Interesting Distrowatch ranking update

[Jerry3904]

Might be worth starting a "brainstorming" thread, see what other ideas there are for getting to the next level, so to speak. That's assuming that any of the MX team have the extra time and inclination to try it.

I think it's important to remember that the few more popular Distros (Manjaro, Mint, Ubuntu, etc) receive serious backing from sponsor's and user's donations - and all have deals with Hardware manufacturers... well not exactly "manufacturers", more like box shifters.

My small contribution to such a thread:

Maybe someone here knows someone who knows someone... maybe there's some Laptops out there sold without an OS that would work great with MX pre-installed on them.

Yup, two important questions here for careful consideration:
1) Dev Team time
2) tax status

[Stevo]

Always a bad sign. It means the forum gets flooded with posts like:

1) Ubuntu/Mint doesn't do it this way, so you must be doing it wrong.
2) If you don't make MX do what I want, I'll just go back to Windows.

Ugh.

Some of the newcomers have had useful suggestions, though!

It's still pretty annoying that most of the Linux magazines and podcasts are still ignoring MX despite its growing popularity. We got one little 10/10 review in Linux Format, while we see page after page about Elementary, Deepin, and Solus.

[wulf]

Always a bad sign. It means the forum gets flooded with posts like:

1) Ubuntu/Mint doesn't do it this way, so you must be doing it wrong.
2) If you don't make MX do what I want, I'll just go back to Windows.

Ugh.

Some of the newcomers have had useful suggestions, though!

It's still pretty annoying that most of the Linux magazines and podcasts are still ignoring MX despite its growing popularity. We got one little 10/10 review in Linux Format, while we see page after page about Elementary, Deepin, and Solus.

I'm not sure what the reason is, speaking from a UK perspective, but if I ask people to name a Linux distribution, ( bearing in mind that those I'm quoting are not particularly techie minded folk ), the answer that most often comes back is Mint.

[Mauser]

You can see one distro has a bot running on Distrowatch.

[jordansc]

Somewhat random thoughts:

I think most distro users want a solid OS and responsive team leaders they can trust to sustain it. Who wants to donate to a distro that may not be around next month or whose developers/leaders rarely communicate?

The original Solus was great while it lasted. Point Linux was one of my favorites until it stagnated. Lesson learned: one man shows usually burn out.

I don't pay much attention to reviews anymore but good reviews attract users which in turn attracts donations. My gut tells me MX Linux is on the right path.

[ChrisUK]

It's still pretty annoying that most of the Linux magazines and podcasts are still ignoring MX despite its growing popularity. We got one little 10/10 review in Linux Format, while we see page after page about Elementary, Deepin, and Solus.

It's also quite confusing, IME (and I've been in a few forums over the last perhaps 20 years):

• No other development team works harder than the devs here.
• No other Distro has devs that regularly check and participate in the forums (Unless the Distro is a "one man band" like Linux Lite pretty much is) - which means seeing bugs reported in help requests, rather than hoping someone will bother to report them on github etc
• No other Distro is more stable.
• add the rest yourself

MX Linux is exactly what a Linux Distro for the 21st Century is meant to be... I've no idea why most of the "pretty" and often "buggy" ones get all of the publicity. Maybe it's like most things in life, "It's Not What You Know. It's Who You Know"

[Zeh]

It's still pretty annoying that most of the Linux magazines and podcasts are still ignoring MX despite its growing popularity. We got one little 10/10 review in Linux Format, while we see page after page about Elementary, Deepin, and Solus.

The word is “marketing”. That’s what those distros are doing, I’d say.
MX doesn’t market itself, just makes itself available. I mean, just have a look at those other distros websites, to start with. Not that the MX website could be seen as louzy, it isn’t, but it doesn’t follow the same philosophy the others follow.
I don’t think either that as a brand “MX” can pair with “Elementary”, “Deepin”, “Solus” and other terms. Of course, the choosing of the name didn’t have in mind any branding exercise from a marketing perspective, just paying homage to MEPIS and antiX, instead.
In short, MX is not in the marketing business. And that’s one of the reasons I’ve chosen MX – second to its well known qualities of reliability, speed, easy tools, etc. – but I am (we are) among the few, I guess.

[oops]

..In short, MX is not in the marketing business. And that’s one of the reasons I’ve chosen MX – second to its well known qualities of reliability, speed, easy tools, etc. – but I am (we are) among the few, I guess.

... And do not forget than behind MX, Debian is sitting (the stability)

[boombaby]

Hello, Each...


To me, what will market MX is MX itself.

To put that another way, MX's usability will sell MX.

You are chasing the "marketplace", and the marketplace is "Windows GUI" and "User control over system".

As I have said in other places, if you set up an excellent Desktop (and that means "GUI") including with the (GUI) tools to maintain it well - ie consistently staying in the GUI - then the word (in today's World) will spread like wildfire. I can assure you that a properly functioning Control Centre (well laid out, systematically functional, extensive control parameters) will "sell" fast. That's for the home User.

If you target business functionality then Businesses will pick up on it. [Business functionality means all the basic necessities. I can list them but you know them.] Keep the collection small (ie maintainable) but totally functional and unbreakable. Business will dive in, once they're convinced it's functional and stable. (In that case you might lock out Users, except for enabling User modification on "looks" and "feel".) P.S. Business does NOT want CLI. Business does NOT want CLI. Business does NOT want CLI.

(I've kept that pretty brief but there is a tonne of stuff that could be written.)


Regards,
boombaby
_

[lonesomepoint]

Higher than Mint, even though their latest release was much more recent than ours! That must count for something.

Mint? Wow--last time I looked, Mint was usually #1. Personally, it pleases me to see a *buntu distro (especially Mint) fall in the rankings, because even though it doesn't mean much, I enjoy the thought of people wanting to move on from the *buntus.