LinuxQuestions.org
Review your favorite Linux distribution.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Non-*NIX Forums > General
User Name
Password
General This forum is for non-technical general discussion which can include both Linux and non-Linux topics. Have fun!

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 05-02-2011, 06:44 AM   #931
cantab
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2009
Location: England
Distribution: Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Debian, Proxmox.
Posts: 553

Rep: Reputation: 115Reputation: 115

The best figures for OS usage come I think from websites that analyse the user agent of the browser accessing them (and publish that info). Even then, however, how representative the users of that website are of the general computing population may be questioned. (There's also the possibility of lying user agents, but that's less of an issue I think.)
 
Old 05-02-2011, 07:03 AM   #932
slimm609
Member
 
Registered: May 2007
Location: Chas, SC
Distribution: slackware, gentoo, fedora, LFS, sidewinder G2, solaris, FreeBSD, RHEL, SUSE, Backtrack
Posts: 430

Rep: Reputation: 67
Quote:
Originally Posted by cantab View Post
The best figures for OS usage come I think from websites that analyse the user agent of the browser accessing them (and publish that info). Even then, however, how representative the users of that website are of the general computing population may be questioned. (There's also the possibility of lying user agents, but that's less of an issue I think.)
This would be no where near accurate. While we know that windows in leading in the desktop market it falls way behind in the server market. Checking user agents is not a reliable way to get stats for OS's. Checking user agents would be a test much more suited for comparing web browsers used. Most web servers are not out "browsing" the web to get their info reported.
 
Old 05-02-2011, 08:36 AM   #933
MTK358
LQ 5k Club
 
Registered: Sep 2009
Posts: 6,443
Blog Entries: 3

Rep: Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723
Quote:
Originally Posted by cantab View Post
The best figures for OS usage come I think from websites that analyse the user agent of the browser accessing them (and publish that info). Even then, however, how representative the users of that website are of the general computing population may be questioned. (There's also the possibility of lying user agents, but that's less of an issue I think.)
The reason I think they might still not be very accurate is becasue most sites that do OS statistics based on user agents are about technical/web development topics. I think that people who are interested in such topics are more likely to use an alternative OS and/or browser (i.e. something other than Windows and IE) than most non-technically-inclined people.

---------- Post added 2011-05-02 at 09:37 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by slimm609 View Post
This would be no where near accurate. While we know that windows in leading in the desktop market it falls way behind in the server market. Checking user agents is not a reliable way to get stats for OS's. Checking user agents would be a test much more suited for comparing web browsers used. Most web servers are not out "browsing" the web to get their info reported.
How do servers affect this? Do they constantly visit web pages or something?

Last edited by MTK358; 05-02-2011 at 08:39 AM.
 
Old 05-02-2011, 08:53 AM   #934
unixfool
Member
 
Registered: May 2005
Location: Northern VA
Distribution: Slackware, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OS X
Posts: 782
Blog Entries: 8

Rep: Reputation: 158Reputation: 158
Quote:
Originally Posted by MTK358 View Post

How do servers affect this? Do they constantly visit web pages or something?
Web servers only serve web content. They don't have user agents as web browsers (clients) do. But, they do sometimes report what OS and software version they're using...you typically see this in error responses. An example is here. Note that server responses can be edited and it is probably a good idea to maybe not allow such responses in the first place (to prevent recon).

Last edited by unixfool; 05-02-2011 at 08:55 AM. Reason: added info for clarity
 
Old 05-02-2011, 08:57 AM   #935
MTK358
LQ 5k Club
 
Registered: Sep 2009
Posts: 6,443
Blog Entries: 3

Rep: Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723
I still don't understand how servers can affect sites that use useragents to do OS statistics.
 
Old 05-02-2011, 09:13 AM   #936
unixfool
Member
 
Registered: May 2005
Location: Northern VA
Distribution: Slackware, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OS X
Posts: 782
Blog Entries: 8

Rep: Reputation: 158Reputation: 158
I think I read too much into your question. Your question was, "do they constantly visit web pages or something?". The answer is yes. They'd have to conduct checks. I believe this is how sites such as Netcraft conduct research.
 
Old 05-02-2011, 09:18 AM   #937
nomb
Member
 
Registered: Jan 2006
Distribution: Debian Testing
Posts: 675

Rep: Reputation: 58
Quote:
Originally Posted by MTK358 View Post
I still don't understand how servers can affect sites that use useragents to do OS statistics.
He is saying that servers aren't used for regular browsing so all the Linux servers out there are not being included in the count.

At least that is how I took it.

nomb
 
Old 05-02-2011, 09:25 AM   #938
unixfool
Member
 
Registered: May 2005
Location: Northern VA
Distribution: Slackware, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OS X
Posts: 782
Blog Entries: 8

Rep: Reputation: 158Reputation: 158
Quote:
Originally Posted by nomb View Post
He is saying that servers aren't used for regular browsing so all the Linux servers out there are not being included in the count.

At least that is how I took it.

nomb
Yes, that's what I meant. This will mean that the stats will largely be inaccurate, even if such stats show that Linux has a large portion of the market share.
 
Old 05-02-2011, 11:40 AM   #939
Noway2
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2007
Distribution: Gentoo
Posts: 2,125

Rep: Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781
Regardless of how accurate the statistics that attempt to account for the percentage of market share are or are not, a lack of market share is not why Linux has far less problems with various forms of mal-ware such as viruses, worms, and trojans. This subject has come up so many times that I am hesitant to do so again, but the nuts and bolts summary of it is that Linux has a significantly more refined permissions structure along with greater genetic diversity that makes it much more difficult to design mal-ware to infect a particular machine. Linux also lacks the concept of file type by extension and generally does not execute applications automatically upon detecting them. When a machine does become infected, it is usually through a code agnostic means like Java or Adobe Flash and is contained to the user account without the ability to spread system wide. Much Linux software is also stored in reputable repositories and mirrors and has been signed by the developers. Being open source, with many eyes looking on the code, it would be much more difficult to plant subversive code without it being discovered too. Linux then adds a lot more sophisticated logging features that make detection of problems far easier. On top of all that, the average Linux user is more likely to be tech-savvy compared to the average Windows user and hence less likely to acquire an infection.

As frankbell put it, "If Windows security is so good, why is there a thriving industry selling expensive fixes for it?"

At work, I have an XP based machine with a quad-core processor and multiple gigabytes of memory. Every time I log in, I have to wait about 30 minutes while it performs all of its security scans and has scanning applications that check every file and process as it runs, consuming a large percentage of CPU and several megs of memory before the machine becomes even remotely responsive.
 
Old 05-02-2011, 12:02 PM   #940
Arcane
Member
 
Registered: May 2006
Location: Latvia, Europe
Distribution: random
Posts: 310

Rep: Reputation: 312Reputation: 312Reputation: 312Reputation: 312
Quote:
Originally Posted by nec207 View Post
{...}I think they are talking about having a guest account in windows where windows you can set up a account for internet use only with like no permission to do any thing on the computer even open programs or read and write to your files.Almost nothing you can do with guest account with every thing turn off by the admin.
Guest is built-in limited user(with few extra limitations) - it can launch programs, do other limited user stuff not requiring admin privileges and can't mess up system. As for topic itself - security depends on PEBKAC not on operating system. In order to compare security is to compare either
-linux root vs win admin
or
-linux user vs windows limited user.
By default people compare
-linux user vs windows admin
thats unfair because you can't compare 2 different level things.
 
Old 05-02-2011, 12:10 PM   #941
TobiSGD
Moderator
 
Registered: Dec 2009
Location: Germany
Distribution: Whatever fits the task best
Posts: 17,148
Blog Entries: 2

Rep: Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcane View Post
By default people compare
-linux user vs windows admin
thats unfair because you can't compare 2 different level things.
In general you are right. But you have to compare also the habits of the users. In Windows most users actually work as admin all the time, most of them even not knowing that there is the possibility to work as restricted user.
In short: Is it fair to compare Linux user and Windows admin? No. But does it make sense when it comes to security in general? Yes. It simply is pointless to compare with Windows restricted user when nobody uses it.
 
Old 05-02-2011, 12:20 PM   #942
MTK358
LQ 5k Club
 
Registered: Sep 2009
Posts: 6,443
Blog Entries: 3

Rep: Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723Reputation: 723
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcane View Post
-linux root vs win admin
or
-linux user vs windows limited user.
By default people compare
-linux user vs windows admin
thats unfair because you can't compare 2 different level things.
I don't think it's unfair when Windows gives you an admin account by default and Linux gives you a limited account by default.
 
Old 05-02-2011, 03:24 PM   #943
Noway2
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2007
Distribution: Gentoo
Posts: 2,125

Rep: Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781
I will add some insight from personal experience here. The work PC I mentioned in my previous post has the primary user account set up as non administrative. For the majority of the work performed with this PC, this is not a problem. However, in certain circumstances, it is a royal inconvenience. What is worse is that there is no reliable means to elevate privilege when required; it is still heavily tied to the all or nothing Administrator is a user account. Under some circumstances, it is possible to use the "run as" and apply a login that has administrative privilege, but over half of the time this feature does not work. For example, it won't allow you to launch windows explorer as an administrator to delete files that aren't "owned" by the user currently logged in. This brings up the concept of ownership and permissions - they work to the extent that they are an obvious after thought rather than something inherently built into the system. As I said, this works for most of the 'user' applications. Engineering and development tools, especially ones that work with any sort of hardware IO and this concept fails miserably. I have yet to encounter a development tool (including Texas Instruments, GE-MTL, Altera, and others) that works with a non privileged account.

My overall impression of the "user" account in Windows is that it was designed to be deliberately limiting as if the person using it must be limited and that there is some God / Administrator who will manage things for them. This is in direct operational contrast to the Linux / Unix philosophy where a user can authenticate to gain the necessary credentials to perform a task.

Recently, the administrators enacted a blanket security policy whereby everyone's domain login account had its administrative privileges removed and they were confined to a "local" this PC only admin login. When this was enacted, it interfered with no less than 6 people (out of 12) and stopped them from being able to perform their job duties. As a work around, we re-enabled this feature so that they could continue working. I am meeting with our division IT representative tomorrow, to discuss this issue.

My opinion on Windows Administrative security is that while it is taking steps in the right direction, it still really sucks compared to Linux.
 
Old 05-02-2011, 03:41 PM   #944
Arcane
Member
 
Registered: May 2006
Location: Latvia, Europe
Distribution: random
Posts: 310

Rep: Reputation: 312Reputation: 312Reputation: 312Reputation: 312
Quote:
Originally Posted by MTK358 View Post
I don't think it's unfair when Windows gives you an admin account by default and Linux gives you a limited account by default.
Wait a sec..i remember some distros come only with root as default..like same Slackware? Still unfair.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Noway2 View Post
{...}My overall impression of the "user" account in Windows is that it was designed to be deliberately limiting as if the person using it must be limited and that there is some God / Administrator who will manage things for them. This is in direct operational contrast to the Linux / Unix philosophy where a user can authenticate to gain the necessary credentials to perform a task.{...}
Dunno about newer Windows yet. However XP has wonderfull feature called "Run As"(should be available for newer Windows too) - can be admin and run risky stuff as Guest or Limited or be Limited and "Run as" admin. Still unfair because if you don't know password it means you don't need be Admin and if you know you don't have problems switching users or using "Run as".
 
Old 05-02-2011, 07:55 PM   #945
slimm609
Member
 
Registered: May 2007
Location: Chas, SC
Distribution: slackware, gentoo, fedora, LFS, sidewinder G2, solaris, FreeBSD, RHEL, SUSE, Backtrack
Posts: 430

Rep: Reputation: 67
sorry for the late response. Web servers and all the backend servers (dns, smtp, databases, etc) are not going to the sites that collect stats. The majority of the web servers and the backend servers that support the sites are linux. NONE of these servers are out "browsing" the web so none of them are counted. Google is estimated to have around 1,000,000 servers(yes 1 million), facebook is estimated around 100,000 and intel is estimated around another 120,000. Google and facebook both run linux for all their servers. so just with 3 major companies the site stats are off by almost 1.25 million linux machines.

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/a...t-web-servers/ here is the estimates back in 2009
 
  


Reply

Tags
64bit, bsd, cloud, linux, microsoft, misinformation, opensource, troll's playground, unix, windows, your words twisted...


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
LXer: Tutorial: Four Easy Fun Useful Things You Can Do With Linux LXer Syndicated Linux News 0 09-30-2008 11:41 PM
LXer: KDE 4: The Shiny New Linux (and Windows) Desktop LXer Syndicated Linux News 0 09-17-2007 06:10 PM
media server or other fun things. doralsoral Linux - Software 1 11-05-2005 07:55 AM
most fun & excited things about Linux woranl Linux - General 2 07-27-2004 08:28 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Non-*NIX Forums > General

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:39 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration