[Lazarus] Lazarus platform "popularity contest"

[Ger Remmers]

On Wednesday 11 August 2010 07:07:21 Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:
> Bernd Kreuss wrote:
> > On 10.08.2010 22:29, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:
> >> I don't know how anybody else feels, but I'd have no objection to a
> >> "popularity contest" extension which submitted anonymous platform
> >> details
> > 
> > This would be cool! Maybe even FPC itself could create these statistics.
> > Something like this with really big numbers (after aggregating all
> 
> > users) would look quite impressive:
> I have to say that I don't know how to write this sort of thing, either
> from the point of view of Lazarus or from the point of view of making it
> acceptable to users rather than looking like intrusive spyware.
> 
> But I think the really useful thing, far more than just aggregating
> number of lines of code, would be picking up when somebody tried to
> compile either Lazarus itself or an app for a specific CPU/OS/widget
> set, including cases where that combination failed.
> 
> How many people get Lazarus (on any platform) and try it out without
> joining the mailing list or commenting on a project forum? Of these, how
> many drop it because they have a problem compiling a project? How can we
> find out where the problem areas are, without getting feedback from
> these anonymous users?
> 
> If we had- for example- aggregated statistics for "This copy of Lazarus"
> on one of the about tabs, how could we also roll in e.g. somebody
> attempting to build Lazarus from the command line (make clean bigide)
> who found it didn't work because he'd got the wrong version of the KDE
> libraries (been there done that)?

To be brutally honest, I don't like any form of "ET, phone home" things in a 
program. 

Why not? 
Because it is nobodies business [how / if / what for] I or anybody else uses 
the compiler. It has been put out there as open source, no strings attached.

If you want usage information then ask for it on the website or here in the 
mailing list. Let Lazarus pop up after first install asking for usage info, 
but never ever have Lazarus/fpc send info in the back ground.

Regards,

Ger