docs/diploma

changeset 286:980eb42256ff

improved user estimation
author meillo@marmaro.de
date Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:46:05 +0100
parents 391793afb4cb
children 6cf649e62d42
files thesis/tex/1-Introduction.tex
diffstat 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) [+]
line diff
     1.1 --- a/thesis/tex/1-Introduction.tex	Thu Jan 15 22:45:51 2009 +0100
     1.2 +++ b/thesis/tex/1-Introduction.tex	Fri Jan 16 09:46:05 2009 +0100
     1.3 @@ -274,9 +274,9 @@
     1.4  
     1.5  Although development on \masqmail\ stopped in 2003 it still has its users. Having users is alone reason enough for futher development and maintenance. This applies especially if the software covers a niche and if requirements for such software in general change. Both matches in \masqmail's case.
     1.6  
     1.7 -It is difficult to get numbers about users of Free Software, because no one needs to tell anyone when he uses some software. \debian's \name{popcon} statistics \citeweb{popcon.debian} are a try to provided numbers. The statistics report 60 \masqmail\ installations of which 49 are in active use, for January 2009. If it is assumed that two third of all \debian\ users report their installed software, there would be in total around 75 active \masqmail\ installations in \debian. \name{Ubuntu} which also does \name{popcon} statistics \citeweb{popcon.ubuntu}, counts 82 installations with 13 active ones. If here also two third of all systems submit their data, 20 active installations can be added. Including an additional amount of 20 installations on other \unix\ operating systems makes about 115 \masqmail\ installations in total. Of course one person may have \masqmail\ installed on more than one computer, but a total of 90 different users seems to be realistic.
     1.8 +It is difficult to get numbers about users of Free Software, because no one needs to tell anyone when he uses some software. \debian's \name{popcon} statistics \citeweb{popcon.debian} are a try to provided numbers. The statistics report 60 \masqmail\ installations of which 49 are in active use, for January 2009. If it is assumed that one third of all \debian\ users report their installed software\footnote{One third is a high guess as it means there would be only about 230 thousand \debian\ installations in total. But according to the \name{Linux Counter} \citeweb{counter.li.org} between 490 thousand and 12 million \debian\ users can be estimated.}, there would be in total around 150 active \masqmail\ installations in \debian. \name{Ubuntu} which also does \name{popcon} statistics \citeweb{popcon.ubuntu}, counts 82 installations with 13 active ones. If here also one third of all systems submit their data, 40 active installations can be added. Including a guessed amount of additional 30 installations on other \unix\ operating systems makes about 220 \masqmail\ installations in total. Of course one person may have \masqmail\ installed on more than one computer, but a total of 150 different users seems to be realistic.
     1.9  
    1.10 -The increasing number of systems using \masqmail, as it is shown on the \name{popcon} graph \citeweb{popcon.debian:masqmail}, seems to be impressive in the beginning as \masqmail\ was not developed during that time. But it might come from the increasing popularity of \name{popcon} over the time.
    1.11 +%The increasing number of systems using \masqmail, as it is shown on the \name{popcon} graph \citeweb{popcon.debian:masqmail}, seems to be impressive in the beginning as \masqmail\ was not developed during that time. But it might come from the increasing popularity of \name{popcon} over the time.
    1.12  
    1.13  One thing became a fact now: \masqmail\ has users. And software that is used should be developed and maintained.
    1.14