What are people using to read this blog?

I make a rough guess that they are using the same tools they are using on their desktops or laptops. It is a guess. This said, some interesting trends emerge from ~2 months of data and 2000-3000 visitors per day.

Visitors OS:

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](http://scalability.org/images/visitors.png)

Browsers

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](http://scalability.org/images/browsers.png)

Search engines

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](http://scalability.org/images/search.png)

Ok, I am surprised. 21% of visitors appear to be using Linux. Ok, more than that, that under 70% appear to be using windows flavors. 6% using MacOSX. Last I heard MacOSX was on its way to dominate desktops the world over. Looks like it needs to deal with Linux before it can deal with windows. Next “surprise”. Internet Explorer 5+6+7 are less than Firefox 2. We have seen companies whole-sale replace IE with FF on windows, and of course, IE is not an option under Linux (unless you run CodeWeavers tools). Since OSX is so far down, it doesn’t surprise me that Safari isn’t all that popular. Though I guess I am surprised that it is about 1/3 of the MacOSX number. This suggests Mac users may not be using Safari, but something different. FF? Search engine traffic doesn’t surprise me. Google dominates. Basically I am reporting this as these numbers are actual measurements right off our system. They are not sales figure estimates of installed base, or new sales. Basically I am pointing out, that with some sizable error bars, Linux may in fact be a far more popular desktop than people imagine. Real numbers have a habit of destroying incorrect theories. This said, they have to be taken in the context that this is a limited audience blog (3000+ hits/day is not a bad volume). That and a single sample size. So YMMV. But the numbers are intriguing.