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
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