An interesting piece of data collection just surfaced for me. A lot of people use search engines. It makes a big difference what operating system people use… 32% of users of that other OS use search engines. 14% of users of GNU/Linux use search engines. When you consider people searching for local resources then the share of usage for users of GNU/Linux shoots up to 36% (tied with iOS on mobile devices). Only 23% of users of that other OS search locally. Local businesses with bricks and mortar establishments cannot afford to ignore the existence of users of GNU/Linux. It seems that users of GNU/Linux have a much larger share of local searches than their numbers (share of OS usage) would indicate. Walmart, are you listening?
Why the differences? It’s beyond me, unless users of that other OS practise sending money to a “virtual business”, M$, while users of GNU/Linux tend to want to see more details…
In my own searching, I mostly search the web for information about the blog and other information like how to grow this or that, and what a pangolin eats… but I hate to drive 50 miles to shop and not be sure of what I will find. I check out web sites for local shops to be sure they have what I want and that it’s in stock. I did that for the components of my little yard-wagon, choosing Princess Auto in Winnipeg because they had everything I needed in one place. I did buy some welding electrodes and tools at another local business, Welders Supplies, because they specialize in welding and I have long been a customer. Their prices and selection were good, too. I really like E6011 because it blasts through paint, rust and oil so I don’t have to clean a joint before welding. The price for this product was about the same for both businesses but Welders Supplies had a 20kg package (probably lasts me a lifetime…) while Princess Auto only had 5kg packages. It was simply less effort to move the product from the store to the vehicle to my shop with Welders Supplies, so I drove out of my way to shop there for that product.
I am also doing searches of local businesses for trees. I am frustrated as is “the little woman” because local businesses may offer very general information rather than price and availability which we need to make a budget for our landscaping. I am strongly tempted to buy seed from a distant supplier instead of trees from a local supplier. Are you listening Shelmerdine’s and Schriemer’s? One local business does have a few trees with decent prices shown but they don’t have the particular species “the little woman” wants. I am growing my lawn and garden from seed. I could do the same for trees… I will have half my yard seeded by noon. I am a DIYer (Do It Yourselfer) and I use Debian GNU/Linux. I am not alone.
When I built (and rebuilt) Beast, I chose components and compared prices from a business 1500 miles distant but the same logic applied. I prefer to do business with an outfit that has a website and the performance of that website affects my decisions. An outfit that serves only IE will not have me as a customer.
Perhaps I am the archetypical user of GNU/Linux. We may soon have another user of GNU/Linux in the family. One daughter let my grand daughter trash her PC so I am fixing up a notebook for her. She doesn’t need a LAMP stack but she does a lot of multimedia, so I rejigged the whole thing and tossed the Debian repositories it was spinning… I do see the global picture, but if FLOSS is to advance users of FLOSS have to be the salesmen.
Will your site’s media play for Linux users? Here’s why it better. [with charts].
see also Chitika – Study: Search Traffic Pattern Investigation by Device Operating System
17494
12786
206
3
2
23945 
11876 
11726 
4649 
4272 
1641 
198 
14 
2 
0 
0 
0 
It makes a big difference what operating system people use…
I suspect that you grabbed that bull by the wrong horn, Mr. Pogson. If, as you suggest, the main use of search is to find products to buy, it would seem to me that the relationship of OS to this purpose might be better explained in that Apple users are constantly looking for things to buy, Microsoft users frequently look, and Linux users are loath to spend their money, similarly to your own tendencies.
Hahaha, that’s an interesting correlation, Clarence Moon. I wonder what sort of study could be designed to corroborate…
I utilize search engines as a baby of the 90′s who doesn’t know much; to solidify arguments and statements (enter my vague/general understanding, come up with definitive results).
For instance just the other day, I found out what ceramic heat treatment blocks were properly called after Googling “bulletmaking blocks,” hahaha. You know how often young people say “Google it?” these days? A butt-tonne, man!
Many people seem to have the habit of using Google to get to almost every site they visit. Instead of entering a URL in the address bar, they put something in the search bar and click on the (usually first) result. I wonder if that accounts for some of the “other OS” numbers.
My search habits are pretty much the same on my Mac or Linux. I search frequently, particularly for reviews and prices when I’m about to buy something. I also use Google’s local store option on their Shopping menu, although I’ve found it to be inaccurate.
Just this morning I was looking for a fanless video card for the Linux machine, because the noise from the fans on the current card is obnoxious. They just max out all the time.
Pogs, speaking of search engines, have you noticed that Google seems to be completely buggy lately?
Enter this query into Google:
“Robert Pogson”+guns
You get zero results. Bing and Yahoo find some of your writings regarding this topic.
Same with:
“Robert Pogson”+Linux
Almost no results on Google (only 12 items), there far more on Bing.
Herr Blatt wrote, “Enter this query into Google:
“Robert Pogson”+guns
You get zero results.”
Technically, that is the wrong query. A “gun” is a smoothbore firearm. I only use that in reference to shotguns, which I rarely use. I like to hit what I aim at…
“Robert Pogson” firearms gets “10 personal results. 687 other results”
“Robert Pogson” GNU/Linux gets ” 50 personal results. 7,360 other results”
I feel Google does an excellent job wrt to my blog. Before I blogged pogson or RobertP had 40K hits from the early days of the Internet onward.
“robert pogson” “canadian firearms digest” finds hits from 1996, when the infamous Firearms Act came to be.
There’s even a hit from 1977 for an article I published that was exposed to the web this century: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0029554X77904396
I only use that in reference to shotguns, which I rarely use. I like to hit what I aim at…
I think the conventional wisdom is that you are much more likely to hit what you are aiming at with a shotgun, Mr. Pogson. I believe it covers a wider area than alternate types of firearms.
Mr.Pogson writes:
When you consider people searching for local resources then the share of usage for users of GNU/Linux shoots up to 36%
Of cause they search locally more often than users of other OSs:
— if they want to buy new computer with preinstalled Linux they should use some search engine to find where they can buy it, otherwise they will have to visit many-many shops.
— if they decide to buy new hardware they have to find out whether it supports Linux and then find a local shop where they can buy it.
Study: Search Traffic Pattern Investigation by Device Operating System says:
The team found that 54% of iOS web traffic is devoted to search, as opposed to the 36% Internet average. Macintosh desktops and laptops came in second with 48% of internet traffic being search traffic. Linux came in last place.
Of cause it is so. Linux users tends to download new distributions quite often, and the size of the most popular distributions are at lest 650 mb. And then they download distribution specific packages of their favorite applications.
With a rifle, I can hit a target at 1000 yards. A grouse can fly between the pellets at 40 yards. Spreading the shot helps only for short ranges. The world is large. A bullet can be heavier, faster, softer and spin-stabilized. I know a shotgun is preferable and authourized legally, but the regulation here is that lead shot may not be used for migratory game birds. My shotgun only shoots lead so it’s a legal hunting firearm for deer with slugs or rabbits with shot. It’s been years since I hunted rabbits and a low-powered bullet works better for them too.
iLia FUDs with “if they decide to buy new hardware they have to find out whether it supports Linux and then find a local shop where they can buy it.”
Check out membership in the Linux Foundation. Major OEMs are in there, cranking out drivers for their hardware. Thousands of developers from hundreds of companies have contributed code to the Linux kernel, often to make sure their products work with Linux. There may be peripheral devices without a driver but it is rare to encounter one. I have used random PCs up to 15 years old in schools and only a few times had driver problems out of hundreds of installations.
This week, I compiled the stock kernel and was surprised to find it lacked a driver for my mouse, but it was just a change in the configuration. My driver was not being compiled by default. I tweaked the configuration, compiled the driver and it worked again. No shopping for a new mouse… Major GNU/Linux distros or OEMs can do the same for the products they ship. On the other hand, I have had many driver problems with that other OS. I once had a lab with three different groups of PCs and students could mess up the configuration by moving a mouse around. A single Linux kernel drove them all.