[WEB4LIB] Re: Browsers

[Richard L. Goerwitz]

David Merchant wrote:
> 
> At 07:04 AM 6/4/99 -0700, Peter Kendal wrote:
> >Why do so many academic institutions use Netscape instead of IE?
> >And why was this the case when Netscape had to be paid for?
> 
> Because back when Netscape had to be paid for, it was free for educational
> institutions.  It came out before IE as well and educational institutions
> was were the web was most used (at first).  This legacy means that NN is
> used more often at institutions than IE but that is changing.

It's more than that (at least in my limited experience).

I remember the mood turning among some of my technical acquaintances when
Microsoft started changing its licensing policies for its stock software
(Word, etc.).  People started realizing how vulnerable a position they
had put themselves in, relying so heavily on Microsoft.  A lot of people
are still Macophiles, too, and, rather than blame Apple for turning the
whole world off by its stance on intellectual property, just blindly vent
at Microsoft, and refuse to use IE.

There's also the Linux factor.  Linux is coming more to the fore.  Since
IE won't run under Linux (Microsoft really just wishes that Linux would
go away), such institutions have little reason to go with IE (at least
exclusively).

Smaller universities that lack technical capability, and tend to cut the
sorts of one-vendor deals that we see in industry, do seem to be tending
more towards IE these days.

Does anyone have any hard stats on browser usage in academia?

-- 

Richard Goerwitz
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