Slashdot Mirror
Ten Years Of The Linux Counter
hta writes "In a testament to the fact that Linux has been around for a while, the Linux Counter turned turned ten last month.
The site has been counting a few of the users of Linux since September of 1993, and currently lists more than 130.000 names. It's still waiting for Linus Torvalds to claim registration #1, which has been reserved for him for the last ten years.
Among the events that have happened in 10 years of running the counter, the Slashdot events are some of the more memorable."
FP
Slow news day, eh?
third post
We need the google cache or the "artical" text ASAP!
I lost my account, cos they use one number, and a password, and something else. Why can't their accounts be email addresses, or something I can choose. Bah.
Get your own free personal location tracker
Yay...be proud, guys.
The site's been slashdotted!! :)
Is that an event or what?
Joseph?
"...the Slashdot events are some of the more memorable."
Hey guys, remember the time the site was Slashdotted with one comment? I suppose they didn't learn from their last slashdot event.
Is the site slow for anyone else?
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
" It's still waiting for Linus Torvalds to claim registration #1, which has been reserved for him for the last ten years. "
Oh damn! Now there's going to be a rush of Linus imposters trying to get it.
http://216.239.41.104/search?sourceid=navclient&ie =UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fcounter.li. org%2Fnews%2Ften-years-counting.php
......
.com - instead, I contacted Linux International and got allocated the subdomain "counter" from them, and used the domain name directly as the web server name. It works!)
http://216.239.41.104/search?sourceid=navclient&ie =UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fcounter.li. org%2F
The Beginning
On September 30, 1993, a message appeared on the then-newborn newsgroup comp.os.linux.announce:
From: hta@uninett.no (Harald T. Alvestrand)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Subject: Counting Linux users: an attempt
Hello,
there have been many attempts at defining the size of the Linux
user base. None of them contained hard data.
Now, in an attempt to establish a lower limit on the number of
Linux users, I have put up a MAIL SERVER that does counting.
(In fact, the first registration happened only 2 days before, on September 28 - this was not a project that did a lot of testing before world-wide deployment!)
A few days later, on October 15, 3000 people had registered - a response both encouraging and challenging!
Little did the brash young engineer behind the message know that this would be the start of many years of work, involving people from many continents and hundreds of thousands of registrants.
Growth, change and (some) maturity
Once the rush had died down, things became boring for a while. Stats were fun; twiddling with some Perl programming to give people the option of giving more information was fun (and greatly increased the relevance of the "per country statistics" that have been a staple of the counter almost since inception!)
The next big change was triggered by an email from the Netherlands, from Patrick Reijnen, saying "I have made some web pages that send email to the counter - are you interested?"
I, then being a neophyte in all things Web, was of course interested - and soon after, in December 1994, the first Web interface to the Counter was a fact, and the registration rate once again hit the roof. People enjoyed the Web!
At this time, the counter was still running on a not very privilleged account on a server that UNINETT, the university network of Norway, also used for many other things; this can be seen from the counter being located at port 29659 (a number derived from my birthday).
After some time, the counter moved to port 80 on its own virtual Web server; the first announcement of the counter at its traditional URL of "counter.li.org" is seen in February 1997.
(The name has its own history, btw - being something of a technology purist, I resented the "conventional wisdom" that all Web sites should be named "www", and have its own domain name directly under
It was not until I moved from UNINETT to EDB Maxware in 1997 that the counter (eventually) got its own machine. This was a Pentium 90 with 32 Mbytes of RAM, "liberated" from use as a workstation by someone who thought it was too slow. It also served as my personal mailserver and a lot of other purposes. But it worked!
Just how well it worked could be seen in February 1999, when the counter was first mentioned on Slashdot. 1400 people managed to get registered that day, and amazingly, the machine worked under the load. Just barely!
The next time, with the configuration a little better tuned, 2600 of the visitors got registered. A lot at the time!
This, however, left me with a permanent worry on how to enable the service to survive if it re
So why hasn't Linus registered? Anyone know?
Linux counts YOU!
The 'linux counter' guys did. Until this evening. I wonder WHO could POSSIBLY be responsible for THAT.
Insert obligatory sla... oh, nevermind, already did that.
Please help metamoderate.
...should have his lower horn enlarged. Please send him email to that regard.
Love,
Linus' "girlfriend"
Lessons learned
* Slashdotting is good for you.
The counter is now defensively configured, and is able to do something intelligent even under heavy load.
* A 32-Mbyte Pentium can't fill a 256-Kbit link using Perl.
I'm sure management is happy to know that.
* The adrenaline kick of a slashdotting feels real good!
But it does eat time...I spent 4 hours Tuesday night getting the box reconfigured and back on its feet, and then just watching it. Late.
* On Wednesday, 1412 people registered with the counter.
Part II:
Lessons learned
* Slashdotting is still good for you, as an exercise in work under fire.
The counter's configuration has proved that it stays up and running (as long as there is disk space around).
* A well-handled Slashdot load lasts longer and has more people in it than the load left after the server's been down for a while.
* The adrenaline kick of a slashdotting still feels real good!
* On the 25th and 26th together, 2670 people registered with the counter.
It's GNU/Linux Counter damnit!
has the linux counter been /.'d?
rofl. well crafted.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
You know he's using it, and you know he's number 1.
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
the Linux Counter is a who's who list of those that owe $699.
No trees were harmed in the composition of this; however, numerous electrons were inconvenienced.
Yes, it is indeed ironic. Twice before the Linux Counter has been Slashdotted and he thought he had learned how to handle it but, on the counter's tenth birthday Slashdot has returned... It seems that the Linux COunters administrator had not really learned how to handle a Slashdotting and the Linux Counter has exploded into flames.
Slashdot renders yet another poor site, useless.
Wow, three decimal places. Now that's precision.
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
nice one!
(this to avoid lameness filter)
I don't think their counter software is that complex that they couldn't rewrite it in a C. The server is slashdotted again, and I have no doubt about what is slowing it down.
>> currently lists more than 130.000 names.
I think this whole counter thing really has no point anymore. Linux has reached the point where it is almost a household name and the actual count on this counter is way off. I would imagine there are well more then 130.000 people that use linux. According to this paper there are between 600.000 and 2.000.000 Linux users. Numerous other articles are available with similar numbers if you care to check Google.
0. SCO
1. {Reserved}
2. [Please reply to fill in the blanks]
.
.
.
139325. waynemcdougall
Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
support@heritage-foundation.com
g e-foundation.com e -foundation.com
support@heritage-foundation.com- foundation.com
s upport@heritage-foundation.comf oundation.com
This email address belongs to the company who has spammed me with ads. I wonder if anyone has harvested their address? Which address? this one:
support@heritage-foundation.com
support@herita
support@heritage-foundation.com
support@heritage-foundation.com
support@heritag
support@heritage-foundation.com
support@heritage
support@heritage-foundation.com
support@heritage-
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It's FAST! You'll be up and running in an hour! Don't waste time sifting through man pages, commuting to classes or seminars. Just pop in the CD-ROM and you're learning!
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I turned 23 last month
The Matrix is real... but I'm only visiting!
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In Soviet Russia, Russia operates Finland control system.
In Modern Russia, Finland operates control of Russia's systems.
Cover your eyes and click this link!
130.000 users, eh? Only one hundred thirty? I thought this was supposed to be an american website!
There's nothing like a good slashdotting to mark their 10 year anniversary :-)
jeez...stupid humourless geeks.
So it's a counter that starts at an arbitrary number other than one? I had enough trouble indexing my arrays from 0. This is gonna cause all sorts of different "off by one" errors. Can I start my own counter at 50.000 and claim the first 50.000 are reserved?
Seriously, Don't take anything I say seriously.
THe site is barely loading, and I tend to think the readership of /. is much larger than it ever was before.
I look forward to the review of this particular slashdotting.
I also cannot believe the site is run on such a cheesy box. I have at least a couple of junked (but workable) old computers that I am actually considering giving away, and they are all better than a pentium-90 with 48 or whatever MB of RAM.
People in the U.S. (by me atleast) upgrade their pcs so often that they throw out perfectly good pcs just because they upgraded.
I have gotten 2 working pcs from the dumpster outside my apt complex in Maryland. One was a p-166 and the other a p-200, I think one is a dell the other a hp. They are crappy by todays standards on all measures but for something simple like a few webpages, etc, they would so rock.
If they (the site in the article) contact me and pay shipping, i'll give one away.
-Joejoejoejoe
Silly Rabbit: tricks are for kids.
Speaking of Slashdot events, the site is timing out for me.
How do the numbers work? My number is 193708 but there are 130,000 users? I got my number in June of '99.
I don't think the problem is using perl.
It's still waiting for Linus Torvalds to claim registration #1
Maybe Linus is a closet Windows user! Could it be?
"Brevity is the soul of wit." -Polonius, Hamlet.
Do de do de dew dew dew de do de do de dew DO THE GOATSE!!.
Anyone know of a *BSD counter?
and now you fudge-packers killed it. thanks a lot, you pack of bandwidth-eating jackals
On a bit of a tangent, that is the sort of attitude that is a little annoying about the Linux community. Ideological choices about your OS make little sense, even less so for those who are so caught up in the ideology that they know little about the technical specifics. I use Linux in situations where it suits my needs--as a desktop mainly; I prefer other OSes for servers--but if another OS came along that suited my application better, I would have little hesitation in switching.
Main Page: http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:HKiJVA4VELMJ: counter.li.org/+Linux+Counter:+Home+Page&hl=en&ie= UTF-8
Ten Year Counter:
http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:usZ1-hcS8fkJ: counter.li.org/news/ten-years-counting.php+Linux+C ounter:+Ten+Years+of+the+Linux+Counter&hl=en&ie=UT F-8
Slashdot events:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=cache:cdmRuYkqn-EJ:c ounter.li.org/slashdot/+Linux+Counter:+Linux+Count er+Slashdot+Experience&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Looks bad but I am suspecting microSCOft is dos'ing the site as i type this.
: counter.li.org/+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Googles cache from yesterday
http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:HKiJVA4VELMJ
It's still waiting for Linus Torvalds to claim registration #1, which has been reserved for him for the last ten years.
Heck, if he doesn't want it, I'll take it.
-- MarkusQ
just a typical Tim Berners Lee machina. i could run debian on it today, or net bsd i suppose. if i had the time. right now, its a wonderful paperweight. coming in at 100 lbs. (of magnesium, fire-resistant casing) its sure to keep your stacks of paper from floating off!
i got this machine from a former employee of apple in iowa (who i think was slightly queer, he reset the root password to penis) for 400 bucks 4 years ago. i have all the books and disks, cds and everything for it.
to answer the post, it was the cutting edge, onboard everything! so far ahead of its time, that everything we're using today to make this post was already there, just about, or born there. it created the matrix. a 12" by 12" square motherboard in a case with space for 4 of them, so you can buy another board and it will netboot and cluster off the first board. nearly impossible to crash. i first used one in 1995 and did music on it, back then it was just on par with the P133 we had next to it. in fact, the 133 ran openstep outrageously fast (for back then), but it is still useable, i have scattered links about the fun science project it could become (if i ever had time). if i can't find a buyer, i have been talking about creating a sculpture out of the parts i don't want (don't have time for this either). in other words, the keyboard is the only part i can use legacy without the rest, ADB --------->USB (which i don't have time to buy), its got the best ever clack!
ahhh, your first *nix box, nothin like it!
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
I signed the online petition that asked SCO to please sue me . . . no response yet.
I guess if even the RIAA and MPAA are having trouble using lawsuits to control BLATANT copyright violations, SCO doesn't have much of a chance in hell suing users on completely baseless grounds.
You know, SCO could have really helped their compaign if they had just released a bit of actually infringing code (not all of it, just a taste so that we all would know they aren't full of BS) . . . the fact that they haven't yet, when it is in their best interest, is either a sign of complete incompetence or the nonexistence of such code.
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
I have owned perhaps 10 to 20 Linux machines. Most have gone to friends and family (which I did not bother to register), some just died (my cat crawled into one while it was running . . . stupid cat/owner).
Only zealots (like myself) take the time to register, that is why the number is so low. It is safe to say that for every zealot, 5 to 10 machines have been installed with Linux. However, few of us are willing to register EACH and EVERY machine we installed on. Maybe if they started giving us karma per machine installed . . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
"currently lists more than 130.000 names. "
It's not often you see 3 significant figures when counting individuals...
And anyhow, if only 130 people have registered with the site, I don't think it's quite accurate...
Considering I am listed on the linux counter and have not used linux for about 5-6 years now, I wouldn't put much faith in this list. To be honest, I don't even remember how my name got here, as I used an old distro of Slackware for about 2 weeks and was not exactly happy with it.
Tim
How old again?
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
Really, I heard he was using a SCO UNIX box, sharing it with an auto parts manufacturer's billing system.
Shows what I know.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
Apparently that link is now slashdotted.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
The only people who would buy this would be collectors, so instead of profitting off of this and making like $50-$75 bucks, why don't you donate it to a museum of some sort. I know I've seen various articles on slashdot about computer museums trying to collect as much equipment as they can. If your upset about the loss of money, maybe you could write it off on your taxes to get some benefit out of it.
and what they don't tell you is that they are waiting for Richard Stallman to register as number 0.
beg your pardon, that's 15 year old hardware. it says copyright 1988 on the back
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
it's not like i'm a republican out for blood money. it is a great little piece of history and i have preserved it lovingly. all i want is enough to get some other toy, like a shuttle PC to run my freevo, or something else nifty that i will get more use out of these days. . . . . its just a science project waiting to happen . . .. .
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
the linux counter was "slightly" misconfigured in how many apache servers it allowed to run simultaneously - it went into trashing.
I've re-tuned it (to MaxClients = 32, and KeepAliveTimeout = 2), and it seems to work slightly better.
You can still expect it to be SLOW, though.....
(anyone got a gig of RAM for a Dec Alpha lying around...? stock price for that is more than a new PC....)
That's funny. Beautiful situational irony.
... but I, being a karma whore, will spell it out for you: The LiCo asssigns a unique ID to a registrated user. The registration, however, is only counted in the statistics if the user has logged in during the past year. Hence, to keep being counted, you have to periodically revalidate your registration by logging in or by using a script. This is to weed out inactive users who didn't bother to unregister at LiCo.
The Counter that has served the Linux community so faithfully over the past decade has met with a greusome fatal homicide today. The Counter, which has Counted over 130,000 of the Linux faithful, has been terminated by the very people it had been Counting over the past decade. These "Slashdotters", as they have been called, dealth the fatal blow to the counter shortly after a link was posted describing the counters 10th birthday.
The "Slashdotter" gang are currently being investigated for gang related crimes, including aggresive force against a Mr. Goaste and various other sites, including those containing Linux material and pictures of Natlie Portman.
Services for the Counter will be held Monday, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Allllright! 130 names! ;)
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Thanks guys, we've been looking for a nice long list of linux users to sue. This is just what we needed. Must get on to my stock broker to let him know we are about to announce 130,000 invoices being sent out. Darl McLied
It's the Slashdot Counter Outage.
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
i got this machine from a former employee of apple in iowa (who i think was slightly queer, he reset the root password to penis) for 400 bucks 4 years ago.
Apple's largest market is homosexual men... so naturally, that's the type of person they hire.
I don't know how much this reflects the reality, but is interesting to see the user stats by country, this could help governments to define use politcs.
...
1. USA
2. Germany
3. Brazil
slashdot slashdot slashdot.
I think it needs some more servers distributed over ...
areas
Maybe this way they could keep the site up if
there is another slash a dot dos atack
developer http://flamerobin.org
The count quoted above is at least 20K out, I'm number 142831
-- The Heineken Uncertainty Principle: You can never be sure how many bears you had last night.
Self-styled intellectuals are so much fun to poke fun at. Of course I knew about the European dot vs comma thing... doesn't he realize people on /. are, um, usually pretty knowledgable???
(There, now you can poke fun at me.)
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
I feel sorry for that first 0.001 person. The weight must be unbearable.
I guarded uptime for a while, but then it got in the way of getting stuff done quickly, and some moron electrician always screwed it up anyway.
Or in other words, rebooting individual servers inside work (and hardware support contract) hours means that you can conveniently replace one dead disk at a civilised hour, rather than trying to find several disks at 2 Am on a Saturday night after weekend electrical work accidentally shuts power to the entire machine room.Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
If anyone is worried about SCO getting hold of this information, they should know that first SCO needs to get through a few barriers before this could happen: 1) the legal notice and copyright, 2) the privacy policy, 3) the Berne Convention, and 4) the Norwegian Privacy Act.
Oh, and for those not in the know, the reason why there are more people registered at the counter than machines is because registering machines is OPTIONAL.
Happy Counter Follower
Dude you needed to get modded Funny.