this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
35 points (97.3% liked)
Linux
58970 readers
1087 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I mean, yes, but I don't think anyone is intending to do use packages only based one factor. Popularity is a reasonable heuristic for quality and long-term continued support. And my reading of OP is that they're trying to gauge the popularity to use it for that. I think it's also a decent enough measure for discovery, since usefulness (hopefully) should correlate with popularity and the latter is more measurable.