In a recent analysis, Alexander Schwinn, a key player in the development of the XFCE desktop and Thunar file manager, attempted to estimate the number of XFCE users. By examining the popularity of major Linux distributions, Schwinn concluded that there are around 14 million users actively using XFCE. This calculation was based on several key assumptions.
Firstly, it is estimated that there are approximately 120 million Linux users in total. Of these, about 33% are using Ubuntu or its derivatives. With the total number of Ubuntu users calculated at 40 million, including a significant portion running Xubuntu, which is based on XFCE.
Specifically, data from surveys suggested that 15% of Ubuntu users opt for Xubuntu, equating to approximately 6 million users. Additionally, assuming that 10% of users on other distributions also use XFCE, Schwinn’s analysis suggests another 8 million XFCE users in this category.
Furthermore, the analysis considered the fact that there are around 6,000 registered developer accounts on Gitlab.xfce.org. This statistic indicates that roughly every 2000th user of XFCE is actively involved in its development through this platform.