Measuring Adoption
Measuring the adoption of Linux on the desktop is a difficult proposition and has caused controversy as to how many users there actually are.
As Linux systems are typically downloaded, copied and distributed for free, the usual methods of tracking sales numbers do not apply in gauging numbers of Linux desktop users. This use of website counters to identify operating systems also does not produce reliable numbers, due to such factors as:
- individual websites do not attract a representative sample, due to their content.
- spoofing of addresses.
- problems tagging identification strings as to Linux or even distribution results in high numbers of "unknown operating system".
- identifying computers that operate from behind proxies.
- the multiplying effects of botnets which tend to create the illusion of more insecure PCs, running Windows systems.
- the fact that not all PCs are connected to the internet and used for web browsing.
- one download could result in none or whole site installations
Read more about this topic: Desktop Linux
Famous quotes containing the words measuring and/or adoption:
“We recognize caste in dogs because we rank ourselves by the familiar dog system, a ladderlike social arrangement wherein one individual outranks all others, the next outranks all but the first, and so on down the hierarchy. But the cat system is more like a wheel, with a high-ranking cat at the hub and the others arranged around the rim, all reluctantly acknowledging the superiority of the despot but not necessarily measuring themselves against one another.”
—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. “Strong and Sensitive Cats,” Atlantic Monthly (July 1994)
“Frankly, I adore your catchy slogan, “Adoption, not Abortion,” although no one has been able to figure out, even with expert counseling, how to use adoption as a method of birth control, or at what time of the month it is most effective.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)