The Apache Software Foundation Announces 100 Million Downloads of Apache™ OpenOffice™ : The Apache Software Foundation Blog
This is an impressive number for a few reasons. One of them is that we actually have taken pains in the quantity. It really is 100M. When I did stats for OpenOffice.org, we lacked the necessary technology to be able to assert, with any real accuracy, just how many total downloads. Towards the end, we were able to claim more confidence, as we had better means of calculating the quantity, and so we could point to anywhere from 250M to 500M. (We could also evaluate how many around the world were using OOo, or ODF, which is the native format for OO: a lot, and somewhere north of 250M, by now, though they also probably use other apps, too.)
The other important point is that this huge number really represents just a sliver of the estimated total. It's also mostly Windows users. Why? Well, one of the most popular Linux distributions, Ubuntu, has sided with LibreOffice and includes it with its installation packages. Putting Apache OpenOffice on it is by no means impossible but it does entail effort, and for the naive Linux user (of which there are some, I am sure), a considerable effort. One also has to know about it, and understand that OpenOffice really is different than LibreOffice.
So those who have downloaded it 100M times (since inception of the project, mind you) are doing it largely on their own recognizance. What about downloads that are then installed in massive enterprises, as we can find in Brazil, for instance, but also in other national and sub-national polities? Those may well be counted as... 1 (one) download.... which is then multiplied a million-fold.
Now, the fun: Does this mean that open source has "arrived" and the desktop (or workspace) is now "free"? Yes and no. For the last 5 years, at least, it's been as free as users want it to be. More to the point, the data suggest that users are able to see beyond the obligatory application choices they have gotten used to.
The next step: let's make a community out of those who have chosen to use the software. We love them. We would also love their input and ideas.
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