• WolfLink@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    16 hours ago

    What’s the difference between “OS X” and “macOS” on this chart?

    Surely 20% of the market share isn’t Mac’s that are so old their OS is over 10 years old? I don’t know how else to interpret that…

    • MimicJar@lemmy.world
      0·
      5 hours ago

      So I can’t find a great answer, but as best I can tell StatCounter uses user agents to determine this data, the web browser being the most obvious source but not the only source.

      The user agent for most web browsers on “macOS” the operating system generally report as “Mac OS X”. So other user agents, which report things like “Macintosh” but rarely actually “macOS”, are reported as “macOS”.

      This also explains why “OS X” has a larger share than “macOS”. Web browsers on the macOS operating system are used more than “other”.

      At first glance you’d think “OS X” and “macOS” should just be combined. But chances are if someone is using a web browser on macOS, they’re probably also using “other”.

      Another problem is that we don’t know how StatCounter is handling duplicate/fake data. If I constantly hit refresh or send analytics from a single device, how is that counted? What if I send “OS X” and “macOS” data?

      Luckily we also have the Cloudflare data, which shows Linux between 9% and 15%. So StatCounter using 10% is probably on the lower side, but within the margins.

    • Crashumbc@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      7 hours ago

      Macs just work and the type to buy them aren’t going to replace them until they stop.

      Plus most Mac users don’t do anything stressful, browsing and streaming which even most 15 year old machines will do fine at this point.