[Ambassadors] It doesn't really matter if Fedora is the 2º most used Linux system

[Paul W. Frields]

On Sun, Nov 27, 2011 at 02:49:18PM +0100, Christoph Wickert wrote:
> Am Sonntag, den 27.11.2011, 11:37 -0100 schrieb Nuno Rodrigues
> Rodrigues:
> 
> > I have some good news for everyone who is envolved on Fedora:
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > "According to the site DistroWatch, [...]
> 
> These numbers mean nothing. Distrowatch just counts how often the
> description of a distribution is clicked. This doesn't say anything
> about the numbers of installs or users.
> 
> We have way better numbers at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Statistics
> or http://smolts.org/static/stats/stats.html but unfortunately other
> distributions don't have something to compare.
> 
> > We need to continue working on Fedora for continue because we are so
> > close to the first place. People know that Fedora have what they need
> > as ambassadors and we must pass on those.
> 
> Fedora does not strive to become the most used distro. Instead, we are
> working on emerging technology and technical excellence. We are the
> leader in Free and Open Source software because we have the biggest
> impact on the whole ecosystem. Other distributions now switch to
> technology we developed and used for years.
> 
> If we get more users, that's fine, but what we really want is more
> contributors to extend our technological lead. Sure, a larger user base
> means more potential contributors, but it's not that simple:
>      1. Users must be willing to participate. Ubuntu and others have
>         always tried to be easy to use for newbies, but as these people
>         hardly contribute back, they have gained nothing.
>      2. We need to make it easier to get involved in Fedora. If people
>         decide they want to contribute, we need to offer them a chance
>         to participate in a way that suits their needs and their skills.
>         Even if we want the latest and the greatest technology, we must
>         not focus only on geeky developers. Instead we must give
>         everybody something to do in Fedora, whether it is testing,
>         marketing, design, packaging, translations or something else.
> 
> The real success of Fedora cannot be measured in the number of users but
> in the number of contributions to the whole Linux ecosystem and I wish
> that all ambassadors understand this message and spread it.
> 
> Last but not least: Lets not argue or compete with other distributions
> about stupid numbers, let's all work together to make more and better
> Free software!

This is one of the best summaries I've seen recently explaining why
these Distrowatch numbers shouldn't be a focus for Fedora.  Well done,
Christoph!


-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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