OBSERVATION: Distro Downloads from Bigpond (Ausralia's largest ISP) Server

[MissionImpossible]

http://files.bigpond.com/library/index.php?go=cat&id=32&order=time+DESC

NB:Bigpond is Australia's largets ISP (20-35%?) and provides a free
(metered - non-chargeable) download server to its Cable and ADSL
subscribers. Both Ubuntu 7.04 and Fedora 7 (amongst others) have also been
distributed with at least two leading Australian PC magazines, with a
combined circulation of approx 100k. Linux Downunder is on the uptake!


24-7-07 ...........Ubuntu Ultimate Edition v1.4 ISO .........718,888,960.............................. .... 94
20-08-2007......ubuntu-ultimate-1.4-dvd.ISO .... Ubuntu Linux.....2,083,522,560.................70
st = 164

23-4-07 ...........Xubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Alternate AMD64 ISO.........672,507,904........19
23-4-07 .........Xubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Alternate i386 ISO ...............719,298,560........125
23-4-07 .........Xubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Desktop i386 ISO ................592,488,448........238
23-4-07 .........Xubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Desktop AMD64 ISO ............596,207,616......... 23
st = 405

17-5-07 ...........Edubuntu v7.04 Server i386 ISO ................................. 726,327,296.............33
04-5-07 ..........Edubuntu v7.04 Desktop i386 ISO ............................... 728,821,760 .............47
23-4-07 ..........Edubuntu v7.04 i386 DVD ISO .................................. .. 653,002,752............164
.................................................. .................................................. ...................................st = 244

14-6-07 ........... Kubuntu v7.04 Alternate i386 ISO ..........................728,449,024............. ....65
21-4-07 ...........Kubuntu v7.04 Alternate AMD64 ISO .....................730,697,728.................. 23
23-4-07 ...........Kubuntu v7.04 for AMD64 DVD ISO .....................4,686,751,744...............1 00
21-4-07 ...........Kubuntu v7.04 Desktop AMD64 ISO .......................732,901,376................ ..49
20-4-07 ...........Kubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Desktop i386 ISO .....727,867,392................416
22-4-07 ...........Kubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) i386 DVD ISO ..........4,617,809,920............. 516
.................................................. .................................................. ...........................st = 1169

19-4-07 ..........Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Server AMD64 ISO .......... 503,633,920.............34
19-4-07 ..........Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Server i386 ISO ..............516,335,616..............263
19-4-07 ..........Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Alternate i386 ISO ..........730,056,704..............267
19-4-07 ..........Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Alternate AMD64 ISO ......732,018,688...............64
23-4-07 ..........Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) AMD64 DVD ISO ............4,255,887,360...........184
19-4-07 ..........Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Desktop AMD64 ISO .........733,171,712............155
20-4-07 ..........Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) i386 DVD ISO ............... 4,263,823,360............ 875
19-4-07 ..........Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Desktop i386 ISO ..............731,797,504...........1047
.................................................. .................................................. ..................... st = 2889
Total Downloads (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu and Ubuntu Ultimate Edn) = 4871

Kubuntu v7.04 Desktop PowerPC ISO ........................................... = 21
Xubuntu v7.04 Alternate PowerPC ISO ...........................................= 12
Xubuntu v7.04 Desktop PowerPC ISO .......................................... = 30
Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Desktop PowerPC ISO .......................= 68
Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Server SPARC ISO .............................= 12
.................................................. .................................................. .ST = 143

Total Downloads for ALL Ubuntus = 5014


OpenSUSE v10.2 GM i386 DVD ISO ................. = 1147
OpenSUSE v10.2 GM x86_64 DVD ISO ................. = 351
OpenSUSE v10.2 GM i386 CD ISO ................. = 180
OpenSUSE v10.2 GM i386 Live DVD ISO ................. = 175
.................................................. .......... total downloads = 1853

Fedora Core 7 i386 DVD ISO ................. = 1073
Fedora 7 i686 LiveCD ISO ................. = 114
Fedora 7 i686 KDE Live CD ISO ................. = 93
Fedora Core 7 x86_64 DVD ISO ................. = 295
Fedora 7 x86_64 LiveCD ISO ................. = 65
Fedora 7 x86_64 KDE LiveCD ISO ................. = 30
.................................................t otal downloads = 1670^

Mandriva 2007 Spring Free i386 DVD ISO ................. = 500
Mandriva 2007 Spring Free x86_64 DVD ISO .................= 149
Mandriva Linux Spring One Kde ISO ................. = 170
Mandriva Linux Spring One Gnome ISO ................. = 25
.................................................. ........ total downloads = 844


27-8-07 ........... Debian Linux v4.0r1 DVD ISO Disc 1..........4,691,056,640.....................28
16-7-07 ...........Debian v4.0r0 Source DVD ISO Disc 1...........4,699,064,320................. 52
02-5-07 .......... Debian v4.0r0 i386 ISO Disc 1..........679,430,144............................ .....129
01-5-07 ........... Debian v4.0r0 Net Install ISO .................166,621,184...................... .......66
12-4-07 ........... Debian v4.0 i386 DVD ISO Disc 1...........4,698,417,152........................ 382
11-4-07 ........... Debian v4.0 AMD64 DVD ISO Disc 1...........4,698,357,760......................89
.................................................. .................................................. ...total downloads = 746

3-4-07 ........... Centos v5.0 i386 CD ISO Disc 1.........655,984,640............................. ..... 84
13-4-07 ...........Centos v5.0 x86_64 DVD ISO .................4,287,268,864.................... ....110
13-4-07 ...........Centos v5.0 x86_64 CD ISO Disc 1...........655,493,120........................... 16
13-4-07 ...........Centos v5.0 i386 DVD ISO .................3,717,459,968.................... .........369
.................................................. .............................................total downloads = 579

16-5-07 .......... Gentoo v2007.0 AMD64 Live DVD ISO ...............3,923,703,808 ....................76
14-5-07 ........... Gentoo v2007.0 i686 Live DVD ISO ................. 4,018,810,880...................134
08-5-07 ...........Gentoo v2007.0 AMD64 LiveCD ISO ................731,957,248....................... ... 62
08-5-07 ........... Gentoo v2007.0 i686 LiveCD ISO ................. 734,308,352 ........................165
.................................................. ...........................................Total = 437

28-7-07 ...........Sabayon Linux v3.4a x86_64 DVD ISO .................4,648,128,512.................... 161
27-7-07 ...........Sabayon Linux v3.4a x86 ISO .................4,445,186,048.................... ...............185
21-7-07 ...........Sabayon v1.0 x86 Business Edition ISO ................1,823,868,928..................... .30
.................................................. .................................................. .Total = 376

03-7-07 ..........Slackware v12.0 DVD ISO ................. 3,894,536,192..................................... ...166
05-7-07 ..........Slackware v12.0 Install ISO Disc 1...........669,159,424........................... .............61
.................................................. .................................................. ...................Total = 227

29-8-2007

http://files.bigpond.com/library/index.php?go=cat&id=32&order=time+DESC

[bapoumba]

and ?

[MissionImpossible]

Observe which Distro/s are most popular Downunder. If you are not interested, don't waste bandwidth. It was a lot of work to get all those stats together.

[bapoumba]

Observe which Distro/s are most popular Downunder. If you are not interested, don't waste bandwidth. It was a lot of work to get all those stats together.
I did see the numbers, although not easy to read. Mays be a chart would be better.
And I'm interested, yes, to make sure this was not spam. I went to visit the link. There is little comment in your post, your point is not that obvious.

[mips]

And I'm interested, yes, to make sure this was not spam. I went to visit the link. There is little comment in your post, your point is not that obvious.

Pretty obvious to me, dunno why you would think it is spam.

[bapoumba]

Pretty obvious to me, dunno why you would think it is spam.
Well, call it a bad reflex ;)
And an official and public apology.

[MissionImpossible]

I did see the numbers, although not easy to read. Mays be a chart would be better.
And I'm interested, yes, to make sure this was not spam. I went to visit the link. There is little comment in your post, your point is not that obvious.

OK!
II thought the figures speak for themselves, but I left out the following important detail:
Date........................ File..................................... Size........................ Downloads

This is what the figures mean as applied to Ubuntu and some other distros.

With all the "Distro Popularity" surveys, rankings and such like, I thought these figures might add some meat to the bone on that question. The stats are for current stable versions of the above distros.

My observation: 1. Ubuntu family is clearly number one, without a doubt.
2. Fedora was No 1 about a year ago (with Fedora 4 and 5) and will soon sit at number 2.
3. OpenSuse will sit at number 3 and the rest will remain in the order listed. And as the new releases come out, Debian will be no 1 for a little while because it will still be the current release.

[Lord Illidan]

Well, welcome to the forums!

[MissionImpossible]

Well, welcome to the forums!

Well, thanks for the welcome!
Its nice to to meet people from around the globe, it feels like home (Australia)!

Good night (nearly midnight here) and over and out!

[tchoklat]

hello and welcome -

I wonder where PCLOS is?

[Tux Aubrey]

The 2007 Linux Desktop Survey sorta confirms your findings.

http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/167727/large/1_2007-distributions.jpg

I wonder where PCLOS is?

They were too busy getting page hits elsewhere. Meeooow.

[init1]

Interesting.

[MissionImpossible]

hello and welcome -

I wonder where PCLOS is?

PCLos is LOST somewhere down the list - NOT enough beans (dnloads) for it to make my list. :)

IMO, I don't think its a real distro, sorry to disappoint you,it just does not have what it takes to be considered one. Its more of a CLAYTONS DISTRO, if you know what I mean.

Try this link and see if you can find it:
http://files.bigpond.com/library/latestfiles.php?go=latestfiles&order=bpcount&limit=200&start=0

[MissionImpossible]

The 2007 Linux Desktop Survey sorta confirms your findings.

It sort of does, and it doesn't.

Looking at the stats, on this server, at least, Fedora was king/queen with version FC5 (and probably FC4), and still holds the record for most downloads for a single named distro (ie counting Ubuntu on its own and not as a family grouping). That is what the stas are saying.

Here are some more stats to clarify this:


19-4-07...Ubuntu v7.04 (Feisty Fawn)..... total downloads = 2889

14-6-05....Fedora Core 4 total downloads = 3211

21-03-2006....Fedora Core 5 for i386 DVD ISO = 2288
21-03-2006....Fedora Core 5 for i386 ISO Disc 1 = 1630
21-03-2006....Fedora Core 5 for x86_64 DVD ISO = 505
21-03-2006....Fedora Core 5 for x86_64 ISO Disc 1 = 89
21-03-2006....Fedora Core 5 SRPMS ISO Disc 1 = 77
Total Fedora Core 5 = 4589


25-10-2006....Fedora Core 6 i386 DVD ISO = 1173
25-10-2006....Fedora Core 6 i386 ISO Disc 1 = 370
25-10-2006....Fedora Core 6 x86_64 ISO Disc 1 = 51
total= 1594

[deanjm1963]

Another aussie... welcome!

[Tux Aubrey]

Yeah - Ubuntu seems to have cleared the pack in early/mid 2006 - Dapper time.

http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/167727/large/1_Ubuntu__Fedora__SUSE__Debian__Gentoo.png

IMO (and I could be wrong - it happens), IF (and only if) GoogleTrends can be used as an indicator of actually uptake, this looks as if a significant %age of Ubuntu's growth in 2006 came at the expense of other distros rather than from new users.

My considered advice is to buy Canonical (CAN) in early October for a quick profit before Xmas. Ubuntu Forum Bean Futures (UFBF) on Nasdaq are at an all-time high despite rumblings in the sub-prime mortgage market. The release of ElderBuntu (v 8.04 "Hard o' Hearin'") may dampen interest among the younger generation but should lead to increased uptake by pension funds.

[Scruffynerf]

Interesting.... (Another Aussie weighing in)

However, aside from a popularity contest, it does not necessarily translate into new Linux users - I would say that most ppl here and in other linux forums probably download multiple distros to try out.

Eg: In my own case, I've downloaded:

6.10 (Eft)
6.10 (Kubuntu) (AMD64)
7.04 (Fawn)
Ubuntu Ultimate 1.3
Ubuntu Ultimate 1.4 CD (Torrent)
Ubuntu Ultimate 1.4 DVD (Torrent)
Ubuntu Ultimate 1.4 Gamers (Torrent)

Sam Linux 2007
Knoppix 5.1.1
0phcrack (Slax Based)
PCLOS 2007 (Torrent)
Backtrack 2
Linux Mint (Cassandra) (Torrent)
FC 5

Edit: Will soon be downloading Arch - a lot of people like it, and am curious

I should also point out that NONE of the above are through bigpond. Some are from the Internode (Aussie ISP) unmetered mirrors, others through torrent or downloaded from the vendor websites.

Of the above, I've only actually installed UU1.3 and then 7.04 over the top of that. I've installed Mint and Sam and UU1.4DVD through virtual machines, and use the backtrack / helix / knoppix / 0phcrack purely as forensics livecd's. The others I've played around with in the livecd environment.

Whilst the numbers in the OP are interesting, and I can appreciate that a lot of work went into compiling the stats, I'm not convinced that the numbers actually tell us anything.

cheers

[MissionImpossible]

Yeah - Ubuntu seems to have cleared the pack in early/mid 2006 - Dapper time.

IMO (and I could be wrong - it happens), IF (and only if) GoogleTrends can be used as an indicator of actually uptake, this looks as if a significant %age of Ubuntu's growth in 2006 came at the expense of other distros rather than from new users.

My considered advice is to buy Canonical (CAN) in early October for a quick profit before Xmas. Ubuntu Forum Bean Futures (UFBF) on Nasdaq are at an all-time high despite rumblings in the sub-prime mortgage market. The release of ElderBuntu (v 8.04 "Hard o' Hearin'") may dampen interest among the younger generation but should lead to increased uptake by pension funds.

You could be right about Ubuntu future/s, but the Feds from RH and SuSers (open and Sleds) are on the comeback trail! Next releases of these three (plus 2008 editions) will be tight competition, IMO.

Your Google trends are interesting, and if you look at same for Australia you can observe that the trend is Ubuntu (1), Fedora (2), Debian (3), and Suse (4),
but if you do the same for Germany, they will be slightly different.

Cheers

[MissionImpossible]

Scruffynerf;3285253]Interesting.... (Another Aussie weighing in)
However, aside from a popularity contest, it does not necessarily translate into new Linux users - I would say that most ppl here and in other linux forums probably download multiple distros to try out.

I don't know about most people here (there are 370K members), but some people - including myself - do, that is fact. My main reason for downloading of the various distros was to get to know their capabilities and how they operate on my hardware. Having seen which distro does what, I no longer have that urge anymore. :) I will still check out the major distros as they bring out their new editions but will give the rest a miss.

Whilst the numbers in the OP are interesting, and I can appreciate that a lot of work went into compiling the stats, I'm not convinced that the numbers actually tell us anything.

As the recent Novel Suse users survey revealed, 75% of users downloaded directly from the Novel servers and only about 3-4% downloaded from other sources (eg Bigpond). Still, IMO, it can be taken as representative poll of what is popular Down Under. I think linux is on the uptake and I am one example of that. It very easy to use if your needs are basic web surfing, email, etc. and it costs you $00.00 (maybe bandwidth).

The following is a sample of lesser downloaded distros to disprove the perception that people just download everything that is available:

KateOS v3.2 Disc 1 ISO = 8
http://files.bigpond.com/library/index.php?go=details&id=29240

Pardus v2007.2 ISO = 15
http://files.bigpond.com/library/index.php?go=details&id=29593

PCLinuxOS MiniMe v0.93a ISO = 37
http://files.bigpond.com/library/index.php?go=details&id=23751

Elive GNU/Linux v1.0 ISO = 51
http://files.bigpond.com/library/index.php?go=details&id=29419

Linux Mint v3.0 ISO = 77
http://files.bigpond.com/library/index.php?go=details&id=29777

Freespire i386 v2.0 ISO = 95
http://files.bigpond.com/library/index.php?go=details&id=30063

SimplyMEPIS v3.4-3 ISO = 111
http://files.bigpond.com/library/index.php?go=details&id=20888

I ask why have people downloaded the Ubuntus v7.04 5000 times plus? And why have they also consistently downloaded in large numbers Fedora, OpenSuse, Knoppix, Debian, Mandriva, etc but not Pardus, KateOs...?

Cheers

[Scruffynerf]

Ah, I didn't know about the Suse survey.


I ask why have people downloaded the Ubuntus v7.04 5000 times plus? And why have they also consistently downloaded in large numbers Fedora, OpenSuse, Knoppix, Debian, Mandriva, etc but not Pardus, KateOs...?
Cheers

Awareness possibly? There's plenty of marketing and media references to the major ones, with the exception of FC, however Red Hat media mentions more than make up for it.

Alternatively, another possible reason could be that all the other releases other than Ubuntu/SuSe/FC/Debian are essentially niche products, and not significantly different enough to warrant a seperate userbase. The exception to this is Knoppix, however that has always been marketed as a hardware forensics / troubleshooting tool that ran on a linux platform.

A third option is that none of the smaller releases have a major corporation behind them - eg:
Ubuntu/Canonical
SuSe/Novell
FC/RHEL

Just musing...

[kvonb]

I always download using bittorrent, and there are usually upwards of 10,000 people downloading in WA alone when a new version of Ubuntu comes out (I use the UWA mirror).

And people who use Telstra Bigpond tend to fall under the category of "people who don't know too much about computers otherwise they would have chosen a MUCH cheaper and better value ISP" (no offence meant to the poor people who got sucked into paying upto 20 times more for the same thing on another ISP).

So for that bunch, I'd say the stats are quite high :).

[Herman]

Using BitTorrent is very good because we are almost certain to end up with a file that will pass the md5sum test, whereas downloading files through our web browsers sometimes produces corrupted files.
When we try to download large files, such as an .iso for a DVD instead of just a CD, a web browser will usually begin the download alright, but after several hours the download will fail, which can be very annoying. Using BitTorrent avoids that problem.
Another reason why BitTorrent is good is because when we use BitTorrent we are able to make more efficient use of the internet by sharing the upload, and it's a lot faster too.

The wget command is not as well known as BitTorrent, and maybe using it could be seen as being a little selfish, but as we already know, Bigpond ADSL users can download Ubuntu or any other Linux distro from the Bigpond File Library without the usage being counted as bandwidth in our internet accounts. Therefore downloading from Bigpond whenever we can is a good idea.
To use the wget command, we just type 'wget' in a terminal, and with the Bigpond File Library open in another desktop, copy the URL from the 'start download' button and paste it after the wget command, like this,
wget http://vip-203.39.198.135.gamearena.com.au/software/linux/ubuntu/intrepid-desktop-i386.isoherman@amd64-intrepid:~$ wget http://vip-203.39.198.135.gamearena.com.au/software/linux/ubuntu/intrepid-desktop-i386.iso
--2008-10-26 10:06:33-- http://vip-203.39.198.135.gamearena.com.au/software/linux/ubuntu/intrepid-desktop-i386.iso
Resolving vip-203.39.198.135.gamearena.com.au... 203.39.198.135
Connecting to vip-203.39.198.135.gamearena.com.au|203.39.198.135|:80 ... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 729669632 (696M) [text/plain]
Saving to: `intrepid-desktop-i386.iso'

1% [==> ] 14,270,872 159K/s eta 75m 1sLike BitTorrent, the wget command is highly reliable, and even if the connection is broken, wget will keep trying to re-connect, and will still get the file downloaded intact and uncorrupted.
Wget works for large files like DVD .isos too.

Bigpond also has a mirror site for the Ubuntu repositories, so we can also install software and get all our updates free of internet usage charges if we modify our /etc/apt/sources/lst files accordingly. For example, Bigpond sources.list (http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p5.htm#Bigpond_sources.list).

I also thank Bigpond for the free website, which is an offer to all Bigpond Broadband customers, providing they're used for private use and hobbies, not business or commercial use.

I'm not up to date on current broadband plans and pricing details for Bigpond and competing ISPs, but I think 20 times more would be exaggerating quite a bit.
There are many Australians living outside major cities who rely on Telstra's infrastructure for their basic and vital communication needs.
It's not that I have any real objection to competing ISPs, but when a transmitter tower out in the bush somewhere needs to be repaired, we always see a telstra four wheel drive going to fix it, and never a vehicle from any of the other 'phone providers or ISPs.
Although most people in the outback like to see competition and free trade, most of us are deeply suspicious about how it can be that a competing ISP can give us a better deal using Telstra's equipment and services than Telstra can directly, and whether or not it will be sustainable.

[mips]

Another reason why BitTorrent is good is because when we use BitTorrent we are able to make more efficient use of the internet by sharing the upload, and it's a lot faster too.

Depends on where you live and the internet you get. My account is capped at 3GB, torrents simply just use to much of my bandwidth, sometime the uploads exceed the downloads. In my case I prefer using servers as it is more efficient.

[ratmandall]

I get all my *nix downloads from here, great service seeing as it doesn't count towards download usage.