Suggestion: Linux Lite User Counter on forum

[anon222]

There is no need to track or trace anyone. I think most people who use Linux don't want that.
If people want to let us know they have installed LL on their PC's they are free to do so.

The laws can change quickly, corporations gain more and more power and influence.
Who knows, maybe people will have to pay MS a revenue for using Linux on computers preinstalled with Windows. (Just kidding)

[avj]

The easiest way to get an accurate count would probably be to count the number of different ip addresses that connect to the LL repositories while doing their updates.

[Jerry]

If you're looking for how many users there are on LL, this is something that can only be tracked on proprietary operating systems like Windows and Mac that have known built in back doors that call home. LL is also hosted on a number of third party websites like Softpedia, Cnet etc as well as multiple mirrors around the world. In truth we'll never know exactly how many times LL has been downloaded.

But the origninal question asks how many people are 'using' LL. Again, impossible to know. There are also considerations to take into account like how many people in the linux world 'distro hop' regularly, I used to be a big hopper myself until I settled down with Debian. Linux Lite today, Fedora tomorrow.

In conclusion, will we ever know how many people are using LL at any one time? No, unfortunately. And I don't think there is a way to do it, unless someone can come up with an idea.

[avj]

The thing that got me thinking about how many users there are, is that I saw a download for LL on Softpedia and it shows almost 11,000 downloads. It seems like it would be hard to keep track of the number of users when LL can be downloaded from many different places. The survey idea is a decent idea, to see how many of the target audience are actually finding LL. This is the link to the softpedia download page. 
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/Linux-Lite-93641.shtml

[Jerry]

Some good ideas here. The only downside is that with voluntary requests, generally only a minority of people will submit anything. I'm more than happy to set something up, just be aware it won't be an accurate reflection of actual numbers and therefore will be interpreted incorrectly by people.

[avj]

I am thinking more along the lines of a voluntary thing that people could use to tell how many systems they have LL installed on.  I also thought about the call home but didn't feel comfortable suggesting that. I suggested it be on the forum so that it would limit the potential for people reporting they use it even if they don't.

[shengchieh]

I don't like things calling home - privacy issue.

An idea:

When an user click to download, he/she must first fill a survey, something like,

This survey is to estimate the number of LL users.  Are you
 - a current L user
 - a distro-hopper checking out LL
 - a new user considering LL
 - other possibilities ....
Thank for trying/using LL  Please visit our forum at ....

Sheng-Chieh

[LL-user]

Hi Jerry,

I absolutely appreciate you being that sensitive regarding privacy issues!

[Jerry]

Thanks avj, do you have any suggestions on how we could implement this? The only way I can see to do it accurately is plant a file in LL and 'have it call home' a practice I'm not comfortable with in regards to privacy issues.

[avj]

I think it would be nice to know how many people are actually using Linux Lite. So I thought I would suggest a LL user counter on the forum to keep track of the number of users, or the number of computers it is used on. Just a thought, it would help developers see how far the distro has reached in my opinion.