On Thu, Jan 08, 2004 at 02:51:36PM -0600, John Goerzen wrote: > On Thu, Jan 08, 2004 at 01:00:12PM -0600, Steve Langasek wrote: > > > >From the data, we can see that: > > > > > * The 5 most popular packages in non-free are acroread (18% regular > > > use), unrar (14%), j2re1.4 (11%), and rar (10%). > > > > acroread is no longer distributable (or distributed), so should probably > > be excluded from any analysis. > > > > Also, are any of the java packages actually distributed by Debian? I > > thought there were legal issues that prevented even non-free > > distribution (though j2re/sdk packages are available elsewhere). > > Excellent points. No, acroread is not in non-free. j2re1.4 also is > not, nor is j2dsk1.4 or, in fact, any Java newer than 1.1. I dare say > that Java 1.1 in non-free is about the same usefulness as Kaffe for > today's programs.
Yep, maybe it would be a good candidate for removal. > So, we have a situation where the #1 and #3 packages installed from > "non-free" on people's systems are not actually present in Debian's > non-free (any more). Also, no version of Java later than 1.1 is > present. yep, but these are also the most high profile packages. I guess the situation is different for other packages in non-free. Also, installing java stuff from third party sources is a pain. See for example the problem with mozilla-cvs and mozilla-snapshot, which you have to hand fix in the postinst. Also, there is no 1.4 .deb for powerpc for example. > > > * In main, gs has 42%, xpdf-reader 26%, gv 20%. tar was at 87% and > > > unzip at 49%. > > > > Of course, tar and unzip are no substitute for unrar. > > It, of course, depends on what you're doing, but yes, I realize that. I > just tried to show a smattering of similar programs so people can > compare. > > I was actually surprised at the popularity of {un}rar. I rarely see RAR > files used anywhere. Maybe some dependency ? > > Interesting statistics. Thanks for doing this, John. > > Glad to do it. But as you said, it doesn't really prove anything, only that the people using popularity contest don't really use these non-free packages much. What about all those who don't run popularity contest, or those who are offline ? What about monitoring BTS traffic for those packages ? Friendly, Sven Luther