I was doing some reading the other night and come across some articles that had some interesting results on this question.

I realize that there are a number of factors regarding this question, and it's hard to find any reliable hard data, given that you can download Linux for free.

But I would have thought that roughly speaking the list would look something like this: 1) Ubuntu (or some of the other *buntu's) 2) Linux Mint etc, etc.

However, depending on the site, it may look very different.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/whats-...x-of-them-all/
https://www.lifewire.com/choose-best...-needs-2201172
https://fossbytes.com/best-linux-dis...hoosing-guide/

Note: It's debatable that you could call Android a Linux distribution, so feel free to provide any thoughts on that. I'd be interested to hear them. I'm **not** asking for any recommendations as I already have made my choice.

There is distrowatch.com too. And I guess is really well known.

We all have different purposes, and it is not because something is popular that it is for you.

Common or popular?

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This is an old chestnut. I normally end up just linking in the answer I gave on the Debian forums a while back, which I shall do again, which goes into more detail than I'm about to:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.p...135165#p657736

The short answer is that Ubuntu is by far the most popular, and there's little debate on that. However, it gets harder to be accurate the further down the list one goes since there is no formal method of registration.

Do remember that Distrowatch does not list distros by current install, only by page views on the DW site. Also remember that distros like Mint are, for many, 'thoroughfare distros', and though some stick with them long-term, others use them for learning and then move on to something else.

I would personally be surprised if Linux Mint even figured in the top ten most installed distros since, in addition to the above, there are others like Debian and Cent, which will be installed on a tonne of servers but you're not, comparatively, going to get many people on fora talking about it.

Do remember that Linux Counter, which records registered machines, has this as the top ten, and it's unlikely to change any time soon:

Ubuntu
Debian
Fedora
Slackware
SUSE
Gentoo
Arch
Cent
RHEL
Kubuntu

Though this may not translate to total machines registered per distro, I believe it gives a more realistic picture of what the situation is worldwide. I would imagine Mint and Manjaro would be a bit further down.

The bottom line is that anything regarding distro popularity [bar Ubuntu] is speculation of some sort. One can use multiple weighted indicators but it would still be little more than an 'educated guess' at the end of the day. I would argue that any magazine running an article on 'most popular distros' is not much more than clickbait.

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Good question. I didn't think about "common".

I'd say both, to my way of thinking "common" could equal "popular". But yes, common doesn't necessarily mean "popular" either. So for the purposes of this thread we'll say that "common" means the same as "popular". Although, any thoughts on that are also welcome here.

Yes, I should have linked Linux Counter too. It is probably the most accurate installed count nowadays, taking into consideration it is based on individual willingness and professional servers are mostly missing.

Linux Counter is going to be a count of enthusiasts, mostly hobbyists. The only reasonable count for desktop and laptop computers would be download records. The UK Mirror Service could tell a useful tale, but they don't seem to have done so. There will also be an enormous variation between countries: think of those where Linux is standard for schools, or the government, or the police.

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it is debatable that "common" and "popular" could be synonyms.
but that and "best" are definitely two very different things.

assuming most widely used - what do you count? devices? size of hardware?
users? clients (servers)?
OS instances?

my guess is that whatever the answers to these questions, the end result is not ubuntu.

Popular? Ubuntu.

Common? Android.

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I would say that Android is a Linux distribution, but not a GNU/Linux distribution.

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The most popular distro is the one that I use.........

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Great answer ntubski! I tend to agree with you.

Just because you always tell people to use antiX, that doesn't make it popular. It just means you like it.

Indeed. It's definitely Linux but maybe does not have so much GNU. It's also possible to have GNU without Linux, though one of them is rough on the edges and the other perpetually in the very earl experimental stage:

• GNU/Linux
• Android/Linux
• systemd/Linux
• GNU/kFreeBSD
• GNU/Hurd

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Notice, I didn't actually mention it by name in that post.

P.S. I don't tell them to use it - I merely suggest it.

And how many people care about that? Tiny Core is surely accepted as a Linux distribution and that doesn't use GNU. I'd say that Android is Linux, but not a distribution — that's why it's not on Distrowatch.