How many FOSS developers & users Worldwide?

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Am 12.05.2007 um 13:11 schrieb Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller:

> Well,
> you could try to compare the participation of some OSS developer  
> related events (e.g. FOSDEM) to MS Developer Conference(s) or Apple  
> WWDC. Then you need the total number of (software) developers  
> worldwide and a simple multiplication would give the result...
>
> But this share is probably not quite reliable, since MS & Apple  
> developers have to pay for but also can do so, so you count  
> commercial developers who can afford travel expenses at a different  
> level.
>
> A different approach could be the total market share of MS Windows  
> vs. Linux which is repoeted regularly by Gartner, IDC and others. I  
> think I remember approx. 80 to 20 for Desktops+Servers. And assume  
> that for large projects the number of users is the same split of  
> the cake as for developers. But if you want to include Embedded,  
> the picture is quite different. Would you e.g. count Symbian as FOSS?
>
> So, you need a clear definition in advance what you really want to  
> count.
>
> And finally, FSF might have figures to share.
>
> Nikolaus Schaller
>
> Am 12.05.2007 um 11:07 schrieb sean at openmoko.org:
>
>> Dear Community!
>>
>> Hopefully you guys can help me. I'm trying to find the number of  
>> FOSS developers
>> and users worldwide for some marketing related presentations but  
>> just can't seem
>> to find any solid numbers. It would also be very interesting to  
>> see how this
>> number compares to the number of developers worldwide.
>>
>> Does anyone have any good links they could send me?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Sean
>>
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