michael wrote:
> We (the Anchorage Linux Users Group) are having our annual installfest.
> Since we have limited space and etc., the topic of which distros to
> provide came up. I was amazed when, after we had agreed to use the top
> 3, the following stats were cited:
> On Tue, 17 Jul 2001, James Bagley Jr. wrote:
>
>
>>and the winners are:
>>
>>http://counter.li.org/reports/machines.html
>>100600 registrations entered 101279 values
>>distribution Count Percent
>>
>>*Debian 19606 19.49%
>>
>>Mandrake 12269 12.20%
>>
>>*Red Hat 28688 28.52%
>>
>>S.u.S.E 8159 8.11%
>>
>>*Slackware 22806 22.67%
>>
>>Others 7999 7.95%
>>
Well, li is well recognized in the Linux communicty, but I cannot be
forced to register at every Linux counter in existance, nor do I think
anyone here can, either. But, I think it may be a good idea if Mandrake
(anonymously) registers your machine on some counters during the install.
It has a bit of a "Big Brother" aspect to it, and that is why I say it
should be a) voluntary b) anonymous c) at a community counter, probably
not one owned by MandrakeSoft itself.
The rationale for registering is that, on the Desktop, I believe that
Mandrake recently surpassed RedHat as the #1 distro. Some say work can
be done to improve the server-side, but I think that is more a marketing
thing than what is the best distribution for the server (of course, more
stability and qa always helps!). I know Debian traditionally isn't
commercial (but there are commercial variants, and you *can* buy Debian
CD's). but these stats look nothing like the ones I have seen for
stores. Mandrake is at least $15 cheaper than RedHat at stores here in
the U.S. I also like seeing the official Mandrake box and not the
MacMillian version that nobody knows what version it *really* is.
Anyway, when you say "Top 3" you are obviously not talking sales. Of
course there's sales in the U.S. and sales world-wide, and I know
Mandrake sells better in the U.S. than it does world-wide, so obviously
for these "Top 3" it would depdend on who you talk to. But I might argue
that Nabdrake is indeed in the "Yop 3", and in fact, it is #1 or #2.
--
Sincerely,
David Walluck
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
