Oh, the unfairness of it. Take a look at the list of the most popular Linux distributions. Topping the user rankings? Ubuntu, of course.
The unfairness arises when you look at the Linux distros that Ubuntu is topping. Debian, for instance, has been around far longer than upstart Ubuntu. For goodness sake, no one even heard of Ubuntu until 2004 – because it didn’t exist before then. Meanwhile, Debian has served the Linux faithful since way back in 1993. (Indeed, Ubuntu was a fork from Debian). Yet the Linux Foundation surveys from ‘05, ‘06 and ‘07 all put Ubuntu ahead of Debian.
http://www.linuxlinks.com/portal/news/article.php?story=20081028134834105