So just noticed that both Mint and PopOS gets ranked just above Ubuntu on DistroWatch and wondering why, because I assumed that Ubuntu would still have a bigger install base then any of it’s derivatives, if you look at them individually.
I know DistroWatch is not a true measure of number of installations out there, and only reflects interest, as in people looking at the distro specific page in DistroWatch.
As a result we have no measure for LMDE because it is included (is a subset) of the Linux Mint distro.
Would interest in the derivatives under Ubuntu inspire more interest because Ubuntu has been here forever and is a known product, but the derivatives are seen to have something new to offer, hence more clicks on a web page.
But does not translate to more installs on physical hardware ??
Just thinking…
https://distrowatch.com/
I used to find the stats on DistroWatch interesting until I found out how they are calculated. Essentially the numbers on DistroWatch tell us what the first clicked distribution is for a unique address per day. There is little telemetry that tells us the number of installs on FOSS and none on DistroWatch.
Despite them being derivatives they still use Ubuntu to build upon just as Ubuntu uses Debian. Ubuntu chose to build their house with debian concrete slab. Ubuntu started to offer their own concrete slab and other distros built their house on top of it ie Mint and Pop different house sure but same concrete slab regardless.
And as it relates to distrowatch anything beyond new distro release announcements on it can be and should be totally ignored especially when it comes to the “rating”.