DistroWatch's Misleading Page Hit Rankings

What is DistroWatch? : -

DistroWatch is a website dedicated to talking about, reviewing and keeping up to date with open-source operating systems. This site particularly focuses on Linux distributions and flavors of BSD, though other open-source operating systems are sometimes discussed. There is a lot of information out there on Linux distributions and this site tries to collect and consistently present that information to make it easier to locate.

The DistroWatch web site was first published on 31 May 2001.The front page of DistroWatch primarily features release announcements of new versions of Linux distributions as well as links to reviews, podcasts, and newsletters about open-source operating systems. While our weekly newsletter, DistroWatch Weekly, contains hands-on reviews of new distribution releases along with a summary of new developments in the open-source community.

DistroWatch features several resources for experienced Linux users, including an index of the hundreds of Linux distributions and BSD projects, distribution news and developments, information on key open source components and packages, and a package comparison page to assist in doing side-by-side software comparisons of distributions. If you are looking for a Linux distribution with specific features, chances are you can find it on our Search page.

DistroWatch also includes several resources for newcomers, including a glossary of commonly used open-source terms, a summary of the major Linux distributions, a cross-distro guide to managing software packages, an archive of useful tips and a collection of questions and answers from other beginners.

They also maintain a list of places where people can purchase computers and computer hardware which will be compatible with Linux and BSD.

Pic:- DistroWatch Logo

Pic:- DistroWatch Homepage

The Problem Regarding DistroWatch:-

The DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking statistics have attracted plenty of attention and feedback over the years. Originally, each distribution-specific page was pure HTML with a third-party counter at the bottom to monitor the interest of visitors. In May 2004 the site switched from publicly viewable third-party counters to internal counters. This was prompted by a continuous abuse of the counters by a handful of undisciplined individuals who had confused DistroWatch with a poll station. The counters are no longer displayed on the individual distributions pages, but all visits are logged. Only one hit per IP address per day is counted.

The DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking statistics are a light-hearted way of measuring the popularity of Linux distributions and other free operating systems among the visitors of this website. They correlate neither to usage nor to quality and should not be used to measure the market share of distributions. They simply show the number of times a distribution page on DistroWatch.com was accessed each day, nothing more.

Pic:- DistroWatch Page Hits Ranking Sample image

A Backlash to DistroWatch : -

Recently a popular Youtuber (DistroTube), started a movement of strong opposition against this ranking of DistroWatch. He instructed his followers on social media platforms to make Arch Linux DistroWatch's  Top Distro.

The following have been instructed by him to follow for people who want to Play this "Game" of DistroWatch:-

Since their rankings are so easy to "game," let's make Arch Linux (currently #18) the new number one distro on DistroWatch! How can you help? Please do the following: 
(1) Make https://distrowatch.com/table.php?dis... your web browsers homepage. 
(2) Also, make the Arch DistroWatch page your mobile phone's browser homepage. 
(3) Share the link to the Arch DistroWatch page on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon, Reddit, Instagram, etc. 
(4) Drop the link in web forums, blog posts, emails, etc.

Final Verdict(My own opinion) :-

Don't rely on DistroWatch's Ranking for choosing any Linux distro as your daily driver. Every Linux Distro has been created for a purpose. Each and everyone is different from one another in terms of many incomparable parameters. A huge chunk of the people who use Linux as their primary daily driver use either Debian based(Ubuntu, Pop!OS, etc.) or RedHat based(Fedora, CentOS, etc.). There's a distro for every possible work application so choose wisely depending upon your own area of work.