Please leave comments like these in the reports section next time.

Maybe according to sites like DistroWatch, but in reality, Ubuntu's market share has probably never been higher.

I must admit that is why I put "According" I could not find any other data for cross distro data.

If you look at the activity of the ubuntuforums.org, there are always 5000+ people there. The linux mint forums, only usually have a couple hundred.

As an Ubuntu user, I have almost no use to go to Distrowatch, so I think their numbers are very biased.

Also, in case you have the wrong idea, I have nothing against Linux Mint, or any other distro, in fact I think the Cinnamon desktop environment is awesome, and I have Mint installed on my sister's computer. Personally though, I find that I can get stuff done the fastest with Unity, and I think it is the best middle ground between the traditional desktop, and all the crazy re-invention of the desktop, like Gnome Shell or Windows 8.

Mark just doesn't get it. You shouldn't switch UI's every upgrade. He should have built off one until he had a stable and unique feature set. Instead, the same fucking bugs get passed down while the team ports yet another GUI, just further destroying back compatibility. I know install the KDE and Gnome backend and run them still, but downloading 4 gigs of shit really shouldn't be necessary, and certainly doesn't help them with the newcomers to linux

I see it the other way around. I think the LTS releases would be what the average user should use (people who don't really care about how a computer works, just as long as it does work). Using an LTS release will allow them to stick with the same UI for many years. The 6 month releases are more for the users like myself who like to be using the latest software, kernels and UI designs. I always love where there is something new or changed in the desktop since it keeps it fresh. If everything stayed the same way for 10 years (*cough* XP *cough*), then I would be bored.

You might wanna try Xubuntu 12.04. Its fast & stable. :)

I have done in the past, though I prefer Gnome 3 over Xfce. Only thing I dislike about fedora is SELinux - it really gets in your way when developing web applications.

I agree to an extent with the getting elevated privileged access. As far as I am aware that can be tweaked so it asks you for permission less. But I personally prefer the security over not having the popup's.