

Disgruntled Ubuntu Unity Users Flock in Droves to Linux Mint - sutro
http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/11/23/ubuntu-linux-losing-popularity-fast-new-unity-interface-to-blame/

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tomwalsham
Really? Twice in one day. I'll paraphrase myself from the last post:

Distrowatch stats are based on hits to distro pages on their 'informational'
website. They don't reflect downloads, active installs or anything tangible
beyond interest in a platform based on their #3 ranking for 'Linux Mint' in
Google. Even the graph used on this pingdom blog say "Distrowatch's page hit
ranking (Nov 23)".

In fact the Google Trends referenced below as "gage the interest in" stats are
_more_ likely to be a barometer of real-world popularity as google searches
will include a considerable amount of people looking for support for their own
(current) platform, not just 'about distro X'. Hence Ubuntu's higher numbers.

It's not even fair to Alexa to call DW the 'Alexa of Linux popularity' the
stats are that skewed from reality.

I'm not an Ubuntu fanboy, and fair credit to Mint for providing another truly
viable user desktop distro, but I do get tired of the annual trotting out of
bogus stats and misinterpretations for the sole (successful) purpose of
flamebait, originally on slashdot, and now apparently HN.

~~~
rohitarondekar
If this article is inaccurate and flamebait-y then why don't we flag it so
that it is removed from HN?

P.S I thought the same and hence flagged it.

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kylemaxwell
The problem I have with this is that Ubuntu does not require you to use a
particular interface. I run Ubuntu with Xfce all day, and I have a few other
environments installed for testing purposes.

I don't understanding switching distributions solely because of the default
desktop environment. It's only a default, not a requirement.

~~~
tomwalsham
When you install on multiple machines it's going to be a pain point, and
knowing that the prime focus of Canonical looks to be Unity support there's
understandable concern from users that their DE of choice will be sidelined
(look at the complaints from Kubuntu users over the years regarding Gnome's
preferential support).

I've run Ubuntu for years on multiple machines, and took a look at Mint in the
past couple of months on this basis. A well put together distro, but until
they change their policy of baked-in search hijacking on the browser, I think
they'll have a hard time winning over the 'droves' being talked about here.

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w1ntermute
Mint's policy of having a custom Google search (that resets itself upon every
browser update) in all their browsers[0] is rather off-putting.

I personally have switched over all my non-technical friends to Lubuntu[1]. It
has proven to be fast, simple, and trouble-free. It follows the Windows
metaphor very closely, which has made the transition painless for even those
who know as little about computers as they can survive with.

0: [http://stevehinesley.com/tutorials/linux-tutorials/linux-
min...](http://stevehinesley.com/tutorials/linux-tutorials/linux-mint-custom-
google-search/)

1: <http://lubuntu.net/>

~~~
jbm
+1.

Ubuntu has excellent repositories; just can't bring myself to switch away. So
I started looking at alternatives. I spent a week trying to use Kubuntu before
realizing it was a lost cause. I had a few bad experiences with Xubuntu in the
past so I skipped it, but Lubuntu works perfectly - even in this virtualbox
environment running on Windows 7.

I do think a lot of people will be put off by having to learn xrandr, but not
me. I also replaced the lack of any tiling mechanism with Pytyle.

    
    
        xrandr --newmode "1680x1050" 146.25  1680 1784 1960 2240  1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync
        xrandr --newmode "1440x900"  106.50  1440 1528 1672 1904  900 903 909 934 -hsync +vsync
        xrandr --addmode VBOX0 1440x900
        xrandr --addmode VBOX1 1680x1050
        xrandr --output VBOX0 --mode 1440x900
        xrandr --output VBOX1 --mode 1680x1050
        xrandr --output VBOX1 --left-of VBOX0

~~~
w1ntermute
> I do think a lot of people will be put off by having to learn xrandr, but
> not me.

None of the people I've helped out have had 2 monitors (I doubt any of them
know it's even possible, or would want a second monitor even if they did), so
I've been able to avoid that problem so far.

For my own personal purposes (I run Arch Linux, but it's much the same), I've
set up a shell script that, based on which monitors it detects as being
connected, runs a specific xrandr command to configure my monitors. This works
for switching between home (two external monitors, disable laptop monitor),
work (enable one external monitor and the laptop monitor), and else (enable
only laptop monitor).

For those few times when I have a nonstandard monitor setup (usually when
giving a presentation somewhere), I start out with the 'else' configuration
and use ARandR[0] to manually add any additional monitors.

0: <http://christian.amsuess.com/tools/arandr/>

------
lucian1900
I must be one of the few people that actually like Unity :)

But I really don't get why people would bother to switch distros just because
of Unity. My mum is just fine installing things from the software centre, and
with a minimal amount of guidance could install LXDE. I can imagine average
Ubuntu users would be capable of following online instructions to get
LXDE/XFCE.

~~~
enobrev
I'm also a fan, but only on my fairly large multiple-monitor setup. I find
it's consistently getting in my way (or staying out of my way) at the wrong
times on my thinkpad.

Which is why I wonder the same as you - as on my netbook and thinkpad, I just
installed LXDE via software center and carried on. Quite nice how well that
works, actually.

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twl06
Quickly querying Google Trends with keywords that aren't as stupid as the ones
used in the article:
[http://www.google.com/trends?q=ubuntu+%2810.10|11.04|11.10%2...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=ubuntu+%2810.10|11.04|11.10%29%2C+linux+mint+%289|10|11|12%29&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

Ramblings from the Pingdom team are ramblings.

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lagartoflojo
The "Top 5 desktop Linux distributions" chart (the first one) shows Ubuntu
declining steadily from 2005 until now. There's no dramatic drop with the
introduction of Unity in 11.04.

It DOES show Linux Mint becoming very strong in the past year all of a sudden,
but, at least from that graph, it doesn't look like it was Ubuntu users who
"flocked" to Mint.

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chuinard
I switched to Fedora myself, but haven't tried Linux Mint yet. Does Mint offer
anything that other run-of-the-mill distros don't?

~~~
lagartoflojo
I also use Fedora. Mint is an Ubuntu derivative, so basically any tutorial
about Ubuntu will also work for Mint, which I think is a big plus.

~~~
bru
There is LMDE too: Linux Mint Debian Edition, which is based on Debian testing
(so it's a rolling release).

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gcb
nonsense. Everyone I know is moving to Debian.

~~~
hartror
Your anecdote doesn't match up with the link's more solid evidence...

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foobarbazetc
The link's evidence is not solid. It's Distrowatch.

This article means almost nothing.

