Over 3 Million OpenOffice.org 3.0 Downloads in One Week
OpenOffice.org 3.0 was released one week ago today. John McCreesh writes:
“From the official announcement on Monday 13th October at 09:00 UTC, to midnight on Sunday 20th October, OpenOffice.org 3.0 recorded an astonishing three million downloads via the Bouncer. That’s:
- 221,230 GNU/Linux users (who might be considered obvious users of the world’s leading open-source office suite)
- an impressive 320,622 Mac OS X users (enjoying OpenOffice.org with a Mac “look and feel” for the first time), and
- a staggering 2,449,863 Microsoft Windows users.”
Another of John’s posts provides additional information and analysis.
“If you download OpenOffice.org from the download page, you will go via the Bouncer, and your download will be logged. These logs are the only figures we are able to quantify accurately, but they are a considerable underestimate of the actual number of downloads…”
So how many people are already using OpenOffice.org 3.0? No-one knows. We know that the Bouncer figures underestimate the number of downloads. We know the number of downloads is considerably less than the number of installed copies. So five million users already?”
The release of OOo 3.0 is definitely its biggest to date. The userbase is clearly expanding, and now Mac OS X can be a part of that, as in this first week its downloads represent a healthy piece of the total, at almost 11%.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:40 am
[…] Over 3 Million OpenOffice.org 3.0 Downloads in One Week […]
October 21st, 2008 at 9:12 am
The Linux numbers are severely under-representative, since most of us get OOo3 from our distro’s repository.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:28 am
Ron, you make a good point and it’s one I should have clarified. Every time I use OOo on a Linux system, I install it from the distribution’s package manager, and I am sure the same is true for the majority of Linux users of OOo.
Counting distribution from the Bouncer will definitely underestimate the number of users of OpenOffice and skew the platform share as well, but it’s still a useful indicator of the rate of growth overall, and it’s probably the best we’ve got for now.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:42 am
@Benjamin: be careful, as most distributions don’t provide “vanilla” OO.o, but more often than not a patched version, a mix of OO.o and Go-oo, Go-oo in all its splendor, or a patched Go-oo. Do these qualify as OO.o?
October 21st, 2008 at 10:57 am
Hi Mitch,
Personally, I take an ecumenical view of OOo. Go-oo is a good derivative product and I’m happy that it’s a part of the overall ecosystem, and I support it. In the same way, the Mac-specific version called NeoOffice is great and has been useful to many people (it’s also derived from Go-oo).
Most important to me is that people get access to good open source software. All of these communities are working toward the same goal, even if through different methods, and I think it’s good.
Just like having lots of Linux distros enhances competition and speeds innovation, I feel that lots of OOo distros will have the same effect. And if different variants appeal to different niche users, it will expand the overall market, to the benefit of all.
October 21st, 2008 at 12:13 pm
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October 22nd, 2008 at 4:21 am
No no no, I don’t mean any of them are bad, quite the opposite: I wouldn’t be a Linux user if that were the case!
I mean, statistically speaking, what counts as an OO.o install? The Sun-made binaries, compilation from unmodified source, or reasonably close alternate builds + patches (like OO.o)? Because if that were the case, do we stop at Go-oo, or do we include NeoOffice too (which adds a significant patch set on top og Go-oo)? If yes, we must also count StarOffice (which is actually closer to “vanilla” OO.o than Go-oo actually is, but ain’t free) and Lotus Symphony (which includes a significant rewrite). We must also include OxygenOffice (which is rebranded and includes many cliparts but no significant code rewrite), etc.
Do these count as OO.o install, or do they not? That is the question.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:47 am
Mitch,
At least for the data I referenced in this post, the derivatives are not counted as OOo installs. I believe these numbers represent only the Sun-made binaries downloaded from http://download.openoffice.org itself.
April 8th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
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