Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

Bogart · 2007-10-22 22:10:50

Hi,

Looking today at some statistics from Distrowatch I noticed something strange. I'm not talking about the Page Hit Rank that distrowatch.com has in its front page, but the statistics of the site (AWStats). They can detect now many more distributions from the browser string, even Arch Linux. However, looking at those statistics I found out that Arch is used by very few visitors. Too few:

http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats. … etail.html

As you can see, only 168 hits from Arch surfers, while for example Pardus Linux has 43220.

So I've looked at my user agent string and this is what I've found.

In Konqueror:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.5; Linux 2.6.23-ARCH; X11; i686; en_US) KHTML/3.5.8 (like Gecko)

In Firefox:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071020 Firefox/2.0.0.1

You see, Konqueror does report "Linux 2.6.23-ARCH", but Firefox just "Linux i686". Since Firefox is the most used browser, no wonder the usage statistics are so low.

Not that it matters that much, but I think it would be nice and fair to have the ARCH tag in every browser shipped by Arch Linux, so that it shows the real usage in AWStats.

Not sure if this is important enough to report it as a "bug"... What do you think?

retsaw · 2007-10-22 23:07:50

Maybe Arch Linux users don't visit Distrowatch because they are happy with Arch.

I don't really think it is important what the user agent string reports. At the moment I have the Firesomething extension installed with it set to change the user agent, so right now it will be reporting that I'm using Mozilla Spacedog instead of BonEcho.

peets · 2007-10-23 02:31:35

retsaw wrote:

Maybe Arch Linux users don't visit Distrowatch because they are happy with Arch.

Yes. Plus, if firefox displays the same type of user agent string for every distro, the stats are somewhat representative. But I think the packager may be the one deciding that string (?)

I used to go to distrowatch often. I discovered Arch Linux doing so. I haven't been there since!

Threads like these make me realise how I (and maybe Arch/Linux users in general) are geeks.

Last edited by peets (2007-10-23 02:32:50)

lumiwa · 2007-10-23 11:41:23

Bogart wrote:

http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats. … etail.html

So I've looked at my user agent string and this is what I've found.
In Konqueror:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.5; Linux 2.6.23-ARCH; X11; i686; en_US) KHTML/3.5.8 (like Gecko)
In Firefox:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071020 Firefox/2.0.0.1
You see, Konqueror does report "Linux 2.6.23-ARCH", but Firefox just "Linux i686". Since Firefox is the most used browser, no wonder the usage statistics are so low.

Maybe Konqueror users has version of Linux turned off. I have it .

Bogart · 2007-10-23 13:21:19

retsaw wrote:

Maybe Arch Linux users don't visit Distrowatch because they are happy with Arch.

Well, AWStats is not a Distrowatch specific feature. AWStats is used all over the net by most of the sites to track their visits.

So sure it's not very important, but since AWstats included Arch among the distributions that can be detected, why not report it by default (anyone can turn it off if he wants)? I just think it would be fair for Arch to show its real usage, which is much, much higher than reported now.

While Arch is not competing for market share (Arch is about technical excellence, right? ), I guess developers would be happy to see that Arch is actually used by many people.

Just my thoughts...

zenlord · 2007-10-23 15:42:32

Bogart wrote:

While Arch is not competing for market share (Arch is about technical excellence, right? ), I guess developers would be happy to see that Arch is actually used by many people.

I agree.

Maybe this is something that should be agreed upon by all those who package the different browsers? Although it would mean more work for the packager, I think the stats going up would be a nice reward for the packagers/devs.

Zl.

phrakture · 2007-10-23 18:39:24

Bogart wrote:

You see, Konqueror does report "Linux 2.6.23-ARCH", but Firefox just "Linux i686". Since Firefox is the most used browser, no wonder the usage statistics are so low.
Not that it matters that much, but I think it would be nice and fair to have the ARCH tag in every browser shipped by Arch Linux, so that it shows the real usage in AWStats.
Not sure if this is important enough to report it as a "bug"... What do you think?

Hmm, file it as a feature request. I see your point, but I don't know if there's much we can do. I guess we could always patch the uname call in firefox, though.

Bogart · 2007-10-23 21:08:39

phrakture wrote:

Hmm, file it as a feature request. I see your point, but I don't know if there's much we can do. I guess we could always patch the uname call in firefox, though.

Done.

I looked at Ubuntu and they have in about:config a preference named "general.useragent.vendor" set to value "Ubuntu". I'm not sure how it can be done, but if other distributions do it, it must be possible.

IceHand · 2007-10-23 21:38:18

Bogart wrote:

I looked at Ubuntu and they have in about:config a preference named "general.useragent.vendor" set to value "Ubuntu". I'm not sure how it can be done, but if other distributions do it, it must be possible.

That's actually really easy to do, well manually that is:
- Go to "about:config"
- Right-click -> New -> String
- Enter "general.useragent.vendor" as the preference name (without the quotation marks of course)
- Enter ... I don't know, "Arch" as the value?
Now look at Firefox' about dialog -- it's magic!

Last edited by IceHand (2007-10-23 22:15:08)

kensai · 2007-10-23 23:28:40

It was nice to have a feature request filed for this, as Arch Linux is about freedom so everybody can express their opinions in a respectful way. And as much as I'm in for the idea, I also see Roman Kyrylych point of view acceptable in part stating: "Arch tries to provide as vanilla packages as possible, with patches only for bug fixing, not for customization." And this is true, Arch is as vanilla as possible and this is good as well.

EDIT: I never thought about the fact that Arch already has a customized KDE with their own artwork and OO.org as well. Is just that GNOME is so vanilla.

Last edited by kensai (2007-10-29 14:08:09)

Arch Linux

#1 2007-10-22 22:10:50

Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

#2 2007-10-22 23:07:50

Re: Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

#3 2007-10-23 02:31:35

Re: Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

#4 2007-10-23 11:41:23

Re: Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

#5 2007-10-23 13:21:19

Re: Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

#6 2007-10-23 15:42:32

Re: Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

#7 2007-10-23 18:39:24

Re: Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

#8 2007-10-23 21:08:39

Re: Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

#9 2007-10-23 21:38:18

Re: Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

#10 2007-10-23 23:28:40

Re: Arch Linux in OS detection statistics

Board footer