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Linux Counter Drops 90.000 Users
hta writes "Over the 7 years that the Linux Counter has been operative, a lot of people have registered who can no longer be verified.
We do not want to publish false data to the world. So we have to remove the data when it is too old, and have decided to give two grace periods." See below for more information - but go out and get counted!
- Two years for entries with an email that might be valid
- One year for entries without a valid email entry
Since there has not been any routine for this before, there is a backlog of almost 100.000 entries.
We have decided to pull the whole backlog at once on November 1.
After this date, the aged-out entries will not be included in the Linux Counter user count, and will not receive email notifications from the counter.
If you registered with the Linux Counter long ago, go over there and log in in order to make sure your entry stays counted."
Count me in.
May I suggest using the tactic many mass-emailers use: Assume EVERYONE is a Linux user, and force them to opt out if they DON'T want to be counted.
m00.
I think I even registered a slackware install way back in '96. I had no idea the linux counter still was alive. In any case I think it safe to say that most people who installed linux over the past few years are not aware of the existence of the good old counter so it must be way of by any standards and removing 90000 unverified users won't do much good.
Jilles
I am an American, put a comma in that sucker. God Bless America, D~y
~stupid american
Will slashdot delete all those unused and bitchslapped troll accounts?
sulli
RTFJ.
Isn't there a better way of doing things?
Maybe we could remind people to lay off just after the story is posted.
Maybe we could have a slashdot turnstile where you can wait in line to get into the site. The biggest problem I see is figuring out when people are have finished downloading.
...when you consider that the Linux following counts millions of users.
A drop in the ocean.
Red ink flows like a...
Nevermind.
Where do I sign up?
Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?
This has really become useless, hasn't it. While many geeks would register some years ago, the big majority of Linux users wouldn't ever today.
In a way, everyone is a Linux user as soon as they surf the net, using apache installations. If the number of non-geek desktop Linux users grows, they certainly won't register there because they just won't care.
There are more reliable ways to get estimates for numbers of Linux users.
Finally, the counter is currently slashdotted.
THEN we might see some real, useful figures.
Well, until the RIAA sued them for infringing their patent on mass-scans. (See earlier article.)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
google mirror ./ effect.
..
:-)
Now this is a proper
ok, it works after a while, but I guess you cant register yourself since their scripts still are overloaded
hmm just got a flashback..."Amiga forever, forever.. ever ver.. er.. r."
It's been up for 7 years and all it took was 30 seconds on /.'s front page to bring it down.
On the bright side, I'm sure that 90K will come back in spades.
Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?
I can't get into the site since it's been slashdotted, but from the sounds of it, the system in place is based on the honor system. You could very easily falsely register yourself as a Linux user, or simply not register at all. What might work a little better is an opensource project to write a piece of software that occasionally contacts a registration server to 'touch' it's record. When you register the machine, you might even want to specify it's use (personal desktop, business desktop, business server, etc). Records that go 'untouched' for over 6 months are considered extinct and are removed.
This would obviously only work for machines that have internet access, but it's still better then having to manually update your entry...
Linux Counter Drops 90.000 Users
At least that's better than the time they dropped 89.947 users. My buddy still can't find his finger.
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
Might I siggest that it is sufficient to say ninety users have been dropped and that there is no need to specify that to three decimal places? I can't think of 1.000 good reason why it is necessary to be that precise.
:-)
They weren't dropped. They actually installed FreeBSD and were much happier because of the existance of decent MM. Im still baffled as to why Linus and Alan are developing with two completely different. MM's. This can only cause problems. Issues like that need to be resolved BEFORE it gets implemented.
--------========+++Dont Feed The Lab Techs+++========--------
And how am I supposed to register when that darn LinuxCounter already is slashdotted? Couldn't we use snail mail?
And now the serious part of the comment, how do they do this counting stuff anyway? It's rather clear to me (and to them too???) that just a small part of the Linux users ever would find that page and sign up. I've run Linux for several years now and have never heard about that site until today.
And do they think about the fact that not all of those who finds it will register? My guess is that many people hesitate to sign up because they just think they will be spammed. Or maybe they just don't bother to get a crapmail-account-to-be-used-for-signing-up-stuff to sign up with. I bet thay haven't thought about that. This counting stuff should be named "Counter for those Linux users who bother signing up when they finally finds this page"
2 reptiles beneath your current threshold.
90.000 means 90K right? What is everyoune blathering about missing body parts?
If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.
Who? Who who?
Decimal points replace comments in posts by those affected individuals who wish to somehow appear worldly and different but instead look like big dumbasses who can't figure out English conventions.
Americans who venture outside their native land are often confused by the European convention for decimals and separation of thousands, which are exactly the reverse of those in the United States,
making 90.000 in fact ninety thousand. I suspect that this was not a typo, simply a lack of conversion to the American "standard".
Go verify that the billions and billions served were really served... those signs may have to change!
YES, there is a McDonald's in Hanoi Square.
setenv ACCENT "Foghorn-Leghorn"
echo "That's a joke, son. Ah say, ah say, that's a joke"
It may have made sense when the community was small and a there was a reasonable likelihood that the count might be accurate, but now, it just makes no sense. The vast majority of Linux users aren't going to register, so what are you counting? You're just generating an inaccurate, meaningless number.
- Have a picture
I registered when I first got involved with Linux. When you register, you get a neat little certificate you can put on a web page (can see mine at http://gma.sourceforge.net). It is a worthwhile effort.
... so it is hard to fault /. ethically in this case.
--
Per Abrahamsen, registered Linux user #367.
What the hell is ./?
Has anyone here signed up with an email address? Did you receive any unwanted email as a result?
Just think how this will reflect on his zeal to crack down on free speech...
Yep. We destabilized Russia and the *Stans were liberated. Now the shortest pipeline route to America-controlled waters cuts through...[drum roll]...Afghanistan.
Any bets on how long before we are introduced to Afghanistan's democratically elected "President"?
They've already answered the questions about caching pages.
HTH.
--
The real Raunchola isn't cool enough to have any imposters
Why not simply ask the various Linux companies, i.e., Redhat, Suse, Debian etc., how many sales they have had, this should give a reasonable indication of how many CD's have been shipped either directly to people or to stores.
Its not a particularly scientific way of getting the info, but will yield numbers. More to the point, if numbers can be got for the various versions (i.e., rh6.2 vs rh7.1)..that would be much more interesting to me. I'm interested in who stays on the bleeding edge vs remaining a little behind the curve because of stability, compatibility or whatever reasons
Ah, yes post a link here, and get all slashdot viewers to register all at once, why not?
The site is dead - thanks to slashdot, no one can register. Aside slashdot could've offered technical expertise and hosting space temporarily, instead of just listing a site with measely T1 and badly written Perl CGI scripts up on slashdot.
Way to go Taco Boy.
perlpimp
Maybe YOUR account should be deleted, asshole. You're OBVIOUSLY not contributing ANYTHING useful to the site.
Anyone with negative karma should be deleted.
It's the working directory.
yes. I agree.
There should be a 'bandpass' filtering option for posts on Slashdot.
I'd like to never again see any of the pompous BS comments by people with +1 accounts.
Rob, get on it. Set it up so I can have a logged in account and filter out all comments with greater than one moderation.
The actor David Duchovny, aka Fox Mulder of X-Files fame, has an unknown, very dark past. This photo proves that he was, during WWII, a member of the Croatian Waffen-SS legion 'Waffen-Gebrigs-Division der SS "Handschar"' (he is the second from the left). Probably it was fears that this dark fact would become known that prompted his dismissal from the TV-series. One can only speculate about the atrocities he has committed and taken part in, as this particular legion, mainly recruted among Bosnian Muslims, was notorious for it's brutality.
Is the USER_AGENT logged? Any public statistics? Would be interesting to know both web browser and OS ...
You wus. Post with your real account. At least Strom has the brass to use an account.
So there, mofo.
That, or you should make sure you use a real OS on your server, not a feeble free OS like Linux.
That could be done, perhaps, using statistics on package requests by package managers. Consider, say, Debian's package server and its mirrors-- every time someone apt-gets the base packages, the server can log this as another installation. It should even be possible to implement your suggestion about the use of the machine in a similar way (is it asking for many daemon packages, or office programs?).
Of course, if you're running a cache (say, for other users on your network), you'd need to submit your figures separately; but then, users clueful enough to do this perhaps aren't usually the ones who are slipping through the current system.
GROGGS: alive and well and living in
Slashdot already seems to have a queue system for releasing stories at regular intervals - you could just email the owner of the site when the story gets added to the queue.
This would give them time to go through and reduce the size of their images, call up their provider and order more bandwidth, etc. On the other hand, it would undermine slashdot's sterling reputation for journalistic integrity - you would end up with webmasters making changes to *content* of their site in advance.
..for Florida ballots.
It could've made his win even more convincing by dropping voters who didn't vote in the last two elections.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
only submission you crave is the kind where your dad reams out yer ass with a sling blade.
Why don't the distro's add a counter module, so that when you install you get the option of anonymously being counted?
Or, maybe they should release a "counter daemon" that would update the Linux Counter page once a day with a simple "yep, I'm a running linux box" sort of message.
okay....I'm done ramblin...
suck my chrusty cock you anal whore
If you had taken the time to look at the photo, which depicts this Nazi war criminal together with his "kameraden", perhaps you wouldn't be as quick to rush to the defence of your precious David, or should I say Soldat Duchovny.
At Oct 14 2001 16:53:42 GMT, there are
191444
users registered
108009
machines registered
My guess at the number of Linux users:
Eighteen million
Get Counted!
Count your Machine!
98946 dead accounts will be deleted on November 1.
Rescue an account! Log in today!
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
...since i've even looked at that counter. I remember back in the day when everyone was fighting over who was really responsible for turning the counter to "1337"...it was like some big "day of eternal remembrance" for us fledgling linux h4x0r5...
53367
Sorry, but it's the Brits and Americans that for some unfathomable reason dropped the decimal comma for the point.
I.e. a (very) few foreign cultures do NOT use the comma as decimal.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
... "So that we can sell it to spammers"
Jeez, what are they hosting this site on? A palm pilot?
We ARE a country under One God. That God is most definitely not the mohammedian
god...
We as in... ? Americans? And what "One God" would that be, Chthulhu? Go away, trollboy, and try to come up with something more interesting next time.
What a waste of electrons...count this!
Sad thing is that most of these dullards don't realise that their attitudes play right into the hands of MS et al, and allows Linux to be dismissed as a geek niche OS used by mal-ajusted saddos.
As everyone with two cents will tell... the best way to measure the linux usage is thru netcraft stats... pure and simple...
Why is a 90 user drop significant?
Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
#1
?
oh yes it is true
the bsd counter... I want to be counted!
Linux sucks as does GPL and GNU.
What do you use to separate the numbers in a coordinate? (5,3)
HOW IN THE HELL WAS THAT POST NOT FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!
I DESERVED +5 funny! I thought it was funny.
and just because you lame ass moderators don't, doesn't mean others won't
Don't tell the moderators. They'll take it all.
Too bad Taco seems to have removed the metamod link from the front page when they switched to Slash 2.0. I wonder how many people still remember to metamod occasionally? Judging from the increasing number of Unfair moderations, not enough.
A lot of Slashdot people are such alarmists about this sort of thing, and yet here it is suggested. Here should be a fairly comprehensive list of suggestions as to why it isn't a good idea:
So ... no. :-(
Thats quite a bit of precision for just 90 users. :)
and has (or had:) net access, I guess this must be Osama Bin Laden!
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
"Personally if I were to run a little website that was /.'ed and thus incured huge commercial rate data transmition fees, Taco/VA would be hearing form my solicitors/lawyers."
And why is that? Because your site couldn't handle the traffic? This was covered before, when Slashdot linked to a story on Something Awful, and Lowtax ended up redirecting people to goatse.cx, because he couldn't handle the traffic.
I felt bad for him, but in all honesty, if you don't want people to visit your website, make it password protected, or take your server offline. You put your site up so people could visit, right? Just because your server can't handle legitamite traffic doesn't mean it's a DOS attack. It means your server can't handle the traffic, plain and simple.
If your logic held true, then maybe the guys at kernel.org should be suing Rob and Co. for every time they link to a new kernel update. Sorry, that doesn't work. Sure, maybe Slashdot should cache pages. And if they don't, do you suggest that they e-mail the site beforehand and say, "Hi, I'd like to link to you, can your server handle the load?" Do you want to do that if you want to link to somebody?
--
The real Raunchola isn't cool enough to have any imposters
(5,5; 3,3)
You can get the Pine usage stats on the official webpage.
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
Most of us.. including myself, change ISPs often.
When I registered through the Linux Counter I was
with ici.net, Now... a few years later I have
Cable Modem access and I am with mediaone.net
I am sure we will see that the number of users will be higher.
Fair enough.