Windows v. Macintosh v. Linux

April 21, 2004 on 4:45 pm | In Web/Tech |

I (a Windows user) had always heard that Macintosh makes up 10% of the market. I have always thought that was one of the most ludicrously bloated statements I had ever heard. However…I recently started using BlogPatrol to help track stats (what pages people are looking at, what they are searching for, etc.). One of the things that BlogPatrol can tell is the OS you are using on your computer (is that scary, or what?). The breakdown on OS for my viewers (for the last week) is Windows 90.4%, Macintosh 8.5% and Linux 1.1%. Those numbers absolutely amaze me. Sounds like I owe an apology to all my Macintosh toting friends…

UPDATE: One reader points out via e-mail that “with numbers like those (~10% non-Win-based), wouldn’t it be nice if the USPTO implemented a platform neutral process for electronic filing?” What a great question!!!

Another reader points out via e-mail that: “I just wanted to note that user agent strings can be quite unreliable. For example, I am a Linux user and I read your blog regularly; however, I often set my browser (Linux Mozilla) to report itself as Windows NT Internet Explorer because several sites complain when they don’t recognize my browser type; some sites–e.g., my bank–won’t even let me in if I’m not using an “authorized” browser. Of course there is no way to know how substantial this effect is, but I wanted to let you know that at least some of your apparent “Windows” visitors are actually running Linux.”

I’ve opened comments up if anyone wants to discuss further….

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5 Comments

  1. I wonder how many people are also browsing on their PDA. I know that I’ve looked at your site at least once on my TREO.

    Comment by Dennis Crouch — April 22, 2004 #

  2. I tried it with my TREO…and I couldn’t see anything special in the stats. Either the stats ignore it or lump it into “Windows.”

    Comment by Nipper — April 23, 2004 #

  3. I second the comment about fake user strings… You will see mine when you look. There was no other way to contact the site over the way it fell apart and lost my win when I turned out not to be using IE6 on Windows!

    You will also see why I am posting this anonymously!

    Comment by anon — May 4, 2004 #

  4. Well Anon:
    Blogpatrol only keeps data on the last 25 users…so alas (it being 8 hours sans your post), I can’t see your info). But TypePad does log the IP address of everyone who leaves a comment (so you can ban an IP address if you get tired of playing “comment spam bingo”) so I can say Happy Queens Birthday to you (although it is a few days late). I only know one person who recently celebrated the Queen’s Birthday, so perhaps the mystery is solved…then again, maybe not.

    Comment by Nipper — May 4, 2004 #

  5. It seems more than a coincidence that the erstwhile effort to broaden USPTO-acceptable computer platforms (e.g. Macintosh genetic info, DOJ switch away from M$-only documents) was suddenly dropped when the the Shrub/Asscroft people came in to completely nullify the M$ felony-finding.

    Comment by Lou Puls — November 10, 2004 #

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