[ Thanks to James
Maguire for this link. ]
“By any standard, Debian is the most influential Linux
distribution ever. Not everyone uses Debian, but, both alone and
second hand through Ubuntu, it is the source of more derivative
distributions than any other. How influential is Debian? One
indication is that three of the four most frequently downloaded
distributions on Distrowatch are based on Debian: Ubuntu, Mint, and
Debian itself. Together, these three account for 49% of the top ten
downloads. Assuming that these downloads are representative of the
interest in Linux, just under half of anybody’s experience with the
operating system comes through Debian or a distro based on Debian.“Or, to give a different metric, of the 323 currently active
distributions listed on Distrowatch, 128 are based on Debian, and
another 74 on Ubuntu. In other words, just under 63% of all
distributions now being developed come ultimately from Debian. By
comparison, 50 (15%) are based on Fedora or Red Hat, 28 (9%) on
Slackware, and 12 (4%) on Gentoo.“Given these figures, it is not surprising that Debian should
have its Derivatives Front Desk and Ubuntu its Derivatives page to
track their relationships with other distributions. As incomplete
as both these efforts at keeping track currently are, they are
still additional proof (if any is needed) of Debian’s and Ubuntu’s
far-reaching influences.”