Terms and community rules
The short version: use the site freely, rate honestly, and don't game the numbers.
Using the site
- LinuxStatistics is free to use. By using it you accept these terms.
- Rankings come from our own composite index built on third-party signals, plus our editorial notes. We work to keep them accurate, but they're provided as they are, without guarantees. Check a distro's own documentation before you install it.
- The site's code is open source under the AGPL-3.0. Data from Wikipedia, DistroWatch, StatCounter, GitHub, Wikidata and endoflife.date belongs to those sources under their own terms; our index and open data files are CC BY 4.0 (see Open data). Our index value and rank positions are ours; DistroWatch's own figures are never redistributed.
- Please don't overload the site with automated requests. Reasonable scraping that credits the sources is fine.
Ratings and reviews
- One rating per person per distro. Rate distros you've actually used.
- Accounts must be at least 30 days old on GitHub, GitLab or Codeberg for their ratings to count straight away.
- No paid, swapped or incentivised reviews, and no rating your own project to push it up. Say so if you're involved with a distro.
- Be civil. Criticise software, not people.
We hide, without notice, contributions that are:
- spam, advertising or off topic;
- abusive, hateful or harassing;
- clearly coordinated to move a score;
- illegal, or someone else's private information.
Repeated breaches can get an account blocked. If you think something was hidden by mistake, email hello@linuxstatistics.com.
You keep ownership of what you write. By posting, you let us show it on the site and in our reports.
Independence
- Rankings, community scores, "Pick if" notes, pros and cons, and telemetry details are never for sale.
- Sponsors and affiliate partners can't buy, change or review editorial content before it's published.
- Sponsor placements are labelled "Sponsor". Affiliate links are labelled, and we may earn a commission if you buy through them.
Corrections
Spot an error, an out-of-date claim or a telemetry detail that's changed? Use the suggestion form, email hello@linuxstatistics.com or open an issue on GitHub. We fix confirmed errors quickly.
Liability
As far as the law allows, we aren't liable for losses from using the site or choosing a distro based on it. Nothing here limits rights you have under consumer law.
Changes
We may update these terms; the date above shows the latest version. Continuing to use the site means you accept the current terms.