I built a tool that tracks which Linux packages are actually trending (not just "what's new") — data from 30K+ Arch users
I built a tool that tracks which Linux packages are actually trending (not just "what's new") — data from 30K+ Arch users
trending-linux-packages-data
I got tired of guessing which terminal emulator or window manager people are actually migrating to, so I built a tool that answers it with real data.
How it works
The pkgstats.archlinux.de API tracks monthly install counts from ~30K+ voluntary submissions. I wrote a collector that:
- Fetches 6 months of monthly popularity data for 173+ packages across 9 categories (Browsers, Editors, Window Managers, Terminal Emulators, etc.)
- Computes a linear regression slope (percentage points gained/lost per month) for each package
- Ranks and outputs the results as markdown + JSON
What's actually trending right now
| # | Package | Category | Slope (pts/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | firefox | Browsers | +1.57 |
| 2 | clang | System Languages | +1.53 |
| 3 | vim | Editors | +1.50 |
| 4 | hyprland | Window Managers | +1.44 |
| 5 | kitty | Terminal Emulators | +1.42 |
| 6 | neovim | Editors | +1.30 |
| 7 | foot | Terminal Emulators | +1.29 |
| 8 | dolphin | File Managers | +0.97 |
| 9 | plasma-workspace | Desktop Environments | +0.95 |
| 10 | nemo | File Managers | +0.88 |
Firefox gaining hard (62% → 71%). Hyprland absolutely exploding (14% → 22%). Kitty and Foot both crushing it in terminals. Wayland-adjacent packages dominating the top.
The fallers: xterm (-0.51), gnome-terminal (-0.37), i3 (-0.28), Pidgin (-0.23). The terminal space is in the middle of a real generational shift.
The not-so-surprising but still interesting
viappears to be crashing (-7.55 pts/mo) — but it's an artifact: thevipackage is just a symlink that recently switched to a new provider, so pkgstats records it as a different entity now.- Plasma Desktop growing faster than GNOME (+0.95 vs -0.27).
- Discord growing but Telegram and Signal both gaining too — the IM space is getting more fragmented, not less.
Project structure
- Code repo — Python collector, categories config, push scripts
- Data repo — Auto-updated results via cron (every 6h)
The data is in two formats: TRENDING.md (readable tables) and trending.json (structured, machine-parseable). Categories come from the curated lists the pkgstats website uses for its "Fun Statistics" page.
Caveats
- The data only represents Arch Linux users who opt into pkgstats — not a representative sample of all Linux users
- Categories are curated (not automatic), so I'm only tracking ~173 packages across 9 categories right now
- Slope is a simple OLS linear regression — it shows direction but doesn't model seasonality
Would love PRs to add more categories or improve the math. The whole thing is just one Python file.
