Slashdot Mirror
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."
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
~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.
Me Too!
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
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...
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.
:-)
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.
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Per Abrahamsen, registered Linux user #367.
Has anyone here signed up with an email address? Did you receive any unwanted email as a result?
You must use an inferior Linux distribution. I know that on Slackware, the root user has an e-mail waiting for them after the system is installed to add themselves to the Linux counter.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
They've already answered the questions about caching pages.
HTH.
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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
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
..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
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...
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...
What do you use to separate the numbers in a coordinate? (5,3)
"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?
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The real Raunchola isn't cool enough to have any imposters
Fair enough.