some interesting statistics

from w3c data collection around the world at end of may'07:

. The top operating system (OS) being used around the world as of the end of May was XP, with 84.47% of all Web users. Windows 2000 is substantially lower at 4.28% but that is still better than Vista which has a paltry 1.94%. Windows 98, which is no longer supported by Microsoft, is fading quickly from the world but it still has 1.55% Linux has a tiny 1.21% but is on the rise.

If Bill Gates is to be believed, Microsoft has sold 40 million copies of Vista. I'm wondering where those copies are. They certainly aren't being used; at least not for web browsing. No, most of them are sitting on a shelf somewhere gathering dust. It seems the OS of choice is actually XP with Linux being right there in the mix..

.As for the browsers, Internet Explorer is doing quite well. Version 6 has a very respectable 49.54% while version 7 is at 16.82% which is strange since Microsoft has been distributing it since January as a Critical Update. Firefox 2.0 is running right behind IE 7 at 14.47% which makes sense because not everyone has heard about it. Opera 9 is rolling along at 0.77% and version 9.1 is at 0.55% but that is hardly surprising since hardly anyone knows about Opera. In fact, you might consider it to be a 'Best Kept Secret'.

.the country with the highest percentage of users is the US, with 32.80% and the rest of the world way below 4 or 5%. Thus, the US has more PCs in use. But that isn't worth boasting about when you consider where software for the PC is actually developed. Some really wonderful software is coming out of Europe, Russia, and China. Things that we all use and enjoy, from games to some really top drawer utilities and tools.

full article at : http://www.infopackets.com/channels...70611_take_microsoft_with_a_grain_of_salt.htm

cheers ...

 

About the country stats, the fact that Europe is being tracked as individual countries makes it hard to compare, but just with the countries on that top 10, Europe hits 24% of the global market. And there's still some 15+ European countries that haven't been taken into account. So it may not be true that "the US has more PC's in use". (Not that it matters either way)

The browser stats seem to vary a lot depending on who you ask, btw. w3schools' counter says Firefox has over 30%, while most others say around 15%.
The one in this article gives it close to 25% (if we include 1.0 and 1.5)

 

From my site:

1 Firefox 48%
2 Internet Explorer 7.x 25.%
3 Internet Explorer 6.x 18%
4 Opera 5,985 431 4%
5 Safari 1,627 132 1%

1 Windows XP 73%
2 Windows Vista 15%
3 Windows 2000 3%
4 Linux 3%
5 Mac OS 2%

 

I would also consider Opera the best kept secret but what Opera did in the past is now possible with most browsers.

Nowadays I prefer Firefox, find it easy to use. With Opera some websites which were made for Explorer would force me to restart my PC.

 

Those missing "OS" is probably in the upgrades awaiting to be delivered or activated.

 

Or the many people who tried Vista and went back to XP after a few days.
Or the vast number of licenses that are "given out" as part of various licensing deals... Most Computer Science schools get free licenses for most MS software for all their students, for example (I have 3 Vista licenses so far through that... And something like 8 XP licenses)
So at my study alone, we account for something like 3000 Vista licenses, without actually paying for a single one, and without ever possibly using more than 1000 (assuming every CS student used one license)

 

Vista went from 1.53% to 2.18% in the last month. OSX actually dropped and Linux only went from 1.25 to 1.27%.

 

does any of this matter? everyone should and can choose whatever Browser and OS that is right for them. Personally, i like Vista Ultimate and Firefox.

ev

 

I have Vista Ultimate and Opera, IE7

 

The reason people haven't gone from IE 6 to 7 is...because their copies of windows are illegal lol

 

I agree...
But I also know some people that dont like tabbed browsing

 

I disagree. Elderly people and people who are not tech savvy stick with what they know. And most of them know IE6.

 

With all due respect tabbed browsing is not that hard to comprehend. IE7 only has mostly cosmetic differences

Most people I know have not upgraded because their Windows is not legit or they can't be bothered (can you believe that?! )

An amount of people I know also do not install security updates due to HD space or its not broken and they don't care

 

Tabbed browsing is easy for you and me, but most elderly people (at least in this country) never touched a computer until they were, well elderly. I'ts a lot harder to learn technology as you get older. Most of them use the computer only to keep in touch with their children and grandchildren (pictures and e-mail).

 

About tabbed browsing, it *is* fairly simple. Primarily for the reason that YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE IT. It's not like IE7 shuts down unless you have at least 3 tabs open...

Also, if people aren't good enough at computers to learn tabbed browsing, then what do you think the odds are of them *knowing* in advance that IE7 has tabbed browsing before they upgrade to it? After all, they'd need to know this in order to decide "Hey, I'm going to stay with IE6 because I can't understand tabbed browsing"
In other words, I highly doubt it's tabbed browsing that's scaring everyone's grandparents away from IE7.

Yep. I can't be bothered either. (Of course, mainly because I use Firefox 99% of the time. But for the few things where I need IE, IE6 works just fine, and I just.... can't be bothered)

It does matter to web developers. And as you can see from this thread, a lot of people find it interesting information.
And finally, it matters because it tells us how far away we are from the day when we can ditch IE6 and actually start improving the web...