FC6 downloads and installs (fwd)

[Max Spevack]

At John's request, I'm forwarding his response to me to fedora-list.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 06:36:23 +0800
From: John Summerfield <REMOVED>
To: mspevack at redhat.com
Subject: Re: FC6 downloads and installs

I'm not on Fedora List, so can't reply in the ordinary way. Feel free to 
forward it to the list for me, it deserves some debate, but I won't be 
participating.

Max Spevack wrote:

> This metric is much more useful than tracking downloads, because it 
> demonstrates actual *installed instances* of FC6 that are making a 
> connection back to our servers in search of updated software.

I'm on dynamic IP - lots of people are. If I check in every time I connect 
to the Internet, you count me several times per day.

OTOH if I download the updates from a mirror, you don't count me at all.

If I'm on a modem, I probably decide I don't want the updates at all: who 
wants to spend hours downloading fixes for problems that probably won't 
bite them?

Very rubbery, I'd say.

> A few minutes ago, we crossed over the 300,000 mark.
> 
> That's 300,000 different IP addresses that have checked for any updated 
> software in Fedora Core 6.

Look, tbey're nice numbers, but their inperpretation isn't so easy.