Linux Mint has reclaimed its position as the top-ranked Linux distribution on DistroWatch, dethroning MX Linux. The latest page hit rankings, which reflect the popularity of distributions among DistroWatch users, place Linux Mint in first place with 2,412 hits per day. MX Linux, previously the reigning champ, now sits in second with 2,280 hits.
I don’t understand the popularity of MX Linux. I’ve never tried it so I can’t say if it’s good or bad but the weird thing is that I never hear about anyone actually using it. I almost never see it discussed in any of the Linux communities I visit. If it’s the most popular distro I’d expect to see lots of people discussing it or recommending it like I do with Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, etc.
Anyone know why?
Hi, I use MX Linux. It’s main attraction to me is being debian based with a useful tool suite which helps a lot if you’re not of the mind of using the terminal for tasks which have proper GUIs.
Is it good or bad? Depends on your use case. I’ll say, tho, having to migrate my whole computer when upgrading (like from release 20 to 21) can be a pain in the ass as it limits your upgrades to the release you’re using (20.1 can upgrade to 20.2 but 20.3 can’t upgrade to 21.0). But it’s debian, so the upgrades are mostly stable
It’s main popularity on distrowatch is derived from curiosity clicks.
Picture this:
You open distro watch and see a “popular” distro you have never heard of.
You click that distro’s page to check
That click bumps MX up in the rankings
More people see this uncommon “popular” distro leading the ranks
They check the distro page
Rinse and repeat
Let’s go Green Ubuntu, the one I always come back to. I have distro hopped yet Mint is the one I come back to, recommend to family and friends.
Mints appeal to me is the non appeal, the boring just works without fancy features.
MX Linux always looked dated to me, but it basically ran on all the old computers I installed it on.
This comes as a shock to me. I’ve never even heard of MX Linux. And it was no. 1? Sneaky!
