Subject: Announcing the Freeware BSD Counter
To: None <current-users@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu>
From: Harald T. Alvestrand <Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no>
List: current-users
Date: 01/07/1994 15:20:12
<NOTE: I am NOT a member of your list, but was informed that
this might be of interest to this list. Please direct replies
to me!>

Announcing the Freeware BSD Counter
===================================

In brief:

  Send E-mail to bsd-counter@uninett.no with the SUBJECT line
  
    "I use <BSDversion> at <place>"

Introduction
============
In October of last year, I set up a device for counting the number
of Linux users, in the form of a mail responder.
So far, it's counted 4540 Linux users, and I estimate this to be
somewhere between 1 % and 10 % of the total number of users.

One of the more nagging questions has been how this compares to the
users of NetBSD in all its variants.
So, one day I was feeling like it, I set up a mail responder called
"bsd-counter" that was able to do exactly the same thing.

After announcing this on comp.os.386bsd.misc, it's so far counted
146 BSD users, and introduced me to the interesting differences between
NetBSD, 386BSD and FreeBSD.

The intention is, however, to count all users of UNIXes that are:

 - BSD-derived
 - Freely available

The variants NetBSD, 386BSD and FreeBSD are currently distinguished.

(NOTE: Linux is NOT BSD-derived. If you use that, send mail to
linux-counter@uninett.no instead!!!)

How to register
===============
Send E-mail to bsd-counter@uninett.no

The subject should be

  I use <version> at <place>

where "version" can be NetBSD, 386BSD and FreeBSD; "place" can be
school, work or home.

You will get back a letter with 3 things:

  - An acknowledgement
  - A form that you can fill out and send in with more information
    about yourself, your machine, and your 386bsd-using friends
  - A report giving the current status of the counter

You can update your "vote" at any time, by sending an E-mail message
from the same account. Duplicates will be weeded out.

The head of the current report, available by anonymous FTP to aun.uninett.no,
directory pub/misc/386bsd-counter, file "short", is given below.

Status of the Free BSD counter, as of Fri Jan  7 15:00:11 MET 1994

There are 146 registered users of free BSD versions


PLACES WHERE FREE BSD IS USED
==========================
 Self Other   Sum %Sum  Place
   95    17   112  74% home
   46     0    46  30% work
   12     0    12   8% school
   11     0    11   7% somewhere
    4     0     4   2% not used
--------------------------
  133    17   150 100% TOTAL

NOTE: Some people use free BSD in multiple places, so the total is not
the sum of the columns.

COUNTRIES WHERE FREE BSD IS USED
=============================
      Country                    Self Other   Sum  MPop Free BSD/M
---------------------------------------------------------------
 1 nz New Zealand                   3     0     3     3.4   0.9
 2 no Norway                        3     0     3     4.3   0.7
 3 fi Finland                       3     0     3     5.0   0.6
 4 au Australia                     9     0     9    17.1   0.5
 5 dk Denmark                       2     0     2     5.1   0.4
 6 nl Netherlands                   5     0     5    14.9   0.3
 7 ie Ireland                       1     0     1     3.5   0.3
 8 us USA                          65     4    69   249.6   0.3
 9 se Sweden                        2     0     2     8.6   0.2
10 de Germany                      15     0    15    79.1   0.2


Happy voting!


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