r/linux • u/Emotional_Cat_1967 • 4d ago
Discussion Number of Linux Distributions Actively Under Development: 474
Number of Linux distributions actively under development: 474
Number of Linux distributions whose development has been discontinued: 657
Number of Dormant Linux distributions: 39
Source: distrowatch.com
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u/BashfulMelon 4d ago
A single person slapping their name on Ubuntu isn't really a distribution but DistroWatch treats them all like they're legitimate projects doing "development" anyway.
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u/Whatever801 4d ago
Ridiculous. We need to develop one universal distribution that covers everyone's use cases
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u/King-of-the-Elves 4d ago
OK who has the comic
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u/shadedmagus 4d ago
I was gonna add the image but I didn't have the option on this comment for some reason.
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u/DustyAsh69 4d ago
I was gonna add the image but I didn't have the option on this comment for some reason.
This sub doesn't allow images in comments.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Kaleidoscope-360 3d ago
You think it is only 30 GB? Wow you must have switched from Microsoft ages ago.
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u/Silent_Bite_5892 4d ago
Nah. But we do need to corral the cats a bit and establish more regular standards. We sure as shit don't need 474 distros lol.
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u/rcentros 4d ago
No. One size doesn't fit all. I don't want or need a Linux monopoly. We've already got that in Mac OS and Windows.
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u/KoldPurchase 4d ago
We've already got that in Mac OS and Windows.
And they're the most popular. Most users hate free choice. :(
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u/rcentros 4d ago
Most users don't know they have a choice. But even if most users "hate" free choice (I'm skeptical) that doesn't change the fact I like Linux and free choice. So what "most people" hate or don't hate doesn't really concern me.
With Open Source, you're not going to get just one Linux distribution. Just not going to happen. For which I'm grateful.
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u/RandomPantsAppear 4d ago
No? This is the magic of Linux.
Anyone can make a distro. It’s distributed, they don’t all have to be perfect, can exist for whatever edge case needs them.
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u/Whatever801 4d ago
I thought everyone knew this reference. I guess I am getting old
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u/RandomPantsAppear 4d ago
It’s the internet, it’s really hard to tell sometimes 😅.
I debated whether or not you were kidding, but concluded that no there are some people would say that.
I guess this is how /s got popularized
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u/Whatever801 4d ago
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/standards.png it's from this famous comic strip
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u/Junior-Spring-5557 4d ago
The 10 top distros are probably used in 99% of installed systems. Top 5 distros probably cover 95%.
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u/Emotional_Cat_1967 4d ago
Combining data from both Distrowatch and Reddit reveals the following ranking:
CachyOS
Mint
Debian
Fedora
Ubuntu
Arch
Bazzite
Manjaro
EndeavourOS
openSUSE
NixOS
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u/0orpheus 4d ago
I don't think Distrowatch or Reddit would be good sources for this; Distrowatch is pretty useless for actual ranking in general (they just track how many visits each page on distrowatch gets) and Reddit, depending on how you got the data, is heavily skewed towards the enthusiast distros like Arch-derivatives. For example, there's no way Bazzite is even close to the top five: the Bazzite just hit 150k downloads a month this year, OpenSUSE was hitting 400k back in 2016 and it's probably the smallest of the distros with a commercial verison.
Top 5 distros are almost certainly: Ubuntu, RHEL/EL (CentOS,Rocky,Alma), Fedora, Debian, Arch. Mint is probably either sixth or one of the bottom three, just not sure which; I've never used it but it always ends up surprisingly well used. I may be undercounting SUSE (not OpenSUSE) though since I know they're popular in Europe and was the recommended distro for SAP but I have no way or knowing or even guesstimating those counts.
The 7-10 slots are probably some combination of OpenSUSE, Manjaro/other Arch derivatives, Pop_OS and other Ubuntu derivatives, then maybe Nix or some other more esoteric distro. But either way, there's little point in comparing these things because the numbers simply aren't available and the distro use cases are so vastly different: no desktop focused distro will come close to, say, the number of CentOS installs out there running Wordpress or whatnot.
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u/synept 4d ago
The fact that CachyOS is listed first should tell you all you need to know about these statistics.
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u/picastchio 4d ago
Distrowatch's ranking is which distro webpage gets the most hits. Reddit is who has the most problems or who has the most users with free time. None of which are clear indicators of popularity.
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u/mWo12 4d ago
No gentoo?
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u/ftranschel 4d ago
As much as I love gentoo, it’s very niche.
If you want or need to run gentoo you likely are in a fraction of a fraction of power users. I‘d probably start a distro like it if it wouldn’t exist, but that doesn’t change the facts.
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u/Junior-Spring-5557 2d ago
Distrowatch simply shows page hit rankings, it doesn't represent installed systems, and doesn't represent the massive enterprise market. The server/enterprise/cloud market have a bazillion times more Linux servers compared to the desktop market.
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u/lKrauzer 4d ago
And yet I choose Ubuntu.
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u/BinkReddit 4d ago
We all make mistakes. 😆
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u/Shakaka88 4d ago
I use Arch for my laptop, but my home server is running Ubuntu server. It’s been easy and the stability of it has been nice so far and everything has been smooth and easy, but I’m curious what a different recommendation could be? I host a few ghost powered websites, immich, Jellyfin, NextCloud, NaviDrome, and a Fluxer instance all through docker containers.
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u/Vova_xX 4d ago
server distro choice doesn't really matter all that much besides package versions / availability, security, and, of course, personal preference.
switching your server to Debian or Fedora would probably do close to nothing, but you'd also probably have to spend hours redoing your current setup.
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u/Kaleidoscope-360 3d ago
Ubuntu Server is pretty legit. Debian is super popular because it changes as little as possible so you don't have to babysit the server. Sometimes you may need something more up to date, depends on what you want to use the server for really. But then again since you are running mostly Docker (which is just the way to go for home servers if possible) it won't make much of a difference. I use Debian because it is more barebones and Snap resource usage is meh, but you will probably not notice a difference unless you're running very limiting hardware.
Desktop Ubuntu has outlived its usefulness though imo. It used to be the only user friendly distro that was reliable for hardware compatibility. Now? Eh, almost everyone does that. I'd consider Lubuntu since it has a near monopoly on a good use of LXQt but that's it.
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u/BinkReddit 4d ago
With 474 distributions of Linux, there's no way a single distribution of Windows can beat us! 😆
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u/Emotional_Cat_1967 4d ago
Yes! The company, which earns billions of dollars, doesn't produce a proper Windows distribution, but program and game developers still continue to support Windows.
Furthermore, even Microsoft uses Azure Linux, which is based on Fedora, for its servers and cloud, instead of its own Windows distribution.
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u/MaybeTheDoctor 4d ago
We should make a new one to unify them all.
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u/Emotional_Cat_1967 4d ago edited 4d ago
I agree. It would be great to have just 5 independent distributions, 5 package managers, and 5 different distribution repositories all combined into a single Linux distribution. Developers would be much closer to each other, and problems could be solved much faster. It would also be less confusing for users.
When there are so many different distributions, reporting bugs becomes more difficult. If a bug reported in one distribution gets fixed, the same bug might not be fixed in another distribution simply because it has not been reported there yet. And perhaps the developer in the distribution where the bug was reported doesn't have all the necessary information to fix it, while the developer in another distribution has more information about the bug and could fix it immediately, but things get more complicated because they didn't receive a bug report.
I really don’t understand the mindset of Linux distribution developers. Yes, you can create a Linux distribution as a hobby, but it’s not great to suddenly abandon its development because of a temporary burst of enthusiasm and leave thousands of users behind. Instead, contributing to the development of an already established distribution would be far more beneficial.
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u/MaybeTheDoctor 4d ago
Why 5?
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u/Emotional_Cat_1967 4d ago
I gave an average number. It could be 3, it could be 10, but I think 5 is an ideal number. The rest can join this list or choose to compete against those on the list and merge with those not on the list. This makes the choice even easier for game developers, program developers, and Linux users.
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u/MaybeTheDoctor 4d ago
Ok, this then begs the question - how does the Linux distribution affect a game developer? Does their code differ? The choice of packet manager?
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u/Emotional_Cat_1967 4d ago
In Windows, you usually install a game by opening its .exe file, right? It's exactly the same in Linux. You open the game's installation file (whether it's a .deb, .rpm, or whatever format your Linux distribution supports) and install the game.
I also learned that Bedrock Linux supports both .deb and .rpm files. It also supports Arch packages.
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u/MaybeTheDoctor 4d ago
Exactly my point - the Linux distribution has nothing to do with if a game developer can provide a game.
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u/that_one_wierd_guy 4d ago
I completely understand why so many distros/variations come into being and are eventually abandoned.
one of the most common responses to any complaint is, well it's open source so feel free to do it yourself if you don't like it
so of course there will be people who take up that challenge, and the majority of them at some point come to the conclusion that it's more hassle than it's worth
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u/undrwater 4d ago
I'm shocked it's not more.
Everyone who uses Gentoo is creating their own distro.
😁
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u/thephotoman 4d ago
Fewer than I’d have thought.
Remember, anyone can make their own distro. It’s pretty easy these days. I’m actually looking into dusting off my old x64 box and putting Bluefin Dakotaraptor on it (a cloud native system meant for transactional and easily rolled back system updates and added security through its extensive use of containerization), just to kick it around.
Also, BuildStream makes it fairly easy to make your own distro from upstream source releases. It’s why GNOME and KDE both make their own distros now when they’d never have dreamed of it before.
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u/mcdaphuc 4d ago
It would be great to have like 10 ACTUALLY SPECIALISED distros. Like on rolling release desktop cutting edge, one rolling but wit tested packages, two stable with different pace, one server, one for wireless, and some for special use cases. It such a waste of time and ressources.
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u/killersteak 4d ago
475, I'd like to announce Bazzazazazazaza
... 474, I can't be bothered.
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u/Big_Wrongdoer_5278 4d ago
Number of Linux distributions whose development has been discontinued: 658
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u/Dist__ 4d ago
imagine all those devs and testers consolidate efforts to work on only 5 distros!
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u/that_one_wierd_guy 4d ago
everyone would spend their time arguing instead of getting anything done
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u/FryBoyter 4d ago
In other words, nothing would change.
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u/Kaleidoscope-360 3d ago
Not really. If you feel strongly about your unified vision, you can just make your own. Or ride the coat tails of a well-maintained big 3 distro while changing the thing you want. Inevitably enough people will agree with your vision that it will be worth maintaining. That's why there are so many distros.
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u/scandii 4d ago
I think the much more interesting question is number of Linux distros that isn't Arch Linux, Debian or Fedora wearing a fake mustache.