Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Re: Awkward article.

On 10/31/2012 11:13 AM, Marc Paré wrote:
> Le 2012-10-31 09:44, Italo Vignoli a écrit :
> > Il 31/10/2012 14:19, Florian Monfort ha scritto:
> >
> > > http://www.robweir.com/blog/2012/10/libreoffices-dubious-claims-part-i-downloads.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+robweir%2Fantic-atom+%28Rob+Weir%3A+An+Antic+Disposition%29 
> >
> > Of course not. Rob Weir is our main enemy, and has always been such (you
> > can dig a little bit inside his blog). He represents IBM mood, and this
> > is just a proof that TDF and LibreOffice are more successful than 
> > Apache OO.
> >
> > --
>
> Well, disregarding the author's name, the article contends that the 
> metrics behind TDF/LibreOffice is not verifiable. So, the question is, 
> can anyone collect LibreOffice data on their own and at any moment? I 
> don't think we are at the point where we can say yes to this. But, we 
> should definitely be working hard on this so that we can all have 
> clarity on the number of downloads and user numbers. Being able to 
> verify numbers by all, and, at any time (whether for our own use or 
> for our competition to see) serves us well in determining the health 
> of our community.
The problem is that numbers have a variety of statistical problems built 
in no matter the openness of the source. Multiple downloads, multi-boot 
systems, having both installed and using one primarily, source bias 
(distro shipping with LO not AOO for example). The problem is well 
beyond my very limited statistical literacy and judging from Rob Weir's 
comments my statistical competence is far greater than his.

Rob's problem is that he confuses downloads with usage and implies that 
anyone who download statistics he can not supposedly verify is lying. He 
never answers the implicit question of why the TDF would lie about LO 
downloads or even want to lie about the statistics. My statistical 
background is from a manufacturing background but I see several lurking 
problems in anyone's statistics.

Anyone who runs a small website will get various statistics from their 
host and they statistics can not be verified by someone like Rob. Is the 
host or website owner a liar when they report the statistics? Almost, 
always no because they have no reason to lie about their traffic. The 
TDF is in the same situation, the traffic is what the traffic is and the 
downloads are what they are. I would more interested in the trends of 
the both than the absolute numbers because that would be an indication 
of growth and future project health.

> The author also uses the race horse analogy, "people would bet on the 
> fastest horse rather than the slow one" (paraphrased). While this may 
> be true, a new up-and-coming horse may get more support than a fast 
> horse that is obviously in decline.
>
> IMO, we should not respond to his article and just let it die a slow 
> death, we should not give him the "soap box" that he is looking for. 
> Anyone with common sense can read the writing on the wall. Let's keep 
> on our track and not worry about such articles. It still doesn't stop 
> us from reading them and taking out what may be of value to us.
Agreed, read them, discuss what we can learn from them and move on. In 
this case I would say the real problem is accurately determining actual 
usage from various raw download statistics for any FOSS project not just 
LO. A download does not mean regular user.

> Cheers,
>
> Marc


--
Jay Lozier
jslozier@gmail.com


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