Revolution Media Presentation Viewable on Web?

[Devin Asay]

On Jun 30, 2006, at 1:20 AM, Dan Shafer wrote:

> To me, the "units sold" and "installed base" numbers are guidelines  
> but not
> real indicators of a particular system's real penetration which is  
> measured
> in something I'd call "units in daily use by humans."  That figure  
> can't be
> obtained, of course, but one figure that CAN be obtained is the mix of
> computer operating systems visiting various Web sites with logs  
> that can
> track the OS in use.
>
> Given that a large majority of machines in human use at any given  
> time are
> navigating the Internet, that would be at least a useful  
> measurement of the
> degree of actual market penetration. There are a LOT of WIndows  
> machines
> (and, I'm sure, old Macs as well) being used for doorstops,  
> paperweights,
> and lying in landfills and other states of disuse.
>
> By that standard, OS X and Linux run 3-5% each and Windows at just  
> about
> 90%. The stats I find most reliable are these:
>
> http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

But even these stats are problematic. I found it curious that Safari  
didn't even appear on the list, while Opera does. The problem is that  
Safari, along with some other browsers, masks its identity so that it  
can access some poorly written sites that require a specific browser  
(usually IE for Windows.) So not only is OS X underrepresented on  
sites like this, IE's presence may be exaggerated.

Devin


Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University