Enterprise distributions suck and free software rules

Posted Mar 9, 2011 11:33 UTC (Wed) by patrick_g (subscriber, #44470)
In reply to: Enterprise distributions suck and free software rules by rahulsundaram
Parent article: Enterprise distributions and free software

If better data are not available elsewhere I must use this study based on Distrowatch as reference.
Do you have more precise figures ?

Enterprise distributions suck and free software rules

Posted Mar 9, 2011 11:44 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (2 responses)

No precise figures will ever exist on something like this because a number of derivatives are not public or distrowatch refuses to list them. This is similar to asking how many users a particular distribution has. People can give you ballpark figures but nothing very precise. Even if you choose to rely on distrowatch figures, they are ultimately not a meaningful number because the raw count isn't a useful thing to look at the other factors I mentioned earlier. The claim of "Most distros are just Debian with a different package selection" is obviously false no matter how you dice it.

Enterprise distributions suck and free software rules

Posted Mar 9, 2011 11:54 UTC (Wed) by kragilkragil (guest, #72832) [Link] (1 responses)

There is no distrowatch conspiracy.

Enterprise distributions suck and free software rules

Posted Mar 9, 2011 12:09 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

Now you are just being very silly. Distrowatch doesn't list several distros, for semi-arbitrary reasons. They try to make a judgement on which ones are likely to stick around and don't list all of them immediately. Some of them languish in the waiting period forever for instance. Noone claimed any of this was a conspiracy but rather that the raw count is a unreliable reference and there are significant and more important differences besides the package format and distro origin.