On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 7:52 PM, Mr O <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > We as a country and even state of Oregon SUCK. There are only 465 registered > users in Oregon and 33 in Eugene. If you're not registered and you do use > linux regularly then step up to the plate! The United States is one user away > from losing 50th place to UK. Do it for EUGLUG, do it for Oregon, do it for > the USA! (insert patriotic music here) > > http://counter.li.org/reports/place.php?place=USe
Self-selecting web polls don't make real world statistics, Mr. O. 135,395 total Linux users globally? The number of global Linux users peaked in 2002, dropped radically the next year, and isn't yet even close to being back to 2002 levels? That's how Joe Math-Dropout will read that graph; that's what it says the statistics are on that page: "Linux users in The World" right on top of that graph. You have to switch to the Project page to learn that it really isn't statistics about how many Linux users are in each country and in sum, that it's statistics on the annual number of folks who take the time to fill out a registration form on that site. Even on that page, they don't caveat what was said on the page you linked. How many people will go looking on the site for what the data represents? Assume Joe Sixpack has read that there are 450 million Windows users in the world but in curiosity found that site looking for how many Linux users there are globally; what does that page tell Joe? IMHO, that's a web page that needs to be taken down or be rewritten, not publicized. There are other pages on the site that need to be more frank about what the statistics are derived from. As is, the site helps Microsoft more than Linux because more people are ignorant of more relevant statistics and the weakness of the data. Not everyone understands enough about statistics to know that self-selecting polls rarely have much to do with reality. Graphs of web poll results with misleading titles suggesting to the uniformed that they reflect hard real-world and relevant data? Not something I care to contribute to. Page should be retitled, "How many people who claim to be Linux users and have registered on this web site." Or, "International Linux user registration contest," "Find other registered Linux users in your nation and globally," something that paints a more accurate picture of what the statistics represent. As a nerd myself, I know we all have the problem of often assuming things are obvious to everyone that are obvious to us. It's human nature. Being a nerd of the legal variety whose clients won or lost in large part because of my success or failure in explaining the technical to the uniformed, perhaps I'm more sensitized to that human failing than you? I'm not suggesting in the least that you caught that the page you linked to is misleading for the uninformed. There's no doubt in my mind on where you stand on Linux in relevant regard. You're among the refreshingly frank and blunt people of the world. Haven't met you face-to-face but I already like you from what you've posted. No hostility toward you here. Just questioning whether or not that link should be pushed before changes are made on the linked site. In fellowship, Paul -- Universal Interoperability Council <http:www.universal-interop-council.org> _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
