The choice of Unity as the default interface in recent Ubuntu distributions might explain the
losing of popularity of Ubuntu. But which distribution is now the most popular? It’s Linux Mint.
From DistroWatch.com:
Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java and other components. It also adds a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, and a web-based package installation interface. Linux Mint is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories.
I’m not (yet) a serious Linux user but I must say that I’m a bit disappointed by the latest Ubuntu 11.10 (because of Unity). I like Ubuntu but I don’t like Unity. And in the latest Ubuntu, even when the classic desktop is back, some menus like the administration one are no longer available (see Ubuntu 11.10 Upgrade: Missing Your System Menu (Preferences and Administration) Launchers?).
I will test Minit asap and maybe I will use it for developing my 3d routines 😉
“I like Ubuntu but I don’t like Unity”
You’re not the only one. Gnome3 with Shell isn’t choice of mine too. I redid my ubu into kubuntu because of that. Besides – those new versions are less stable than 10.10 or 10.04
Well, I think Unity will get more options to customize it in future as Canonical said that recently. Same will be with Gnome Shell. Mint surely is the best similar to former Ubuntu incarnaton now but if You want that complex customization level You can try Kubuntu as well and maybe better KDE distro like Chakra.
include the disclamer as well: “The DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking statistics are a light-hearted way of measuring the popularity of 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.com was accessed each day, nothing more.” from: http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity
More news = more hits =/= more popular
That graph implies Ubuntu has been loosing popularity from its inception (first release was in fall 2004), which is bizarre and tells just how wrong it is to use DistroWatch to measure popularity.
You should give 12.04 another look.
I missed the 11.xx and 10.xx releases as I was working on MAC and PC machines. Wanted to look at Ubuntu for a decent four core machine I had and absolutely love the concepts behind unity.
I am not a coder type though more maths, stats, and finance. Can see a lot of uses for lens concept.
MC