What operating systems do U.S. women over 50 use (at home, not at
work)? Specifically, what percent use Win98, Win2000, WinXP, Mac, etc?

Specific percentages by age would be excellent -- though perhaps
impossible to find.

Any information to give me a better picture of the "OS landscape" for
women in the U.S. would be helpful.

Dear me, I will certainly be interested to see whether or not anyone
finds such a statistic anywhere.  Just fyi, I'm a woman over 50 and at
home I use a self-built computer currently running W98SE.  Also, in
the next room is a computer I also use from time to time, a brand-name
model running W2K.  My older sister uses a "big box" brand-name PC
running W2K, and a good friend uses an older PC with W95!

I'm a woman over 50. I have thirteen computers in my home, running
everything from AmigaDOS to Linux, with many flavors of Windows in
between. I have a neighbor who is my age; she is still running Windows
3.1 on a 386 with a monochrome monitor, and (despite being teased by
me) she has no interest in upgrading either her hardware or her
software.

Even if demographics on older women and operating systems were readily
available, I question whether they would be of much use. I think it's
too broad (no pun intended) a category to be very meaningful.

To use Kurt Vonnegut's excellent coinage, age and gender are granfalloons.

I too, am over 50, and use two computers I built myself last year. One
is running Win98 SE, the other is running Win XP. Most of my over 50
friends use Win 98 or XP.

My 74 year-old mother in-law uses an Athlon Thunderbird box I built
for her, and runs WinME.  My 67 year-old neighbor runs Win98SE on a
Gateway.  Neither lady knows her OS from her e-mail client.

I must agree with pinkfreud, in that even if such demographic
information was available (and I've had zero luck finding even the
faintest sniff of a lead), it probably wouldn't be terribly useful.

May I ask why you're seeking these figures?  Perhaps that will help us
ferret out something useful for you.

--Missy

I'm 61 and use WinXP Home.  Up until one year ago I was using Win98
SE.  I have several close friends who are as old or older than me and
most use Win98 SE and a few use XP.   I also know some who use
Win2000.

Seems like a mixed bag - again - no pun intended!  :)

Best regards,
tlspiegel

Hi, bjfogg. My mother fits your category. She has two computers; both run Mac OS.

dtcc