Linux Mint, made here in Ireland

clemyeats · 18-09-2009 1:24am #1

Hi,

Linux Mint started in 2006. From a small hoby it has now become the second most widely used GNU/Linux distribution in the World and the most important one in Ireland.

It is being developed in Athlone, county Westmeath and as I'm now working full time on it and leaving my former employer I would be interested in meeting the local Linux users and LUGs in the midlands.

I've been invited to talk at UCD and at some other events in Dublin but I'd like to help locally first, here in Athlone and around.

Of course there will be efforts to promote LUGs worldwide but I think it's important to start it locally. Beyond what the distribution has to offer and our differences across projects, Linux enthusiasts ought to be encouraged and supported whatever distribution they're interested in.

I would like people involved in Irish LUGs to step up and contact me so that we can look at how we can help them and how we can interact.

I'm French, as you may know, and we're lucky here in Ireland to have a small country with a strong community. My interest is linked to the success of Linux Mint of course, but beyond that and more importantly I would be happy to participate in the promotion of Linux within Ireland.

So in brief, don't hesitate to contact me and let's see what we can do together.

My email address is clem AT linuxmint DOT com. And I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

All the best to you all,

Clem.

Johnboy1951 · 18-09-2009 1:01pm

Hi Clem,
Nice to see such a post from a developer.
I have followed Mint since it started and have liked it and recommended it, particularly for new users of Linux along with Mepis and PCLinuxOS -- although I would question where the stats for your claim to be "the second most widely used GNU/Linux distribution in the World" came from. Do you have figures for all installs of Mint and other distros? If you do, a link would be appreciated as I have never seen such stats.

I wish you well going full time with the development and hope it works out well for you and Mint.

Best regards.

clemyeats · 18-09-2009 1:29pm

Hi John,

Thanks. The stats are relative and take the assumption that Mint users visit Distrowatch.com as much as users from other distributions:

http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.osdetail.html

For instance, if you look at it now, it shows that 4.1% of Distrowatch's visitors are using Mint and 1.4% are using OpenSUSE. Of course, these percentages don't mean much by themselves, but if we assume Distrowatch is as famous and popular among both user bases then we can establish that, whatever their actual size is, the Mint user base is 3 times wider than the OpenSUSE one.

Ideally we'd like to get these kind of stats from a website like Google, which is used by everybody and on a regular basis. This would tell us more about our relative small size compared to Windows and Mac, but as far as comparing distributions goes this Distrowatch traffic share indicator comes handy.

Anyway, you're making me go off-topic here.. let's go back to talking about LUG initiatives in Ireland

)

Thanks,
Clem.

Sherifu · 18-09-2009 2:09pm

Hi Clem,

Welcome to boards.
Been using Mint since mint 4.
It's been nice to see how it has improved with mint tools, the usability improvements and the work you and the team put in is appreciated.
Gloria is going along great for me. The new artwork, theme and login is great.

Great to see you posting here.
All the best.

Johnboy1951 · 18-09-2009 2:53pm

clemyeats wrote: »

Hi John,

Thanks. The stats are relative and take the assumption that Mint users visit Distrowatch.com as much as users from other distributions:

http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.osdetail.html

For instance, if you look at it now, it shows that 4.1% of Distrowatch's visitors are using Mint and 1.4% are using OpenSUSE. Of course, these percentages don't mean much by themselves, but if we assume Distrowatch is as famous and popular among both user bases then we can establish that, whatever their actual size is, the Mint user base is 3 times wider than the OpenSUSE one.

Ideally we'd like to get these kind of stats from a website like Google, which is used by everybody and on a regular basis. This would tell us more about our relative small size compared to Windows and Mac, but as far as comparing distributions goes this Distrowatch traffic share indicator comes handy.

Anyway, you're making me go off-topic here.. let's go back to talking about LUG initiatives in Ireland )

Thanks,
Clem.

Sorry, but I disagree. I am entirely on topic.
I commented on a claim made in your first post.

Your claim may very well be accurate in fact, but to attempt to say that clicks on a link or links on one site on the internet has any relevance is just asking for debate on your assumptions.
By that reasoning, if/when, during some period of the stats, Mint gets more hits on Distrowatch than Ubuntu, you will claim to have more users worldwide than Ubuntu.
I think that is nonsense.
Links clicked on Distrowatch are totally irrelevant to the number of users. Heck I was using Linux for two years before I even heard of the site! I never have need to click on my distros link in Distrowatch. According to your method of calculation I do not use Linux at all.

As I said, for all I know your claim may well be accurate, but you have no means to prove its accuracy or anyone else its inaccuracy.

Regards,

Johnboy

woop · 18-09-2009 3:27pm

clemyeats wrote: »

Hi,

Linux Mint started in 2006. From a small hoby it has now become the second most widely used GNU/Linux distribution in the World and the most important one in Ireland.

It is being developed in Athlone, county Westmeath and as I'm now working full time on it and leaving my former employer I would be interested in meeting the local Linux users and LUGs in the midlands.

I've been invited to talk at UCD and at some other events in Dublin but I'd like to help locally first, here in Athlone and around.

Of course there will be efforts to promote LUGs worldwide but I think it's important to start it locally. Beyond what the distribution has to offer and our differences across projects, Linux enthusiasts ought to be encouraged and supported whatever distribution they're interested in.

I would like people involved in Irish LUGs to step up and contact me so that we can look at how we can help them and how we can interact.

I'm French, as you may know, and we're lucky here in Ireland to have a small country with a strong community. My interest is linked to the success of Linux Mint of course, but beyond that and more importantly I would be happy to participate in the promotion of Linux within Ireland.

So in brief, don't hesitate to contact me and let's see what we can do together.

My email address is clem AT linuxmint DOT com. And I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

All the best to you all,

Clem.

hey can I come to youre ucd talk?

also well done on a fine piece of work, even in out of the box form it looks attractive in comparison to any other distro Ive tried

clemyeats · 18-09-2009 4:06pm

Johnboy: I'm not talking about clicks or what is commonly called the "Distrowatch ranking" on which we're currently 3rd and which has no relevance to the size of the user base. I'm talking about the traffic share for distrowatch.com. These are completely different things. The comparison I've made between Mint and OpenSUSE has been true for a couple of month now. If we assumed Distrowatch was three time more popular among Mint users than among OpenSUSE users then we could say the two distributions have the same user base, however.. it's likely to be as popular in both, that's what allows me to say that the OpenSUSE user base is actually three times smaller. It comes down to unique visitors and their navigator's user agents. As I explained before, the more known the reference website, the better. Ideally we would like to see google.com's statistics, wouldn't we?

bman · 18-09-2009 4:17pm

clemyeats wrote: »

Johnboy: I'm not talking about clicks or what is commonly called the "Distrowatch ranking" on which we're currently 3rd and which has no relevance to the size of the user base. I'm talking about the traffic share for distrowatch.com. These are completely different things. The comparison I've made between Mint and OpenSUSE has been true for a couple of month now. If we assumed Distrowatch was three time more popular among Mint users than among OpenSUSE users then we could say the two distributions have the same user base, however.. it's likely to be as popular in both, that's what allows me to say that the OpenSUSE user base is actually three times smaller. It comes down to unique visitors and their navigator's user agents. As I explained before, the more known the reference website, the better. Ideally we would like to see google.com's statistics, wouldn't we?

Intersting. Didn't know they had those stats there. I would agree that that's about as close a representation you're going to get for distro usage without getting the stats from some massive site like Google, for the desktop market anyway.

Edit: Oh, and btw, well done on Mint

. Great distro. Welcome to the forum.

BopNiblets · 18-09-2009 4:26pm

Welcome Clem, switched to Mint a few releases ago from Ubuntu and never looked back, even keep it on a bootable USB on my keyring!
I wish I had enough skills to help your distro but alas I left C++ programming a few years ago in college, keep up the good work though!

Johnboy1951 · 18-09-2009 4:58pm

clemyeats wrote: »

Johnboy: I'm not talking about clicks or what is commonly called the "Distrowatch ranking" on which we're currently 3rd and which has no relevance to the size of the user base. I'm talking about the traffic share for distrowatch.com. These are completely different things. The comparison I've made between Mint and OpenSUSE has been true for a couple of month now. If we assumed Distrowatch was three time more popular among Mint users than among OpenSUSE users then we could say the two distributions have the same user base, however.. it's likely to be as popular in both, that's what allows me to say that the OpenSUSE user base is actually three times smaller. It comes down to unique visitors and their navigator's user agents. As I explained before, the more known the reference website, the better. Ideally we would like to see google.com's statistics, wouldn't we?

When I attempted on first posting to access your link it did not come up but it did now ... strange.

Yes the Google referrers MAY be more meaningful but whether that could be extrapolated or not is another matter.

Is it not strange, if the statistics you referenced are the more meaningful, that Distrowatch does not use them in their distro rankings?
I find that strange.

Do you honestly think that the percentage of users of a particular business distro would visit Distrowatch at the same rate as home users would? There are also other difficulties in drawing conclusions from such stats besides the demographic of the userbase.

As I said before I am not questioning the accuracy of what you said, only what you have based it upon (or that you did not mention what you based it upon). You may very well be correct, I do not know what the relative numbers of installs of each distro are ...... and to be honest I don't believe anyone does.
Maybe if you had added "according to Distrowatch page hits" or something to that effect, we would not have this need of this discussion at all.

In any case we will have to agree to differ on the merits of taking data from such as Distrowatch and using it to apply worldwide.
It is time, I think, to let this thread go back to what you intended in the first place.

Regards,

Johnboy

clemyeats · 18-09-2009 5:31pm

BopNiblets: Thanks. We're mostly using Python and Glade. We use git for the version control and github for hosting: http://www.github.com/linuxmint

PogMoThoin · 18-09-2009 8:30pm

Welcome and Thank You Clem.
I first started using Mint Daryna and its now my distro of choice on my main pc. Any chance of a netbook remix version?

Keep up the good work

Galen · 18-09-2009 8:43pm

Welcome Clem and thank for an excellent distro.

bSlick · 20-09-2009 8:24am

Excellent work Clem, absolutely love Mint!

20-09-2009 9:10am

Again, excellent work Clem.

I have been using Mint for over a year now.
Any PC I fix these days, I dual Boot with Mint on.

And many laptops I see in College are using it, I have mentioned to people that it was an Irish disto, most people were not aware of this.

Again, keep up the good work.

duffman85 · 20-09-2009 1:04pm

Welcome to Boards Clem.

I've been using Linux Mint since Elyssa and I'm now using Gloria.You and the Mint team have done a great job making linux mint a polished,refined and easy to use distro.

I'm looking forward to Linux Mint 8 Helena

All the best and Thanks!

BoB_BoT · 20-09-2009 1:17pm

Hey Clem,
Just to let you know there is a LUG in Athlone. Meetings at the moment are non-existent. There are 2 or 3 of us trying to give them a kick up the arse to get going again, organise meet-ups and talks etc... Send me a PM if you want more info

-Rob

clemyeats · 21-09-2009 12:34pm

PgMoThoin: I can't really comment about the netbook market. I'm definitely looking into it from a technical point of view, it's just a bit too soon to talk about it yet.

Rob, is there a thread about it here on boards.ie, or do you have a website or a mailing list? Let's meet up and see what happens. In the worst case we get nothing done and it'll be an occasion to talk about Linux over a pint of Guinness

BoB_BoT · 21-09-2009 7:37pm

Nice one Clem, the site is in progress, i.e. just a place holder atm. The mailing list in general use is the linux.ie one, but most people have ignored it due to the amount of spam that comes through on it :rolleyes:

I'll pm you with my email, there's no threads on boards. We're in the middle of trying to figure out something to launch in the college (I'm a student in AIT and considering trying to launch a CompSoc there) along with other ideas. As I said the site's in progress along with guidelines for a bigger group project. Was just talking to one of the other guys involved and he was talking about arranging a meet up, try and get some new members into it. And as you said, at the worst, we get to talk about Linux over a few pints

Mycroft H · 21-09-2009 11:00pm

GO MINT!!

tried open SUSE and ubuntu but finally settled on mint 7 (much better then ubuntu)

green is soo coool too

IronMan · 22-09-2009 3:36pm

Mint is the first version of Linux that I have actually kept on my laptop. Use it almost all the time, excellent stuff.

Wagon · 22-09-2009 4:13pm

I've literally just installed Mint and came on here looking for advice. The last hour with has been alright though. Clem, i salute you!

jaqian · 22-09-2009 4:58pm

Came to Mint after Freespire was killed off, love it. Installed Mint XFCE on a mates computer last week after his winXP went haywire and he loves it. Didn't know it was Irish, brilliant.

clemyeats · 23-09-2009 10:07am

BoT_BoT: Ok, I look forward to meeting you and the other Linux enthusiasts here in Athlone.

Clem

Linux Mint, made here in Ireland

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