Linux is freely available, and no one is required to register their
copies with any central authority, so it is difficult to know how many
people use Linux. Several businesses now survive solely on
selling and supporting Linux, and the Linux newsgroups are some
of the most heavily read on the internet, so the number is likely in
the millions, but firm numbers are hard to come by. The best
market research currently indicates between 7.5 and 11 million
users.
One brave soul, Harald T. Alvestrand
<Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no>, has decided to try to count
Linux users the hard way: one by one. If you
are willing to be counted as a Linux user, please use the web forms
available at
http://counter.li.org/ Alternatively, you can
send a message to linux-counter@uninett.no with one of the following
subjects: `I use Linux at home', `I use Linux at work', or `I use Linux
at home and at work'. He will also accept `third-party' registrations;
ask him for details.
