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Mar 08

Download Statistics for GlassFish
Posted by pelegri in GlassFish

This entry contains some download statistics for the GlassFish AppServer. We usually report this data aggregated once a year around JavaOne but I believe this is the first time we provide some monthly data. Our intent is to automate the reporting and publish it in a monthly basis.

Readers of TheAquarium will have seen additional adoption indicators like the Geo Mashup based on GF Admin Console pings (live, geomap@TA), informal Adoption Stories, posts in user lists, and Other Anecdotal Data. All indicators have limitations; my usual comment is that if all the indicators are pointing the same direction, they are probably right.

<Caveat>
• The download numbers quoted below are based on completed (not just attempted) downloads.
• We only count downloads from Sun.Com (under the Sun Java System Application Server name), from Java.Net (GlassFish AppServer) and NetBeans.ORG (NetBeans IDE).
• We are not counting downloads from our Maven Repository.
• We do not count Ubuntu, Solaris, Solaris Express nor OpenSolaris distributions.
• GlassFish is freely redistributable and we don't track other distributions.
• I believe these are solid numbers, but if we discover a problem I will let you know.
</Caveat>

Below are several charts with commentary. The charts show monthly downloads starting in July 2005, right after we launched the GlassFish project, and going through last month, February 2008. The Y axis is normalized to 600K per month to simplify comparisons. The images link to a larger image for further inspection.

Download numbers go down during the (northern hemisphere) summer and at the end of the (gregorian) year. They also tend to peak during JavaOne, which, nowadays, is in May.

There are 3 data sets, collected into 5 charts.

GlassFish AppServer in SDKs

This chart shows downloads of the GlassFish AppServer either by itself (SJS AS 9.x and GlassFish AS) or in bundles like the Java EE SDK and the Java Application Platform SDK (Main Download Page).

The peak around May '06 (223,079) was the release of Java EE 5 and GFv1 at J1 '06. Other local peaks correspond to GFv1U1, J1'07, GFv2 and GFv2U1.

February '08 is our second best SDK number so far, with 216,514 SDK downloads. This is very good for a short month outside of the J1 peak season.

GlassFish AppServer in Tools

GlassFish is included in, and is the default container for, the most popular bundles of NetBeans 6.0 and NB 6.0.1 - and also in some older tool releases. NB d/l stats are public; we only count those from bundles including GF.

NB 6.0 was released late '07 and NB 6.0.1 last month. They are very successful and their use of GF as their default container has helped the adoption of GF. The February '08 d/l for those bundles is 378,686.

GlassFish AppServer - Combined

This table just adds the previous two. The combined number for February '08 is 595,200.

There are two ways to reason on whether or not to add the numbers. On one side, many people using NB do so because of GF; on the other, some are not, either because they use another container, or because they only develop for Java SE or Java ME.

At some point we might be able to get more detailed information but, in the meantime, I add the two and keep the original SDK line as a reference.

JBoss AppServer - From SourceForge

Finally, as a reference point, here is the chart from the Source Forge JBoss AS Download Stats. The d/l numbers reported by SF for Feb '08 are 87,215. Note that SF will often return a "Too Busy" the first time you ask for stats; if so, wait a bit and refresh the page.

Updated - Note these numbers do not include tool bundles, their enterprise distribution or other JBoss download bundles; I don't have information on the number of additional d/ls from those distributions.

Combined Chart