Attempts to Count Linux Users Remain Pointless

An anonymous reader writes "A great deal of attention is paid to numbers, but rarely does one actually ask what these numbers mean. One problem that many people have been trying to tackle is gauging the extent of use of Free software, including Linux. Questionnaires are not a solution here and neither are statistics, which are usually derived from the wrong data. The following article looks at the various challenges at hand and concludes that the growth rate of Linux is likely to remain an enigma."

Comments

words from microsoft:

[yourmomisfasterthana]

"Do not attempt to count the number of Linux users, thats impossible, instead, try to realize the truth... there is no Linux" :-P

Re:words from microsoft:

[vga_init]

That's true, actually. "Linux" is nothing more than hacker code speak for the bastardization of a quality Microsoft operating system called Xenix, the latest version of Unix (even Apple stole code from Microsoft to make OS X). It was stolen long ago by European communists who do little more than copy capitalist inventions and try to subvert the market by destroying private ownership.

Anyone who uses this socialist junk is anti-American, and you're a fool if you think Linux is a real, quality software project.

Two

[Colin Smith]

World domination is at hand!

Firefox

[UbuntuDupe]

I'm going to offer the same solution I did for counting Firefox users:

1) Require a national ID number to download any Linux distro, and validation of ownership of this number through an in-person meeting with the local authorities.

2) Have the software "phone home" that it's actually being used, when it's used.

3) Close the source so that 2) can be facilitated.

4) Made the ID numbers and contact information in 1) publicly available so anyone can audit the official count of users.

There, done, you've got everyone counted. Wasn't that easy?

Re:Firefox

[Timesprout]

How about we just ask for a show of hands.

Re:Start counting here

[growse]

Anyone else? Or shall we approximate the linux userbase size as being "1"?

A good slashdot poll

[Anonymous Coward]

A good slashdot poll is all we need.

Those are very accurate and representative.

Re:A good slashdot poll

[rubycodez]

and we'll conclude 18% of the world uses the CowboyNeal Microthreaded Kernel fork of Planet Nine

Re:Start counting here

[Guillersk]

Tree :)

Re:hmm.

[neonmonk]

Er, haven't you heard..

2008 will be the year of the Linux Desktop, so it's all irrelevant now!

Re:Start counting here

[Mr. Underbridge]

I, for one, use GNU/Linux and only F/OSS

Where shall we mail your trophy?

I have an idea

[duncanmhor]

Perhaps some kind of central server to keep track of who's using Linux? It could be called Linux Legitimate Benefit...

Re:I have an idea

[blindd0t]

No no, you wouldn't want Linux to violate yet another Microsoft patent! (being facetious, of course)

Re:Start counting here

[Anonymous Coward]

Well that is already more than Windows Vista.

Re:Start counting here

[Anonymous Coward]

n++

Re:hmm.

[eln]

You're way off base. All of the people in my department at work run Linux, so clearly Linux is already dominating the desktop. The fact that my department is made up of entirely Linux sysadmins should not take anything away from this single statistically relevant sample. Of course, we all run Red Hat because Gentoo is for masochists and Ubuntu has a stupid name. Sure, Microsoft's brainwashing^Wmarketing may lead you to believe that Vista is all the rage, but everyone knows it's a memory hog that barely runs on most supercomputers. Especially now with Linux being pre-installed on so many desktops, Microsoft is bound to go bankrupt any day now.

Also, did you know that the longest recorded frog jump was 33 feet 5.5 inches? Amazing!

We can figure this out

[friedman101]

Tally every PC sold where the customer asks "The wireless card on this notebook doesn't have a broadcom chipset, right?" or "Do you have this model with an NVidia card? ATI is dead to me"

Re:Well, duh.

[Anonymous Coward]

I just answer their questions and am polite and friendly about it.

What kind of evangelism is that? You should browbeat them into submission and threaten them with eternal damnation in the pits of Redmond if they don't convert!

the Ballmer index

[cli_rules!]

20,000 Linux users per thrown chair (potty mouth == 5,000/word)

Re:hmm. -- you forgot

[enrevanche]

(6) in soviet russia, ... (7) profit (8) someone will smugly summarize the whole thing in one post

Get the genuine advantage

[Cheesey]

1) Require a national ID number to download any Linux distro, and validation of ownership of this number through an in-person meeting with the local authorities.

2) Have the software "phone home" that it's actually being used, when it's used.

Yes! Every day Linux Genuine Advantage helps customers all over the world who are victims of software piracy get genuine. If you got your Linux for free, you should upgrade today to get the following exciting new features:

• Closed source, for extra Security Through Obscurity(tm),
• Compatibility with the latest viruses and malware,
• Innovative new Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to help you manage your digital rights,
• DirectX 10.

Anyway, you don't want an OS that was written by hackers, do you?

Re:Get the genuine advantage

[Orange Crush]

Innovative new Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to help us manage your digital privileges,

There. Fixed that for you.

I suggest we do it like the MPAA and RIAA

[wild_berry]

Take a leaf from the MPAA and RIAA and extrapolate the losses from Microsoft's profits.

Numbers are meaningless

[Anonymous Coward]

So long as Lunix remains a third-tier OS which an average user has no chance of installing, the numbers are irrelevant.

Some people are using Lunix for servers. That's it. It has no acceptance as a desktop OS, due to it's inability to autodetect and autoconfig hardware, and it's failure to provide easy (read: non-CLI) software installs which don't require manually fixing the "always first time failed" install.

It's also pretty disgusting how Apache, Lunix's so-called "killer app", can't even install correctly without requiring a manually fix.

It's going to be hard to gain any market share when they haven't even caught up to Windows 95.

Re:Catch - Recatch

[Intron]

Oh sure. Throw in a toally unproven technique. When I tried asking that with spotted owls, all that any of them said was "Who?"

nmap

[MadMidnightBomber]

duh! nmap -sO 0.0.0.0-255.255.255.255