To summarise: Linux is truly "intelligent design" but no-one uses it as a desktop OS, or if they do they are too ashamed to connect to the internet and if they do they fake it as a Windows machine?
Brian Butterworth > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Lockwood > Sent: 29 March 2007 12:47 > To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk > Subject: Re: [backstage] Browser Stats > > > Richard Lockwood said: > > > Andy - ordinary people do not generally use Linux as a desktop OS. > > > > Is there such a thing as an ordinary person? > > Any way my point was that the true figure may not be quite > as low as stated. > > I did not say it would be greatly higher, certainly not higher than > > WindowsXP (by a long way). > > > > I would be quite surprised if it was more than 10%. > > Even 10% is significantly higher than 0.4% > > > > > Richard also said: > > > > Here, for example, you find a figure you wish was a lot > higher, and > > > then come up with a load of reasons why it might be inaccurate, > > > without providing any evidence for a single one of them. > > > > I would have thought they where all self explanatory, evidently not. > > > > Many studies have shown that Junk email makes up 90% of all email. > > Why are you assuming that the same people are not using websites to > > launch attacks? > > Have you never heard the phrase "comment spam", have you > never seen a > > "captcha", they're not there to look good. > > Stick your email address on a public website, wait a bit and see if > > you get spam. How do you think they knew that was your > email address? > > Because robots do trawl the Internet looking for email > addresses. The > > BBC site is more likely to be hit by these as lots of places link > > there so it's easy to find. > > No - this is not evidence. You're coming up with a series of > hypotheses to fit your scenario - that a significant > proportion of people use Linux as a desktop OS. This is the > same arguing technique that proponants of Intelligent Design > use. "You can't prove otherwise, so it must be true." > > > > > Jason Cartwright wrote: > > > but add that these numbers are > > > probably generated by some pretty sophisticated 3rd part software > > > that the BBC employs. > > > > But we don't know that do we? > > Have you ever seem how bad user agent sniffing is? > > > > I was using a PC running FireFox on Linux that transmitted the word > > "Linux" in its user agent. I was told by a major website that I was > > running "Netscape" on "Mac OS". > > Again - just because the BBC's technique *might* be > inaccurate doesn't mean it *is* inaccurate. Likewise, > because you want to believe that Linux is massively popular > doesn't mean it is. > > There was a very interesting (and to my mind, fairly written) > article in The Register yesterday about installing Linux: > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/28/desktop_linux/ (cue > Linux-heads bleating about how he should've used a different > distro, or how the author must be brain dead not to be able > to get it right first time...) I care not one way or the > other, but it goes to show why Linux still isn't ready for > everyman to go installing it on his expensive PC when it came > with a > perfectly-good-operating-system-why-would-I-want-to-change-it-anyway. > > Rich. > - > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To > unsubscribe, please visit > http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > Unofficial list archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.20/737 - Release > Date: 28/03/2007 16:23 > > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.20/737 - Release Date: 28/03/2007 16:23 - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
