🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3842788F.68AC282@sensewave.com>,
  nicholas.murison@sensewave.com wrote:
> Colin Brough wrote:
> >
> > I know, I know, one of those unanswerable questions...
> >
> > But I got to wondering, is there any
> > way anyone could find out (or at
> > least give a justifiable estimate)?
> > Could an ISP, for instance, tell
> > whether you were connecting using Linux?
> > Is there anything in the PPP

Actually, there is a rather simple sampling method.  First, you take
very popular sites, and have them assign cookies to each user.  The
http protocol includes a browser definition in the header.  As a
result, you can combine the header and the cookie and score each
permutation.

If you use the same cookie for both your Linux browser and your Windows
browser, you can be identified as both a windows user and a Linux
browser.

By the way, this isn't a new idea.  Microsoft and Netscape have been
doing it for years.  The Linux browsers were actually labled
"UNIX/X11" since Netscape never bothered to change the header file.
I'd like to put up my own "affinity" so that even when I'm using
Windows, I show up as a Linux user. :-).

You can expect to pay a pretty hefty price for these numbers.  One
survey, based on "cookie samples" goes for about $3500 per copy
including any copies of any key numbers circulated via the internet.
And of course, you have to sign a nondisclosure agreement in advance.

Here's a sample of the servers in .uk


     Domain : .uk
     DName  : UNITED KINGDOM
     Service: www
     Date   : April `99


       Host OS recognized (grouped, sorted)    count   %recog
---------------------------------------------  -------  -------
                                 BSD Family    71698     35.2
                                      Linux    49722     24.4
                           Windows 95/98/NT    30391     14.9
                              Solaris/SunOS    26212     12.9
                                  Mac/Apple     7942      3.9
                                       IRIX     6684      3.3
                         Reliant Unix/Sinix     5226      2.6
                                       HPUX      713      0.3
                                        AIX      688      0.3
                             Novell Netware      599      0.3
                               Digital Unix      531      0.3
                                   SCO Unix       85      0.0
                                 -----------    -----    -----
                                 ++checksums   200491     98.3

  source:  http://www.leb.net/hzo/ioscount/data/r.9904.www.uk.txt


> To find the number of users in the UK, you could go to
> http://counter.li.org, which holds statistics on how many Linux users
> there are.  Unfortunately the statistics are based on how many Linux
> users have registered themselves in the counter database,
> so you'll have to mutliply the number for the UK with about 100.

Unfortunately, counter.li.org has been very erratic, often being
unavailable, other times refusing to accept registrations, and other
times just losing count.  It was a really great idea that didn't
work very well.  When it is working it's a nice "rate of growth"
indicator.

There is a nice OS counter at:
http://www.oscounter.org/

The nice thing about this system is that you can state which systems
you use and how well you like it.

Of course, according to this survey, Linux had 625 users while
Windows 95 and Windows 98 had 377, and NT had 145, making Linux
the most used operating system.  To put it mildly, I doubt this
survey in any way reflects reality :-).  ---- YET!

> Nicholas Murison
> --
> ******************** Don't mess with penguins ********************
> Registered Linux User #153895	http://counter.li.org
> Capitalism is nice, but only in small doses
> ******************************************************************
>

--
Rex Ballard - Open Source Advocate, Internet
I/T Architect, MIS Director
http://www.open4success.com
Linux - 55 million and growing at 2%/week!


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