On 16/01/2009, at 11.09, Neil Williams wrote:
How do you map the number of downloads to the number of users or machines? I have dozens of chroots that I use for multiple reasons. Now, maybe I should use an apt proxy but most of these are cross-building chroots so that doesn't help as the proxy will have amd64 packages and I need arm or armel etc.
Chroots have that effect, but the number of users using chroots is negligible compared to the total number of users. They would artificially boost the number of users, whereas other effects -- for example sites having a local repo -- would tend to lower it. Besides, many users of chroots use apt-cacher like me, which would not add to the count at all.
I agree that it's not possible to get an accurate number, but the OP specifically wants an estimate. An estimate of the number of downloads would make it possible to estimate of the fraction of sites that install popcon so a corrective factor could be applied to the popcon statistics.
Cheers, Morten