4 ms·

Half the Linux distris? I've once counted on Distrowatch. When you go by number of distris there it's more like 80% are Debian based. If you go also by how muc

Half the Linux distris? I've once counted on Distrowatch. When you go by number of distris there it's more like 80% are Debian based. If you go also by how much those distris are used it's even like 9x% of the stuff running out there is Debian based. There are almost no independent distris. You have Arch, you have SUSE, you have RedHat and a few clones, you have Gentoo. But more or less everything else is Debian based.

mongol 3y ago
Do I get it right that you mean > 90 percent of distro use is Debian-based? Because that can hardly be the case
- tuukkah 3y ago
  Ubuntu and its derivatives are included.
  - guerrilla 3y ago
    Is Ubuntu still Debian based? What's the criterion for that anyway? Just using debs?
    - eikenberry 3y ago
      Yes, Ubuntu is still Debian based with just a little added on top.
    - tuukkah 3y ago
      I wouldn't call Ubuntu a flavor of Debian as they have so big differences, but ultimately it's still mostly Debian. You can see a numerical comparison of packages here: http://qa.ubuntuwire.com/mdt/all.html http://qa.ubuntuwire.com/mdt/all.html
    - chungy 3y ago
      Ubuntu releases are, effectively, snapshots of Debian sid every 6 months. That's a pretty strong basis.
  - mongol 3y ago
    Yes. But Red Hat, Fedora, openSUSE, SLE, Arch, Alpine, Slackware, Gentoo, NixOS are not. I have a hard time to think these represent less than 10 percent all together
gwhl 3y ago
And Slackware!
- still_grokking 3y ago
  There are of course some niche distris that aren't based on the "big ones". But I'm not sure Slackware is still at this point relevant enough to be named in a row with the others I've mentioned. Of course the sampling was subjective, and I didn't intended to marginalize any not mentioned distris. I just thought the others are too niche to be included in such kind of pick.
  - igetspam 3y ago
    I want to downvote you for sentimental reasons. I won't but I want to.
    - still_grokking 3y ago
      Do it, and tell the world how I mistreated all kinds of interesting (but small) projects, if it makes you feel better. :-D Here a list of almost all the OS distris I've left out: https://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=All&origin=All&basedon=Independent&notbasedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=Active#simple https://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=All&o... Besides mentioning Slackware for historical reasons I should have also mentioned NixOS, which I forgot. The former was the first Linux distri, the later gained some respectable user-base in the last years, I think. Ah, and there is also Alpine which you can see sometimes here and there. (People using it in containers for reasons I've never understood as that's imho a recipe for trouble.) But if you look at the rest of the list most of the stuff is really obscure. (I've tried some Solaris derivatives and Exherbo in the past but didn't even heard of all the other names.)
      - nortonham 3y ago
        why is using alpine for containers a recipe for trouble?

mongol 3y ago

Do I get it right that you mean > 90 percent of distro use is Debian-based? Because that can hardly be the case

tuukkah 3y ago
Ubuntu and its derivatives are included.
- guerrilla 3y ago
  Is Ubuntu still Debian based? What's the criterion for that anyway? Just using debs?
  - eikenberry 3y ago
    Yes, Ubuntu is still Debian based with just a little added on top.
  - tuukkah 3y ago
    I wouldn't call Ubuntu a flavor of Debian as they have so big differences, but ultimately it's still mostly Debian. You can see a numerical comparison of packages here: http://qa.ubuntuwire.com/mdt/all.html http://qa.ubuntuwire.com/mdt/all.html
  - chungy 3y ago
    Ubuntu releases are, effectively, snapshots of Debian sid every 6 months. That's a pretty strong basis.
- mongol 3y ago
  Yes. But Red Hat, Fedora, openSUSE, SLE, Arch, Alpine, Slackware, Gentoo, NixOS are not. I have a hard time to think these represent less than 10 percent all together

gwhl 3y ago

And Slackware!

still_grokking 3y ago
There are of course some niche distris that aren't based on the "big ones". But I'm not sure Slackware is still at this point relevant enough to be named in a row with the others I've mentioned. Of course the sampling was subjective, and I didn't intended to marginalize any not mentioned distris. I just thought the others are too niche to be included in such kind of pick.
- igetspam 3y ago
  I want to downvote you for sentimental reasons. I won't but I want to.
  - still_grokking 3y ago
    Do it, and tell the world how I mistreated all kinds of interesting (but small) projects, if it makes you feel better. :-D Here a list of almost all the OS distris I've left out: https://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=All&origin=All&basedon=Independent&notbasedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=Active#simple https://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=All&o... Besides mentioning Slackware for historical reasons I should have also mentioned NixOS, which I forgot. The former was the first Linux distri, the later gained some respectable user-base in the last years, I think. Ah, and there is also Alpine which you can see sometimes here and there. (People using it in containers for reasons I've never understood as that's imho a recipe for trouble.) But if you look at the rest of the list most of the stuff is really obscure. (I've tried some Solaris derivatives and Exherbo in the past but didn't even heard of all the other names.)
    - nortonham 3y ago
      why is using alpine for containers a recipe for trouble?