[Qgis-developer] Download stats

[Radim Blazek]

On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 12:48 AM, Larry Shaffer <larrys at dakotacarto.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 1:53 PM, <pcreso at pcreso.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> one point -
>>
>> I generally install QGIS on OpenSuse & Ubuntu Linux from the relevant
>> package repositories, so you won't see any downloads. I would guess that
>> this is pretty common for Linux users, but I have no idea if you are able to
>> get numbers for this?
>
>
> That's a really good point. Download counts are not a very accurate gauge
> of overall install base. I suggest the following.
>
> Add a user profiler tool to QGIS. This might work in the following manner:
>
> * User installs a new version of QGIS (say 2.0) and launches it for the
> first time
> * Profiler tool sees from main QSettings that it has not sent a user
> profile report yet
> * Profiler tool shows a simple dialog with revealable gathered info on
> their profile (see below) that kindly asks if it is OK to send the info to
> the project, with buttons like 'No Thanks' and 'Send to QGIS Project'
> * Profiler tool saves user choice, and if sending profile generates a
> simple UUID for the user and saves that as well, to QSettings
> * Profiler tool sends info to a project server that looks up user's UUID
> and if not present adds the profile to a database
> * If data was successfully saved to remote server, user is notified and
> thanked
> * On any following launch of same QGIS version, if UUID or No Thanks
> choice is in QSettings user is not asked to send profile info
>
> Possible generated profile info:
>
> * OS (flavor, version, etc.)
> * Computer profile (cpu, ram, etc.)
> * Supporting software versions (like in About Dialog: Qt, GDAL, etc. +
> Python, and maybe others)
> * Qt style used (cleanlooks, plastique, macintosh, oxygen, etc.)
> * Screen resolution (maybe number of screens)
> * Whether device is touch enabled
> * Probably more...
>
> Optional info the user can provide via the dialog's interface:
>
> * Listing of installed non-core plugins and which ones are active (of all
> plugins)
> * App's font and size (and maybe other helpful main Options settings)
> * User's info (very limited: name/nickname, title, web address, etc.)
> * Choose from editable combobox for work discipline (hydrology, geology,
> cartography, student, general gis, etc.) with option to input 'other' type
> * Choose their generalized location on a world map (gathers info like for
> QGIS user's map)
> * Probably more...
>
> The dialog shown by the profiler tool could concisely explain how this
> info will help the project make QGIS better. This is a fairly common
> approach in software development for gathering non-intrusive and
> non-sensitive user profile info. If implemented, it needs to be done in a
> discrete and not-annoying manner, with the option (maybe in Help menu) to
> run the tool and send the profile info at any time to the project.
>
> Since this is an open source, community-driven project with very
> active/helpful users, I think we may find many users opting to send the
> profile info.

Personally, I don't like prompts like that and I respond always NO,
just on principle, to discourage programmers to disturb me that way.

Even if you implement that and will be annoying users for a while,
what will be a result? Info about people willing to respond, which is
very limited group. No overall statistics about QGIS user base at all.

-1, 'No thanks'

Radim

> Regards,
>
> Larry
>
>
>>
>> Brent Wood
>>
>> --- On Fri, 2/22/13, Tim Sutton <tim at linfiniti.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> From: Tim Sutton <tim at linfiniti.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Qgis-developer] Download stats
>> To: cavallini at faunalia.it
>> Cc: "qgis-developer" <qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org>
>> Date: Friday, February 22, 2013, 9:17 AM
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:23 AM, Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all.
>> Do we have updated statistics of downloads?
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.qgis.org/cgi-bin/awstats.pl?urlfilter=/downloads/QGIS-OSGeo4W-1.8.0-.*-Setup.exe&urlfilterex=&output=urldetail&config=qgis&framename=mainright&month=all&year=2012
>>
>> Just tweak the url parameters as needed.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Tim
>>
>>
>> Thanks.
>> --
>> Paolo Cavallini - Faunalia
>> www.faunalia.eu
>> Full contact details at www.faunalia.eu/pc
>> Nuovi corsi QGIS e PostGIS: http://www.faunalia.it/calendario
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release  Manager)
>> ==============================================
>> Visit http://linfiniti.com to find out about:
>>  * QGIS programming services
>>  * Mapserver and PostGIS based hosting plans
>>  * FOSS Consulting Services
>> Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
>> ==============================================
>>
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>>
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