Path: sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!amdahl!key!rburns
From: rbu...@key.COM (Randy Burns)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: How many Linux Users are there?
Message-ID: <3210@key.COM>
Date: 19 May 92 20:16:15 GMT
Organization: Key Computer Labs, Fremont, CA
Lines: 21
Does anyone have any idea how many Linux users are out there?
I've been quite impressed at how fast Linux has developed. My
sense is that it will fairly soon start getting some use in
specific market niches within the business community. For example,
I could imagine some businesses using Linux as a way to turn PC's
into part time X terminals.
It might be a good idea to set up some way by which Linux users can
stand up and be counted. My sense is that for many people, the ultimate
reward in creating Linux has been to create a valuable piece of software
that will be used by many people. I also don't think that it would be
a useful use of net bandwidth to have people posting answers to a
questionaire. Perhaps we might be able to set up a mail server somewhere
that would post a monthly report(i.e. answers to things like how many
people are using Linux and where it is being used and what the top requests
for enhancement include). I don't think this is expecially important right
now, since the basic Posix/SysV functionality of Linux is still
underway. Still, my sense is that the release of Linux 1.0 will create a
_huge_ spurt of interest Linux-it might be a good idea to prepare for an
increased level of interest.
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Path: sparky!uunet!caen!uwm.edu!ee!rick
From: r...@ee.ee.uwm.edu (Rick Miller)
Subject: Re: How many Linux Users are there?
Message-ID: <1992May20.114246.12533@uwm.edu>
Sender: n...@uwm.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Jus' me.
References: <3210@key.COM>
Date: Wed, 20 May 1992 11:42:46 GMT
Lines: 3
I'm curious too...
could the Keepers-of-the-Mailing-Lists give us a guestimate?
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!bloom-beacon!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!daemon
From: ty...@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Theodore Ts'o)
Subject: Re: How many Linux Users are there?
Message-ID: <1992May20.184148.20966@athena.mit.edu>
Sender: dae...@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Reply-To: ty...@athena.mit.edu
Organization: The Internet
Date: Wed, 20 May 1992 18:41:48 GMT
Lines: 31
From: r...@ee.ee.uwm.edu (Rick Miller)
Date: 20 May 92 11:42:46 GMT
could the Keepers-of-the-Mailing-Lists give us a guestimate?
OK, numbers.....
When we voted for the formation of comp.os.linux back in March, the vote
was 878 FOR, 6 AGAINST. I don't know if that's a record as far as
newsgroup votes go, but it is fairly unsual for a group to win by such a
large margin.
There are 105 entries on the Linux-Activi...@news-digests.mit.edu
mailing list, including a few redistribution addresses, so that means
there are at least 100 people reading comp.os.linux through the mailed
digest. (Of course, not all of them could be actively using Linux ---
but I would suspect most of them are.) There are probably many times
that number of people reading comp.os.linux, but of course it's hard to
get that number.
In the last two weeks, 319 distinct people have posted at least one
message to comp.os.linux; so there must be at least 300 regular readers
of the newsgroup, plus all of the lurkers who generally don't post.
I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine how to
interpret these numbers in trying to figure out how many Linux users
there are. Have fun! :-)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Theodore Ts'o bloom-beacon!mit-athena!tytso
308 High St., Medford, MA 02155 ty...@athena.mit.edu
Everybody's playing the game, but nobody's rules are the same!
Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!spool.mu.edu!agate!pasteur!
pasteur!alan
From: a...@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Al Petrofsky)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: How many Linux Users are there?
Message-ID: <ALAN.92May20192126@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 21 May 92 03:21:26 GMT
References: <1992May20.184148.20966@athena.mit.edu>,
<1992May2.130426.27289@PA.dec.com>
Sender: n...@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU (NNTP Poster)
Organization: /home/telegraph/ugrad/alan/.organization
Lines: 49
In-Reply-To: tytso@ATHENA.MIT.EDU's message of 20 May 92 18:41:48 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host: cory.berkeley.edu
Enclosed below is the April usenet ratings report for selected *.os.*
groups. It estimates alt.os.linux readership at 23,000, and
comp.os.linux readership at 20,000. comp.os.minix is still ahead at
43,000, but I predict this won't last long.
Make of this what you will,
-al
(I just realized I left out all the comp.unix.* groups. Whoops.
You'll have to check the original article yourself if you're
interested.)
In article <1992May2.130426.27...@PA.dec.com> r...@decwrl.DEC.COM (Brian Reid) writes:
Newsgroups: news.lists
From: r...@decwrl.DEC.COM (Brian Reid)
Summary: data for all groups
Keywords: arbitron, statistics, full
Organization: DEC Network Systems Laboratory
Date: Sat, 2 May 92 13:04:26 GMT
Lines: 1544
This is the full set of data from the USENET readership report for Apr 92.
Explanations of the figures are in a companion posting.
+-- Estimated total number of people who read the group, worldwide.
| +-- Actual number of readers in sampled population
| | +-- Propagation: how many sites receive this group at all
| | | +-- Recent traffic (messages per month)
| | | | +-- Recent traffic (kilobytes per month)
| | | | | +-- Crossposting percentage
| | | | | | +-- Cost ratio: $US/month/rdr
| | | | | | | +-- Share: % of newsrders
| | | | | | | | who read this group.
V V V V V V V V
131 53000 1051 85% 1099 2327.0 5% 0.08 2.3% comp.os.vms
194 43000 856 82% 259 1065.8 3% 0.04 1.8% comp.os.minix
209 41000 819 79% 54 75.5 4% 0.00 1.8% comp.os.mach
437 24000 468 81% 91 167.8 7% 0.01 1.0% comp.os.cpm
452 23000 452 51% 337 762.9 19% 0.04 1.0% alt.os.linux
456 22000 446 79% 106 171.1 3% 0.01 1.0% comp.os.os9
492 21000 416 74% 244 399.9 0% 0.03 0.9% comp.os.coherent
515 20000 388 47% 1114 2065.4 11% 0.10 0.8% comp.os.linux
522 19000 380 49% 136 216.3 17% 0.01 0.8% comp.os.os2
575 17000 338 79% 4 4.0 0% 0.00 0.7% comp.os.xinu
619 15000 299 68% 1 0.7 0% 0.00 0.6% comp.os.v
658 14000 270 73% 17 28.3 0% 0.00 0.6% comp.os.aos
725 12000 232 63% 105 309.1 0% 0.03 0.5% comp.os.vxworks
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!tampella!funic!nntp.hut.fi!cs.hut.fi!arl
From: a...@cs.hut.fi (Ari Lemmke)
Subject: Re: How many Linux Users are there?
In-Reply-To: rick@ee.ee.uwm.edu's message of Wed, 20 May 1992 11:42:46 GMT
Message-ID: <ARL.92Jun1192806@laphroaig.cs.hut.fi>
Sender: use...@nntp.hut.fi (Usenet pseudouser id)
Nntp-Posting-Host: laphroaig.cs.hut.fi
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
References: <3210@key.COM> <1992May20.114246.12533@uwm.edu>
Date: 1 Jun 92 19:28:06
Lines: 11
In article <1992May20.114246.12...@uwm.edu> r...@ee.ee.uwm.edu (Rick Miller) writes:
: I'm curious too...
:
: could the Keepers-of-the-Mailing-Lists give us a guestimate?
Linux-Activists has about 665 users on multiple channels.
"cat *user | sort | uniq | wc" may still have some people
twice. (666 is our target ;-)
arl