on Wed, Jun 25, 2003 at 01:03:00AM +0200, Paul Wright (ptwright@gmx.net) wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I've been attempting to estimate how many Linux users there are and I've
> come accross too many differing statistics.
>
> I decided that it may be easier to get a reasonable count of how many known
> users of Debian can be counted by the number of unique email addresses have
> suscribed to the lists hosted here.
>
> Does anyone know the number?
>
> Could it be posted to this list?
>
> It may be usefull as a statistic for Debian advocacy.
Ask everyone who uses GNU/Linux to raise their hand.
Count them.
The problem of counting GNU/Linux (or Debian) users is nontrivial.
Fortunately, this is a problem for both GNU/Linux and non-Linux types.
Among other things, it means that Microsoft can't possibly figure out
how many of us there are. This is based on any number of issues,
starting with the definition of what a "user" is. You end up with
something frighteningly close to surveys which report "sex" as the
subject's "gender identification preference".
Best numbers likely come oug of IDG, specifically Dan Kuznetsky, though
he tends to track unit shipments and dollar sales, rather than
hypothetical users. Still, Dan is one of the more generally clueful
folks. Unfortunately, his clues cost money.
Peace.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
Data corrupts. Absolute data corrupts absolutely.
-- Ed Self's corollary of Atkinson's Law.
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