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From: bicknell@ussenterprise.ufp.org (Leo Bicknell)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,alt.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc
Subject: Re: a monthly FreeBSD magazine (and other *BSD's too)
Date: 16 Dec 1995 13:24:43 -0500
Organization: From the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701D
Lines: 41
Message-ID: <4av2tb$4ip@ussenterprise.ufp.org>
References: <4ajc07$sb7@unix2.glink.net.hk> <4asrpo$85k@agate.berkeley.edu> <4atie8$hsv@agate.berkeley.edu> <4atq47$l46@agate.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: bicknell@ufp.org
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.advocacy:30474 alt.os.linux:6441 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:10550 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:1557
In article <4atq47$l46@agate.berkeley.edu>,
Nick Kralevich <nickkral@parker.EECS.Berkeley.EDU> wrote:
>As for the Linux estimates, I present you a list of sources:
>
>***** The Linux Counter *****
>The Linux counter (ftp://aun.uninett.no/pub/misc/linux-counter/short):
> Status of the Linux counter, as of Sat Dec 16 05:03:27 MET 1995
>
> There are 25470 registered Linux users
This reminds me a lot of the web site that was set up
to see which browser people used. All you had to do was
enter your browser name and operating system name in a form
and submit it.
Unfortunately the form used Netscape extensions, so
if you weren't using netscape, you couldn't submit. Funny,
their results were that 96% of web users used Netscape...
+- 5%.
I mention this because of figures like the number of
Linux ver FreeBSD web sites out there. Now, this is completely
unscientific, but most of the people I know running Linux run
it on their home box...most people I know running FreeBSD
run it on their work systems. Most people set up a web
server on their home box just to have fun, you don't do that
at work.
My suggestion? Take a random sample of hosts, but
a large one, say 20,000 machines at different sites all over
the world. Telnet to them and grok the banner. Keep track
of how many are FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux, OS/1, Solaris,
and so on. (didn't one of the SATAN modules do that?)
It won't give you an accurate number...not all such
machines are on the net...and you don't get a total number
of copies...but you'll get some useful persentage numbers.
--
Leo Bicknell - TMBG List Admin - tmbg-list-request@tmbg.org
System Administrator / Network Technician
bicknell@ufp.org - bicknell@vt.edu - bicknell@tmbg.org