to overshadow it. At the end of 2024, the ranking has changed, and it is now Linux Mint who occupies the first position in this metric.

Linux Mint is the choice of many users who are not entirely happy with Ubuntu. It is, let's say, its favorite child, in the sense of the most advanced. It does not seem like the happiest family, since Mint rejects some things from its ancestor, such as completely reject the use of snap packagesIt is available with the Cinnamon desktop, but also in Xfce and MATE, the latter being my recommendation for low-resource machines.

What really happened and what does it mean that Linux Mint is moving up on DistroWatch?

DistroWatch is a portal where they publish summaries and links to practically every new release in the Linux world, and not just Linux; there is also space for BSD, among others. They also show a section with new distributions, but in short it is a portal about Linux distributions.

And what does your ranking tell us? Truth be told, not much. What it actually does is measure user interest in Linux distributions on the same portalThis doesn't mean that the first one on the list is the most popular distribution; it means that it's where people are accessing the same web page the most. In other words, what's happened is that, after I'd say years of MX Linux getting the most clicks, it's now Linux Mint that's getting the most interest.

But all in the same portal.

One thing needs to be made clear. The most popular Linux distribution is Ubuntu, and it now appears in sixth place on DistroWatch. Why isn't it higher up if it's so popular? Because we already know almost everything about Ubuntu, because we see daily news about Canonical's proposal and we don't reflect that in DistroWatch, or not enough to make it appear in first place. The DistroWatch ranking shows that people see the news there, and little else.

Even so, it is still newsworthy, and it is surprising that there are changes after so much time.


Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: AB Internet Networks 2008 SL
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.