Subject: Re: [lojban] [WWW] browser usage statistics (was: Big update!)

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 09:15:08 EST

In a message dated 12/5/2001 10:50:19 PM Central Standard Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> MSIE 5.0 and 5.5 are about tied for number of users, and the both of them
> have 3 times more users than Netscape 4.x, which has almost haved in usage
> in the past 6 months. MSIE 6.0 is sky rocketing. (A bit of rough math
> taking into account only those 4 browers, pegs IE with 87.5%, tossing in
> the other broswers would lower it slightly.)
> 
> http://browserwatch.internet.com/stats/stats.html
> 
> BrowserWatch pegs Internet Explorer with 86.8% of users, Netscape (all
> versions combined) with 6.77%, Opera and lynx with 2.2% and 1.1%
> respectively. That agrees with Google's Zeitgeist data.
> 

Thanks for the new stats. The remarkable turn in six months or so suggests 
that, in fact, the stats are on different properties. As far as I can 
remember (I don't have the source in front of me -- indeed don't remember 
where I read it: general publication I suppose) the ones I cited were for 
sales (including bundles), yours look like actual use. (lots of stuff in 
packages don't get used).

<(And of course, we all know that Microsoft is the end all and be all of
computing, and as such, we shouldn't even be considering the use of
non-Microsoft software in the first place... right?)>

God, I hope not. But it is what most people -- for better or worse -- get at 
the beginning of their computing life and what many never go beyond (it keeps 
coming with each new machine). So it needs to be taken into consideration 
and dealt with if Lojban is to appeal beyond the small group of high-end 
fanatics -- who, by the way, never seem to be able to make a product that 
seriously competes on any level with the MS ones, thereby giving MS the field 
by default.

<A dissenting party would of course, need to provide references for their
claims, or else be disregarded as an uninformed crank. (Rather reminiscent
of academia, don't you think?)>

Nope. In academia uninformed cranks are made first full professors and then 
administrators at triple salary, total control and zero responsibility for 
the chaos they create.