On Mar 24, 12:45 pm, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Open access and open source intersect in Public Knowledge Project
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Like most open source projects, PKP keeps no formal record of users.
> | However, Smecher estimates that Open Journal Systems alone has more
> | than a thousand installations worldwide.
> `----
> http://www.itmanagersjournal.com/feature/22213
>
> It is no surprise that Open Source projects which are downloaded millions of
> times cannot count their users. The same rules apply to Linux.
Keep in mind that most Market Research companies don't count most
Linux sales,
because linux licenses aren't sold as "software licenses".
For example, nearly 1 million Linux copies are sold as "magazines".
Another 1 million/year are sold as books.
Many downloads are from public educational mirrors.
Most Linux distributions are downloaded from mirrors, not the original
site.
Less than 1% of the licenses are actually shipped with computers.
Based on all of the publicly available references, Linux license
deployments are somewhere between 10 million and 300 million
deployments per year. Total deplolyment estimates range from 25
million to 300 million.
Keep in mind that with Linux
It's perfectly legal to install more than one Linux distribution on
the same machine.
It's perfectly legal to install Linux on a machine originally
purchased with Windows.
It's perfectly legal to install multiple virtual machines on a a
single PC.
I'ts perfectly legal to run multiple virtual machines concurrently on
the same machine.
Linux can function as it's own firewall.
Nobody, including me, has a clue as to how many Linux deployments are
out there.
Microsoft may have the best measurements, which may be why Microsoft
has spent
so many $billions campagning against Linux.
> Related:
>
> Too late to discredit open source, advocates say
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | "It's too late," exclaimed Winston Damarillo, founder and
> | chairman of software development firm Exist Global, in an
> | interview with Computerworld Philippines. "Open source
> | is all over the place."
A bit like what I posted last week.
Companies are using Linux as servers, and they like what they see.
Most companies are seeing "real world" savings of 80-95%.
It's very hard to argue ROI and TCO numbers in the real world.
Many commercial software vendors are now offering Linux version of
their software..
Many consultants are combining OSS and Commercial UNIX and DB
applications to create cost-effective solutions.
Many larger companies are now expecting Linux or Unix on
the resumes of their new-hires as well as most consultants.
> | [...]
> | Anson Uy, president of Touch Solutions (a Red Hat Linux company),
> | earlier on broke the news to Computerworld Philippines about the
> | alleged "funded missions" by some software firms to discredit open
> | source, although he did not identify any company.
It's a bit humerous. Red Hat has been pumping about 10 million Linux
computers into 3rd world companies via NGOs. The computers are the
ones
that are discarded because they can't be cost-effectively upgraded to
the newest
versions of Microsoft's software (Windows, Office...).
Now that these computers are being replaced, and the the benificiaries
are
willing to pay real money, even if it's a fraction of what US
customers pay,
Microsoft wants 100% of the action.
Keep in mind that many of those computers shipped out in 1997-8
because
the old boxes couldn't run NT, were being used by high school students
who have now graduated from college and are working on offshoring
contracts.
These countries aren't saying "No Microsoft Ever", only "use OSS when
appropriate".
The problem is that OSS seems to be appropriate much more often than
Microsoft
would like. Appearantly, far too often for Microsoft's liking.
> | Anson revealed among the top three actions against FOSS are being
> | done through "sponsored studies, piracy of open source developers,
> | and bold press releases."
> http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/030607-too-late-to-discredit-open...
http://tinyurl.com/2bj969
In most countries, lying to reporters is not illegal. Even benchmarks
only
require that the facts represented be accurate. The interpretitions
of the
statistics and how they are presented, and conclusions, are more like
an art form.
Microsoft isn't the only company with "Creative Interpretations".
If IDC publishes a report on server sales, IBM might claim highest
revenue,
Dell might claim highest server volume, and HP might claim highest
number of CPUs.
Each organisation will choose the numbers that make their case.
So long as the aim is to win customers, and not to artificially pump
up
the stock price, such as statements to financial publications, this
type of
"Spin" is just good public relations.
|
|
