Re: How big is the "niche" of Emacs users?

[Bastien <bzg@altern.org>]

roodwriter@ureach.com writes:

> I can't imagine how you'd figure out usable numbers of
> users. Emacs is a free program as and such is copied and
> recopied from machine to machine. How hard would it be to
> download one copy and then put it on 5,000 machines? The
> server with the original copy would only count one download.

Yes.  I'm not interested in how many copies of Emacs live out there, 
but on how many people actually use it.  A few numbers could from :

- people posting on the gnu.emacs.* hierarchy
- people subscribed to the emacs mailing lists
- people switching from M-x doctor to a real therapist

> I do remember that the owner of O'Reilly Publishing says his
> Vi book outsells the Emacs book two to one. But I also
> understand that he says that Emacs' built-in tutorial may
> affect those numbers.

Vi users need to start with a book, and to rely on it lifelong.

> I'm the only one I know personally who uses Emacs, but I'm a
> writer, not a programmer. 

Emacs users have time to actually *write* books. Just joking.

But interestingly enough, it's not rare to hear about people using Emacs
to write books.  I can even remember of a specific tutorial for this.
Maybe it's quite significant about how versatile Emacs can be.

-- 
Bastien