Distrowatch

Axios

Can somebody explain to somebody that prob doesnt care but is just curious.
How a distro like cachyos can jump to the #2 spot.
Solus was #13 awhile back then dropped back to where its normally at seems to be no
reason the way they rate stuff seems so crooked..lol

I dont spend alot time worry about ratings I go by what I use and what works for me and
my experience with it.

Like Solus was using before the big crash rode that out and just keep doing updates
without any major issues kinda like energizer bunny..lol

brent

MXLinux is usually #1 for like 8 years in a row now which defies all belief and tells me everything I need to know. Jessie's list has always been smoke and mirrors.
I think at the end of the day they are counting downloads since there is no way to count actual installs.
But I'm not sure that is actually correct.

edit: parties pushing their distros may be downloading it 100X a day to keep it in top 5 visibility/word of mouth, too

Akelun

I heard from a Linux youtuber a while ago that Distrowatch rating are mostly a rating of "curiosity", based on the number of times the page for such distribution had been consulted on their website... And that would explain the rating for CachyOS since I saw some famous Linux youtubers who labelled it as a very stable, perfect (almost magical) arch-based distribution which would be the most performant for running video games (despite some other youtubers made benchmarks proving it's not completly true, even if it has great performance anyway). So, probably a lot of users knowing distrowatch decided to take a look at it and helped rising CachyOS' spot.

BUT I'm not 100% sure of it. I'm telling that just from my memory of what a Linux Youtuber said, so I can't tell I'm really reliable on that explanation.

Original-Syn

They use hit-based counter with little to no blocking of bots. Search bots and just people using bots to hit certain distro pages. They have also had problems with fake reviews in the past, but don't know if it is still an issue. It is a site that is stuck in the early 2000s when it launched.

Their ratings don't really mean much.

Axios

Thanks for replies was just curious what people thought of them
mostly fell inline with what I thought.

brent

Axios the truth is definitely in all replies. The list is the list and it's infamous. but all around I really enjoy this site for the up to date info. I have enjoyed discovering stuff like open mandriva and mageia and bodhi and bunsen. lots of cool distros out there. and his linux news is always up to date. @Original-Syn is right, it has a 2002 database vibe to the looks. unique joint.

Original-Syn

brent I agree with the information. The central news and list in general has been a great source throughout the years. Especially considering just how many distros have come and gone. Would have been great to have in the 90s when I got started, lol.

SethStorm666

Don't put much into it. I'm amazed it's still around and it haven't changed style the last 25 years or so.

AlphaElwedritsch

I like to surf there every now and then for sentimental reasons. It takes me back to my early days, and I'm surprised that some of the distributions are still around. But nothing more...

Axios

I more or less just use it to see about different distros that popup.

banger

This prompted me to have a look at MX Linux KDE. Most of it is pretty old like Plasma V5 but the installer is quite impressive and smooth. Don't like the launcher as it's too much like XFCE. So I will stick with Solus Plasma. 🙂

brent

banger tried MX a couple years ago. I did not warm up to it. The whole gigantic synaptic enchilada did not agree with me as a software center. or the overall graphics, resolution, rendering, spacing etc. but that was a couple yrs ago,

AlphaElwedritsch

banger So I will stick with Solus Plasma. 🙂

Sometimes you just have to eat out to realize that it tastes best at home...

tomscharbach

From Distrowatch: "The DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking statistics are a light-hearted way of measuring interest in Linux distributions and other free operating systems among the visitors of this website. They correlate neither to usage nor to quality and should not be used to measure the market share of distributions. They simply show the number of times a distribution page on DistroWatch was accessed each day, nothing more."

The rankings are not meant to have any particular significance in terms of a distributions use.

Resource: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity