miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0 Report post Posted February 21, 2005 HI all, I'd stumbled upon this site quite a few years back - it's called Linux Counter - a free site that attempts to track the number of linux users worldwide. Set apart from Linux User Groups (LUGs) and all the Linux forums on the net, which are more oriented towards helping Linux users - this in fact is a very barebone and basic site that's solely dedicated to it's purpose. All it does is try get a rough estimate of linux user - but not without a little help from you. You DO NEED to go to the site and sign up to get counter - in return you get that cool little logo that you see attached to my signature demarking the position at which you got Counted. The site also offers a couple of shell scripts that can automatically update your system specs/details on the site, without your intervention. I say go ahead and GET YOURSELF COUNTED. This is probably the only way to get to an approx. figure of total linux users around the world... Here's a quote from their site: The Linux Counter is run by a nonprofit membership organization called the Linux Counter Project. This organization was created on May 1, 1999, taking over the running of the counter from Harald Tveit Alvestrand, who has been running the project since 1993. Harald Alvestrand is chief executive officer of the organization. Active work is carried out by volunteers. The Country Managers maintain the data for their geographical areas. Coding and maintenance is carried out by teams. Source: Linux Counter Project And some more news about this project from LinuxWorld Magazine: By LinuxWorld News Desk Page 1 of 1 Advertisement Anyone unfamiliar with the Linux Counter Organization, a non-profit organization established to encourage, promote and support the counting of Linux users, may not be aware that for 10 years this Norwegian-registered membership organization has been encouraging Linux users to register themselves and their machines, so as to give a statistical basis for estimating the real size of the Linux community. Right now there are 139,971 users registered and 125,648 machines registered at the Linux Counter site, which leads to an overall estimate of about 18 million users - up from about 7.5 million users which was the official estimate in March 1998. The Linux Counter Organization was created in May 1999 to take over the running of the counter from its Norwegian-born founder, Harald Tveit Alvestrand, who had been running the project since 1993 after posting the following message to the then-newborn newsgroup comp.os.linux.announce: September 30, 1993 From: hta@uninett.no (Harald T. Alvestrand) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce Subject: Counting Linux users: an attempt Hello, there have been many attempts at defining the size of the Linux user base. None of them contained hard data. Now, in an attempt to establish a lower limit on the number of Linux users, I have put up a MAIL SERVER that does counting. ...... California-based Alvestrand remains chief executive officer of the organization. "Linux is, to me, one of the greatest experiments in social engineering that this planet has ever seen," he says, "in the sense of doing engineering as a social activity, not in trying to revamp society." "Running the Linux Counter project," Alvestrand continues, "has allowed me to have contacts and see things happening that I would otherwise have no way of knowing - getting e-mail from the Norfolk Islands, the backwoods of Laos and Antarctica; finding resources and enjoying finding the right ways to utilize them; letting a problem stew until the solution was obvious (and, far too often, long overdue) - all these, to me, add up to joy in the project." His only regret, it seems, is that Linus Torvalds hasn't yet come by to pick up registration number #1. "I reserved it for him in 1993," Alvestrand says, "and it's still open." LinuxWorld wishes the project a happy 10th birthday Source: LinuxWorld Magazine Article These guys need all your encouragement an support - so here I go again.... GO AHEAD AND GET YOURSELF COUNTED rightaway, right now Cheers to the Linux World !! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
amkint 0 Report post Posted February 21, 2005 some counter... i tried to register and it always gives the same error.. email address not entered.. inspite of the fact that i entered it everytime... even the first.this thingy looks like some spam website.. just look at the website. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
qwijibow 0 Report post Posted February 21, 2005 its not a spam site.its well known in the linux community. it doesnt look pretty because like it says, its just a counter, its only interest is estimating linux use around the globe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
egbert 0 Report post Posted February 21, 2005 Couldn't people lie about whether they use linux and sign up and mess it up... or does it do a check... and if it does, couldn't everybody get opera and try and fool it?Sounds interesting.... I want to know, in contrast, how many windows and mac user there are worldwide too, does anybody know of a website where this could happen? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
qwijibow 0 Report post Posted February 21, 2005 it just takes your wor for it.why would a windows user want to sign themselves up as a linux user. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Giniu 0 Report post Posted March 22, 2005 It is for sure no spam, I'm registered user (374078) and I can cut my hands off if it would be spam!! I can tell you that Linux Counter also provides scripts to measure up-time and sends them to LC, to help get statistics that are real, not imagined numers! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
