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Journal ncc74656's Journal: Anatomy of a Slashdotting, and Browser Preferences 7

Journal by ncc74656
Mirroring a page that's linked in a Slashdot article might not be the wisest thing to do from a standpoint of being able to use your home broadband connection, but you can learn some interesting things from a slashdotting.

My mirror got 932 requests in the first 24 hours it was up. For such a purportedly anti-Microsoft crowd, these browser stats are interesting:

  • Internet Explorer 6.0 275
  • Internet Explorer 5.x 225
  • Mozilla (all versions) 189
  • Opera (all versions) 66
  • Navigator 4.x 60
  • Galeon 38
  • Konqueror 29
  • Navigator 6.x 18
  • all other browsers 32

For a group of people who think Microsoft is the root of all evil, it's a bit strange that more than half use IE. (Yes, I accounted for the fact that many browsers put "MSIE" in the user-agent string to fool the (broken) websites that won't behave if you browse with something other than IE.)

For what it's worth, I was using IE up until last week, when Bugtraq reported the back-button script vulnerability. I'm not one of the rabid Microsoft-bashers, but this hole was a bit more unsettling than most. Mozilla 1.0RC1 has mostly been OK as a replacement. It's been an education with regard to finding out who can put together a working website and who can't. Some sites haven't rendered properly (I was about to link to this page as an example of black-on-black text, but it turns out IE does no better with it than Mozilla...chalk it up to a clueless webmaster), and more than half of the sites that use Flash won't start the plug-in properly. (Even Macromedia has problems with its Flash download page. Imagine that.)

(I was writing this in Mozilla at first, but it crashed on me while I was typing. I ended up recreating this journal entry in IE instead...aside from periodic Windows Update checks, it's the first time in a few days that I've used IE.)

The traffic pattern is also interesting in terms of when all the hits came in...plot these numbers and note the "twin peaks" (all times are PDT):

  • 14 Apr 02, 1540-1559 7
  • 14 Apr 02, 1600-1659 76
  • 14 Apr 02, 1700-1759 104
  • 14 Apr 02, 1800-1859 92
  • 14 Apr 02, 1900-1959 75
  • 14 Apr 02, 2000-2059 73
  • 14 Apr 02, 2100-2159 54
  • 14 Apr 02, 2200-2259 44
  • 14 Apr 02, 2300-2359 33
  • 15 Apr 02, 0000-0059 20
  • 15 Apr 02, 0100-0159 29
  • 15 Apr 02, 0200-0259 23
  • 15 Apr 02, 0300-0359 20
  • 15 Apr 02, 0400-0459 17
  • 15 Apr 02, 0500-0559 30
  • 15 Apr 02, 0600-0659 58
  • 15 Apr 02, 0700-0759 44
  • 15 Apr 02, 0800-0859 74
  • 15 Apr 02, 0900-0959 20
  • 15 Apr 02, 1000-1059 9
  • 15 Apr 02, 1100-1159 4
  • 15 Apr 02, 1200-1259 10
  • 15 Apr 02, 1300-1359 10
  • 15 Apr 02, 1400-1459 4
  • 15 Apr 02, 1500-1539 2
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Anatomy of a Slashdotting, and Browser Preferences More

Anatomy of a Slashdotting, and Browser Preferences

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  • Did you take into account those of us who are "forced" to use IE? I access Slashdot from work. Unfortunately, on my work PC, I am not allowed to install any software. This basically forces me to use IE, since IE is the only web browser installed on this PC.

    A large number of companies work the same exact way. IE is THE default web browser on most corporate PCs. Slashdot gets most of its traffic during normal business hours; many of the people reading Slashdot during those hours are doing so from work.

    Surely you can see where this is leading. A fair percentage of the percentage of IE users that you saw did not choose to use IE, but had no other choice.

    After all, if one waits to get home to access Slashdot, one misses the chance to get the FIRST POST!

    • Hey wait a minute that makes too much sense and will upset the poor boy. Here he was feeling all warm and fuzzy and righteous and you had to go and spoil his day by injecting logic into his world.

      BTW posted with mozilla the greatest browser ever made.
  • I was about to link to this page as an example of black-on-black text

    Renders fine here.

    Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.0rc1) Gecko/20020417

  • IE is currently my favorite browser. My everday work environment is Windows PCs (all 2000 and XP Pro, except for ones being repaired) and I don't have any stability problems. Some usability problems, but Cygwin solves most of those. At home I have a 2000 box I built, a 200Mhz Debian laptop, and a 100Mhz Pentium box with Redhat as an Internet gateway. I use the desktop for games and browsing, and the laptop for development. The gateway is headless.

    Now, all that to say I suspect that I'm actually typical. My opinion is that most ./ readers keep a Windows machine around because browsing is easy with IE and all the sites work. The other day my wife was using the desktop and I thought I'd pay my CitiBank bill online. Whoops, site only works with IE.

    • Now, all that to say I suspect that I'm actually typical. My opinion is that most /. readers keep a Windows machine around because browsing is easy with IE and all the sites work.

      I have Win2K boxen on either side of me right now at work...a 1.4-GHz Athlon XP and a 1.6-GHz dual Athlon MP. Other people's workstations here also run Win2K...but all the servers run Linux (LFS on another 1.4-GHz Athlon XP and an 850-MHz P!!!, Redh*t on a 1.0-GHz P!!!, Coyote Linux on a P5-233 (firewall), and Slackware 8.x on a 486DX2-66 (print server)). The home situation isn't much different...a 1.0-GHz Athlon on the desktop running Win2K and a dual 500-MHz P!!! in the closet running LFS. I don't trust Windows on any machine directly connected to the Internet, but it works well enough for me on a workstation behind a firewall.

      My post wasn't intended as an exhortation to get "guilty" people to change browsers...aside from the security issues, IE's pretty decent. (At least it doesn't crash nearly as often as Mozilla has crashed in the past week or so.)

  • For what it's worth, I was using IE up until last week, when Bugtraq reported the back-button script vulnerability.

    I don't know about you, but I find the ability for any website to read any local file [greymagic.com] (including directories, without any interaction required) to be a bit more unsettling.

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