After a slight slip due to a strong Red Hat surge in April, Mandrake bounced back to increase its lead in Linux distribution downloads from Tucows in May. Measured through May 25, Mandrake was first with 40%, followed by RedHat with 23%. That's a gain of 4% for Mandrake and a drop of 7% for RedHat. Next was Corel, which droped 2 to 10%. SuSE gained 2 for 5%. So did Corel with 4%, which tied Debian. Slackware had 3%, FreeBSD had 2, and so did Phat, which continued a drop from a high of 13% in February. The rest were at 1% or less.
Now for an interesting statistical effect. Astute readers will remember that last month Red Hat took the lead with 33% to Mandrake's 31%. Like this month's May figures, April was then tabulated only through the first 25 days. What a difference just five days makes. In this month's report, we look at all 30 days of April, and the difference pushes RedHat down 3% and Mandrake up 5%. This leaves RedHat in second place and Mandrake in first: exactly the positions they've maintained since February. Tune in next month to see if those last five days make any difference in the final May numbers.
