Re: Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics

Applaud Applaud..  I agree with you 100%.   I  am a diehard Netscape
user.  When you discuss these statistics, about how many MSIE users
compared to Netscape and others..  you have to back up and think a minute.

WHY is MSIE more prevalent?  Not because it is a superior product...but
BECAUSE every new computer that is sold with a Windows platform has it
installed on it.  New computer owners, get home and want to get on the
internet right away.  First thing they do is go to what? THE ONLY browser
that is on their computer, (if they are lucky enough to bypass the AOL icon
and the CompuServe icon) and they sign up for the internet and start
surfing.  Many of these individuals have never even heard of Netscape.  So
before you start talking about how popular MSIE is you better take into
account that it was shoved in the face of the new computer owner, before he
was given a choice to use something else.  I would say the scales are a bit
tipped.  I could be incorrect in this, but isn't that why THE MAN was sued
in the first place?  I could have sworn is was because he was including his
browser with his operating system, thus dominating the internet market.  Has
nothing to do with superior product, but more to do with captured audience
to me.

What is funny.  In my area, if you go to a local ISP, they ALL say they
support Netscape, and they explain why.  Maybe it is just my area.  Do they
know something we don't?
I have no concern over those Statistics.  They were thrown off kilter a long
time ago, when W__dows became standard issue on a computer that was sold in
a store for the main public.

Design for all no mater how insignificant you think they are.  Designing for
just MSIE is
being a bit snobbish and saying the rest of you are not important enough to
matter. I have news for you, my money spends VERY well on my Netscape
Browser.  So Mr. Allred
my hat is off to you!

Oh..and Netscape is slow in development from what I hear all of you saying
and now remind me.... who owns Netscape now?

Nancy

> From my perspective, if everyone in the design community would pledge to
> read through the WAI materials on the W3C site and the AWARE materials on
> the HWG site, the whole web would be better off. This might also allow us
> to come to some agreement on our terminology. I won't attempt to define
the
> word, "sccessible," here. Rather, I urge you to investigate it for
> yourself, if you haven't already. I will say that accessibility has little
> to do with much in the discussions centering around cross-browser
> compatibility and browser sniffing. It has to do with whether site
visitors
> can get to, or access, information provided on a site, even if it must be
> through a different means than those folks using IE 5.
>
> If you produce work for the federal government and, soon, most state
> governments, you must design for every person with a disability.
Businesses
> can do what they want, if they don't receive federal money, but they do so
> at their own peril. A person who is blind and must use a text-to-speech
> browser has a disability. Is it morally defensible to ignore this person
if
> s/he is only one in 1000? If not, when does this group become
> "statistically significant?" One in one hundred? One in ten? Three in ten?
>
> The idea that once IE reaches the 95% mark among web users, we can then
> ignore everybody else really scares me. It's kind of like saying that the
> smart people matter and everybody else doesn't. Well, this dummy agrees
> that NS 4.x is not "standards compliant," but noting that it predates
these
> standards that it doesn't comply with. However, it has a lot of things
> going for it that will have me using it for many years to come, at least
> until there is a viable replacement in NS 6. I have credit cards that I
use
> to buy on the web. Are you sure you want to ignore me?
>
> A final thought: don't confuse the effort to create a design that displays
> consistently across multiple browsers with accessibility. If we get bogged
> down in trying to make a page appear identically for all browsers, we
> probably lose site of the (to me) more important issue: whether everyone
> has access to the information, no matter how it appears to them.
>
> Regards,
> --John
>

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