I've been discussing this in the office, so I did some sums
Having a look at various (non-BBC) site stats I have access to, I'm
seeing a 3-4% market share. Now on some of them, I know I'm counting
towards those stats, but one particular site (with a 3.6% Linux usage) I
don't look at regularly (I just fix broken code on rare occassions).
Even if we say bbc.co.uk has a 2% Linux usage, that's 340,000 users. And
if we say that bbc.co.uk has a 0.1% Linux usage, that's 17,000.
Some stats have put Linux desktop usage at as low as 0.26%, so even if
we take the 0.1% figure, I'd expect a lot more than 400-600!
I have a feeling that there's been a bit of a mistake made somewhere
down the line :)
________________________________
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of vijay chopra
Sent: 01 November 2007 16:52
To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk
Subject: [backstage] Ashley Highfield speaks again
Just read this
<http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/internet-and-broadband/news/bbc-not-in-
bed-with-bill-gates-over-iplayer?articleid=36522951> interview with Mr
Highfield
"Highfield used the numbers of non-Windows users visiting
bbc.co.uk as justification for the corporation's XP-only release. "We
have 17.1 million users of bbc.co.uk in the UK and, as far as our server
logs can make out, 5 per cent of those [use Macs] and around 400 to 600
are Linux users.""
(via slashdot
<http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/01/133259> )
Have tech.co.uk missed out a zero as I can't believe that the
number of Linux users is that low, I'd expect more people to visit the
site on their mobile phones than that.
Unless perhaps most do as I do and go straight to news.bbc.co.uk
and bypass bbc.co.uk entirely (in which case using those numbers as
justification for ignoring iPlayer on Linux is bizarre; perhaps some
more research into your audience is in order?).
Though it feels good to be a member of such an exclusive club,
can we have the number of Linux users visiting news.bbc.co.uk please?
That way we can see if Mr Highfield's claims stand up to scrutiny.
Vijay.
