[nycbug-talk] Re: BSD Success Stories (fwd)

[Dru]

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004, G.Rosamond wrote:

> but i do think that, besides the advocates like many of us, book sales 
> reflect new users attempting to learn more.  there is unquestionably a growth 
> in the BSDs over the past year or so.  it's unmistakable.
>
> so why no growth in book sales?
>
> What about hits to your OnLamp column Dru?  What's does the graph look like 
> over the past few years. . .


You might find the results surprising. I average 15000 hits per article 
which shows the series has a loyal core of that many fans. That average 
number hasn't really changed since 2000. What's interesting are the articles
which far surpass the average:

Portupgrade:	62568
Using Sound:	64476
DVD Playback:	68822
Ports Tricks:	70243
Multimedia:	79772
vi:		81280
Wine:		94214
Find:		98803
IPFW:	       103144 (#83 of ALL of O'Reilly's articles!)

Looks like readers are most interested in multimedia, keeping their 
software up-to-date, mastering 2 of Unix's notorious tools, and firewalls.

Funny, the articles which should appeal to the perceived BSD market 
(sysadmins) rarely go above the 20000 mark. e.g. Building a Unix Server,
Improving User Passwords, SMTP Proxies, etc. Conclusions, anyone?

Dru