Last time I asked myself this question, I ended up in the same place you did: zlib, libpng and libjpeg may be the only candidates in the same ballpark as SQLite.
See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4616740 -- E On Sun, May 3, 2015 at 1:18 PM, Richard Hipp <drh at sqlite.org> wrote: > I'm trying to update the "Most Deployed Database" page > (https://www.sqlite.org/mostdeployed.html) in the SQLite documentation > (which has not been touched in close to a decade) and I began to > wonder what other software libraries (database or otherwise) might be > deployed more than SQLite. SQLite is in a lot of things. My > conjecture is that SQLite is in the top-10 most deployed software > components in the world today. Check my work, please. SQLite is in: > > * Every Android phone and device > * Every iPhone and iOS device > * Every Mac within the past 10 years > * Every Firefox, Chrome, or Safari browser > * Every copy of Skype > * Every copy of iTunes > * Most Python and PHP installations > * Every Dropbox client > * Every TurboTax and QuickBooks > > And more. But just from the list above, there are not too many > computing devices that omit SQLite. I'm wonder what other software > components have a greater reach? > > The original Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler implementation of the > zlib compression library might be deployed more. Anything else? > > What about libjpeg and libpng? I think there might be multiple > independent implementations of libjpeg in circulation, but I am > unclear on that point - perhaps a reader more knowledgable about this > can correct me. What about libpng? Is there just the one original > libpng library used everywhere, or are there competing > implementations? > > There appear to be more deployments of SQLite than there are of Linux, > since SQLite is on every Android device, and Android represents the > bulk of Linux deployments. SQLite is also on most Linux desktops by > virtue of being included with Firefox and Chrome. And it is on many > Linux servers by virtue of being included in Python and PHP. Some > fraction of Linux machines may omit SQLite, but that fraction seems > far smaller than (say) the number of iPhones that include SQLite, so > SQLite still comes out numerically superior. > > There appear to be more deployments of SQLite than all Apple-built > computing devices, since SQLite seems to be in all Apple products and > SQLite is in many other products as well. > > SQLite is not in default Windows installations (historically - that is > about to change with Windows 10 which uses SQLite as a core OS > component) but many Windows desktops will include secondary software > such as Firefox or Chrome or iTunes or Skype or Dropbox or something > else that contains SQLite. So perhaps most Windows desktops contain > at least one copy of SQLite. And in any event, I hear that the total > number of smartphones now exceeds the total number of desktops (of any > type, Windows or otherwise) and SQLite is in all of the smartphones. > > There are multiple competing implementation of libc, and (unless I am > mistaken) Android and MacOS/iOS use completely independent libc > implementations. You could argue that various implementations of libc > are collectively more widely deployed than SQLite. But there is only > one implementation of SQLite, so if we talk about single > implementations rather than competing implementations of the same > interface, then SQLite seems to still come out on top. > > What am I overlooking? Would it be overly brash to claim that SQLite > is the second most widely deployed software component in the world > today, after the Gailly/Adler zlib implementation? Or maybe the > third-most after zlib and libpng? > > Any input you can provide is appreciated! > -- > D. Richard Hipp > drh at sqlite.org > _______________________________________________ > sqlite-users mailing list > sqlite-users at mailinglists.sqlite.org > http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users >
