BBC - Not a lot of Linux out there

Friday, November 2. 2007

BBC - Not a lot of Linux out there

Sez the Register - Ashley Highfield noted that:

"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."

A study of BBC server logs in 2005 showed that 0.41 per cent of visitors to the BBC homepage were running Linux.

Wails of woe and gnashing of teeth by the digerati follows, but I looked at our logs and we get about 0.7% Linux and 2.7% Macs (ytd 2007).

So, either (i) there are less of the True Digerati* out there than usually assumed, (ii), they're all there but read neither us or Beeb, or (iii) they are doing other wholesome stuff like playing World of Warcraft or (horrors) are not even on the net.

* as is well known, only us Digipeasants use Windows

Posted by Alan Patrick in Open Source at 22:58 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0) | Top Exits (0)

Vote for articles fresher than 100 days!

Current karma: 7, 15 vote(s) 2496 hits

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

I just looked at numbers for Moneyterms (moneyterms.co.uk) and it gets about 0.9% visitors using Linux: this is for a site that overwhelming gets Windows users, with only 2.4% Mac.

On the other hand, my blog gets about 7% Linux, 4% unknown (probably not Windows?) and 3% Mac. The blog also gets less than 50% IE compared to 83% on Moneyterms. The proportion using IE was rising as visitors interests changed (from Wordpress plugins and themes to investment).

Yes, I did subtract my visits from the numbers (assuming anyone in my location using Linux was me).

The only problem is that Linux users are much more likely to change the user agent string (partly because we use browsers that allow you to do it), so we are definitely under-counted, by how muchI do not know!

Beeb numbers look believable for a site that attracts a general audience. I am surprised you are not getting more "digerati". I suspect the beeb does get a slightly low proportion of digerati because they use a greater variety of news sources (I read the BBC site a lot less since I started using a feed reader).

#1 Graeme Pietersz (Homepage) on 2007-11-03 05:14 (Reply)

Ashley Highfield has now blogged about these figures:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2007/11/linux_figures_1.html

(NB I am the editor of the blog linked to)

#1.1 Nick Reynolds (Homepage) on 2007-11-03 11:54 (Reply)

@ Graham - I was also surprised, but looking at the BBC it seems in similar ballpark. I was interested that none of the blogs that complained about the BBC's data displayed their own stats.

@ Nick - whats very interesting is the wails from the digerati...I'm not at all clear why this is such a big deal.

#2 alan p on 2007-11-03 23:52 (Reply)

The reason that it is a big deal is that it is wrong in principle for the BBC to promote a particular commercial product over others.

There were similar objections to the BBC having its own brand computer even though that was a better intentioned decision and helped one player among many rather than further strengthening a near monopolist.

In fact I would say the BBC should not use anything other than open standards. Even if there are Mac and Linux versions of its player, it still makes it harder for completely new entrants.

#2.1 Graeme Pietersz (Homepage) on 2007-11-06 07:55 (Reply)

I get much the same figures at both nmk and twopointouch. Slightly more mac users - 7%'ish on nmk. Digerati have to work with/towards the mainstream, too, I reckon. If you use linux/Konqueror you aren't seeing what customers are seeing.

Catering for users running at 800x600 resolution ultimately would please more people than catering for Linux users, it seems.

#3 Ian Delaney (Homepage) on 2007-11-04 16:38 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry