this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I'm carious how they monitor linux desktop users maybe by web agent ?Â
Yes
It doesn't mean much, it's just a metric people like around here. This number can grow and shrink just as easily with spoofed user agents strings. I think brave spoofs it and there's a chrome extension, there maybe a few more examples.
I wouldn't take it at face value is what I'm getting at. There's just no other way to measure because most distros don't collect telemetry and Firefox doesn't seem to make theirs public.
Websites choose to use their web analytics, then the site combines the web analytics looks at the web agent and guesses from there. I don't think the number has much meaning, it could vary widely if a Linux centric site opted in or if a privacy extension chooses to black/white list their stuff my default.