Ubuntu Linux Losing Popularity Among Users

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Ubuntu Linux has been the poster-child of user-friendly Linux distributions in the past, with a friendly user interface and both community and official support. But Ubuntu is reportedly losing market share in desktop operating systems.

Ubuntu has fallen to fourth place in the list of popular Linux distributions. DistroWatch reports that Canonical’s customer-oriented Linux has been overtaken by Mint, Fedora and openSUSE, which occupy the #1, #2, and #3 spots, respectively.

While Ubuntu had been popular in notebook computers, netbooks and the education market, the decline in popularity of the distro was reportedly caused, among other reasons, by the developers’ switch of the default interface in its latest 11.04 “Natty Narwhal” release. Ubuntu has historically carried Gnome as its default desktop environment in the past, although the latest release uses Unity.

Unity is a netbook-optimized desktop environment, which focuses on taking advantage of smaller screens and smaller resolutions. However, controversy has surrounded Canonical’s switch to Unity as the default desktop environment.

Still, according to market analysis from Pingdom, Ubuntu is not an overall loser. Considering other variants of Ubuntu, including KUbuntu, Edubuntu, and other releases, the aggregate share takes the #2 spot among Linux distributions, next to Mint. But with the fast rise of Mint compared to other Linux distributions, it seems Canonical will have to take drastic action to reclaim its lost market share.

As with other consumer-oriented Linux distributions that have grown in popularity, enthusiasts and users have lauded Ubuntu to be a potential challenger to the dominance of Windows in home and educational desktop computers. But given the decline in market share, it seems Ubuntu will have to establish its hold on users once again. Perhaps with its small-screen oriented interface, Ubuntu can take aim at the tablet computer market.