(no subject)

[ewx]

BBC Director Of Technology says only 400-600 UK Linux users access BBC website

[Poll #1080999]

(...recalling that only the LJ-using subset of the population will be able to answer this, so better scale up the results a bit.)

Comments

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

However, I don't use Linux to look at the BBC Website.

[sparrowsion]

I'm counting "Windows Mobile" as a different platform to "Windows", since the experience of trying to browse the BBC web site is dramatically different. (It tries to give you an "accessible" version, which is missing half the links you actually want, and your device is perfectly capable of handling if you can work out how to trick it.)

[kaet.livejournal.com]

I try to see these changes as opportunities to give up on unproductive habits! Such as spending too long reading news websites.

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

Assuming that he's not just lying (BBC controversy passim), maybe there's some ridiculous miscounting going on for technical reasons (counting all moz/firefox as "windows", reliance on tracking cookies which are blocked by default, reliance on flash, only counting people who watch Windows Media streams on linux)

[lnr]

Of course the "Windows-only" aspect is actually less annoying to me than the "IE-only" aspect is. Of their supposed 1.6 million UK Windows users I'd be interested to know what percentage is using IE.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Nearer 16M than 1.6M, if I'm reading right...

[lnr]

Sorry, you are indeed right, braino on my part.

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

...Not counting people like me, using Opera and the cute feature that lies to server and says the client is IE. After a while, you get fed up of 'browser not supported, get the latest version of IE' when the site displays just as badly (or slightly better) in a secure and stable browser.

[kaet.livejournal.com]

BTW, where's the other place you were asked if you were a linux user?

[lnr]

Rich Wareham invited me to join a facebook group on the same theme, which got going about an hour after ewx's poll.

So far you have about 9 votes, ewx has 52 and facebook is winning on 68. But they had the advantage of a head start and you have the advantage of more people being able to vote.

[kaet.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see! I shall have to get my Facebook Refusenik t-shirt, :).

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

I would be very surprised if fewer than 50 of the linux users in my department access the BBC website.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Were it an alliance with MS, I would not be inclined to think that it were a very good alliance if the software is only available for XP.

And I don't think I really count as a proper Linux user, but I thought I should tick the box on a technicality.

[the-local-echo.livejournal.com]

...though I'm only a Linux user at work, and I'd be unlikely to use their iPlayer thing at work because it would cost money in bandwidth as well as being even less work-related than their website, so I'd count as a UK exclusive Mac user for iPlayer market stats.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

I've just been informed by a former employee of BBC R&D that around 150 people in R&D access the BBC's website via Linux. He then guessed that possibly results from inside the BBC's firewall are discounted.

[sweh.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they're using unique IP addresses or something so 100 people all behind the same proxy and so may only count as 1 user. Wouldn't surprise me!

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Possibly. But the number would seem implausibly low despite that. I don't think they can have made any sensible kind of effort to find a number.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

Do they describe their methodologies?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

"as far as our server logs can make out" is the best excuse they offer.

[gerald_duck]

[x] …but I access the site through a proxy server.
[x] …and use the text-only version of news.bbc.co.uk
[x] …and reject their steenkin' cookies
[x] …and sometimes use Junkbuster, too

[diffrentcolours]

[x] a UK GNU/Linux user

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I don't think the distinction is relevant in this context.

[diffrentcolours]

No, I don't think it makes sense to be talking about kernels in a debate about operating system support either.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Most people have noticed that common usage of ‘Linux’ doesn't mean only the kernel. You can put your fingers in your ears and hum loudly about this if you like, but it won't change the facts.

[diffrentcolours]

Just because something is popular doesn't mean it's right.

And in a debate which is centred around open standards and platform neutrality, it makes even more sense to consider the GNU project's majority contribution to the GNU/Linux operating system.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

You look rather silly with your fingers in your ears.

[diffrentcolours]

And you look rather stupid with your head up your arse.

[cjwatson]

Sometimes I wonder how we manage to encourage anyone to use said operating system when its alleged advocates spend their time biting each other's heads off. Surely there are more useful things to do.

[david jones (from livejournal.com)]

"400-600" is _surely_ a typo for "400-600 thousand"? Obviously a journalist couldn't be expected to tell when a number was wrong by a factor a thousand.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Perhaps, but the context was "look how few of them there are", so it wouldn't be inconsistent if that was indeed what he meant to say.