Hopefully Adobe will see this and realize that Linux *IS* a mainstream operating system now, and will start to support it.

Is it possible to automatically detect the OS that is being used by computers that hit this site? I think it would be interesting if you could get good statistics on _all_ readers, not just ones that answer poll. It might be interesting to see if, for instance, Mac users are just more "poll friendly" than users of other OS's.

"Or, is is simply the fact that Microsoft hasn't had a compelling operating system since the release of XP in 2001?"

I don't think it is a matter of being "compelling" or "not compelling"; rather, I think it is purely a matter of "standards conformance". Microsoft seems to completely disregard open standards as evidenced by the fact that it has taken Microsoft quite some time to sign on to HTML5, as evidenced by the fact that every Microsoft operating system has failed to comply with the most important open standard for computing in existence -- the Single UNIX Specification --, as evidenced by the fact that, for years, Visual Studio's C++ implementation was flagrantly non-conformant, and as evidenced by the fact that Microsoft keeps on inventing its own .NET languages, rather than rallying around existing languages with ISO specifications.

Personally, Windows is completely off the table until a.) Windows joins the UNIX family of operating systems and b.) Windows provides a terminal emulator that doesn't suck (i.e., one that has a resizable window, that supports tab completion, and that uses BASH as the default shell).

@Amy, yes it is possible to detect the OS that is being used by all computers that hit the site. Basically, when a browser (a.k.a. user agent) contacts a website, it will generally include a user agent string -- a string that is used to identify the particular user agent that is used to view the site. The user agent string generally includes operating system on which the user agent is running. While it is very easy to fake the user agent string, the vast majority of users will be sending true user agent info. The reason for the user agent string is that it allows websites to return content that will display optimally for the browser that is being used and also to restrict which HTTP features are used based on the subset of HTTP features that are known to be supported by the given browser.

@beau - please cite your source showing that Linux is indeed a "mainstream" OS. Personally, I find that rather doubtful. But I'm sure Adobe would be happy to support Linux once they see they can make money from it. After all, that's what Adobe is in business for, making money.

@michael - if I understand your complaint properly you are saying Windows is no good simply because it is not Unix. How about you just use Unix for what you need Unix for? Some of us don't have a problem that Windows is not Unix.

There is nothing wrong with Microsoft going their own direction if they don't agree with the current spec. What they create may end up being a mistake or could, in the end, be worse. But it could be better and you don't know until it is tried. That's how new specs are made. With that kind of attitude we wouldn't have HTML5 in the works because everyone should be rallying around the HTML4 specification. We would all still be using punch cards for data storage if some rebel didn't decide to try magnetic tape instead.

Now, Microsoft has been slow to the game with updating their software to meet standards that everybody else is using or want to use, but the counter to that is the market stops using their products. Which is happening. Making demands will do no good, but the market will dictate Microsoft's future.

I think the distribution is a direct reflection of the scope of this site. Users of the Adobe design/development tools tend towards using Macs. Since a large portion of this site is related to Actionscript/Flash/Flex - there you go.

I would agree that the visitors to this site would choose the OS's represented here. I doubt that "power users" or developers who use Java or .Net would have the same distribution.

How does Adobe not support Linux? As far as RIA's go, which this site is for, they support Linux. ColdFusion and Flash - player included - all run on linux.

Lastly, look at the stats of which user agent views this site the most and I would bet its windows machines.

whoa, are actual windows users the ones who "think different" these days? i agree that windows 7 is pretty good.

@Mark i think most of us would agree that we would all switch to linux if adobe were able to move their full cs3 suite of applications over to linux. flashplayer and their servers are not enough to really convince a flash platform developer to switch over... we need photoshop, illustrator flash etc... on a daily basis.

@Mark, Adobe does not support Linux.... unless you have managed to find a magical version of the Adobe Creative Suite that runs on it.

As for UNIX... your comparison with HTML5 is completely off the mark. HTML5 is, after all, a standardization effort between multiple parties (Apple, Google, and Mozilla, primarily) in order to provide an open standard that will provide developers with a single specification, rather than multiple incompatible implementations. This is exactly the spirit behind the Single UNIX Specification and why I support it so fervently; I don't mind Windows going off and doing its own thing, so long as it EXTENDS existing open standards. Instead, it has chosen to not support any of these standards, at all. This means that applications which target UNIX cannot run on Windows. One of the greatest attributes of Mac OS X is that it is a fully conformant Single UNIX Specification version 3 implementation. That means that nearly all open source software developed for Linux can be compiled and run on OS X without modification.