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GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline

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11–20 of 59 posts

Re: GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline

#11

I wish the dots were scaled by some metric indicating popularity. Such a metric is hard to come up with. Maybe total number of commits. Way awesome though.

You already see some kind of popularity – just count the number of forks.

But would you say Slackware is more popular these days than OpenSuse?

I think number of forks is not a very precise metric.

Re: GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline

#12

I wish the dots were scaled by some metric indicating popularity. Such a metric is hard to come up with. Maybe total number of commits. Way awesome though.

The page hit count on http://distrowatch.com/ is sometimes used as a popularity proxy. What do you reckon?

Re: GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline

#13

I wish the dots were scaled by some metric indicating popularity. Such a metric is hard to come up with. Maybe total number of commits. Way awesome though.

You already see some kind of popularity – just count the number of forks.

Forks are also an indicator that people weren't happy with the origin.

Re: GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline

#14

I wish the dots were scaled by some metric indicating popularity. Such a metric is hard to come up with. Maybe total number of commits. Way awesome though.

The page hit count on http://distrowatch.com/ is sometimes used as a popularity proxy. What do you reckon?

That it's horrible as a popularity index and should never be used as such. The number of visits is very low and the population which visits the site is very selective.

Instead use data from highly popular sites like wikipedia: http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOpera...

Re: GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline

#15
post #10

I maintain a specific timeline for Debian if anyone is interested: http://timeline.debian.net

That's great. Made me go back to to my early debian days with Potato CDs from the bookstore and a translation of "Debian GNU/Linux: Guide to Installation and Usage". I Could'nt update to woody because it was too costly over the dialup line, so i bought the Woody CD set together with a Friend. Every time i had to install something i had to walk to his house and get the CDs, or pay lots of money (for me as a teenager at that time) to download the files.

Maybe you could add another Frame with Versions of Popular Packages? I'm Thinking KDE, Gnome, GCC, mayor scripting Languages Browsers and Editors?

Re: GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline

#16
The chart clearly shows that there is a lot of proliferation, which is confusing to a lot of new users. Imagine what would be possible if all these fine developers would focus on two or three distributions.

Ps. I am proud that I was a paid co-developer of the very first distribution listed ;).

Re: GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline

#17
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You already see some kind of popularity – just count the number of forks.

Forks are also an indicator that people weren't happy with the origin.

It kind of depends on the forks. Many are just a different set of default installed packages plus a new wallpaper.

Re: GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline

#18

The chart clearly shows that there is a lot of proliferation, which is confusing to a lot of new users. Imagine what would be possible if all these fine developers would focus on two or three distributions. Ps. I am proud that I was a paid co-developer of the very first distribution listed ;).

Well, for any of us old enough, this is the revival of UNIX wars.
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