Unbuntu growing, linux declining
 

Had a play with Google trends just now, and saw a strange thing. Linux has been slowly declining over the last few years , but Ubuntu is growing.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=linux...ate=all&sort=0

Could it be that people see Ubuntu synonymous with Linux?

My fave distro Open SuSE seems to be on the decline:(
Interesting to see Maemo making a dent in the last months.:)

Looks like you debs are winning.

Mike C

Re: Unbuntu growing, linux declining
 

Ubuntu: "art of being human"

Re: Unbuntu growing, linux declining
 

LOL my Wife uses Ubuntu on an IBM X41 laptop, and is none the wiser.

Has Firefox, has eMail, can do internet banking, and online shopping. Not interested in anything else.

Mike C

Re: Unbuntu growing, linux declining
 

I'd take trends with a fair pinch of salt. I see a lot of odd declines and growths that don't seem to match the real world, and this is one of them (I've done it myself in the past).

Think of all the activity with netbooks over recent times, for example, and all the coverage that got Linux for a while..

Re: Unbuntu growing, linux declining
 

Good fun though eh! killing time while I'm waiting for N900

Mike C

Re: Unbuntu growing, linux declining
 

It could be as simple as Ubuntu becoming the preferred UI and crowding out competitors. So its growth and Linux' apparent shrinking could be converging toward toward a point where they are like Windows and DOS. :D

Re: Unbuntu growing, linux declining
 

I think you are seeing a reaction to the splintering of Linux. Most people don't want to research which variation on Linux meets their particular needs. They are content to go with the first distribution they find that seems to meet most people's needs. At the moment that is Ubuntu. It's easy to find, it's easy to use, it's website is easy to navigate, and it's an easy name to remember. The fact that they are expanding into alternate interfaces (Kubuntu) and devices (Ubuntu Netbook Remix, Ubuntu MID Edition) just makes the decision easier.

Texrat's analogy is a good one. In the early days of PCs most users never knew there was any DOS besides MS-DOS. Eventually it became not just the de facto leader but the only DOS most people would use.

Re: Unbuntu growing, linux declining
 

Texrat

I think that was my point, at some point people wont ask for linux, its just Ubuntu.

Mike C

Re: Unbuntu growing, linux declining
 

Re: Unbuntu growing, linux declining
 

That's a good sign that Linux is working well under the hood.

When you have problems with Linux, that's when people talk about it a lot :-)

After all, people with PCs running Windows don't know what Windows is until they have a problem and someone tells them it's because they are running Windows ;-)