Last year I was able to switch tasksel to using metapackages, instead of the weird non-package task things that had been used before Debian supported Recommends fields well.

An unanticipated result of the new task packages is that I have this nice popcon data available for them, so can get graphs like these.

For new installs of testing, KDE and Xfce are neck and neck. With Gnome being the default, it's hard to say which desktop users really prefer. My feeling is that it's probably nearly evenly split now.

(I installed Xfce on my sister's laptop last week, and anticipate moving all my family to it, rather than Gnome 3.)

The above graph also shows a surprisingly large number of ssh server task installs. In fact, it's the most often manually installed task. Probably many of those are server machines, and so I'm considering having tasksel automatically select ssh on systems where it doesn't automatically select a desktop.

Language data is also available. Taskel uses language tasks internally, without exposing an interface, so this will be almost entirely users who did an install of testing localised to their language.

Interesting data can be teased out of this too. For example there seem more installs in Catalan than Chinese ... and at least 10 Esperanto users. (As with any popcon number, this is a lower bound, to be multiplied by the scaling guesstimate of your choice.)

By the way, I've got a new vanity domain for my blog and wiki: http://joeyh.name/

The old http://kitenet.net/~joey/ will continue to work, like it has since 1997. But the new is easier to type. And it let me move my site to Branchable, at last.

I'm doing a Kickstarter! The plan is to take git-annex and use it as the foundation to build a DropBox-like application, that can be used without any knowledge of git. The other part of the plan is for me to get through the summer with my finances intact. :)

My Kickstarter page explains in more detail, but the basic idea is to make git-annex watch a directory, with inotify, and automatically add and sync files placed there. Then build a local web app to control and configure it. I have a working prototype of the inotify part already; getting the distributed syncronisation to work well will be a major challenge; and overall it's going to be a challanging but I think very achievable project.

One thing I'm really excited about is the potential of Kickstarter to connect me with a diverse group of potential users, who are interested enough in a distributed and autonomous equivilant to DropBox to fund my project. Because, with luck, their involvement won't stop at giving some money, but will extend to actually using what I'm developing, and giving me feedback on it.

I hope this will widen the sphere of git-annex users, beyond the current very technically inclined crowd. It's awesome to have users doing things like taking git-annex on the transiberian railroad to help manage all their photos, and others using it to store scientific data ... but getting more regular folks using git, even if they don't know about it, is something I'm very interested in.

BTW, I was surprised how much I got into doing the video for the Kickstarter. Using xkcd-style drawings used to explain technical concepts is a medium I enjoy working in. My own git-annex is stuffed with 17 gigabytes of video clips -- 99 separate takes! -- that boiled down to a 2 minute video.

Anyway, please consider backing me if you can, and more importantly, do anything you can to help spread the word. Thanks!

2019 update: Kickstarter is no longer hosting the video, so I've pulled it out of git-annex storage and put it here.

The best thing about rockets is when they go up successfully, and don't come back down.

My git-annex Kickstarter reached escape velocity 24 hours after launch, and is now past 200% funded.

This is great news, because it gives me more time to spend hacking on git-annex, and will let me add more features and polish it better. I had set the goal at a minimal amount because I'd have hated not to get funded at all if this hadn't taken off. But the current funding is much more comfortable, and the further up it goes, the more scope the project can have.

At the point shown above, the project had started to be highlighted as popular, based largely on kind and generous readers of this blog and git-annex users who chipped in. For a while, I personally knew around 1/3rd of contributors.

That was enough to get it noticed by Kickstarter staff, which in turn has led to more growth. I love the juxtaposition of geeky tech project with other stuff here.

I have 17 days remaining until the Kickstarter is finished. I really had worried it might take that long to get funded. As it is, I can't wait to see where the rocket's trajectory takes it in that time!