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Chrome uses an extension API to help ensure that extensions work from one version to the next. They also have an updating mechanism that ensures nearly all users have updated to the latest version of Chrome within a week of final release. Firefox has neither of these, so extensions can easily break from one version to the next, and it could be months until most Firefox users update to the latest version. Mozilla should have ensured their updating mechanism worked quickly and most popular extensions used Jetpack before they switched to a rapid release schedule like Chrome has.

Chrome uses an extension API to help ensure that extensions work from one version to the next. They also have an updating mechanism that ensures nearly all users have updated to the latest version of Chrome within a week of final release. Firefox has neither of these, so extensions can easily break from one version to the next, and it could be months until most Firefox users update to the latest version. Mozilla should have ensured their updating mechanism worked quickly and most popular extensions used Jetpack before they switched to a rapid release schedule like Chrome has.

Hardly anyone runs the old version of Chrome just a week or two after a new version is released. Why the hell are you testing against many different versions of Chrome? Do you bill by the hour?

Linux has a much higher installed base than that, but many of the platforms it's installed on are not desktops or handhelds that do a lot of browsing. If you look at servers, Linux pulls down somewhere from 20-40% according to most surveys. I wouldn't be surprised if the total OS installed base is closer to 10% than to 1% for Linux (as a percentage of all machines).

That figure's not really relevant to the issue at hand, though.

The numbers I posted are for web usage. If a significant number of people are spoofing their clients in non-standard ways, the numbers could be skewed; still, there are lots of different sites that show fairly similar distributions. Note that if someone has both a Linux desktop and a Windows desktop but for some reason uses the Linux desktop exclusively for browsing (or vice-versa) that will be reflected in the stats; that seems reasonable if you're discussing what percentage of the audience you're excluding with single-OS solutions.

http://www.atinternet-institute.com/en-us/internet-users-equipment/operating-systems-april-2010/index-1-2-7-197.html
http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOperatingSystems.htm
http://getclicky.com/marketshare/global/operating-systems/
http://www.webmasterpro.de/portal/webanalyse-systeme.html

The exact numbers vary, but the ballpark seems relatively steady.

Please, dude... I know you loooove Apple more like your (non-existing? this is /. after all ;) girlfriend. And that’s all good. Do whatever makes your happy.

Way to completely miss my point that Apple's choices in the client world -- where they do have a lot of influence -- will be forcing the hands of web site owners. For this reason I do not "looooove" Apple.

But please keep it down with using the Apple brand name for every type of product out there. Ok? :)
I hate to tell you, but: Reality does not equal Apple! ;)

You could just as easily have said the factually correct thing:
In 6 years time, there’ll be an awful lot of smart phones / mobile computers in the wild.

Currently Safari Mobile has ~60% of the mobile browser market. . Even if that drops to, say, 20%, do you reckon web sites would feel empowered to drop H.264 support, if that meant abandoning those users?

Plus, as I said, other popular mobile platforms are just as likely to be closed and locked down to H.264

I'm a hugh fan of Clicky. The big difference with Google Analytics and Clicky is real-time stats and very good customer service. And, yes, they have an API

I'm a hugh fan of Clicky. The big difference with Google Analytics and Clicky is real-time stats and very good customer service. And, yes, they have an API

The battle for supremacy between Mozilla's Firefox ("JavaScript, I am your father") and Google's Chrome ("Come live in thread harmony, Luke") is good for everyone.

With the story on Chrome having a 1.5% share earlier today, and Firefox having a 32% share, I don't see how there's a "battle for supremacy"...