How many Ubuntu downloads?

[davidmichael]

:grin: :roll: \\:D/

Hi Guys!

Does anyone know: "How many online downloads of Ubuntu Linux there have been since the beginning of Ubuntu?"

Cheers,

Davemiester

[-o< :roll: [-o<

[akurashy]

they should keep a counter on how many people download ubuntu :) must be around 1,000++

[paretooptimum]

Remember a lot of magazines around the world are giving it away as well, so that needs to be added to the count, plus torrents, which are hard to track. The latest edition of Australian PC Authority had a copy on the cover. How many installed it is another question. Of the top of my head I would guess 50,000 users, but that's only a guess.

[bobmitch]

The web logs of the repository web servers should be able to give the most accurate estimate.

Any Canonical bods out there care to give a ballpark figure? :D

[UbuWu]

That wouldn't include the bittorrent downloads and the thousands of cd's shipped to people's homes...

[bobmitch]

That wouldn't include the bittorrent downloads and the thousands of cd's shipped to people's homes...

Assuming they connected to the internet and downloaded at least one update - it would.

A lot of assumptions would have to be made - ie. Each computer would only download each update once...etc...

[davidmichael]

Thanks for replying everyone; if anyone has any additional thoughts please feel welcome to add...

Must say, I'm new to Ubuntu. It's great to see such involvement!

A 'counter' discreetly off to the side somewhere on the Ubuntu website could definitely be an idea - there is so much momentum with Ubuntu at the moment that a counter may help to encourage even more involvement because everyone would have an active gadge Ubuntu growth. "There ain't no better motivator than solid progress!"

Being from Australia also, I can recall at least 2 magazines where Ubuntu has been compared amongst a top 5 list of Linux distributions. If PC Authority were one, Australian Personal Computer magazine (APC) would be another putting Ubuntu up there against the usual stack (i.e. Novell, Fedora etc.)

It would be nice though to know if anyone has a ballpark figure on how many online downloads there have been since Ubuntu started? What we can come up with!

To add another question:

What are people's thoughts on downloads as opposed to Bit-Torrents or Shipping? Is downloading online inconvenient and how often will people buy a magazine if it includes a trial of their favourite Linux distribution?

I note Ubuntu offers free shipping which is just... well, "better than free!"

So then, is online downloads the way? And who, if any, still likes their software shrink wrapped?

All Insights Welcome,


The Davemiester

:razz: :roll: :wink:

[jdodson]

its funny. i asked the same question when i started with warty(was not a mod at the time). i think someone said something like "well you are using it so that means one." it was funny. my guesstimate is that there are 100,000++ machines running ubuntu. i cant say for sure, my guesstimate might be low.

[Ubunted]

Torrents WOULD be hard to track yes, but tracking the number of downloaded .torrent files shouldn't be. ;-)

[bobmitch]

its funny. i asked the same question when i started with warty(was not a mod at the time). i think someone said something like "well you are using it so that means one." it was funny. my guesstimate is that there are 100,000++ machines running ubuntu. i cant say for sure, my guesstimate might be low.

Way low I`d wager.

Given that there are probably somewhere between 15 and 20 THOUSAND registered users on this forum alone (Ubuntu-Geek will be able to confirm the exact figure I guess) - I reckon you are probably an order of magnitude out.

:D

[UbuWu]

I think the best estimate would be to count the number of unique ip's that have ever connected to the repositories (that is after the first update for hoary has been released). This way the only ones left out are the people without an internet connection, but this would be compensated for by the people which have deleted ubuntu off their harddrives.

[bobmitch]

I think the best estimate would be to count the number of unique ip's that have ever connected to the repositories (that is after the first update for hoary has been released). This way the only ones left out are the people without an internet connection, but this would be compensated for by the people which have deleted ubuntu off their harddrives.

The would give a false [high] number due to the prevalence of dynamic ip address allocation by ISP's.

The only way I can see it being done is by unique ip address downloads for a random security patch - there is a chance that these will not only be downloaded by almost every installed ubuntu system out there, but will also be installed onto hoary AND warty. (And downloaded only once in all but a very few cases)

Of course this would not be able to count those establishments who mirror the repository locally where each computer is updated on a lan rather than individually over the net ie. Large businesses, web-café's etc...

Better to err on the low side than the high side imho.

[jdodson]

Way low I`d wager.

Given that there are probably somewhere between 15 and 20 THOUSAND registered users on this forum alone (Ubuntu-Geek will be able to confirm the exact figure I guess) - I reckon you are probably an order of magnitude out.

:D

well the ++ was an arbitrary counter. i guess i should have stated something like 100,000 give or take a million.

then again, i used to download distros like mad. install it once and dump it. so not every forums registered user is a tride and true ubuntu user. some of the forum users are windows users, they just dig the community.

i think that regular ubuntu(as in primary machine) desktop systems are in the 100,000 give or take a million range.

i think its pretty tough to gauge it correctly though. that why i can give or take a million.

[bobmitch]

well the ++ was an arbitrary counter. i guess i should have stated something like 100,000 give or take a million.

then again, i used to download distros like mad. install it once and dump it. so not every forums registered user is a tride and true ubuntu user. some of the forum users are windows users, they just dig the community.

i think that regular ubuntu(as in primary machine) desktop systems are in the 100,000 give or take a million range.

i think its pretty tough to gauge it correctly though. that why i can give or take a million.

423,533

That's my final answer. :)

[adbak]

All this popularity is great, so I imagine there are at least many tens of thousands who use Ubuntu, if not more.

I went over to Distrowatch.com and saw that for the past 12 months Ubuntu's ranking is number 5. Fifth, that is, after being out only 7 months but still counted in the 12 month rankings. That's fabulous!

[UbuWu]

I remember reading somewhere that there were over a million cd's of ubuntu shipped.

[bobmitch]

I remember reading somewhere that there were over a million cd's of ubuntu shipped.

Many of these will sadly not end up being used, but are handed out at LUG's and LAN parties by advocates trying to convert the mass unwashed.

I imagine the number of ubuntu installations arising from .iso downloads far outnumbers those installed from gratis cd installations.

[james_mad]

Are you all including servers? In my mind 100,000 sounds high.