Debian Fastest Growing Linux Distribution
28th January, 2004
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 |
| Debian | 355,469 | 442,752 | 24.6% |
| SuSE | 240,411 | 296,217 | 23.2% |
| Gentoo | 20,273 | 24,229 | 19.5% |
| RedHat | 1,231,986 | 1,451,505 | 17.8% |
| Mandrake | 51,299 | 52,543 | 2.4% |
| Cobalt | 553,012 | 548,963 | -0.7% |
The trend over the second half of 2003 and to date is as follows:
