A reasonably accurate review, in my opinion. I notice that the Distrowatch user rating has dropped from 8.7 or so the last time I checked (maybe a year ago) to 8.4. I also notice that the "page hit" ranking dropped from 7-8 to 11 since I last looked. I think that I'll take some time during today's snow storm to read the recent reviews and see if I can figure out what is going on.

    That test system was kind of anemic. Not surprised that they didn't think it ran all that fast.

      tomscharbach @JoshStrobl and I aren't nearly as aggressive at hyping the improvements we are making to Solus as people had come to expect of the project before we took over in 2018. Couple that with a few distros gaining significant popularity, we slipped in the ranking. Hits Per Day dropping just means we aren't "trending" as much as we used to.

        DataDrake That test system was kind of anemic. Not surprised that they didn't think it ran all that fast.

        I hadn't looked at the specs. An AMD A4 and a 50GB mechanical hard drive? No kidding.

            DataDrake some users used Solus on older machines, other "minus" concerns Solus installer and SSC which rewritten.

                George Sure, but even by 3-5 years ago standards that's a pretty slow machine. Just pointing it out.

                We all know the installer and SC need a fire lit under them.

                    Let's not forget the rankings are based off internal (distrowatch.com) page clicks and really just meant for fun.

                      Brucehankins Let's not forget the rankings are based off internal (distrowatch.com) page clicks and really just meant for fun.

                      Well, I don't pay much attention to Distrowatch, visiting once a year or so for this or that, but the drop in user ratings (not the rankings, which are page hits as you point out) was worth looking at, it seems to me, because folks get information (good or bad, informed or not) from reading them.

                      Most ratings were 8/9/10. I did a quick read of the "rating = 5 or less" reviews during the last six months, and the main complaints seem to be about the Software Center:

                      "The big Problem after Installation was, the Software updater always stopped downloading after some Seconds without giving any notice why. Network was not the Cause, so there was no way for me to update the OS."

                      "Updater is very, very, very slow. Walk away, get coffee, walk the dog, have a shower, go out with your SO for dinner and a movie.. and maybe its done."

                      "[T]he slow (painfully slow) and clunky (freezes and aborts frequently) package management will make you consider not only other distributions but will frustrate you so much you actually consider going back to Windows."

                      "Just to update the system, I (most recently) had to restart the process twelve times as downloads would hang and the process abort. Internet connection is fine, other distributions are fine. The problem is Solus."

                      Not surprising, and the complaints align with Smith's review and what we all know already.

                        6GB...is that 2X3GB? Or a single stick? When did they make those?

                        I come here (DW) every once in a while and this is the first time I've seen a
                        'feature story' but still, meh- I couldn't identify with it but possibly I've lived and breathed this for a while so..Subjective. If you drank a shot of, ummm, ice tea, every time he wrote "next we do this" "then we do that" "next we"--then you'd be really full of Jameson's, oops, I mean ice tea---it's a review written in second person which grated. I've never encountered the problems the author did, especially with password shutouts, but I will give him the SC. But a "75%" failure rate? And I started with Solus on a single 4GB stick. Also the tried and true "conservative repo" which I find anything but.
                        Then near the end "In a lot of ways running Solus felt, to me, to be similar to running Artix Linux just before I started this review. The two projects have a number of things in common. They are both rolling releases, both use dark themes, both ship with a fairly small collection of software we can build on. I feel as though Artix places more focus on being lightweight with better performance while Solus places more emphasis on looking pretty and having features like a modern-looking notification area. "
                        Not sure I agree here.

                        He segued back to first-person in the end which helps. He had a lot of great things to say as well.
                        Thanks for sharing, George
                        edit: fixed omitted word

                            brent Maybe he's accounting for swap? That would mean technically I'm running on 5.7gb? I do have to agree with him though that Solus puts more focus on "looking pretty" (see also better usability and more user friendly). Having used some distros that focus on being lightweight like Puppy and Peppermint, I'm very willing to sacrifice 500-60mb to get a product that's just enjoyable to use. Again, not saying a super light XFCE or LXDE is bad if that's your thing, just saying if you run anything made in the last 10 years you don't need to worry about counting each kilobyte that probably you DE uses.

                                Brucehankins Maybe he's accounting for swap? That would mean technically I'm running on 5.7gb?

                                When I had 8GB I always called it 8GB, I never considered the 2GB I setup for swap. I thank you for correcting me as far as speaking literally---I never want to judge information unfairly. Sluggishness had always been periodic but I still have not had the experiences the reviewer has had. Even though both of us, technically, ran on 6GB-even though I don't remember him saying so.
                                I'll concede a second thing to your reply and that is 'pretty' kept me here, i.e. NO DE I ever tried could render hi-res and graphics as smooth as Solus.
                                Still I don't think Solus values aesthetics over performance; I don't see the tilt there. I'd call it a draw.
                                I plead subjective!🙂

                                  for an old computer like that you'd think they'd at least go with the Mate edition or something. that said, one of my computers is running Budgie just fine on a 2008 Athlon64 X2, albeit with a small SSD.

                                  tomscharbach a 50GB mechanical hard drive

                                  1. 🙂

                                  brent 6GB...is that 2X3GB? Or a single stick? When did they make those?

                                  my last computer (2010) came with 3 2GB sticks originally. six slots total. dunno how common that is/was.

                                      Shows how configuration matters I guess...the only issue I ever had was updates via the SC. I only update via terminal. Everything else is blazing fast. Only time I restart is if there is a new kernel. Love me some Solus - just got a friend to upload on an old Sony laptop. He's loving it too although given he just got on GNU/Linux, expect him to hop...only to come back home.

                                        jppelt tried the hoping thing, still throw something new on a spare disk or in a VM every now and then to check out or for a "community challenge". Always come back to Solus. I've got Garuda installed on another disk now and haven't touched it in weeks....just need to wipe it and have more file storage room.