14 years ago today...

[PaulMy]

I remember it well, it was a Sunday evening viewtopic.php?p=489#p489
So much learned so much still to learn

Enjoyed it all,
Paul

p.s. Cumulus running for these 14 years on Acer Windows 8
while my 2-year old Windows 10 is still in repair shop

[bellmike]

Congratulations on your 14th anniversary and all you have learnt and now you are helping a new comer get started
Thanks for all your help Mike

[RayProudfoot]

Well done Paul. I’m six months behind you and still running Cumulus and VPLive on windows XP.

[HansR]

Early bird! How many users did Cumulus have then?

[PaulMy]

How many users did Cumulus have then?

Not sure about before June 2nd, 2008 when Steve became user #1 on the forum, but current still active forum member Stuart (broadstairs) shows as member #24 on August 14 and mine as #58 September 28. Now shows 15,481 members registered on the forum but likely many 1000's no longer active. Mark can likely provide better numbers but when a new CumulusMX is released it is quickly downloaded over a 1000 times.

If I recall correctly from the use and terms posted by Steve at the time, it was offered as for not-for-profit. I justified downloading and using it as I was (and still am) an officer and board member for a registered charity seniors housing corporation and would use it for that purpose. Soon realized private use was fine as long as not used commercially.

Enjoy,
Paul

[HansR]

Nice.

I soon expect A short history of Cumulus

[sfws]

How many users did Cumulus have then?

Not sure about before June 2nd, 2008 when Steve became user #1 on the forum, but current still active forum member Stuart (broadstairs) shows as member #24 on August 14 and mine as #58 September 28.

One has to remember that from the first public release on 27th January 2004, right up to 28 November 2014, www.sandaysoft.com and www.nybbles.co.uk/downloads existed as the main sources of information, downloads, and announcements about Cumulus and any new releases. Furthermore, Cumulus 1 had an extensive help text, and in its early releases was a very simple product with relatively few options, supporting only a couple of weather station makes, and therefore very easy to use. I imagine the majority of people (who did not have issues like Paul had 14 years ago) were able to successfully install and use Cumulus with no need to look at, let alone register on, forum. So I would not base any reliable estimates for Cumulus usage in 2008 on the fifty odd forum register counts that Paul mentions. Also remember most of today's alternative weather software did not exist in early days of Cumulus.

I had kept manual weather measurements most of my life in notebooks. I discovered Cumulus accidentally in a web search that returned many pages of search results about amateur weather stations, and each one I looked up mentioned they were using Cumulus software to drive their web site. I guess this was when I got my first PC (summer 2007). I recall Steve Loft talked about thousands of Cumulus users (although I can't remember date of that comment, I believe it was soon after I discovered Cumulus so between 2007 and 2008).

In the UK, Cumulus was promoted, and therefore indirectly available as a link from web sites of those companies that sold Fine Offset Weather Stations; it may have been same in other nations. I remember in a Chas Olsen shop having a conversation (with someone else who had a weather station, we were buying items that were not weather related, but we English folk tend to bring weather into any conversations), on discovering we were both Cumulus users we shared what we had each discovered about Cumulus, neither of us knew about the forum.

When I did discover the forum, I did not initially register on it; I read all I needed without registering; I only registered on the support forum as user #8512 to report a possible bug (on Fri 27 Jul 2012).

CMX is far, far, more complicated, and much harder to use, so that is why I would further assert that it is extremely likely that fewer people use CMX now than used C1 at its peak.

[RayProudfoot]

My own memory is a little hazy but I suspect I found Cumulus from a link on the ProData web site where I bought my first VP2 in April 2009.

It’s worked perfectly ever since and the primary reason why I still use it. I require no more info than it provides. Steve Loft was always very helpful and hosted my site for many years. I’ll always be grateful to him for a great piece of software.

[water01]

CMX is far, far, more complicated, and much harder to use, so that is why I would further assert that it is extremely likely that fewer people use CMX now than used C1 at its peak.

Sorry swfs don't agree with this (started on Cumulus 1 in 2011), but even if it is the functionality now far outweighs Cumulus 1, so it is well worth the effort such that it is.

[sfws]

CMX is far, far, more complicated, and much harder to use

Sorry swfs don't agree with this

See if you still disagree if I expand my point:
I first installed Cumulus as a way to get information onto a web site anyone could view, back then I was unaware of any other way to do that. Nowadays, whether you want local, or internet, based displays, there are many options; weather station users can choose from a range of cloud-based, and locally installed, weather software alternatives. If you have looked at documentation of alternative software, most other packages offer less functionality through one simple interface. In that multi-software context, CMX is far, far more complicated which is why I assert fewer choose to use CMX now, compared to numbers of weather station users who used C1 a decade ago.

For those who do choose Cumulus software, it is expected that there will be a wide range of experiences and opinions. C1's limited functionality probably gave similar experiences for most users. CMX covers far more weather station types, and offers many combinations of ways in which it can be used, so any two users are unlikely to have same usage experiences. You use CMX very differently to how I do.

the functionality now far outweighs Cumulus 1,

Agreed.
If we restrict now our comparison to CMX and C1, there is more to learn for CMX than there was to learn with the simpler C1. But even the functionality that is apparently shared is more complex because of extra permutations on offer.
Compare the 1.8.8 (back in 2009) screens at https://cumuluswiki.org/a/Cumulus_Screenshots with the various web pages in the CMX interface. The wizard has simplified making selections, but you still choose from a lot of possible permutations.

it is well worth the effort

Agreed.
It is however an ongoing effort, CMX development means what I learnt (2 years ago when I left C1), has had to be relearnt for the tiny fraction of functionality that I need to use.
In comparison, the slower development of C1 offered extras to learn, rather than changes to what you had already learnt.

[water01]

I see what you mean but to me the "ongoing effort" is well worth it to get the most out of my hobby of monitoring the weather. I realise I am lucky having had over 50 years experience in IT which helps but I like pushing the boundaries (even though keeping up with Mark is a challenge ) and CMX gives me that.

Like Paul I have 3 instances running, 2 on Windows and the one on my latest acquisition a Synology NAS. The Synology is only possible due to the architecture for CMX that Steve Loft put in place and Mark (bless his cotton socks) continues to maintain and enhance.

I also think that Mark's implementation of the Ecowitt and Ambient protocols has seen some of the older Fine Offset users return to the fold as they update their weather station hardware. Over 250 new users have joined us on the forum this year, so it continues to grow.

I guess you could call me a "dyed in the wool" CMX user and I continue to push it's use on any forum or Facebook group I belong to, and long may it continue.

[HansR]

bless his cotton socks

Learning every day!