Monthly Stats – January 2009

Donations & Sponsorships:

Many thanks to the following donors and sponsors for financially supporting Linux Mint:

Donors:

  • $139, AvanceIT (UK) – http://avanceit.co.uk
  • $100, Upinderjit S. (USA)
  • $100, Geoffrey U. (USA)
  • $66, Andre B. (Germany) 
  • $66 (4th donation), Theodore T. (UK)
  • $66, Peter K. (Switzerland)
  • $60, Richard G. (USA) 
  • $50, Steven W. (USA) 
  • $50 (2nd donation), Harvey Elliott (UK)
  • $50, Stephen C. (USA) 
  • $25, Sohier C. (Canada)
  • $25, Kevin S. (USA) 
  • $25, James S. (USA) 
  • $20, Matthew S. (USA) 
  • $20, Brian H. (USA) 
  • $20, Richard C. (USA) 
  • $20, David V. (USA) 
  • $20, Brian B. (USA) 
  • $15, Sooren B. (UK) 
  • $13 (5th donation), Frank Bechstein (Germany) – http://www.gamer-site.de
  • $13, Ken W. (UK) 
  • $13, Desmond R. (Australia)
  • $10, Eero T V. (Finland)
  • $10, Andrew B. (USA) 
  • $10, Sevan S. (USA) 
  • $10, Alejandro C. C. (Spain)
  • $7, Tomasz K. (Poland)
  • $5, John N. (USA) 
  • $4, Sebastien K. (Portugal)
  • $1, Mark B. (USA) 

Sponsors:

Money raised in January:

* Donations: $1033
* Sponsors: $294.5

http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php
http://www.linuxmint.com/sponsors.php

User Stats:

Repartition of Linux Mint users across releases:

  • Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna: 11.30%
  • Linux Mint 5 Elyssa LTS: 34.71%
  • Linux Mint 6 Felicia: 53.98%

Web Stats:

  • Visits: 1,052,738
  • Pageviews: 2,052,209
  • Page impressions: 902,532
  • Search queries: 2,111,860
  • Forum users: 12264
  • Forum posts: 118744
Rankings:
  • Distrowatch: 1518 (3rd)
  • Alexa: 40,959th

Events: 

Summary:
  • The user base seems to grow. The income doesn’t. This is probably linked to the global financial crisis which affects donors, sponsors and advertisers. A donation campaign could be organized. 
  • 2 new dedicated servers, one in Canada and one in England might soon add to the two servers we already have in Germany.
  • The number of people still running Daryna is surprisingly high. The number of people running Elyssa is surprisingly low. Two releases are actively maintained, the latest release (currently Linux Mint 6 Felicia) and the latest LTS release (currently Linux Mint 5). Users are encouraged to either follow the latest release and to upgrade twice a year, or to stick to the latest LTS release and to upgrade every 3 years. 

9 comments

  1. I am surprised more people are not running the LTS release. Elyssa is my personal favorite release. Elyssa updated and combined with the new tools and the newer Brasero package from getdeb is an extremely solid system.

    I can understand what is going on with donations and agree with the analysis of the situation. Businesses are closing or laying off people and things are getting tough. I would hope businesses turn to Linux as a cost effective solution to help with shrinking IT budgets.

    I read an article that suggested that most companies run Windows more out of habit than need. I see the Universal Edition as a solid contender for corporate desktops. Good things will come, it just takes time and patience.

  2. @Clem>
    >”The number of people still running Daryna is surprisingly high”

    This is due mostly because there is no warrantied or 100% error-proof method to upgrading other than downloading the iso, installing it from scratch and formatting the old partition manually after testing the new install (usually after a few days). Most users will find this a hassle and either way they require a good amount of HD space.

    a safer method could be created and most these steps could be made automatically. The only requirement would be hard-drive space to create a backup just in case you need to go back and undo changes made to your filesystem.

    Would definitely take linuxmint a big step ahead of ubuntu and “other” OSs

  3. Every business computer that i see has a windows license. The business will say ‘but it was free with the computer’, well thats not true. Its simply added into the cost.
    With updating and upgrading. I have no intention of upgrading my computers from LM 6. Simply because if its not broken, i dont fix it. When the new release does come out, I will only install it when i next need to put a system together.
    I still have computers running freespire! (sad but true. Ill get around to upgrading them one day. We might be up to LM10 by then!)

  4. Linuxmint needs to find ways to target Windows users more than trying to eat away existing Linux users. And please put up more updated news on popular sites like lxer.com, it’s hard to keep up with news these days from so many websites.

  5. Thanks for the stats Clem, I personally sticked with LTS, maybe Im just too lazy to upgrade my system every six months. On the other hand Im blissfully pleased with the fact that the LTS will keep receiving all the nice tools that come with every new version. Thank you very much for that.

  6. Nice summary you got there! 🙂

    I am one of those who upgraded to Linux Mint 6 (as I want the latest of everything (but beta is the limit; I am not an alpha tester yet)). But then, when trying to install 6 to laptops, the installer somewhat hangs (even though I am not running the LiveCD (the same goes for the latest Ubuntu release)), so I end up installing Elyssa to them (I successfully installed Felicia in one laptop, luckily).

    Personally, I find Felicia a worth upgrade, as it brings in more updated software versions and new useful programs. But then, if possible I would like to downgrade the Network Manager applet (and daemon), because it just don’t suit my needs.

    For the Linux Mint team, I wish you luck, more donations, and a very good time despite the economic crisis! (I just don’t hope you don’t follow Xandros and Linux XP, among others, by making their distros not free, or dumbing down too much the desktop experience, because I am one of those who will say “You are a Windows clone.”).

    God bless to all of you! 🙂

    P.S. Btw, I succeeded in converting, if not fully, three of my friends to use Linux Mint, and currently, they are enjoying the experience (albeit some glitches and problems).

  7. @ Clem.

    Very happy Daryna user here (got hooked on Mint with Bianca). Not upgraded as yet as everything is just working too well! From base install I have many added “bits” – quite a pain reinstalling everything and I suppose I am a little nervous about losing data (ie forgetting to back something up).

    Perhaps a guide to checking/maintaining added applications and checklist on data safety would prompt a few more to upgrade? Or even a toot on the best way of “Ghosting” an existing system for worrywarts like myself.

    Have a shiny new laptop coming this week – look forward to installing LM6 – and ignoring Vista!

  8. Linuxmint should just keep doing what it does best, make a highly polished O/S that is outstanding
    use base will grow slow and surely, intime the revenue will come

    keep up the great work team, love your efforts

  9. Quote
    * The number of people still running Daryna is surprisingly high. The number of people running Elyssa is surprisingly low. Two releases are actively maintained, the latest release (currently Linux Mint 6 Felicia) and the latest LTS release (currently Linux Mint 5). Users are encouraged to either follow the latest release and to upgrade twice a year, or to stick to the latest LTS release and to upgrade every 3 years.

    Unquote

    People, well some of them are full of interia. Certainly we all are in certain areas. If ones new desktop/OS is working then why change?

    Also the converts will be having trouble in understanding that Ms Penguin just keeps on upgrading is small, but relentless steps. Compared with Ms Windows who goes years before doing any upgrade.

    Minty is Ubuntu done right. MS may have missed many targets, but she did hit the bulls eye with the control center. A window where one is able to change, do admin tasks on the OS, is so logical in my view.

    Ubuntu has put the admin all over the menus. At the end of the day I guess people have different ways of looking at things and thus a control center here and there in several menus may work for them. For me it does not.

    Linux needs to grab what is good/workable from all OS.

    I tell everyone who is interested in OSS to donate to the programes which they use. After all everyone needs food, clothing and shelter. If they do not have that are they, the programmers going to be willing to programme? I doubt they wish to make money, but rather better code.

    I do get some puzzled looks.

    Carry on Mint. Your day will come.

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