Yuan Meng: What is the basis for Ubuntu's user surge?

As you may recall, in May 9 this year, MarkShuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, said at this year's Ubuntu developer Summit: "OurGoalIs200MillionUbuntuUsersIn4Years", which means that the number of Ubuntu users worldwide will reach 0.2 billion in four years. What does this sentence mean? What exactly does Mr. Mark want to say? In fact, it is difficult to accurately count the number of Ubuntu users around the world and track them.

As you may recall, In May 9 this year, MarkShuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, said at this year's Ubuntu developer Summit: "OurGoal Is 200 Million Ubuntu Users In 4Years, in four years, the number of Ubuntu users worldwide will reach 0.2 billion. What does this sentence mean? What exactly does Mr. Mark want to say?

In fact, it is difficult to accurately count the number of Ubuntu users around the world and track the survey. According to a number provided by a Canonical official PrakashAdvani, it is estimated that there are 12 million Ubuntu users worldwide. In four years, from 12 million to 0.2 billion people, if not dreaming, there is another basis.

Years of experience have fully demonstrated that the preaching of Free Software alone cannot lead to a surge in the number of Linux users. Only by relying on the actual experience of product users can users be attracted, freeing them from the addiction of Windows. Actually, what Mr. Mark tells Ubuntu developers is this (or information ). He said:

We 'renot playing a game for developers hearts and minds-we 'replaying a game for the worlds hearts and minds. and to achieve thatwe're going to have to play by a new set of rules.

Further, he said:

Ithink we 've set a new bar for disciplined design in free software. for actually going through a vigorous design process, testing workagainst users actual experience of that, testing our assumptions, iterating based on that testing, and ultimately shooting for thestars.

It can be seen that Mark's central meaning is: In order to achieve this goal, we must face the public in the world, abide by a new set of (game) Rules, and raise the new banner of free software design, through an active software design process, tests are performed on the user's actual experience, and our assumptions are verified so repeatedly until they are finally released.

Now, it is nearly half a year before Mr. Mark's above speech. Let's turn to Ubuntu's new version Ubuntu11.10 (Beta 2) to see if Mark has spoken empty talk and put it empty. According to many comments from abroad, the new version of Ubuntu11.10 is indeed much better than its predecessor, especially in terms of user experience. Follow this path (the "new rule") to continue. For one, two, or three years, it will not be long before Ubuntu turns over. I firmly believe in this.

Note: the center of this article is to say: in the future, the actual experience of using the new Ubuntu version will certainly be better than the experience of using pirated XP, which will attract a wide range of computer users. Let people establish a new concept: using free software is good! We need to stick to the computer desktop positions without moving back or shaking (for example, moving to the mobile field ). At that time, more than 0.2 billion of Chinese XP pirated users switched to (or rushed to) Ubuntu.