[IxDA Discuss] browser window size stats/studies ?

[Jim Drew / CFM Designs]

From: Vassili Bykov <vbykov at cincom.com>
>
>Adrian Howard wrote:
>
>>  It's also dependant on the platform. For example almost no Mac users 
>>  will have their windows set to their maximum screen resolution since 
>>  there isn't an "easy" way of doing it.
>
>I am a Mac user and I don't see that as the primary reason. I think the
>main reason is the prevalence on the Mac of large displays with wide
>aspect  ratio. For most applications, a window of size and proportion
>equal to a typical Mac screen is simply unnecessarily wide.

I'm a Mac user and neither I nor any other Mac users I know outside 
of pro photo  and design people have those extra wide screens.  I 
think they are a lot less prevalent than you might assume.  (Of 
course, in the end, what sort of users are in the set being examined 
tells the tale best.)

There are two other obvious reasons I see for Mac users to not have 
full width browser windows, however.  First, anyone who uses the Dock 
on the right or the left and doesn't auto-hide it cannot use full 
width windows; they can't infringe in the Dock's space.  And second, 
the inherent nature of the Mac has the Finder as an app than can be 
brought to the front by clicking past open windows and onto the 
desktop.  Mac users in general (in my experience) are more apt to 
make use of overlapping app windows than Windows users are.  (Indeed, 
I use Windows at work and Mac at home.  At work, my browser [Firefox] 
is full width unless I need to be swapping between apps; at home, my 
browser [Safari] is almost never full width.)
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Jim Drew		   Seattle, WA		   cfmdesigns at earthlink.net
    http://home.earthlink.net/~rubberize/Weblog/index.html (Update: 5/2)
		(Subject: Movie Commentary: I, Robot)