I don't know how a new Linux user would ever find Distrowatch. I think they type "Linux" or maybe they name of a distribution they've already heard of in to Google and go from there. If you go do Google and search "Linux" the Distrowatch site doesn't even show up in the results. I'm convinced it's an artifact of the past and completely irrelevant today. On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 8:32 AM, Michael Moore <stuporglue at gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 7:43 AM, Michael Greenly <mgreenly at gmail.com> > wrote: > > I can't figure out why anyone would put any value in the distrowatch > > numbers. Only a tiny tiny tiny tiny percentage of the people who use > Linux > > even know it exists and the majority of those who do don't go there. > It's > > numbers are truly valueless and even worse they're easily gamed. The > Google > > trend numbers are slightly more interesting but even those I wouldn't > put > > much stock in. > > I think it's useful as an indicator of which distros are receiving > attention from people just getting into Linux. Newbies often get sent > there or end up there when they're distro shopping. It's probably been > more than 5 since I actually looked around distrowatch, but when I was > last looking for a new distro I did go there to see what was popular > and to read the reviews/notes about different distros. > > Even knowing that the numbers are likely gamed shows you that some > distro has enough passionate users to care about gaming it. > > I agree that's is fairly meaningless as an indicator of what existing > Linux users are actually using though. > > -- > Michael Moore > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > -- Michael Greenly http://logic-refinery.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20130531/33ace19b/attachment.html>