Hacker News Reader

Comment by onphonenow | Hacker News Reader

The bug reporter is claiming there is a mass exodus from Ubuntu - is this really the case? I’m seeing more Amazon / Ubuntu/ mainstream distro stuff these days then I feel like I used to 10-15 years ago.

Is this mass exodus moving to Debian for things like Amazon AMI’s?

View on HN

I expect there is a group of developers and tinkerers who used to run linux on the desktop (where Ubuntu traditionally was perhaps easier to use, especially on laptops with wifi, etc...), who switched to MacBooks and now develop and run their linux stuff in docker, ec2/cloud or even just some Raspberry Pis.

(Though I guess that in itself wouldn't be a large enough group to be seen as a "Mass Exodus")

I read the comment as OP threatening a mass exodus rather than claiming one was already happening. Not clear, though, so it's a valid question. I don't see a mass exodus from Ubuntu but it seems that most Docker containers these days are based on either Debian or Alpine.

I think what he thinks of as "mass" is probably what we would call "himself and two or three of his friends who think similarly".

Nearly all of the Docker containers I build are based on Alpine. Occasionally I go "oh shit, this uses that musl thing not glibc, I need to remember to... <some minor tweak>".

The one Docker container that doesn't, in fact, is based on CentOS so I can run Davinci Resolve in CentOS when my desktop OS is really Ubuntu.

The mass exodus isn't moving to Debian, but to Linux Mint, which is #3 on DistroWatch.com. Ubuntu is #7 and Debian is #8. A year ago Mine was still #d, Ubuntu was #6 and Debian was still #8, so Ubuntu is experiencing an exodus. Of course, DistroWatch's rankings aren't scientific but I don't think we have any other way to measure Linux distro use.

Ubuntu gave up on having the best desktop experience when it gave up on Unity and replaced many packages with Snaps. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu and has its own Cinnamon desktop but also offers other desktops and a version based on Debian instead of Ubuntu.

> mass exodus

I've been considering it since their apt and motd spam, and their holding back of updates (paid or otherwise). I won't make any definitive changes until the next LTS gets released though.

The "mass market", such as it is, does not care about this. So, no.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com