currybetdotnet Linux archive

More details on the Linux user base of the BBC, The Telegraph and The Guardian
A mistake can have unintended consequences, and a nice one after Ashley Higfiled's original claim that the BBC only has 400-600 Linux users is that it has thrown a bit of a spotlight on OS statistics in the UK media landscape. First of all, Ashley has posted on the BBC's new BBC Internet Blog to upsize the estimated Linux user base to between 36,600 and 97,600. Secondly, Neil McIntosh of the Guardian came out with some figures for Linux usage...

Read the full post - Published November 5, 2007 in BBC, Daily Telegraph, Linux, The Guardian, Web

Busting the BBC's 600 Linux users myth
It seems my ex-boss Ashley Highfield dropped a bit of a clanger this week with a claim that amongst BBC.co.uk's 17 million or so users, 5% of them use Macs, but only about 400 to 600 users run Linux. The Linux community has been spluttering with outrage at the low figure given, and there is already a group on Facebook with the aim of collecting more than 600 members who run Linux and visit the BBC website to prove the...

Read the full post - Published November 2, 2007 in BBC, Linux, Popular, iPlayer

BBC iPlayer launch: The first 14 days
With just ten days to go until the launch of the BBC's much anticipated iPlayer software, I thought I would gaze into my crystal ball and predict what the first two weeks hold for the software... Day #1: iPlayer launches Day #2: The press reports that the BBC website 'crashed' due to demand for the iPlayer, because someone emailed someone at The Telegraph saying they couldn't download it over their dial-up connection. A BBC 'source' is quoted as saying that...

Read the full post - Published July 17, 2007 in BBC, DRM, Linux, Popular, iPlayer

Free the BBC from the same old tired DRM debate
I was pointed via Wonderland yesterday at the Free The BBC site, where a petition is gathering against the BBC's proposed use of DRM in the upcoming iPlayer application. And of course, a quick look shows that this has sparked the same tired circular arguments on the backstage.bbc.co.uk mailing list. One person has been arguing that DRM is a bad thing because their sister accidentally wiped clean their iPod, whilst someone else is claiming the only basis for the BBC's...

Read the full post - Published June 13, 2007 in BBC, DRM, Linux, Media, Microsoft, Popular, Radio, Television, Web, iPlayer

backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion about my old BBC homepage stats article
Last week the delightful and ever-entertaining[1] Kim Plowright published a couple of stats breakdowns of browser and OS usage on the BBC's site on the backstage.bbc.co.uk mailing list. Although the page impression figures were stripped out, she gave percentage breakdowns for the use of browsers across the whole of the site. In the course of the debate reference was made to my own article from the end of 2005 about the user-agent strings that visited the BBC homepage. Whilst...

Read the full post - Published April 2, 2007 in BBC, Linux

The depressing DRM debates on the BBC's backstage.bbc.co.uk mailing list
Since the announcement that the BBC's iPlayer would contain elements of Microsoft's DRM, and that any forthcoming versions for the Apple or Linux OS would also need to incoporate some type of DRM, a debate has been raging on the backstage.bbc.co.uk mailing list. Opinion is broadly split into two camps. There are those who understand that in order to facilitate any kind of on demand service, the BBC needs to protect the interests of the rights-owners involved in making...

Read the full post - Published March 6, 2007 in Apple, BBC, DRM, Linux, Microsoft, iPlayer

currybetdotnet has a new home
This week I moved currybetdotnet to a new server, which marked the end of a very strange chapter in the site's existence. In April this year, whilst I was still travelling around Europe, I got a rather unexpected email confirming the cancellation of my regular payment to my hosting company. Well, I knew I hadn't been keeping the blog updated whilst I was away, but that seemed a little bit drastic. However, my subsequent attempts to contact my hosts were...

Read the full post - Published November 9, 2006 in Linux, Other

The software used to access the BBC homepage: Beta software, edge products and conclusions - part 6
This is page 6 of a 6 page article - 1 2 3 4 5 6   Download a print version of this article Beta Software and Edge Products I was surprised to see quite a small penetration of the current beta software. With both Vista and IE7 out in the wild I expected to see a reasonable amount of use. Perhaps they just don't just have the buzz around them that open source does? IE7 has 0.04% browser share...

Read the full post - Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, BBC, Linux, Microsoft

The software used to access the BBC homepage: Browser share - part 5
This is page 5 of a 6 page article - 1 2 3 4 5 6   Download a print version of this article Internet Explorer Requests To The BBC Homepage As with the Windows Operating System, Microsoft have done an excellent job of migrating all their users onto the latest version of the software. Over 90% of requests for the BBC homepage from an Internet Explorer browser came from the most recent stable release - Internet Explorer 6. Versions...

Read the full post - Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, BBC, Linux, Microsoft

The software used to access the BBC homepage: Browser share - part 4
This is page 4 of a 6 page article - 1 2 3 4 5 6   Download a print version of this article Browsers Visiting The BBC Homepage The browser market amongst those requesting the BBC homepage still shows a vice-like grip from Microsoft products, but both Firefox and Safari represent small but significant deviations from the Internet Explorer norm. All the versions of IE together make up just under 86% of requests to the BBC homepage, with Firefox...

Read the full post - Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, BBC, Linux, Microsoft

The software used to access the BBC homepage: Windows, Mac, Linux and legacy OS share - part 3

Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, BBC, Linux, Microsoft

The software used to access the BBC homepage: Operating systems - part 2

Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, BBC, Linux, Microsoft

The software used to access the BBC homepage

Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, Articles, BBC, Linux, Microsoft, Popular