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>Ubuntu shipping with 3.34 is realistically when the bulk of Linux desktop/laptop users will see it. Fedora is up there. In 2019 Fedora may potentially have a

>Ubuntu shipping with 3.34 is realistically when the bulk of Linux desktop/laptop users will see it. Fedora is up there. In 2019 Fedora may potentially have a larger "desktop" user base than Ubuntu. Often times people will lump in Ubuntu based distros as Ubuntu, inflating Ubuntu's popularity, but in this day and age Mint probably has more desktop users than Ubuntu. Ubuntu's popularity is being reduced to AWS these days, but lets be fair here: Who uses Ubuntu as their primary desktop of choice when there is better distros for every user need? Right now, Ubuntu is the goto desktop OS for those who want to run two gpus on a laptop and that's about it.

rlpb 7y ago
> ...but in this day and age Mint probably has more desktop users than Ubuntu. I find that claim very hard to believe. I'm an Ubuntu developer. I see both bug reports from users, and fixes being landed. It is rare to see a report from a Mint user, and even rarer to see any fix that is attributed to having come from the Mint community, whether that's landing in Ubuntu directly or via upstream. Either the Mint community keeps fixes to themselves (I doubt it because it's very difficult to maintain a derivative distribution that way), or Mint users and developers aren't affected by or don't report/fix any bugs affecting them whose root cause is upstream (seems unlikely, given the firehose of reports and patches Ubuntu developers send upstream), or there are relatively far fewer Mint users than you think. Disclosure: I'm also a Canonical employee. However this opinion is my own and I am not representing my employer in making this comment.
- suby 7y ago
  Could be that Mint users are generally less technical (I say this as a Mint user -- it is advertised as the user / noob friendly option) and thus less likely to report issues to the proper authorities.
  - rlpb 7y ago
    I don't think so. Ubuntu paved the way for non-technical users, and unfortunately this is evident in the quality of a large number of bug reports that we receive. Trying to stay objective, it's certainly not in dispute that Ubuntu is also "advertised as the user / noob friendly option" and continues to take this stance. From this perspective, the difference between Debian user feedback and Ubuntu user feedback is night and day (I'm also a Debian developer). I don't think the difference between Ubuntu and Mint is anything nearly like that.
- proverbialbunny 7y ago
  That's like saying I work at Microsoft and I haven't seen much bug reports sent to me about OSX, so I'm skeptical with the idea that people use Apple products. Unfortunately we don't have anything more accurate: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity I've reported a bug on github over at https://github.com/linuxmint https://github.com/linuxmint I've reported bugs elsewhere too, but I just write what Ubuntu version I'm using within Mint, because that's more relevant. shrugs

rlpb 7y ago

> ...but in this day and age Mint probably has more desktop users than Ubuntu. I find that claim very hard to believe. I'm an Ubuntu developer. I see both bug reports from users, and fixes being landed. It is rare to see a report from a Mint user, and even rarer to see any fix that is attributed to having come from the Mint community, whether that's landing in Ubuntu directly or via upstream. Either the Mint community keeps fixes to themselves (I doubt it because it's very difficult to maintain a derivative distribution that way), or Mint users and developers aren't affected by or don't report/fix any bugs affecting them whose root cause is upstream (seems unlikely, given the firehose of reports and patches Ubuntu developers send upstream), or there are relatively far fewer Mint users than you think. Disclosure: I'm also a Canonical employee. However this opinion is my own and I am not representing my employer in making this comment.

suby 7y ago
Could be that Mint users are generally less technical (I say this as a Mint user -- it is advertised as the user / noob friendly option) and thus less likely to report issues to the proper authorities.
- rlpb 7y ago
  I don't think so. Ubuntu paved the way for non-technical users, and unfortunately this is evident in the quality of a large number of bug reports that we receive. Trying to stay objective, it's certainly not in dispute that Ubuntu is also "advertised as the user / noob friendly option" and continues to take this stance. From this perspective, the difference between Debian user feedback and Ubuntu user feedback is night and day (I'm also a Debian developer). I don't think the difference between Ubuntu and Mint is anything nearly like that.
proverbialbunny 7y ago
That's like saying I work at Microsoft and I haven't seen much bug reports sent to me about OSX, so I'm skeptical with the idea that people use Apple products. Unfortunately we don't have anything more accurate: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity I've reported a bug on github over at https://github.com/linuxmint https://github.com/linuxmint I've reported bugs elsewhere too, but I just write what Ubuntu version I'm using within Mint, because that's more relevant. shrugs