Linked by Eugenia Loli on Sat 4th Aug 2007 20:57 UTC
Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu Google Trends recently updated their online "popularity" meter and Ubuntu remains the clear No1 Linux distro in terms of search trend. Fedora and Debian seem to be battling for the second position, while SuSE had a small "trend" loss in the 3rd place. Then, we find Gentoo, Mandriva, then Red Hat and Kubuntu. While this trend meter is not an official Linux distro market/mind share, it's considered a pretty good approximation. Meanwhile, Fedora seems more strong in USA, while SuSE in Europe.
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What?
by mattb on Sat 4th Aug 2007 21:25 UTC
mattb
Member since:
2006-10-05

How is it an approximation of marketshare? If 10000 people search for "Ubuntu sucks", that'll boost their "marketshare" according to Google Trends, but it's probably not reflective of much else.

Reply Score: 4

RE: What?
by adstro on Sat 4th Aug 2007 21:38 in reply to "What?"
adstro Member since:
2005-10-15

While it does not give an accurate depiction of market share I think it does still have some relevance. I personally find myself searching for things I don't like/have no interest in (searches like "ubuntu sucks") significantly less than I search for things I do like/have a great interest in.

Reply Parent Score: 7

RE: What?
by shykid on Sat 4th Aug 2007 21:40 in reply to "What?"
shykid Member since:
2007-02-22

True, but the article says nothing about marketshare. "Marketshare" and popularity are different things.

However, I do think the term "mindshare" would be more appropriate than popularity in this case. Popularity implies that people are using the product, while mindshare only indicates they know and talk about it, regardless of whether it's positively or negatively.

Reply Parent Score: 11

RE: What?
by shykid on Sat 4th Aug 2007 21:41 in reply to "What?"
shykid Member since:
2007-02-22

True, but the article says nothing about an accurate measure of marketshare. "Marketshare" and "popularity" are different things.

However, I do think the term "mindshare" would be more appropriate than popularity in this case. Popularity implies that people are using the product, while mindshare only indicates they know and talk about it, regardless of whether it's positively or negatively.

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE: What?
by fepede on Sun 5th Aug 2007 07:54 in reply to "What?"
fepede Member since:
2005-11-14

You may be right, but I've never searched the net for something I think that sucks!!!

Who will anyway?

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE[2]: What?
by 74k3n on Sun 5th Aug 2007 11:27 in reply to "RE: What?"
74k3n Member since:
2007-06-06

Well for example a lot of those people could be searching for "Ubuntu graphics problems".

Reply Parent Score: 1