Monthly Stats – April 2010

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Donations & Sponsorships:

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

Donors:

  • $200 (2nd donation), Eric H. (USA)
  • $100, Greg H (United Kingdom) – http://www.pokersoft.co.uk
  • $100, Whit N. (USA)
  • $100, Brad C. (USA)
  • $100, John K. (USA)
  • $86 (2nd donation), Jan W. (Netherlands)
  • $72, Andrej C. (Slovenia)
  • $67, Joachim S. (Germany)
  • $62 (2nd donation), Kevin D. (USA)
  • $50 (6th donation), Gordon Hilliard aka “ghilly” (United Kingdom)
  • $50 (2nd donation), James Marsh (Australia) – http://www.engadinecycles.com.au/
  • $35 (7th donation), Jerry Jackson (United Kingdom)
  • $30 (7th donation), Pete Molina aka “pmolina” (USA)
  • $30 (3rd donation), Olli K. (Finland)
  • $30, Isaac Luria (USA)
  • $27 (10th donation), Manuel F. (Portugal)
  • $25 (3rd donation), David Morris aka “DPMorris” (USA)
  • $25, Clive G. (United Kingdom)
  • $25, Kamal G. (United Kingdom)
  • $25, Nathan Iverson (USA)
  • $25, Bob H. (USA)
  • $25, Kenny H. (USA)
  • $25, Guillermo Vives (Chile)
  • $25, Rob C. (Australia)
  • $25, Cody W. H. (USA)
  • $25, Dag S (Sweden)
  • $21 (11th donation), Slavoljub M. (Norway)
  • $21 (3rd donation), Bernard S. (Netherlands)
  • $20 (8th donation), Frank Bechstein (Germany) – http://www.gamer-site.de/
  • $20 (3rd donation), Thomas B. (USA)
  • $20 (3rd donation), Thomas B. (USA)
  • $20 (2nd donation), Jay Butcher (USA)
  • $20, Daniel R-K. (Germany)
  • $20, Daryl L. (World)
  • $20, Baldur M. R. (United Kingdom)
  • $20, Ali Ayoubi (Australia)
  • $20, Adam Hainstock aka “Acid_1” (Canada)
  • $20, Digital Academy (USA)
  • $20, Marcus Taylor (USA)
  • $20, Victor Jose J.J. aka “alanmoore” (Spain)
  • $20, Michael F. (Norway)
  • $20, Matthew M. (USA)
  • $20, Michael A. (USA)
  • $20, Jared S. aka “jspice9000” (Canada)
  • $20, James D. (USA)
  • $20, Simon M. (Australia)
  • $20, Kim Vexborg (Denmark)
  • $20, Steve Schaller (Canada)
  • $15 (8th donation), Marco R. (Italy)
  • $15 (7th donation), Emil Pavlov aka “emil_pavlov” (Bulgaria)
  • $15 (2nd donation), Samuel M. aka “vtired” (Italy) – http://it.ismico.org
  • $15 (2nd donation), John Minear aka “sparky51” (United Kingdom)
  • $15, Massimo M. (Italy)
  • $15, Roland A. (United Kingdom)
  • $15, Ville L. aka “vplampo” (Finland)
  • $15, Martin B. (Germany)
  • $15, Александр С. (Russia)
  • $15, Marko Kovic (Switzerland)
  • $14, Daniel H. (Germany)
  • $14, Lee Sturman aka “Hammerlee” (United Kingdom)
  • $14, Nadia C. (France)
  • $14, Massimo C. (Italy)
  • $13, Mikkel M. aka “msm” (Denmark)
  • $12 (3rd donation), Juergen G. (Canada)
  • $12, Dylan (USA) – http://digitalliberation.com
  • $10, Richard A. (Australia)
  • $10, Jose G. A. (Spain)
  • $10, Ashley Peach (United Kingdom) – http://www.dog-toy.co.uk
  • $10, ashari (USA)
  • $10, Matthew M. (United Kingdom)
  • $10, Marina Moldovan (Romania) – http://despre.md
  • $10, Steven W. (Australia)
  • $10, Anonymous (USA)
  • $10, Erik F. (USA)
  • $10, Michael N. (Australia)
  • $10, Brian Blonski (USA)
  • $10, Ricardo G. R. aka “hackob” (Mexico)
  • $10, Sven Akerlund (Sweden)
  • $10, Eleonor S. (USA)
  • $8, Westly Ward aka “sonicrules1234” (USA) – http://github.com/sonicrules1234
  • $8, Jeff P. (USA)
  • $8, Edward S. (USA)
  • $7 (4th donation), Jennifer McBride (Canada) – http://www.only-green.ca
  • $7 (2nd donation), George238 (Portugal)
  • $7, Steven M. (United Kingdom)
  • $7, Marius D. (USA)
  • $7, Robert Collier (Canada)
  • $7, Giacomo D. (Italy)
  • $7, Tauras G. (Lithuania)
  • $5 (6th donation), Savant B.D. (USA) – http://www.allyourprices.com
  • $5, David Mitchel Stow aka “Optimist” (USA) – http://optimistictraining.blogspot.com
  • $5, Zoltan Siposs (Hungary)
  • $5, Szymon C. (Poland)
  • $5, Amir H. (United Arab Emirates)
  • $5, Jon Valentine aka “xarmyvet” (USA)
  • $5, Project Different Truth aka “nivosh” (Israel) – http://www.emetaheret.org.il
  • $5, Alessio R. (Italy)
  • $4, Dionysis V. (Greece)
  • $3 (4th donation), Inga Muste (Latvia) – http://inga.lv
  • $3, Kevin Kirkpatrick (USA) – http://www.realestatesignsplus.com
  • $2, HostingFest (United Kingdom) – http://www.hostingfest.com
  • $2, Charles Vlk aka “kunk” (Czech Republic)
  • $1 (4th donation), Inga Muste (Latvia) – http://inga.lv
  • $1 (2nd donation), Einar Orn Eidsson (Iceland) – http://www.sveimhugi.com
  • $1, Pavol D. (Slovakia)
  • $1, Arturas N. (Lithuania)
  • $1, Timothy L.M.M. (Indonesia)
  • $1, Dean B. (Australia) – http://australianguy.com/blogs
  • $1, Michael O. (Russia)
  • $1, Sebastiaan J. (Belgium)
  • $1, Norman U. (Germany)
  • $1, Gerd F. (Austria)

Sponsors:

Money raised in April:

* Donations: $2351 (112 donors)
* Sponsors: $915 (76 sponsors)

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

User Stats:

Repartition of Linux Mint users across releases:

  • Linux Mint 8 Helena: 65% (+3%)
  • Linux Mint 7 Gloria: 26% (-2%)
  • Linux Mint 6 Felicia: 5% (-0%)
  • Linux Mint 5 Elyssa LTS: 3% (-0%)
  • Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna: 2% (-0%)

Web Stats:

  • Visits: 2,451,208 (-8%)
  • Unique views: 3,211,078 (-9%)
  • Pageviews: 4,127,728 (-10%)
  • Page impressions: 1,632,652
  • Search queries: 5,713,887
  • Forum users: ?
  • Forum posts: ?

Rankings:

  • Distrowatch (popularity ranking): ? (3rd)
  • Distrowatch (traffic share): ?% (2nd)
  • Alexa (website ranking): ?

Events:

Summary:

  • April was the last month in our release cycle. It was quiet in terms of public events, Ubuntu 10.04 was released and our Adsense publisher contract switched from Google Inc to Google Ireland.
  • These monthly statistics are being published quite late, due to the work involved on the Linux Mint 9 release, and as a result, some figures are missing.
  • Sponsorships continued to increase. We received $915 in April and the project now counts more than 75 sponsors.
  • The Linux Mint user base got 8% smaller. It’s still far behind Ubuntu’s but far ahead of any other Linux distribution.
  • The overall income went down 11%.
  • Donations are traditionally high but they were down 42%. Still, the monthly results would have been far worse if it wasn’t for the 112 people who donated a total of $2351 that month. This is really appreciated and I’d like to say a big thank you to them.
  • May 2010 sees the release of Linux Mint 9 with an expectation for much better results.

14 comments

  2. Bad news about the money, but with a very good OS as Isadora is, I’m almost sure that this will start growing again. Personally I hope to increase my sponsorship to something more helpful.

    Thank you again for a really really really good OS.

    Reply

    1. Euthymius: It’s based on the number of search queries people make using the Firefox start page, and the default Firefox google search engine. The figure going down 8% translates in an 8% loss of income (assuming the health of the advertising industry remains the same over the period), and can be interpreted in 8% less people using the default start page AND/OR google search engine. From there we make an assumption that the ratio of Mint users keeping the default Google search engine stays the same and we then assume that these 8% represent a loss in the user base. As you can see, for each user “gone away” we can’t actually point whether he/she left Linux Mint, or whether he/she just started using Chrome or Yahoo or another google search plugin than ours. Either way that user’s activity on the Web doesn’t contribute to our income anymore.

  5. Can I suggest you trying guesstimating the user base this way. I believe, it is being done by Ubuntu. Record the number of unique IP addresses doing a mint update. This is still not a good indicator because there could be a big (or small) lan behind the unique IP address.

    The existing method is grossly inadequate.

    Reply

  6. Clem,
    I do not think is real decrease of 8%. In Romania, most of which use Linux, use Chromium or Chrome because the Firefox superior speed. For example, an increased Romanian community every day. I think it would be actively monitored and after other browsers.

    Reply

  7. Clem: first, I’d like to say thanks for the incredible work done here, it is just amazing. Regarding the Mint user base, I wonder if it wouldn’t be useful to make it clear that keeping the default Firefox start page and the Firefox Google search engine contributes to financially help the Mint project. Personally, I realized this point when I read a review where the assumption was made that funding through advert was probably the reason for the customized Firefox start page. I thought “Of course!”, and since then I kept it. The odds are that many other people miss that (obvious) point just like I did.

    Cheers,

    Reply

  8. Quote: [ … 8% less people using the default start page AND/OR google search engine]

    Hmmm, by Firefox start page you mean the Linux Mint start page opened by Firefox and incorporating the google search bar, i guess … so we need to use the Mint Start Page or the default Google search bar on that Start Page in order to support Linux Mint … usually i go to my bookmarked search engines Comet Query or Clusty, and use Google as a last resort if info not found elsewhere, as google results are often flabby rather than taut, but that’s ok, as i open the Start Page first (it’s a good place to keep up with Mint news)

    also i vary browser use between Firefox, Swiftfox, Opera and Chrome but can make the Mint start page the homepage in Chrome and Opera too, if that helps … the wide choice 0f browsers and search engines currently available is of benefit to the end user, but not always to the distro supplier relying on advertising, then .., is there any way you can make a support plea, Clem? such as at the top of the Start page a “Your Linux needs you” statement such as:

    By using this Start Page and Search Engine, you support Linux Mint and ensure its advertising revenues remain constant.

    Oh, and Isadora, she’s really a delight, a small donation has been sent in thanks 🙂

    Reply
  9. Pingback: Linux Mint 9 Isadora | PakeLinux.Com

  10. Clem, could you not have a method of easily installing the Mint Search Enhancer when you update to a newer version of Firefox, and maybe even having a way of bringing it to Opera and chrome too?

    Also, for the main browsers, is there a way that you could default the homepage to the mint one? for example a configuration file or something installed in the default installation which will then be automatically used if and when the other browsers are installed?

    Reply

  11. hmmm, I do notice how when I google search with Opera, it uses the Linux Mint Logo and layout for the search. That’s counted right?
    I think if you install by Opera Software Manager before updating to the beta 10.52b (or 53b can’t remember) it installs the google-mint search

    Reply

  13. wasn’t aware that starting FF in LM was linked to revenue generating ads. any other call-homes to goog or others that we should know about?

    Reply

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