The good folks over at Valve collect and publish statistics about the hardware that their users have installed. For their latest July 2010 stats, they’ve started including installed software.
Some interesting highlights:
- 56.82% have a dual-core CPU, 26.57% have quad-core, and 0.00% have 24 cores.
- 100% have Steam installed. (derr)
- Over 40% are using Windows 7, more than XP or Vista.
- 5.81% have Paint.NET installed, vs. The GIMP at 6.26%. Not bad for an app that’s 8 years younger with fewer contributors than you can count on 3 fingers.
I’m looking forward to the next update!
paint.net blog 
Pretty impressive! 🙂 Congratulations.
Yes, very interesting indeed. But excuse me, where is that 40% of Windows 7? On my screen, the stats report Windows XP as the most popular OS with 32.73% dominance. But I see nothing else. Am I missing something?
By the way, some of these stats look … well… For example, it says only 19.82% of Windows users have Internet Explorer installed! Isn’t it 100%? Same goes for Windows Media Player. And, is it possible to install Windows Live Messenger without installing Windows Live Essentials? Oh, and look: It reports 73% of people having Adobe Acrobat (a commercial product) while none have Adobe Reader.
Never mind about my comment on Windows 7. I got it. I had to click on drop-down. Windows 7 64-bit: 28%. And Windows 7 32-bit:12%. Total: 40%.
But I’m still finding more and more questionable items…
In Europe I think IE gets uninstalled if you don’t choose it from the browser choice selection (I’d hope it gets uninstalled). It can be uninstalled manually anyway, it’s just difficult to do so. Same with Media Player.
I would say steam users, especially ones who have the reporting turned on (I assume they get a choice, I haven’t checked steam for a few weeks so I don’t know) are more likely to be using something else.
Maybe steam only detects the default browser?
Yes, it is possible to install messenger without essentials – the essentials package is only a multi-installer for separate packages. And I expect there’s a bug and steam is just recording Reader and Acrobat as the same package.
IE doesn’t get uninstalled. And in Win7, uninstalling IE/WMP means unchecking a checkbox. Not what I’d call difficult.
I haven’t tried uninstalling WMP or IE in W7. I tried in XP and, as I remember, the standard uninstall left a load of files behind.
As for Windows XP: Yes, there is a Windows XP N in Europe which does not have Windows Media Player but it hardly ever sold. That does not hold for Internet Explorer. In Windows XP, it is impossible to officially uninstall Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer. Add/Remove Components in Control Panel only deactivates them. (i.e. removes their shortcuts and de-associates some of their file associations and marks their EXE as hidden.)
As for Windows Vista and Windows 7: Yes, again there are N and KN editions but that doesn’t explain the low 19%. If Steam is going to tell me that 81% of Steam users are members of European Union, I’m not going to believe them. In Windows 7 and Vista, you officially cannot uninstall any component; they are only disabled.
I think it can only find something as installed if it shows up on the “Add/Remove Programs” list, so if you’ve never upgraded to a major version of Internet Explorer since you installed Windows (i.e., XP staying on IE6, Windows 7 staying on IE8) then it can’t/doesn’t report it.
Either that or it’s referring to what the default browser is.
When you say three fingers, do you mean counting in base-10 or base-2? 🙂
I think you can figure it out.
Oh, I think you are being modest Rick. There is no question of “bad” or not “bad”. Paint.NET surpasses “mediocre”, “average”, “good” and “very good”. It is a question of “excellent”, “superb”, “outstanding”, “Holy …!” and “Perfect!”
Congrats
“and 0.00% have 24 cores.” This is only true because I don’t run Steam.