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Ubuntu Claims 12 Million Users — Before Lucid

Posted by timothy on from the or-is-that-a-lucid-dream dept.

darthcamaro writes "It's always a challenge to try and figure out how many users a particular Linux distro has — but Canonical is now providing a new figure for Ubuntu that is 50 percent more than what they were claiming just 18 months ago. 'We have no phone home or registration process, so it's always a guesstimate. But based on the same methodology that we came up with for the 2008 number, our present belief is that it's somewhere north of 12 million users at the moment,' Chris Kenyon, vice president for OEM at Canonical, told InternetNews.com. Just in case you were wondering, Fedora still claims more — actually almost double, at 24 million."

4 of 360 comments (clear)

  1. NTP-servers... by beaviz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We have no phone home or registration process, so it's always a guesstimate.

    I always thought they used their NTP-servers to count installations...

    1. Re:NTP-servers... by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "'We have no phone home or registration process,"

      Actually, there is an "opt-in" phone home process. Ubuntu has an option to participate in a software popularity contest thing. Those who opt in not only can be counted as using *buntu, but the poll tracks which software packages are installed.

      And, it is really "opt-in" because you are asked if you WANT TO participate or not. I'm almost certain that it defaults to "no", you have to click the "yes" button to participate.

      So, if this popularity thing tracks "x" million computers, it's pretty simple to double or triple that number, and claim "x times 3" installations.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  2. Re:Some guesstimate? by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    how many of those are dual boot systems with Windows?

    You're saying a dual boot system shouldn't count as a user?

    I own a wii. It's been unplugged for over a year and I play the 360 every day, but I am still a wii owner. Similarly, it seems to me if you have a dual boot system with ubuntu and windows, you're still an ubuntu user. Maybe there are ubuntu purists out there who would look down on you for that and would care to distinguish between the two, I don't know.

    I'd wonder more about the second part you hinted at:

    I have three machines like that. I'm not sure of any reliable way to differentiate dedicated stand alone desktops.

    Would you count as 3 users for this number? This article mentions that fedora counts unique IP addresses, if it said how the ubuntu number was found, I missed it.

  3. Re:Recent Fedora by Bluesman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Network managers actually manage networks.

    That's huge. I love Ubuntu on my eee 1005, but the default Gnome network manager is a piece of shit. It's a piece of shit on an older laptop I have too...it works sometimes, if you shake the laptop right and the stars align properly.

    I installed wicd on my netbook which is great except it forgets ssid's of hidden networks. Apparently this has been fixed in the latest wicd, but the changes have not propagated to Ubuntu yet. I have a script that logs me on to my home network...but that sucks and means I can't recommend Ubuntu to anyone who wants to put Linux on an old computer.

    This is basic stuff; I'm surprised given Ubuntu's track record that it's not perfect by now.

    --
    If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.