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'm afraid to tell you about the recent tragedy of the counter's death. It happened today.
It has been slashdotted.
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.
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)
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.
:-)
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
... so it is hard to fault /. ethically in this case.
--
Per Abrahamsen, registered Linux user #367.
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...