OT: Netscape et al gaining on MSIE

[ted leslie]

i am surprized, hard to believe,
but having said that, for years, browsers like opera, have had options to run in
"identify mode" and i set it to IE because it is more compatiable with web pages i visited.
I would suspect a 1-2% of MSIE are in fact opera, and others browsers masquerading.
Of course your web site could be naturally biased more to opensource/linux visitors? do to
its content? Opera claims 2-5 million users alone i think, so probably one percent of the MSIE
in your list are opera (and odd ball). I can't help but think your site has a subject matter
biasing the hits?

"keep usage at about 90% of all desktops"?
I think linux is pegged at 8-12% world wide (much less in just US)
and apple is 2-3% (they think they are 4-5%)
so MS is already below 85% anyways. I think the critical mass thump is closer to 75-80% mark,
i.e. when developers have to take notice for the "other" systems. With cell phones going primarily
linux, and Pansonic and others already linux on their PVR's, IBM,SONY and Toshiba linux'like on 
Cell for PS3 (and if that MIT 100$ portable makes it) ... Microshaft could be under the 75-80% mark within 2-3 years, oh that will be sweet.

-tl


On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 15:49:19 -0400 (EDT)
Herb Richter <hgr-FjoMob2a1F7QT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> 
> I think this is good news.
> 
> For a few years now I've been watching the web browser usage in the web
> site statistics for my site.  Over the past year or so I'm seeing the
> steady growth of Netscape and compatibles use over MSIE <big smiley here>
> 
> About a year ago visitors used MSIE about 9:1 over Netscape etc.  For a
> few months it has been about 3:1 ...this last week, about 1:1 !
> 
> Based on pages served, last week: (most of the rest were bots)
> 
> 	MSIE:				46.8%
> 
> 	Netscape (compatible)	34.97%
> 	Mozilla			 5.62%
> 	Netscape		 1.41%
> 				------	42.0%
> 
> 
> For some time now I've said that MS's biggest strength (after money and
> power) is it's critical mass.  In web page design when 90% of visitors are
> using one browser, web authors will design first for that browser (and
> maybe not at all for others!) which will keep visitors using that browser.
> 
> But now designers *better* make sure their pages render well in more than
> one browser allowing us to chose other browsers without being excluded
> from many sites.
> 
> Losing the critical mass means that their (MS's) lock-in is broken.  Even
> if they now start to make IE work as well as say Firefox - its too late -
> people don't *have to* use IE any more.
> 
> 
> Sooooo, how does this translate to OS and office-app critical mass?
> 
> ...I bet that this is *huge* for MS.  I bet that they don't really pursue
> people that use un-licensed copies of Windows and Office because they
> need to, at all cost, keep usage at about 90% of all desktops.  My guess
> would be that critical mass for Windows would be about 60% - for Office
> 80+% ...below CM; people won't need to use Windows / Office just because
> "all their friends and business contacts do".
> 
> Lets hope that OpenOffice+SO+Sun+Google will do to Office what
> Firefox+Opera++ is doing to IE.
> 
> SUNW is starting to look really good - I think I'll buy some this week.
> 
> -- 
> 
>         Herb Richter  <hgr-FjoMob2a1F7QT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>
>         Toronto, Ontario
>         http://PartsAndService.com
>         http://PartsAndService.ca
> 
> 
> 
> 
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