How many Linux users are there in the world? 5,000? 5,000,000? 50,000,000? No one is really sure. Linux users aren't forced to register their operating system with any corporation; Linux users are free to install and use Linux without anyone ever being the wiser. And what about all of the people who don't even realize they're using Linux? Is Linux running your PDA? Smart Phone? GPS? TiVO? Tablet? Router? Wrist watch? Car? Is Linux lurking inside all of your electronic gadgets? Probably not, but it's turning up more and more these days.

GNU/Linux Matters is looking for Linux users who are able to present GNU/Linux to everyday computer users (and nowadays, "everyday computer user" means "windows user", but we should also take into account Mac users).

To some people, the increasing number of Linux distributions serves as a disadvante when it comes to attracting new users. To Christopher Smart, it's a plus point - the way he puts it, if he had not been able to roll his own, he never would have achieved the level of understanding of Linux he has today.

Linux users had some interesting opinions about our recent article comparing Mac OS X with Linux, and didn't leave Windows out of the discussion.

"...RMS also spend some time on elaborating why people shouldn't just talk about 'Linux' when they discuss those distributions they run on their computers, but instead should call it GNU/Linux [...] GNU's philosophy and motivation is the freedom of users, while Linux does not represent those values at all.

Many users of GNU/Linux these days, think that projects like Gnash are stupid, when you can get the original Flashplayer. Those are the same people that think you’re stupid if you don’t want to use the mp3-format, or install support for the windows-media format. This isn’t true only on brainstorm of course, but also in the overall community.

Participation by big open source vendors is helping attract new interest in Linux user groups in Asia.

When I see an idea on Ubuntu Brainstorm suggesting some sort of popup when Ubuntu boots to teach new users about Ubuntu, I almost always vote it down. Why? I hate popups! Every operating system I have tried that pops something up has been incredibly annoying. Worse, the popup is rarely useful at all.

We in the open source community live in a bubble world. People live in an Ubuntu bubble or a Fedora bubble. Fedora 9 was just released and I, as an Ubuntu user, couldn’t care less. I don’t use Fedora, so the announcement of Fedora 9, does not resonate with me. Likewise, when Hardy Heron was released in April, Fedora users let out a collective yawn.