Re: Revamping Friends of GNOME: help with web page text (with updated text!)

[Dave Neary <bolsh gnome org>]

Hi,

Brian Cameron wrote:
>> Millions of people already use GNOME, today.
> 
> "Millions" is a big number.  Can we site a resource?  If not, perhaps
> we should be more vague and say something like "People around the world
> are discovering the advantages of using GNOME.  If you have not yet made
> the switch to supporting free software, there is no time like the
> present!"

Some possible sources:

* Ubuntu user numbers: Over 8 million
http://www.redherring.com/Home/20497

"Q:What about growth in adoption rates, any kind of numbers that you can
give me?

A:We know now that there are probably at least 8 million [Ubuntu] users."

A Canonical merson told me recently that "the vast majority of those are
running GNOME".

* Ubuntu market share:  According to Desktop Linux, roughly 30%
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8454912761.html

Add in the GNOME users on RHEL, Fedora Core, SLED, OpenSuse, Debian, ...

Let's make some basic assumptions just to make a rough calculation.
First, let's assume that the market share stats from desktoplinux are
accurate, and that Mark's statement holds water. If 30% = 8M, 100% =
26.7M (which tallies closely with the Linux counter estimate), and the
distribution user bases break down like this:

Ubuntu:       8   M
Suse:         5.6 M
Other Debian: 3.75M
Fedora/RH:    2.4 M
Gentoo:       1.8 M
Others:       4.8 M

(yes, this adds up to 99%)

Let's be generous and break Ubuntu down 75/25 GNOME/KDE - 6 million
GNOME users. Let's say that Suse users now break 50/50, given that GNOME
is the default there. 2.8M. Other Debian: let's be generous and break
that down 55/45 to KDE (Knoppix, Mepis, etc...): 1.7M. And for Fedora,
GNOME's got a long-standing relationship, so let's break that 80/20 to
us too. 1.92M. Let's assume, for arguments sake, that all Gentoo users
are not using GNOME, and of the 18% "Others", let's break that down
60/40 to KDE. 1.92M GNOME users.

Grand total: 14.34M GNOME users of a total base of 26.7M.


Cheers,
Dave.


-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
bolsh gnome org