Distro Watch -- Why Is Gentoo Declining?

djm · Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 9:11 am Post subject:

http://www.distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20040823#feedback

We are being watched!

I'm also a fan of distrowatch (it was basically the start of my linux experience - when I was interested in trying linux and had no idea which distro to choose (or that there even were different distros), someone sent me there), it's a fairly good source of information for what new releases of packages and distros there are, and it's nice to see how up-to-date different distros are (shame they still have apache2 listed as 2.0.49 for gentoo ~x86, but the tables there are still fairly accurate I think)
_________________
the forums.gentoo.org poster formally known as metal leper

gentooitanewbie · n00b Joined: 28 Jun 2004 Posts: 2

A lot of post to say: "no, it's just that Distrowatch doesn't really measure how a distro is spread". Ok, that's true.

But next step is to watch what are the current defects of gentoo...
I've try to install 2004.1 before (I gave up after a couple of bugs reported in the forum, i.e. the net card detection), and 2004.0 after... all the evenings for a week spent to do so, without any results, before to go back to debian.
Ok, I'm a newbie and maybe gentoo is not for me, but I install Mandrake, Knoppix, Debian and Fedora on my laptop without any serious problem...

Now I'm waiting that Vidalinux get a little more stable before to try again to approach gentoo...

Bye
Alberto

nekonoko · Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 5:16 pm Post subject:

I'd not heard of Distrowatch before now

Certainly I'd more inclined to judge Gentoo's popularity based on these forums than a random website that not everyone even visits.
_________________
Ecchi nano wo ikenai to omoimasu!

Rotonen · Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:57 pm Post subject:

Wouldn't the best way of measuring Gentoo getting more or less popular be the amount of Portage tree syncs per day..?

djm · Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 8:05 pm Post subject:

If that was used it might encourage people to emerge sync more often, and doesn't take into account those people using gentoo offline, or who don't update their system, though yes, more syncs means more users, but it doesn't tell the whole story (relative popularity compared to other distros, proportion of "offline users", though I suppose than when it comes to distros for people without an internet connection gentoo probably does poorly)

But I don't suppose that any method of determining something's popularity is perfect, different things show different things (duh), distrowatch shows how much interest there is in a distro, rather than how many users it has (but there are people like me who check the gentoo page everyday to see how up to date all the packages are who screw things up)
_________________
the forums.gentoo.org poster formally known as metal leper

Sergio1704 · n00b Joined: 16 Aug 2003 Posts: 73

snowbum · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 6:44 am Post subject:

Distrowatch.com hit ranking is no indicator of how many pages gentoo.org actualy gets. I used to check distrowatch.com every other day to see what the latest was in my search for the perfect distro. Then I buckled down and tried gentoo. I hardly ever visit distrowatch.com anymore because I have the latest and best distro for my needs. Gentoo has truly been a godsend. I no longer yearn for a new release only to find more bugs. Now I am pleasently surprised evertime I find updates of my favorite packages that actualy work well.
_________________
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood...

Lobo_Louie · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 2

AlterEgo · Veteran Joined: 25 Apr 2002 Posts: 1619

Duty · Apprentice Joined: 15 Nov 2003 Posts: 253

snowbum · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:50 pm Post subject:

ChrisWhite · Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 6:55 am Post subject:

I happened to be manning the Gentoo booth at the time of LWE, and I'd have to say that hype was definately there. It was sort of a nice pat on the back when people came up to you with "You guys do an awesome job!" and having a fairly well trafficed booth for that matter

.

I do think Gentoo is growing, but the "overall hype" is down I think. But as far as the general userbase is concerned, they're definately there and are bringing others to Gentoo. I can tell this by nice stream of user ebuild submissions, forum posts, bug reports, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

r0nin · Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 7:29 pm Post subject:

I am in the IT field and at my company I support windows more than I do unix. We have an AIX machine in the data center and the only thing I know how to do with it is switching out backup tapes and logging into it to see if they ran.

So I started installing a few linux distro's and installed fedora core 2, SUSE, and mandrake last week. As you can see they are currently in the top 5 in popularity. Now being new to linux I wanted something easy to install hence the SUSE, mandrake, etc. I thought to myself once I get this installed, I will really get to know linux and understand how it all works.

Wrong!!! I got bored with each distro, it all looks and feels like windows. It was way to easy to install pretty much next, next, next and finish. I remember coming across a post in linuxiso.org trying to figure out how to burn an ISO to cd and I remember seeing someone posting that they love using gentoo. So I thought what the hell I'll give it a shot. So I loaded it. It is intimidating having to manually do everything yourself and reading documentation on doing the install. But that's the best part and I feel like I am actually learning something now.

Bottomline, i'm ecstatic with gentoo and this is the first distro I tried that really has me wanting to learn more about linux and I am switching over to linux at home. Gentoo has great forums, plenty of documentation and a great community.

Well i'm off to install xorg and try to get a graphical desktop environment to run on my box.
_________________
Registered linux user #366586

--New California Gentoo Linux User Group site up (CAGLUG)

G.N.A. · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 81

Come on..according to that, Mandrake is first.

I left Mandrake to come to Gentoo. There is NO comparision between the two.
You need help for Mandrake.. Good luck..
You want to try and fix a problem with Mandrake.. Good luck..
You want to get off their updates email list.. Good luck.

GNA

EzInKy · Veteran Joined: 11 Oct 2002 Posts: 1742 Location: Kentucky

Corhonio · n00b Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 13

In a recent ./ poll http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1135&aid=-1 gentoo came a close second behind debian for whatever that means hehe

PseudoKrazy · Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 1:35 am Post subject:

From what most of my friends use, and what I see being used in companies, buisinesses, etc, it seems that Gentoo is barely ever used. Most of the linux users I know outside of the gentoo community would have "heard some buzz about gentoo" and whatnot, but have been disinclined to install it because of the standard factors: no installer, source based, etc.

Also, several linux users I know would like to install gentoo, but simply cannot due to the fact that their systems would take ages to compile things such as Open office and KDE; and would not be able to update their portage tree very often due to slow connections.

The distrowatch statistics is all about what distro is popular, and by the looks of it, LiveCD distros such as Knoppix are currently "the buzz".

honeymak · Guru Joined: 30 Dec 2002 Posts: 537

for me,

distro good or bad is not counted by popularity

bad stuff can be popular while good stuff could be silent
just as long as good people know good stuff
and bad people know bad stuff

:roll:

_________________
hackers - make sth real
academics - read sth said to be real

PseudoKrazy · Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:20 am Post subject:

mrness · Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 5:32 am Post subject:

What we are trying to achieve here? Popularity? bah...
I hope you guys realise that the vast majority of computer users are fitting well to "Joe Six-Pack" description. This is why a toy OS such as Windows has a huge popularity.
As much as I love Gentoo, I cannot imagine a world in which popularity of Gentoo will be greater than popularity of RH/Suse/Mandrake, nor do I want it.

Let's all improve our lives by making our distro of choice even better through contributing in all well-known forms.

dalek · Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 9:54 am Post subject:

Gentoo Server · Apprentice Joined: 21 Jul 2003 Posts: 279

djm · Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:30 pm Post subject:

Only if by real crap you mean the best way :twisted:

I'm sure that with the release of 2004.3 more people will start looking at Gentoo on distrowatch again, because releases generate interest (from people wanting the latest and greatest), and it also provides visibility on distrowatch.com (and else where)
_________________
the forums.gentoo.org poster formally known as metal leper

Sicario · n00b Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Posts: 9

The list doesn't matter, Do you remember when Yopper was in the top of the list?. Can anyone say me that Yopper was more popular that the others? hehehehehe.

djm · Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 11:49 am Post subject:

Woah, forget Gentoo declining, look at the distrowatch.com page now, hardly anything is on the up!
_________________
the forums.gentoo.org poster formally known as metal leper