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

[Christoph Wickert]

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!

Regards,
Christoph


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