PDA

View Full Version : Want to know the recent number of ubuntu users



delphiexile
August 31st, 2009, 03:58 PM
Hi;

Could you tell me the exact number of ubuntu users today (because 8 million was counted on 12-17-2008).

and Thank you so much.

Sporkman
August 31st, 2009, 04:03 PM
9,715,992

:)

chriskin
August 31st, 2009, 04:09 PM
how is that even counted? by downloads? by browsers?
none of them are to be taken for real :O

Namtabmai
August 31st, 2009, 04:10 PM
6.

They all dual boot a *lot* of different distros.

Johnsie
August 31st, 2009, 04:30 PM
There is no way to accurately measure how many people have Ubuntu.

What they should've done is make Ubuntu phone home with a unique installation ID every once in a while... But many people in the Linux community would cry like babies if they felt that someone was 'spying' on them :)

Not every computer is hooked up to the Internet, so calling home wouldn't count every computer but that would be the best way to get a close idea of how many people are actually using Ubuntu at any point in time.

chriskin
August 31st, 2009, 04:47 PM
There is no way to accurately measure how many people have Ubuntu.

What they should've done is make Ubuntu phone home with a unique installation ID every once in a while... But many people in the Linux community would cry like babies if they felt that someone was 'spying' on them :)

Not every computer is hooked up to the Internet, so calling home wouldn't count every computer but that would be the best way to get a close idea of how many people are actually using Ubuntu at any point in time.

we can always use the system testing feature at system/admin if we want to be counted , but many people would just forget or avoid it

Copernicus1234
August 31st, 2009, 05:09 PM
There is no way to accurately measure how many people have Ubuntu.

What they should've done is make Ubuntu phone home with a unique installation ID every once in a while... But many people in the Linux community would cry like babies if they felt that someone was 'spying' on them :)

Not every computer is hooked up to the Internet, so calling home wouldn't count every computer but that would be the best way to get a close idea of how many people are actually using Ubuntu at any point in time.

You can also see it on web site statistics since the browser gives away the operating system.

Would love to have Googles statistics on operating systems used to access www.google.com. They probably would have the most accurate statistics. But there doesnt seem to be any stats publicly available except Google Trends, which shows that Linux and Ubuntu are now very popular search words and increasing.

I wouldnt mind ubuntu calling home and reporting usage. Having public, accurate stats can only help the linux community. Make it part of the update service. I mean, I dont want to give stats to Microsoft to help them increase their market share, but I would like to do it for Canonical. I dont see any reason not to.

SuperSonic4
August 31st, 2009, 05:13 PM
65,535

may as well make it a significant number in computing xD

chriskin
August 31st, 2009, 05:21 PM
You can also see it on web site statistics since the browser gives away the operating system.

Would love to have Googles statistics on operating systems used to access www.google.com. They probably would have the most accurate statistics. But there doesnt seem to be any stats publicly available except Google Trends, which shows that Linux and Ubuntu are now very popular search words and increasing.

I wouldnt mind ubuntu calling home and reporting usage. Having public, accurate stats can only help the linux community. Make it part of the update service. I mean, I dont want to give stats to Microsoft to help them increase their market share, but I would like to do it for Canonical. I dont see any reason not to.
web site statistics are not worthy, many people use browser plugins that make their browser look like internet explorer to gain access to many features, making the pc to be counted as windows at the web statistics.

Schendje
August 31st, 2009, 05:27 PM
web site statistics are not worthy, many people use browser plugins that make their browser look like internet explorer to gain access to many features, making the pc to be counted as windows at the web statistics.

Not to mention that there are plenty of people who don't access the Internet. Or Google.

chriskin
August 31st, 2009, 05:29 PM
Not to mention that there are plenty of people who don't access the Internet. Or Google.

true, even though their numbers are kind of really low, not counting them wouldn't change the numbers too much

itendo
August 31st, 2009, 05:35 PM
there are exactly 15 ubuntu users in teh whole world

chriskin
August 31st, 2009, 05:38 PM
there are exactly 15 ubuntu users in teh whole world

is that meant to be funny? :)

MasterNetra
August 31st, 2009, 05:46 PM
If you want to get a idea look at Fedora's Statistics, I mean isn't the number of Ubuntu users supposed to be higher then Fedora?

Fedora's Statistics:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Statistics#Who_uses_Fedora.3F
("TOTAL UNIQUE IPs: 15,032,674") - Currently anyway. According to them, odds are there are more, just hiding. ^.^

Copernicus1234
August 31st, 2009, 05:54 PM
Not to mention that there are plenty of people who don't access the Internet. Or Google.

I realize all the disadvantages but just because its not 100% accurate, is it better with nothing?

Not even calling home with a unique ID for the software installation is 100% accurate since it would count every fresh install as a new ubuntu user.

No method will really be accurate but much better than the 2% that gets quoted everywhere. I believe the number is much higher in reality if the number would include everything from servers to home users.

Copernicus1234
August 31st, 2009, 05:55 PM
If you want to get a idea look at Fedora's Statistics, I mean isn't the number of Ubuntu users supposed to be higher then Fedora?

Fedora's Statistics:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Statistics#Who_uses_Fedora.3F
("TOTAL UNIQUE IPs: 15,032,674") - Currently anyway. According to them, odds are there are more, just hiding. ^.^

Dynamic IP addresses makes those number inaccurate right away, as well as users doing fresh installs. And it doesnt take into account people who no longer use Fedora. Their counter seems to be a all time counter with a long history? So everybody who simply tries it ends up as a user in that statistics forever.

But they are probably not too far off from the truth. They probably have at least 10 million users.

MasterNetra
August 31st, 2009, 05:58 PM
Dynamic IP addresses makes those number inaccurate right away. But they are probably not too far off from the truth.

From Fedora:
" Accuracy of metrics

The numbers above for yum represent unique IP addresses that reach our update server, not simply downloads. We believe it is reasonable to equate a "new IP address checking in" with "a new installation of Fedora", with the following caveats:

1. Users who have dynamic IP addresses will likely be counted multiple times, which inflates the number by some amount.
2. Users who are behind NAT or corporate proxies will not be counted at all.

The anecdotal evidence that we receive from different groups, companies, and organizations suggests that group (2) is significantly larger than group (1). As such, we believe that the true numbers in the field are higher than the numbers on this page. "

koenn
August 31st, 2009, 07:50 PM
65,535

may as well make it a significant number in computing xD

and the next new user will reset the counter to 0 ?

delphiexile
October 16th, 2009, 06:54 PM
I thing ubuntu must send an update to all its users and count how much users have downloaded this update in order to have a more presised number of users , I think fedora has done this before.

mikewhatever
October 16th, 2009, 07:13 PM
I thing ubuntu must send an update to all its users and count how much users have downloaded this update in order to have a more presised number of users , I think fedora has done this before.

Why bother? How would that benefit anyone? Besides, as noted above, computers behind corporate proxies will not be counted, thus making the number worthless.

starcannon
October 16th, 2009, 07:15 PM
The answer is 42 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_%28number%29).

Jesus_Valdez
October 16th, 2009, 07:32 PM
Over 9000!!!!

sudoer541
October 16th, 2009, 08:46 PM
I've got one question! Why the developers/companies dont bother creating a simple way of counting Linux?
Is it lack of interest?
Lack of demand?
Whats stopping Linux from being counted? how can the problem be solved?
someone please enlighten me. counting Linux is not that difficult like many people claim.
btw, I would like to open a business selling PCs with Linux but I cant do that because there is no accurate marketshare.

mikewhatever
October 16th, 2009, 09:01 PM
I don't see the lack of exact numbers as a problem. What's the big deal? Could you explain why you need accurate market share to open a Linux based business? Suppose you open a shop in Canada, how would it affect the business if there were 10 or 25 million Linux users in China?

sudoer541
October 16th, 2009, 09:53 PM
speaking business-wise, market share numbers play a very big role to the consumers, developers and other companies. To a business person, market share = profits because if I am selling PCs loaded with Linux, then I know there is a demand for it. When I am speaking of demand I dont mean demand from geeks and hackers, but demand from general public who is interested buying my PCs. So again having an accurate market share is very beneficial to business people, companies who make distros such as canonican and red hat.
I stated earlier that market share numbers are important for consumers because costumers will know that ubuntu is a reliable OS because of its numbers and user-base.
Once again, If I dont see red hat, canonical and others aiming for market share then I would sell my PCs with Windows, but to be honest as a business person it would benifit be to sell linux. I beg developers to fix bug #1 and market share is a good start.
one more thing! Linux should follow the same marketing as mozilla did with firefox. I know mozilla partnered with Google to advertised their browser, and maybe canonical and redhat could do the same thing?

mikewhatever
October 16th, 2009, 11:15 PM
I think accurate market share is a myth, not only applied to Linux, but also to Windows and OSX. For example, MS may claim they sold x copies of Windows, so what? Some may have removed Windows and installed Linux instead, while others dual boot. Which market share would you add the dual booters to? Windows, Linux, or both? What about pirated copies of Windows? They aren't part of the x sold copies reported earlier, but should they be added to the market share? The same applies to OSX and Linux. Let's say there is a 1000 computers with Ubuntu somewhere in Andalusia, but they are behind a proxy server, and thus look as a single computer to the update server.

It is well known that the majority of computer users want Windows, and you don't need market share to figure that out. If you want to start a business based on market share alone, which is rather silly, your best option is probably W7.

sudoer541
October 17th, 2009, 01:28 AM
well I think its pointless to argue about this, since it will never happen.
But look at the iphone they count every copy that they sell and even TMZ made an app for the iphone lol. :):):):)