We at Sakai hear a lot about Moodle’s popularity. I don’t think they are trying to hide the fact that the vast majority of sites are very small (their new stats page makes this abundantly clear) and when you look at the number of large (5,000+ users) installations the difference between Sakai and Moodle isn’t nearly as pronounced.

But as Patrick said it is high time to move beyond measures like this. The question underlying the crude “number of installations” figures is, in my view, the health and sustainability of the project. Given the size and quality of the installed base of both Moodle and Sakai, I think these questions should be laid to rest–both have demonstrated they are here to stay. There are important differences between the products and the communities, of course, which may lead you to prefer one over the other.

Patrick’s comments on procurement process are key and an area the communities should work together. A “Guide to Acquiring Open Source Solutions” for the education procurement departments would be a great deliverable for the two communities to collaborate on.