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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."

16 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:NTP-servers... by icebraining · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm almost certain that it defaults to "no", you have to click the "yes" button to participate.

      It does, at least in Debian.

      --
      Dilbert RSS feed
  2. Some guesstimate? by w0mprat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have many problems with these numbers, how many of those are dual boot systems with Windows? I have three machines like that. I'm not sure of any reliable way to differentiate dedicated stand alone desktops. Ubuntu is the kind of thing I muck around with alot, people such as myself drag up the stats if they are trying to work it out from downloads, respository use stats.

    On the upside the total number of machines that have at least one linux distro on them must be rather higher than typical market share stats suggest.

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    After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
    1. 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.

    2. Re:Some guesstimate? by grege1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What about all the machine bought with Windows that gets wiped and Ubuntu installed. Microsoft still counts them.

  3. Re:I run Slackware but I masquerade it as Ubuntu by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    I run Slackware but I masquerade my OS string as Ubuntu ;-))

    I like to masquerade all ID strings, masquerading apache as IIS, sendmail as JavaMail etc. etc.

    Don't worry - the job market is supposed to turn around any day now.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  4. Virtualization by cameronl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I bet it's that guy next door with 12 million computers!

    It's a lot easier to have 12 million than it used to be.

  5. Re:Can't they just ping the server... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... a few times to at least get some data to work with? If you're doing something like canonical is doing you think they'd want metrics.

    And, if they had installed some phone-home pingy-thing, they'd be pilloried in the town square by people screaming about that when it came to light, and they'd be decried as violating people's privacy. Geeks on Slashdot frothing at the mouth and wielding torches, cats living with dogs, that kinda stuff.

    (And, before I get modded flamebait ... that's also half of the amusement of being here. =)

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. Claims based on Esitmates by decipher_saint · · Score: 5, Funny

    Based on estimates, I have had meaningful relationships with many, many hot ladies.

    *Estimates based on downloads.

    --
    crazy dynamite monkey
  7. Re:Sadly by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure, if your attackers will never try to crack any of your users' passwords...

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    Palm trees and 8
  8. Re:Sadly by rugatero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure, if your attackers will never try to crack any of your users' passwords...

    A username could be anything, but root is always root. Disabling the root password means a cracker needs to take the additional step of identifying a valid user account to target. Not a particularly large step, perhaps, but a step nonetheless.

    --
    This comment is for entertainment purposes only. Any similarity to real insight or information is purely coincidental.
  9. 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.
  10. You want real statistics ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is the hit count for operating system from Wikimedia:

    http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOperatingSystems.htm

    Linux has a 1.65% market share and of that share Ubuntu has 0.71%. Ubuntu has approximately 43% market share among Linux users, which by a very large margin makes it the most popular distro.

  11. Re:Sadly by oakgrove · · Score: 4, Informative

    Don't know if you've noticed, but if you type sudo su - and hit enter, you now have superuser access.

    Actually, no. You can escalate your privileges to the superuser only if your account is configured to allow for that. You can easily configure every account on the machine to not be escalatable and just use one account for admin tasks. Secondly, you have to type in your password so, no, you don't just "hit enter".

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    The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
  12. Re:Sadly by dudpixel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I tried Ubuntu, But I just can't.

    I wanted to install my favorite niche physics package. I couldn't even figure out how to set the files to 777 through the GUI, I had to 'sudo chmod' them.

    Oh and no 'su'? really? I mean 'sudo bash' isn't that hard but jeez I don't know if this is more secure, but it sure is harder to use. I think I'll install centos before going back to fedora.

    you can tell ubuntu is getting pretty good when the trolls have to try this hard to criticize it.

    or did I miss a whoosh somewhere?

    --
    This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.