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Debian Fastest Growing Linux Distribution

Over the last six months Debian has been the fastest growing Linux distribution when measured by counting active sites which contain the name of a Linux distribution in the Apache Server header. In percentage terms Debian is closely followed by SuSE and Gentoo. RedHat has a far greater number of sites but a slower growth rate, and actually fell this month, after making widely publicized and controversial changes to its licencing and security update policy. A distribution name is present in a little over a quarter of Linux based Apache sites.

 Distribution   July 2003   January 2004   Growth Rate 
Debian355,469442,75224.6%
SuSE240,411296,21723.2%
Gentoo20,27324,22919.5%
RedHat1,231,9861,451,50517.8%
Mandrake51,29952,5432.4%
Cobalt553,012548,963-0.7%

The trend over the second half of 2003 and to date is as follows:

Linux Distributions

Posted by Netcraft Admin on 28th January, 2004 in Around the Net