MX Linux Forum

There are many rumors in internet like...
the ranking for MX Linux in LinuxDistro is fake
only around 1700 subscriber for MX Linux channel in Reddit, comparing to like 120K for Ubuntu
read comments here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments ... o_popular/
so any idea the real popularity of MX Linux comparing to other Linux distros?

j2ee wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:06 amonly around 1700 subscriber for MX Linux channel in Reddit, comparing to like 120K for Ubuntu

Reddit is getting to be quite an old site that was much more popular 10 to 15 years ago. So it makes sense that a distro like Ubuntu that was the most popular 10 to 15 years ago still has a sizable following on Reddit.

Also, Ubuntu has a large base of installations in cloud services and as a server distro. So there's a large base of users who use it, not as their preferred home distro, but as part of their job. Same as RedHat and SuSE.

Well.. no one knows this.. but..

it's because I swing fish around. Quite the sight to see.




Seriously.. I don't care why people think it is popular. I KNOW it is because of superb support, a wonderful group of developers who communicate directly with their users and actually implement features that are requested/suggested, it continues to improve, and well.. MX is just plain good stuff

does it matter?

if popularity was any sign of quality, windows would be usable and marvel movies would be watchable

besides ... we live in a world where a video of 8 nobel laureates speaking about the genesis of life in the universe has 2700 views on youtube while a video of a cat falling in a sink has 72 million ...

junoluna wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:23 am does it matter?

if popularity was any sign of quality, windows would be usable and marvel movies would be watchable

besides ... we live in a world where a video of 8 nobel laureates speaking about the genesis of life in the universe has 2700 views on youtube while a video of a cat falling in a sink has 72 million ...

Yep...

Chris

*actually went looking for the cat video*

Oh, I don't know. I don't know. For me MX is simply very good, especially because of the possibility to use SysVinit. But if you prefer Ubuntu, why not? I find such a competition "what is better or more popular" very unnecessary. And "fake", what is not all talked about on the Internet, smart and completely nonsensical.

I just find out updating to MX LInux 19 means someone needs to uninstall 18 then install 19. This doesn't make much sense for me.

You can install right over it, no need to uninstall first.

Don't do it then. MX-18 will be supported for at least another 3 years.

The opening position you quote, that DW's ranking is "fake," is really stupid. The DW ranking is a simple mindless record of "Hits per page" and that can't be incorrect.

EDIT: it's an erroneous interpretation to say that that mechanical measure shows popularity, it only shows interest.

Eadwine Rose wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 10:24 am You can install right over it, no need to uninstall first.

And you can preserve your home partition/folder.

It just works, does everything I need it to do, and it has a rich and responsive forum community. What more can you ask for?

In terms of its "real" popularity, I don't know that Mepis or its successor MX Linux was ever about being "popular". The distro has always tipped it's hat to other distros such as Debian, Ubuntu (for a time) and AnitX. It was more about sharing a vision of what Linux could be, parlaying the efforts of a talented group of folks to achieve the vision. The notoriety on sites like Distrowatch is more of an aside than a primary focus.

Or so it has seemed to me...

j2ee wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:06 am There are many rumors in internet like...
the ranking for MX Linux in LinuxDistro is fake
so any idea the real popularity of MX Linux comparing to other Linux distros?

You are asking all the wrong questions, who likes MX, why others like MX, do they really like MX... Hey, this is just waste of time.

You should just choose several most popular Linux distributions, try them out and YOU decide for YOURSELF what YOU like. And chances are, you will even know WHY you will like the distro you will choose. It's a free world, many Linux flavors to choose from, different people have different tastes...

P.s.
If you decide to try also MX, you would miss out big if not checking out MX tools. Just sayin...

j2ee wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:06 am There are many rumors in internet like...
the ranking for MX Linux in LinuxDistro is fake
only around 1700 subscriber for MX Linux channel in Reddit, comparing to like 120K for Ubuntu
read comments here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments ... o_popular/
so any idea the real popularity of MX Linux comparing to other Linux distros?

If Reddit subscribers were the gauge of popularity and quality, I think we'd have more issues in the world in general.

Personally, I don't care how "popular" MX is at large, all I care about is if our users like it and are happy.

As a nearly twenty (20) year Linux user... I'm old. I just thought I'd share a completely random thought.

Whatever floats your boat is okay by me. I use what I like, you should as well.

junoluna says it all in MHO
.. converting from Win10 to MX-19 was the best OS move I ever made.. If you want to decide based on pollster results, use Win7

If we look at the MX "Total members 8175", the number is more real than those distros with 40-70,000. When I joined, I asked why the number of members are reducing, though many are registering. Those who don't post are removed. Recently I check at one distro with 95,000 registered members. Between September to November, each month there were 100-150 new registration. But less than 10 members submit 3 or 7 posts, rest are 0.

rasat wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 1:22 pm If we look at the MX "Total members 8175", the number is more real than those distros with 40-70,000. When I joined, I asked why the number of members are reducing, though many are registering. Those who don't post are removed. Recently I check at one distro with 95,000 registered members. Between September to November, each month there were 100-150 new registration. But less than 10 members submit 3 or 7 posts, rest are 0.

Correction. Those who have 0 posts and have not been on the Forum in 1 year are removed. We were averaging over 300 registrations per month in early 2019. I have not kept track for the last few months but I expect it is about the same.

j2ee wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:06 am There are many rumors in internet like...
the ranking for MX Linux in LinuxDistro is fake
only around 1700 subscriber for MX Linux channel in Reddit, comparing to like 120K for Ubuntu
read comments here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments ... o_popular/
so any idea the real popularity of MX Linux comparing to other Linux distros?

You can count me. There are 8175 users on this MX forum. How about you? Do you count as a MX user? We all know you have to be a member here to post in this MX community. Or are you here just to ask this question? It's great MX is rank number one at Distrowatch.com. It at least get people here, asking the same question. Why is MX number one at Distrowatch.com. Is MX as great as it's rank. I would say yes to that question. Since I'm going to be with MX, until it turns into dust. It even can fall in the ranking system of Distrowatch.com drop to 25 or even off the top 100. But will we see that happen at all. I'm here because MX is prefect for me, with my two cent along with their current default settings. I'm still using 18.3 but will move to 19 at the beginning of the year. MX for life for me.

I've used Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.3, 19 and 19.2. I've also used Cinnamon on Manjaro. And they are excellent
However after a recent review of MX on Distrowatch (Issue 839) I gave MX a trial.
Conclusion: I love it.
It's quick on my hardware, stable and just does what I need.
But then I'm no gamer.
However as Jesse Smith said "MX 19 one of the best desktop experiences I have run this year" - and that is what I have found too.

Speed, stability, and compatibility. Not to mention the superb support.

Once people hear news, whether good or bad, they want to know why, that's one reason Distrowatch's HPD numbers rise. I too have tried many distros over the years. Arch or Debian based, both have their place. Now DEs, KDE and Cinnamon, too many bells & whistles for me, I like things with a more functional feel. Enter MATE which has been nothing but bad luck for me, Mint MATE lasted the longest, about 8 weeks, but still wasn't quite right for me. Then there is Gnome 3, of all my many, many, many installs it has never stayed stable on a machine for more than 6 weeks.

Then I tried Manjaro, my next favorite distro but it was different and old habits die hard. I liked XFCE on Manjaro so I decided to give MX Linux a spin. 6 months later, the longest any distro has lasted with me and I can tell you that I will be running MX for a long time. I was so tired of distro hopping, now those days are done. The Snapshot/Live USB Maker is in a class all its own and combined with LuckyBackup, I've even retired my copy of Clonezille. I love the MX Package Installer, I don't need pictures and reviews to download my software, I know what I need and want. The there's the support, Devs respond and respond quickly, the support is second to none. Those are my main reasons for MX but there are many more. I guess with any distro it all boils down to, "it just fits me and works well".

When I discovered MX, it wasn't even listed on DW as an entity separate from antiX. It was called "antiX-MX 15.01" I believe, and the 64bit version was described as unstable, so users should download the 32bit version instead. That was in Jan or Feb 2016. I have since tried Live versions of well over 100 Distros, and installed several on multiple boot laptops and netbooks, including Mint17.2, Salix, Makulu, Porteus 3.1, WattOS 8, Korora 23 Mate, ParrotOS, Sparky, Manjaro Xfce, antiX, and Kali (hey, I liked the splash screen, OK?). They all crashed and burned (with the exception of antiX) for various reasons. I'm still with MX--and Win7. Ain't planning to change. I started out on Debian Potato in 2001-03 for several college classes, then ignored Linux until late 2015.

junoluna wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:23 am does it matter?

if popularity was any sign of quality, windows would be usable and marvel movies would be watchable

besides ... we live in a world where a video of 8 nobel laureates speaking about the genesis of life in the universe has 2700 views on youtube while a video of a cat falling in a sink has 72 million ...

Maybe it's just me, but I'd click on a video of eight Nobel laureates falling into a sink...

No Stevo, not just you. I was thinking the same thing! That would be hilarious!

azrielle wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 5:48 pm When I discovered MX, it wasn't even listed on DW as an entity separate from antiX.

Crazy how that wasn't even that long ago actually.
Lots of great milestones for antiX and MX.

manyroads wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 11:43 am As a nearly twenty (20) year Linux user... I'm old.

And, I'm older, with similar exposure to Unix and Gnu/Linux. MX is just plain GOOD. Thoughtfully developed, clean, usable to get real computer work done without bother. And, great support if you do need help. Great manual (user guide). Helpful videos.

If you want to PLAY with the OS, try many of them and like what manyroads wrote, whatever floats your boat. But, if you want to be productive on your computer, MX is popular for all the right reasons.

BACKUP your personal data to some external location. Do it now. Backup often. Have a backup plan and follow it. Every now and then, test your backups to be sure you can restore. If you don't, someday you will loose all your personal stuff. Hardware fails. You can always re=install an OS, but your personal data is like vapour. Poof. :-)

I totally agree with you SwampRabbit!

I remember an interview dolphin_oracle did in late 2016 (I believe) where he said we were hoping to break into the top 20 at DistroWatch. This was also a personal goal of mine. Not only did MX break into the top 20, the top 10, and then become #1, antiX is now solidly in the top 20 at #11. I remember anticapitalista predicting this would happen when it looked rather hopeless to me. I'm usually down in the trenches (where I like it) while anticap has a much better idea of what is going on with other distros. I'm very impressed with the rise of antiX and especially MX at DistroWatch. I'm even more impressed by anticapitalista's predictions.

On the DW main page you can get the rankings from past years. I did this once to plot the magical rise of MX and antiX. It might even be buried in one of my posts here.

the ranking for MX Linux in LinuxDistro is fake

You mean Distrowatch? What do you think that ranking means?

Why do you see is fake (I guess if you think it means popularity rather then number of clicks on that specific site for MX of course you are confused).

Who is faking it? I'm curious... Does Distrowatch have an interest to promote MX, do MX user go there and click on MX link to make it go up in ranks?

Also, why popularity is so important? I'm here exactly because I can make a difference, if I was using a distro like Ubuntu I don't know how I could have contributed and customized Ubuntu in a way to my desire like I did with MX,

Adrian wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:17 am Who is faking it? I'm curious... Does Distrowatch have an interest to promote MX, do MX user go there and click on MX link to make it go up in ranks?

Also, why popularity is so important? I'm here exactly because I can make a difference, if I was using a distro like Ubuntu I don't know how I could have contributed and customized Ubuntu in a way to my desire like I did with MX,

Jesse has a system in place to stop cheating of his "ranking" system. While not perfect, it works to a degree. You can't go from the same public IP address and get tons of "clicks".

I honestly don't think Jesse likes MX too much, especially no more than other distros. He actually avoided speaking about antiX and MX a lot. The Distrowatch team even removed several users' legit posts when posting about antiX or MX, I have screen grabs somewhere.

Bottom line is that once popularity rises enough, you can't hide it or cover it up.

First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
then you win,
then they say DistroWatch is fake news.

Rumors on the internet can't be fake news

And Reddit subscribers is proper measurement of anything's value

<end sarcasm>

Reddit MXLinux subreddit is pretty recent and is actually growing pretty fast, here some stats recorded at the beginning of Dec:

MX is unlikely to be your first exposure to linux ... most people new to linux probably do some googling and go the go the ubuntu and mint route and then after a while you learn that there are nearly 1000 other options

i think a more interesting question is 'How many people leave MX behind after trying it for a while?'

pure speculation but i bet it is a very low percentage