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?