Linux.com

When you force users to reinstall every few months, expect to have the most numbers. Hehehe.

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OK, that's a good one, and definitely appropriate. :-)

<seriousness>
But really, does it matter? As long as it's a FOSS platform, that's a win for us, be it RH/Fedora, Debian/Ubuntu, *BSD, hell, even GNU HURD if you're into S&M. :-) Whatever flavor you like, If it's FOSS, then it's all good. The enemy is what Microsoft and Apple represent, not other FOSS distros.
</seriousness>

--SYG

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The cross-distro numbers aren't that important. Its sensational..but not important. The important thing here is that Fedora has a methodology for trying to get a handle on deployments...an openly communicated methodology that any linux distributor could pick up and make use of to generate similar numbers. Fedora's MirrorManager facility is open, and every single distribution could be making use of it to produce similar unique ip counts for systems looking for updates. Is it a perfect methodology? No. But its better than just pulling out numbers out of a hat.

If we are going to try to get a reasonable estimate for overall linux adoption we need to develop methodologies that everyone..every single linux distributor..can use so we can pool aggregate deployment numbers and start showing what the global linux (and even BSD) market penetration is. Does it matter if Ubuntu or Fedora have bigger numbers? No... what matter here is that Fedora has pulled the curtain away from its numbers, and its telling everyone here are the raw stats, here is our interpretation. If all the distributors were this transparent we'd have a much better idea of market penetration. And once linked with geoip data...a very clear picture of where in the world adoption is trending upward faster..regardless of distribution. Hell we might even find that the areas with the most aggressive adoption are the areas where there are multiple competing linux distributions duking it out. Sort of how you tend to find multiple fast food places together within a couple of blocks of each other. Competition can actual grow markets faster.

-jef"methodology matters"spaleta

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And also when you force your corporate users to use Fedora instead of any other Linux distro....

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