User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

farphel · 2003-10-08 11:46:30

Hi all,

I'm looking for opinions on my latest diversion/project to see if it is something that the Arch community would like/use. If there's no interest either from the users or developers, then it's not worth continuing.

I've decided to try and implement a hardware/software stats collection program that Arch users can run on their local machines and submit the data to a web server. The Arch developers could use this information to know which packages are most commonly installed by their users and what hardware configurations/modules/kernel configs/etc are in use. Knowing that would help the developers prioritize packages/hardware support. For example, if there are only 3 out of 15000 users that use KDE - the Arch developers might opt to drop support for it (j/k KDE users!).

Anyway, this probably sounds very familiar to a lot of you. Debian has a 'popularity-contest' package that uploads the list of installed packages to Debian's servers and Gentoo has 'genstats' that does the same thing. I've modelled mine more after the Gentoo one since it also collected hardware information.

Privacy/Security: It does not associate your data with your IP/hostname. You have the option of sending hardware and/or software configurations and wether or not to send an email address for use by the developers.

Architecture: the 'ArchStatsCollector' is a python script. And the 'ArchStatsServer' is a PHP script running on Apache. The data is stored in a MySQL database.

If you think the idea has merit - take a look at http://www.coding-zone.com/archstats.phtml to see what I have done so far. I have the ArchStatsCollector script written, but I didn't want to put the code up b/c I haven't finished the ArchStatsServer and don't want people running the client and hosing my server while I'm still developing. At this point, I'm looking to see if there is interest in this project and will continue with it (probably have most of it done in a week-ish), otherwise I'll jetison it.

Thanks,
farphel

nifan · 2003-10-08 12:32:39

it would be nice to have such statistics, but i think its rather bad to use it to drop support to determined packages based on the users usage, cos that doesnt say much about the importance of that same packages to that users. but in general its a nice idea

MNKyDeth · 2003-10-08 14:07:32

I like looking at stats.

netkrash · 2003-10-08 14:47:00

nice nice nice idea.. can't wait to see it working..

as an arch developer i like the idea of stats about software and other things, maybe an aproach of how many users? anyway i work as a PHP/MySQL developer so i can help you out in may ways if you want to..

cheers,

Roberto.

terrapin · 2003-10-08 14:53:05

As a user, I would be interested in helping with stat collection.

farphel · 2003-10-08 15:13:11

That was a bad example on my part; I just used it to get the point across about knowing package importance based on user demand.

nifan wrote:

..., but i think its rather bad to use it to drop support to determined packages based on the users usage...

Realistically, the developers would probably use it more to prioritize packages based on the number of user that had the package installed. I doubt it would ever be used as a basis for discontinuing package support (unless the package was so antiquated/incompatible that it was no longer deemed useful by anyone).

I'm pleased with the responses so far. Thanks to all for taking a moment to offer their opinions. If a few more developers kick in some positive feedback, I'll keep working on it.

Cheers,
farphel

Xentac · 2003-10-08 15:52:01

I like the idea. Obviously other people won't use it, but they don't have to. I do feel sort of uneasy sending data off to some remote server, but having the code (and knowing what it's actually doing) eases that uneasiness.

drivingmsjuki · 2003-10-11 16:33:29

This sounds like a really good idea. The data would be helpful to the developers, which in turn feeds the cycle of improving the distro.

In 3+ years of using nothing but linux, Arch is the only distro that's stayed on my machines for more than 30-40 days or so .. I haven't seen any others that update/install stuff so painlessly. Kudos to all the folks who do all the work to make this possible.

jlvsimoes · 2003-10-11 23:46:11

"" Anyway, this probably sounds very familiar to a lot of you. Debian has a 'popularity-contest' package that uploads the list of installed packages to Debian's servers and Gentoo has 'genstats' that does the same thing ""
i dont like " clones " pkgs for me are equaly important and yes a stats system my be nice to look at

apeiro · 2003-10-12 02:45:20

Sounds like a great idea to me. I look forward to seeing it in action!

farphel · 2003-10-28 18:12:16

Hopefully the developers will have many uses for the data. In addition to package popularity, another use would be for the default kernels and what hardware is supported and either as compiled-in versus a module.

Anyway, ArchStats BETA is up and running if you're interested. You can read another thread here: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=1544 or view the BETA site here: http://www.coding-zone.com/archstats.phtml. If you're willing, grab the latest 'archstats' script and help me test it out.

Thanks,
farphel

Arch Linux

#1 2003-10-08 11:46:30

User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

#2 2003-10-08 12:32:39

Re: User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

#3 2003-10-08 14:07:32

Re: User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

#4 2003-10-08 14:47:00

Re: User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

#5 2003-10-08 14:53:05

Re: User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

#6 2003-10-08 15:13:11

Re: User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

#7 2003-10-08 15:52:01

Re: User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

#8 2003-10-11 16:33:29

Re: User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

#9 2003-10-11 23:46:11

Re: User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

#10 2003-10-12 02:45:20

Re: User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

#11 2003-10-28 18:12:16

Re: User HW/SW Stats project (ArchStats)

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