Ubuntu or Mint
Mint is old.
This issue is going to be fixed with the edge ISO and Mint is way more similar to Windows in terms of UI that helps a lot of beginners to transition smoothly
Probably depends how you define things. Like, is Xubuntu Xubuntu or Ubuntu with Xfce included by default? How much change is necessary before it's not "debian with added bits"?
Probably based on how the OS defined itself. Steam is able to gather information like this easily.
I guess GNU/Linux, musl+busybox/Linux in not really popular
I don't think that either of them count as 'Linux distributions'. And sadly, it matters. Even the bugs are not consistent across distros.
I think a lot of people just got trolled in this thread.
snufkin linux
Chrome OS.
Ubuntu 100%, if you count how many distros are ubuntu based (and collaterally debian based), but I believe it is the most used one even if you only count official ubuntu releases
Maybe arch would be quite high, if you count the steamdeck as desktop (maybe), and the big increase on arch users in the past couple of years (wen't from being rare to 1 in 3 users saying "I use arch btw")
In professional work space, ubuntu will probably be highest. Second place I would guess Fedora
As personal workstation I would guess arch (even without steam deck) followed by mint or some flavour of Ubuntu
I don't think Arch is more used than Ubuntu, unless maybe if you count all the Ubuntu flavors separately
There is not a reliable way to determine that, by design.
If we are talking about desktop PCs, maybe Ubuntu, but based these reports it's Arch.
With Steam having a gaming audience I'd argue that this has at least a slight bias towards Arch, as the latest kernel versions and other software are often advantageous for gaming in particular.
But even with the Steam numbers note that Arch is just listed as one single variant, while Ubuntu has separate entries for different versions. Ubuntu LTS 22.04 alone is so close to Arch that it's probably ahead once you include all versions.
https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/?ref=itsfoss.com#section-most-popular-technologies-operating-system says for developers: Ubuntu, then WSL, then Debian, then everything else, then Arch, then...
Android also has personal use that ranks higher than WSL but professional use that ranks a tiny bit higher than Debian. Not sure if it's a Linux distro, but it's tangential.
Android, ChromeOS, Coreboot, WSL2 are all Linux Distros
IDK about Coreboot, but Android has a completely different userland. The only thing it has in common with Linux is the kernel. Nearly everything else is different. Everything else I agree, but only if you mean WSL2, which is basically an enhanced virtual machine, instead of WSL1, which translates system calls to Windows.
PC deez nuts
If you count Ubuntu and all disto's base on it as one, then it would top the list.
you mean debian, right?
@[email protected] pretty difficult as there are no accurate figures for Linux distro installs - many sit behind home or corporate firewalls, sharing the same IP addresses.
But back in 2015 Dell was claiming that 42% of their PC sales in China had their Kylin OS installed - https://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/1857948/chinese-os-last-more-40-cent-dell-pcs-china-now-running-homegrown. Kylin has been improving for 23 years now so is a pretty stable Linux OS too I guess.
At least in the consumer market, most Chinese people still use Windows or macOS. These 42% may be the public sector.
define "most popular" please
for instance https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity, does that metric fit your definition?
Anyway whatever the answer it doesn't really matters, at the end of the day it is always Linux anyway, regardless of package manager, desktop environment or init.
I'd just warn you against Ubuntu, because its company Canonical is behaving a lot like a young Microsoft these days.
Amongst Steam users, the most popular desktop distros are:
- Arch Linux 64 bit 7.66% -0.49%
- Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS 64 bit 5.54% +5.54%
- Linux Mint 21.3 64 bit 3.77% +0.21%
- Manjaro Linux 64 bit 3.42% +0.07%
- Other 29.41% -1.37%
According to a recent survey.
Thst depends in a lot of things.
What do you mean with "PC"? Is a smartphone a PC? Is a steamdeck a PC? The Laptop of a government employee? A Raspberry Pi? What about a TV-box or an e-reader?
Because if you mean in general on non-server hardware it's probably some weird Chinese/indian fork for their government PCs.
Otherwise it could be Arch due to the steam decks, but then again it depends on how tightly you define "distribution". As others have mentioned, is Xubuntu their own distribution or does it count as Ubuntu? What is Mint/Pop!_OS?
But no matter what, it's not MX Linux.
PC is a computer based on IBM PC compatible standard, so usually x86 processor architecture with compatible with it components.
The term is so common that in practical language people started to use it as a replacement of the "desktop PC" or overall anything that is not pocketable or Apple.
But I guess with such question from OP it does not matter, as computers at the edge of the definition (like x86 Android tablets) are in a fraction of percent and won't matter in "what's the most popular".
I would say we're beyond the era of PC referencing the classic "x86 IBM Personal Computer compatible" definition. PC could reasonably be considered to include many ARM systems, considering there are now Windows laptops shipping with ARM processors that can run "PC" software. Besides, most new x86 PCs aren't IBM PC compatible anyways as legacy BIOS support has been dropped by a lot of UEFI implementations. I would consider any device that runs a desktop style OS (be it Windows, Linux, or even MacOS) a PC. The distinction in my mind is specifically mobile vs. desktop. Android and iOS are not PC. They're primarily touch driven and apps are restricted to a certain format with a centralized app store where you are expected to get all of your apps. Windows/Linux/MacOS are primarily keyboard and mouse driven and you have a lot more flexibility on acquiring new apps, with their forms of "sideloading" and "rooting/jailbreaking" being things that are just normal and accepted rather than workarounds/hacks to break out of the walled garden. I would also go as far as saying a smartphone can be a PC if you have a PC like OS on it, such as mobile Linux OSes that let you run desktop applications.
PC-BSD
MX Linux
Source: https://gitnux.org/most-popular-linux-distributions/
It's the most popular on Distrowatch but definitely not in real life
Disteowatch is an unreliable source since it's basically just a giant tracker for its own sites.
Distrowatch only tracks the number of hits that distros website gets. Which is a really stupid way of ranking popularity. The most common distro would be Ubuntu (by far).
