Linux Mint is more popular than Ubuntu according to DistroWatch

[Hamish Wilson]

I went to see how Fedora was faring since they put out their new release today, and instead found that, at least for now, Ubuntu has been dethroned by one of its own spawn.





It is not entirely surprising given that Linux Mint has gotten more popular with its more conservative desktop choices, but it is still quite the shake-up in my opinion.

In Linux Mint 11 we made the decision to keep Gnome 2.32. The traditional Gnome desktop, although it?s not actively developed by the Gnome development team anymore, is still by far the most popular desktop within the Linux community. As other distributions adopted new desktops such as Unity and Gnome 3, many users felt alienated and consequently migrated to Linux Mint. We recorded a 40% increase in a single month and we?re now quickly catching up with Ubuntu for the number #1 spot within the Linux desktop market.

As much as we?d like to keep Gnome 2.32 a little while longer we need to look forward and embrace new technologies. This doesn?t mean we need to change the way people use their desktops, not at all, it means we need to try and do our best for people to feel at home again, but on top of a brand new base, a new layer of technology, one that is actively supported upstream and that can be maintained properly going forward.

From a technological point of view, Gnome 3 is a fantastic desktop, and it?s getting better with every new release. It will take time for Linux Mint to develop a Gnome 3 desktop that is on-par with what we had with Gnome 2, but eventually we?ll be able to do much more with it than was possible with the traditional desktop.

http://www.ubuntuvibes.com/2011/11/linux-mint-12-lisa-to-come-with.html

[Melcar]

Mint 12 looks rather nice. The question is can they drill some usability into Gnome3?