BSDStats 4.0 - You need to upgrade ...

[Marc G. Fournier]

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Apologies for the multi-list post, but I've been receiving several requests 
from varous *BSD users about this, so figured I'd hit everyone in one fell 
swoop ...

First, for those that aren't aware, back in August, after some lengthy 
discussions on the FreeBSD mailing lists, I built a script that is meant to 
provide a means of building up usage metrics for the *BSD operating systems ... 
something that refreshes itself mountly (ie. periodic monthly script in 
FreeBSD) so that it isn't "who installed *BSD", but "who is currently running 
*BSD" ...

The results of this work can be seen at http://www.bsdstats.org

This is not a "FreeBSD is better then ..." sort of thing, although some wish to 
see it that way ... the point is to get an idea of how many are running *BSDs 
to show vendors (both software and hardware) that we aren't just a bunch of 
hobbiest, but are viable market that they should be addressing.

Since we started this, we've hit two hurdles that had to be addressed by 
upgrading the script in such a way that makes the older ones unable to be used 
for reporting ...

If you are running the script, please make sure that you are running the 
*newest* version, which is available at:

               http://www.bsdstats.org/downloads/300.statistics

For those paranoid about running stuff like this ... its a shell script, and 
there is nothing 'hidden' or 'covert' about it ... it sends in what operating 
system, what version and what architecture you are running ... we do not store 
your IP or hostname in the database, everything is key'd off a key you send in 
on first connection, and a token we send back ... after that first run, unless 
you remove the token file from your server, it will repeatedly use the same 
key/token pair ...

And, the script is meant to be run monthly ... we are looking for long term 
usage numbers, not a 'point in time' sort of thing ...

So, if you haven't downloaded and upgraded to the newest version, please do and 
run the script when finished to get your host into the system.

If you have any questions, please email me directly ...