By 1988, Larry Bird had already won the 3-point shootout twice. In the locker room, while waiting to defend his title, he said to his opponents, "Who's finishing second?" Then he went out and won for a third time.

Ubuntu is in the same position. In DistroWatch.com's Page Hit Ranking, Ubuntu has been #1 for three years running. Mandrake (now Mandriva) was #1 in 2004. Ubuntu took over in 2005, then repeated in 2006 and 2007. Meanwhile, the "Who's finishing second?" quesiton is always up for grabs, changing almost as constantly as all the other positions on down the list. Here are the results for three measures in 2008, taken on May 11:

Meanwhile, it's pretty clear that Ubuntu will hold its lead for at least the current year.

- Doc Searls