Re: How many FOSS developers users Worldwide?
On Saturday 12 May 2007 11:07:19 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Community! Hopefully you guys can help me. I'm trying to find the number of FOSS developers and users worldwide for some marketing related presentations but just can't seem to find any solid numbers. It would also be very interesting to see how this number compares to the number of developers worldwide. Does anyone have any good links they could send me? I dont think any reliable data exists, but as far as users go, Firefox market share might give a lower bound that should not be too far removed from the truth. However, I think you first need a definition just what constitutes a OSS user as technically, all OSX users use Webkit which is OSS (there are numerous other examples like that). As for developers I don't really have a good idea, but you could start with looking at sourceforge stats maybe? pgpU0AdTUqtgX.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
Re: How many FOSS developers users Worldwide?
One more idea: a) count the number of registered users at Sourceforge, Freshmeat, GNA and some other similar facilities. Could give a rough indication for FOSS developers. b) count the number of registered users at Linuxquestions could give an indication for the number of user. But as said before: it needs a clear definition. Am I counted as a FOSS user if I use a Motorola A760? Nikolaus Schaller Am 12.05.2007 um 13:12 schrieb Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller: Am 12.05.2007 um 13:11 schrieb Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller: Well, you could try to compare the participation of some OSS developer related events (e.g. FOSDEM) to MS Developer Conference(s) or Apple WWDC. Then you need the total number of (software) developers worldwide and a simple multiplication would give the result... But this share is probably not quite reliable, since MS Apple developers have to pay for but also can do so, so you count commercial developers who can afford travel expenses at a different level. A different approach could be the total market share of MS Windows vs. Linux which is repoeted regularly by Gartner, IDC and others. I think I remember approx. 80 to 20 for Desktops+Servers. And assume that for large projects the number of users is the same split of the cake as for developers. But if you want to include Embedded, the picture is quite different. Would you e.g. count Symbian as FOSS? So, you need a clear definition in advance what you really want to count. And finally, FSF might have figures to share. Nikolaus Schaller Am 12.05.2007 um 11:07 schrieb [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Dear Community! Hopefully you guys can help me. I'm trying to find the number of FOSS developers and users worldwide for some marketing related presentations but just can't seem to find any solid numbers. It would also be very interesting to see how this number compares to the number of developers worldwide. Does anyone have any good links they could send me? Thanks! Sean This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
Re: How many FOSS developers users Worldwide?
Le samedi 12 mai 2007 à 09:07 +, [EMAIL PROTECTED] a écrit : I'm trying to find the number of FOSS developers and users worldwide for some marketing related presentations but just can't seem to find any solid numbers. It would also be very interesting to see how this number compares to the number of developers worldwide. These links do not give the overall number of developers but give interesting info though: http://flosspols.org/deliverables.php http://flossproject.org/papers/20060614/RishabGHOSH-gartner2.pdf Gilles -- Oralux.org http://association.oralux.org ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
Re: How many FOSS developers users Worldwide?
Am 12.05.2007 um 13:11 schrieb Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller: Well, you could try to compare the participation of some OSS developer related events (e.g. FOSDEM) to MS Developer Conference(s) or Apple WWDC. Then you need the total number of (software) developers worldwide and a simple multiplication would give the result... But this share is probably not quite reliable, since MS Apple developers have to pay for but also can do so, so you count commercial developers who can afford travel expenses at a different level. A different approach could be the total market share of MS Windows vs. Linux which is repoeted regularly by Gartner, IDC and others. I think I remember approx. 80 to 20 for Desktops+Servers. And assume that for large projects the number of users is the same split of the cake as for developers. But if you want to include Embedded, the picture is quite different. Would you e.g. count Symbian as FOSS? So, you need a clear definition in advance what you really want to count. And finally, FSF might have figures to share. Nikolaus Schaller Am 12.05.2007 um 11:07 schrieb [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Dear Community! Hopefully you guys can help me. I'm trying to find the number of FOSS developers and users worldwide for some marketing related presentations but just can't seem to find any solid numbers. It would also be very interesting to see how this number compares to the number of developers worldwide. Does anyone have any good links they could send me? Thanks! Sean This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
Re: How many FOSS developers users Worldwide?
I agree, you'd have to define FOSS, developer, and user. I've been happy to participate in FOSS-like surveys in the past, though I've never received a copy or link to the subsequent thesis papers (even though I've always made that the condition upon which I would participate -- so, in that way, I felt exploited by the open-source research). Anyway... As a global phenomena, I believe, finding any reliable numbers would require a massive undertaking. For example, I think you'd have to ask a large set of questions to establish the various gray zones of usage, particularly considering most users do not know what they use (TCP/IP might be considered open source) nor considered things in terms of proprietary or open (the village water pump might be open source). Without an army of surveyors, I don't know how you could generalize the various demographics across the globe? Having said that, I would say, based on my definitions, there are roughly 6.5 billion FOSS users and perhaps 650 million FOSS developers, and maybe only 65 million who think of their actions in those terms. Alex -- [ [EMAIL PROTECTED] ][ http://genaud.net ][ 55.67N 12.588E ] [ B068 ED90 F47B 0965 2953 9FC3 EE9C C4D5 3E51 A207 ] -- -- Videresendt meddelelse -- From: Gabriel Ambuehl [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: community@lists.openmoko.org Date: Sat, 12 May 2007 11:16:27 +0200 Subject: Re: How many FOSS developers users Worldwide? On Saturday 12 May 2007 11:07:19 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Community! Hopefully you guys can help me. I'm trying to find the number of FOSS developers and users worldwide for some marketing related presentations but just can't seem to find any solid numbers. It would also be very interesting to see how this number compares to the number of developers worldwide. Does anyone have any good links they could send me? I dont think any reliable data exists, but as far as users go, Firefox market share might give a lower bound that should not be too far removed from the truth. However, I think you first need a definition just what constitutes a OSS user as technically, all OSX users use Webkit which is OSS (there are numerous other examples like that). As for developers I don't really have a good idea, but you could start with looking at sourceforge stats maybe? ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
Re: How many FOSS developers users Worldwide?
On 12/05/07, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: One more idea: a) count the number of registered users at Sourceforge, Freshmeat, GNA and some other similar facilities. Could give a rough indication for FOSS developers. I'm registered at both SF.net and Gna, and I assume I'm not the only one ;) b) count the number of registered users at Linuxquestions could give an indication for the number of user. But as said before: it needs a clear definition. Am I counted as a FOSS user if I use a Motorola A760? Nikolaus Schaller Am 12.05.2007 um 13:12 schrieb Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller: Am 12.05.2007 um 13:11 schrieb Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller: Well, you could try to compare the participation of some OSS developer related events (e.g. FOSDEM) to MS Developer Conference(s) or Apple WWDC. Then you need the total number of (software) developers worldwide and a simple multiplication would give the result... But this share is probably not quite reliable, since MS Apple developers have to pay for but also can do so, so you count commercial developers who can afford travel expenses at a different level. A different approach could be the total market share of MS Windows vs. Linux which is repoeted regularly by Gartner, IDC and others. I think I remember approx. 80 to 20 for Desktops+Servers. And assume that for large projects the number of users is the same split of the cake as for developers. But if you want to include Embedded, the picture is quite different. Would you e.g. count Symbian as FOSS? So, you need a clear definition in advance what you really want to count. And finally, FSF might have figures to share. Nikolaus Schaller Am 12.05.2007 um 11:07 schrieb [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Dear Community! Hopefully you guys can help me. I'm trying to find the number of FOSS developers and users worldwide for some marketing related presentations but just can't seem to find any solid numbers. It would also be very interesting to see how this number compares to the number of developers worldwide. Does anyone have any good links they could send me? Thanks! Sean This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community -- Vincent ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
Re: How many FOSS developers users Worldwide?
Sean, A good reference on open source is always David Wheeler (http://www.dwheeler.com). In his study of 'Why Open Source Software/ Free Software) he references a study from 2002 regarding open source developers: http://www.infonomics.nl/FLOSS/report/index.htm Have a look at 'Part IV: Survey of Developers'. It might contain what you're looking for, although it several years old already. I presume things only got better since then :-) Regards, Marc Verwerft On 5/12/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Community! Hopefully you guys can help me. I'm trying to find the number of FOSS developers and users worldwide for some marketing related presentations but just can't seem to find any solid numbers. It would also be very interesting to see how this number compares to the number of developers worldwide. Does anyone have any good links they could send me? Thanks! Sean This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
Re: How many FOSS developers users Worldwide?
Really, what defines a user or a developer? I would imagine any count will be an under-count, by some degree... ___ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
