Statistics on Linux Use
 

I am very interested in Linux statistics, but unhappy with the two existing projects for collecting these figures.

1) counter.li.org
- Everything is user-input generated. They provide a script only to update your uptime. This means stats can be very inaccurate. There's no hardware database, no distro specific stats, etc.


2) linux-stats.org
- Written in python, so people have to have a truckload of python crap installed. Author refuses to change to a shell based stat client. There's no distro specific stats.


So in the grand tradition of Linux unhappiness, I'm considering creating my own client. The framework:
- Would use a Bash script to collect all data
--- Bash is the default shell on... geez... every single major distro
--- Even if somebody isn't running Bash as default shell, can still be executed as long as Bash is installed
- Would provide a hardware database, with hardware polled from client
- Would provide distro specific stats
--- Ex: What ebuilds are installed in Gentoo?
--- Ex: What ebuilds are installed via overlays in Gentoo?
--- Ex: What Fedora core release are you using? (Tettnang, Bourdeaux, etc)
--- Ex: What % of people use ReiserFS?
--- Ex: Kernel version?
- Would provide cumulative stats for all distros as well
--- Ex: What % of people use ReiserFS?
--- Ex: Kernel version?
- Would provide ability to create an userpage so people could create a 'public profile page' similar to what can be done at Linux-Stats.org (example: http://www.linux-stats.org/?c=userpa...button&sys=410 )
- All statistics would be completely anonymous ... users would login through a client generated random key pair.


I use Gentoo and OpenSuSe, and I'm fairly familiar with Fedora. So I could craft the client for those distros, but I'd need help with others such as Ubuntu.

The client depends on community interest... without alot of people with various hardware (x86_64, PPC, etc) on various distros willing to test it out so it can be refined and better detect settings on various distros... it's pointless.

So how about it... sound interesting to anybody?

Sounds interesting indeed! Not much *practical* use to me personally, but I'm sure some people would benifit. And it's always an interesting thing to have a look at ocasionally anyway ;)

Put it this way: If I actually had a full install of Linux anywhere any more, I would install it.

Sign me up! I'm also interested in seeing what the Linux user community looks like. It'd be nice to find people in the area with Linux (LUGs are just unreliable these days especially in the MN/ND region), and to see what kinds of trends are happening with the OS. If you push this I'd almost recommend adding to to the package management systems (if at all possible). I can help test on Gentoo and Slackware as well as development (in my spare time, probably weekends). Let me know what you want to do. My email: alunduil@alunduil.com

Regards,

Alunduil

Go for it!