[ale] Linux numbers

[Byron A Jeff]

Todd Graham Lewis writes:
> 
> While most everyone's seen The Linux Counter and its estimates of
> world-wide Linux usage, including me, I had not before this evening seen
> Redhat's page on the topic, which does not use TLC numbers.
> 
> http://www.redhat.com/redhat/linuxmarket.html
> 
> They, too, put the number at 3-5 million users world-wide, which more
> or less jives with the TLC numbers, although they were derrived from a

I read about this in an article in Wired Magazine "Linux: The greatest OS that
(n)ever was" (Aug97 issue)

> different angle.  Here are some of the more interesting points:
> 
>    It is our experience that the majority of our customers have not used
>    UNIX previously. Our registration system survey indicates that 56.2%
>    of Linux users have not previously used UNIX(...)
> 
> This is, I think, very, very promising.  Linux is not only a refuge for

That same article pointed out that new users are in developing countries where
the MS culture either does not exist or isn't very strong. Consider that
people are encouraged to spread around the _free_ Linux and MS charges for
their OS....

> old-time unix hacks who want a more-free alternative, but is actively
> drawing in new users, indeed a majority of Linux users being in this
> important category.  (The number of experienced unix users being, of
> course, finite compared with the number of non-unix users.)
> 
>             Red Hat's Official January 1997 Estimate of Linux Users
> 
>    In summary, based on the above methodology and our own rough feel for
>    these numbers, we estimate to within a margin of error of +/-25% that
>    there are between 3,000,000 and 5,000,000 active Linux users.
> 
>    It is interesting to compare this figure our rough estimates of the
>    numbers of Linux users in past years:
> 
>    end of 1993 100,000
>    1994 500,000
>    1995 1,500,000
>    1996 3,000,000 to 5,000,000
> 
> Extrapolating this growth curve out to today (factor of three increase
> every year) yields some scary and not-quite-believable numbers (as in,
> 6-10 million users), but this might simply be my M$-brainwashed-mind's
> inability to come to grips with incipient world domination.
> 
> Semper victoria.

DITTO!

Just as a public note, my company sells a number of medical imaging products
using various flavors of "unix" as the OS. One of my coworkers was remarking
about having to "learn unix" at a recent meeting. I showed him Linux on my
laptop and gave him a copy of the Linux Journel to read on the plane trip
home. Maybe it will take hold and add another Linux user to the ranks. The
future will tell.

-- 
-= Sent by Debian 1.2 Linux =-
Thomas Kocourek  KD4CIK - member of ARRL
@_ at tko@westgac3.dragon.com Remove @_@ for correct Email address
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