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Polls conducted between 2000 - 2006

Quick links

Year 2006

December 2006 - When was the last time you cleaned your computer?
November 2006 - What e-mail program do you use?
October 2006 - Do you have a MySpace page?
September 2006 - When was the last time you restarted your computer?
June 2006 - Do you believe technology has made your life easier?
May 2006 - Would you pay to send e-mail?
Apr. 2006 - Would you allow a chip to be implanted into you?
Mar. 2006 - How often do you backup?
Feb. 2006 - How many computers do you have?
Jan. 2006 - Which antivirus program do you use?

Year 2005

December 2005 - Do you listen to Podcasts?
November 2005 - What brand of processor does your computer have?
October 2005 - How many words per minute (WPM) can you type?
September 2005 - Have you used VoIP to make Internet phone calls?
August 2005 - Do you think games provoke violence?
July 2005 - Have you used a site to legally download music?
June 2005 - Have you burned your own CD?
May 2005 - Have you tried online dating?
Apr 2005 - Do you have a wireless network?
Mar 2005 - Which is your favorite search engine?
Feb 2005 - Have you installed Linux on your computer?
Jan. 2005 - What is your display resolution set to?

Year 2004

Dec. 2004 - Do you play computer games?
Nov. 2004 - When was your last computer hardware upgrade?
Oct. 2004 - Which Operating System are you using?
Sep. 2004 - Which Internet Browser do you prefer?
July & Aug. 2004 - What is your favorite media player?
June 2004 - Do you still illegally download songs from the Internet?
May 2004 - Do you have a spyware protection installed on your computer?
Apr. 2004 - Do you spend more time on the computer than you do watching TV?

Mar. 2004 - Which computer pioneer do you envy the most?
Feb. 2004 - What type of computer do you use?
Jan. 2004 - Are you a computer geek / nerd?

Year 2003

Nov. & Dec. 2003 - What size of monitor do you have?
Oct. 2003 - How much total hard disk space does your computer have?
Sep. 2003 - Has your computer ever been infected with a virus or worm?
Aug. 2003 - What's the average amount of SPAM do you receive weekly?
July 2003 - Do you still purchase audio CDs?
June 2003 - Do you think computers will some day be smarter than humans?
May 2003 - How often do you use floppies?
Apr. 2003 - Which Internet Browser do you prefer?
Mar.
2003 - Do you have your own website?
Feb.
2003 - What do you use the computer for?
Jan.
2003 - Which type of display do you have?

Year 2002

Dec. 2002 - Have you suffered from a computer stress related injury?
Nov. 2002 - Do you think computer games are addictive?
Oct. 2002 - Which is your favorite search engine?
Sep.
2002 - What's your Internet connection?
Aug.
2002 - How many computer problems have you had in the last month?
July
2002 - How many hours a week are you on the Internet?
June
2002 - Which version of Microsoft Windows is your favorite?
May.
2002 - How many hours a week are you on a computer?
Apr.
2002 - What is the speed of your computer processor?
Mar.
2002 - What do you do with your SPAM?
Feb.
2002 - Which Instant Messenger do you use?
Jan.
2002 - Do you have your own home network?

Year 2001

Dec. 2001 - How many computers do you own?
Nov. 2001 - What is your favorite computer related movie?
Oct. 2001 - How many MP3 files do you have?
Sept. 2001 - Do you read software license agreements?
Aug. 2001 - Do you have a broadband Internet connection?
July 2001 - Do you plan on upgrading to Windows XP?
June 2001 - How many years have you used a computer?
May 2001 - Would you trust Microsoft with all your personal data?
Apr. 2001 - Have you received all your submitted computer related rebates?
Mar. 2001 - Do you have a DVD player in your computer?
Feb. 2001 - Do you turn off your computer at night?
Jan. 2001 - What do you dislike most about the Internet?

Year 2000

Dec. 2000 - Do you plan on buying online this holiday?
Nov. 2000 - What do you use the Internet for?
Oct. 2000 - Do you believe it is ok to Pirate software?
Sept. 2000 - Which is your favorite search engine?
Aug. 2000 - Do you think violent games provoke violence?
July 2000 - Which Operating System are you using?
June 2000 - Do you think you have enough privacy on the Internet?
May 2000 - Which Internet Browser do you prefer?

Apr. 2000 - Do you think Microsoft is a monopoly?
Mar. 2000 - Do you think there should be Internet Taxes?
Feb. 2000 - What would you like to see on Computer Hope

When was the last time you cleaned your computer?
Conducted December 1 - 31, 2006

This week    573 (33.9%)
This month    332 (19.6%)
This year    259 (15.3%)
Over a year ago    130 (7.7%)
Never    392 (23.2%)
Total votes: 1686

What is this all about? Many computer users never consider cleaning their computer and computer components. With studies showing that the computer keyboard is one of the most dirty spots in all homes we thought it would be interesting this month to see how often people clean their computers.

What does Computer Hope think? Like 19% of the users who voted we would of also voted this month. Although we don't often clean all our computers monthly we try to clean the ones being used the most at least once every month.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

What e-mail program do you use?
Conducted November 1 - 30, 2006

Eudora    50 (3.3%)
Lotus Notes    61 (4%)
Outlook    336 (22.4%)
Outlook Express    356 (23.8%)
Pine    6 (0.4%)
Thunderbird    211 (14.1%)
Use online e-mail    320 (21.4%)
Other    154 (10.3%)
Total votes: 1495

What is this all about? E-mail is the most widely used and most popular service used on the Internet. We thought it would be interesting this month to see what users are using to send and receive their e-mail.

What does Computer Hope think? In the past we've used Microsoft Outlook as our primary program to send and receive e-mail. However, we recently moved all our computers to the free and open-source e-mail program Mozilla Thunderbird and have been real happy with the results.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Do you have a MySpace page?
Conducted October 1 - 31, 2006

<Results lost due to forum error>

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of MySpace we thought it would be interesting this month to see how many users out there have their own MySpace page.

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope created its own MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/computerhope therefore we would of voted

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

When was the last time you restarted your computer?
Conducted September 1 - 30, 2006

Today    564 (54.8%)
Yesterday    170 (16.5%)
A few days ago    120 (11.6%)
Over a week ago    64 (6.2%)
A month ago    26 (2.5%)
Over a month ago    36 (3.5%)
Over a year ago    48 (4.6%)
Total votes: 1028

What is this all about? Often a computers stability and/or reliability is judged by how long a computer can remain on without having to be restarted because of errors, power outages, or other problems.  We thought it would be interesting to see how often our users restart their computer.

What does Computer Hope think? Of course this all depends on which computers this poll relates to. However, overall most of our computers are restarted over a week ago, although weve had several *nix boxes up and running for several months (5-9 months) without needing a restart.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Has technology made your life easier?
Conducted June 1 - 30, 2006

Yes    97 (80.8%)
No    9 (7.5%)
Not sure    14 (11.6%)
Total votes: 120

What is this all about? With all the new types of technologies that have been introduced into the public, ie: mobile phones, MP3 players, GPS devices, satellite radio, computer and computer accessories, etc. We thought it would be interesting to see if people believe all these new gadgets and other technology devices have made life easier.

What does Computer Hope think? Although technology can seem to make life more difficult at times we believe overall technology and many of the different gadgets have made life easier and more productive.

Would you pay to send e-mail?
Conducted May 1 - 31, 2006

Yes    94 (4.3%)
No    1924 (89.5%)
Maybe    130 (6%)
Total Votes: 2148

What's this all about? Recently there have been talks by many large companies who handle a lot of e-mail such as AOL, Microsoft, and a few others to develop a system to charge a small fee to help manage and control e-mail and potentially stop spam. We thought it would be interesting to see if users would pay for such a service and see our visitors thoughts on the subject.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of our visitors we too would not pay for e-mail. We find e-mail is a great service but find that it should remain free to the public even with the problems it does have.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Would you allow a chip to be implanted into you?
Conducted April 1 - 30, 2006

Yes    390 (25%)
No    889 (57.1%)
Maybe    277 (17.8%)
Total votes: 1556

What's this all about? There has been recent news over the last few years of tests and experiments with various types of implants in humans. With many animals and pets already getting implants to help with identification and tracking we thought it would be interesting to see how many of our users would have an implant implanted into them if it became widely available.

What does Computer Hope think? We would have no issue with having implants assuming the implant was something beneficial such as monitoring health conditions or making life easier. Therefore we would have voted yes for this month's poll.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

How often do you backup?
Conducted March 1 - 31, 2006

Daily    329 (17%)
Weekly    232 (12%)
Monthly    324 (16.8%)
Yearly    166 (8.6%)
Never    876 (45.4%)
Total votes: 1927

What is this all about? Many users become to dependant on their computers and often never backup their data and end up regretting it when their data is lost or their computer crashes causing the data to become lost. We thought we would run this poll as a reminder for those users who don't backup as well as to see how many users out there don't. As can be seen from the above results many users never backup their data.

What does Computer Hope think? Although we do run often daily updates overall we usually run weekly updates with other programs such as Norton Ghost and other scripts to handle other frequent updating after updating files.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

How many computers do you have?
Conducted February 1 - 28, 2006

Only one    698 (22.7%)
Two    770 (25.1%)
Three    632 (20.6%)
Four    330 (10.7%)
Five    197 (6.4%)
Six to 10    232 (7.5%)
More than 10    207 (6.7%)
Total votes: 3249

What is this all about? This is the first month Computer Hope will be testing out integrating the forum polls with the website. We hope this will bring more of a community feel to the site and forums and help migrate both of the services. We thought it would be interesting this month to see how many computers each of our users has.

What does Computer Hope think? We have 10 working computers and 4 non-working / partially working computers. Almost each of these computers is a completely unique setup including the operating system with each of the major Windows operating systems running on at least one of the computers.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Which antivirus program do you use?
Conducted January 1 - 31, 2006

Norton (1465 votes) 38.36%
McAfee (833 votes) 21.81%
F-Prot (35 votes) 0.92%
Other (1280 votes) 33.52%
None (206 votes) 5.39%
(Total Votes: 3819 )

What is this all about? With the wide variety of different virus scanners available today we thought it would be interesting to see what antivirus scanner programs users are running on their computers. Because of the large amount of other votes and at the request of forum users additional votes were made possible through the forum polls.

What does Computer Hope think? We actually run a couple different variants of different virus scanners. However, we primarily use Norton as our antivirus program. Therefore we would have voted for Norton this month, in addition to running Norton we also run McAfee and AVG on other computers.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Do you listen to Podcasts?
Conducted December 1 - 31, 2005

All the time (71 votes) 8.37%
Sometimes (133 votes) 15.68%
No (644 votes) 75.94%
(Total Votes: 848 )

What is this all about? The year 2005 is also known as the year of the Podcast, was also named as the word of the year. With the increased popularity and press on podcasts we thought it would be interesting to see how many of our visitors are listening to podcasts.

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope would have voted for 'All the time', for this months poll. We were a little surprised to see how many users were not listening to podcast and how little votes we got on this months quiz. It's obvious both from this poll and other articles about podcasts that we've read that podcasting is still not mainstream and may not be for some time.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

What brand of processor does your computer have?
Conducted November 1 - 30, 2005

AMD (1390 votes) 36.49%
Intel (2215 votes) 58.15%
Other (91 votes) 2.39%
Not sure (113 votes) 2.97%
(Total Votes: 3809 )

What is this all about? With all the news reports about AMD processors out selling Intel processors we thought it would be interesting this month to see what processor our users were running.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of our visitors we are also primarily running computers with Intel processors. Although we do have a few computers also running AMD processors. Therefore this month we would have voted for Intel.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

How many words per minute (WPM) can you type?
Conducted October 1 - 31, 2005

Less than 20 (493 votes) 17.07%
20 - 40 (736 votes) 25.48%
40 - 60 (778 votes) 26.94%
60 - 80 (444 votes) 15.37%
Over 80 (437 votes) 15.13%
(Total Votes: 2888 )

What is this all about? With more people working on the computer everyday, chatting, and browsing the Internet, we thought it would be interesting this month to see how many words per minute users on our website could type.

What does Computer Hope think? This month I would have voted for 60 - 80; on average, I get 65-75 WPM. We were real surprised to see how many of our visitors could type over 80 words per minute.

  Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Have you used VoIP to make Internet phone calls?
Conducted September 1 - 30, 2005

Yes (404 votes) 30.75%
Planning on it (136 votes) 10.35%
No (705 votes) 53.65%
Not sure (69 votes) 5.25%
(Total Votes: 1314 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of broadband connections and the increased popularity of talking to other users using VoIP, we thought it would be interesting this month to see how many of our visitors have used their computers to make phone calls or use some other type of VoIP technology.

What does Computer Hope think? Computer hope has used VoIP to make Internet phone calls as well as used VoIP technologies such as Skype, TeamSpeak, and Ventrilo and has been very satisfied with each of the programs and their abilities. We strongly believe that this technology is only going to get better and who knows soon all your phone calls even mobile calls will go over the Internet.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Do you think games provoke violence?
Conducted August 1 - 31, 2005

Yes (657 votes) 26.93%
No (1115 votes) 45.70%
Sometimes (582 votes) 23.85%
Uncertain (86 votes) 3.52%
(Total Votes: 2440 )

What is this all about? With all the recent news about the computer game Grand Theft Auto SanAndreas, we thought it would be interesting once again to see how many of our users believe that computer games provoke violence.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of the people who participated in this month's poll we would have voted "No". We believe a person who commits any type of violence or crime has problems that have been caused by a lifetime of different reasons and that playing a game is not the primary cause of the persons behavior.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Have you used a site to legally download music?
Conducted July 1 - 31, 2005

Yes - iTunes (261 votes) 17.17%
Yes - Napster (57 votes) 3.75%
Yes - eMusic (34 votes) 2.24%
Yes - Other (260 votes) 17.11%
No (908 votes) 59.74%
(Total Votes: 1520 )

What is this all about? News reports and various other reports have reported the increased popularity with new sites that provide a method of easily getting music legally over the Internet. We thought it would be interesting to see how many of our users were actually using one of these services.

What does Computer Hope think? We have used a few of these services, because we have used Apple iTunes the most we would have voted for it this month. However, overall we don't use these services to get the majority of our music. Find it easier to buy a CD or get the music from other legal free music sites. 

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Have you burned your own CD?
Conducted June 1 - 30, 2005 

Yes (1581 votes) 85.83%
No (219 votes) 11.89%
Not sure (42 votes) 2.28%
(Total Votes: 1842 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of creating your own CDs and many new computers coming equipped with the software and hardware that allows you to burn your own CD, we thought it would be interesting this month to see how many of our users have created their own CD.  

What does Computer Hope think? For this month's poll we would have voted "Yes", we have burned several CDs over the last few years.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Have you tried online dating?
Conducted May 1 - 31, 2005

Yes, it worked (227 votes) 16.32%
Yes, didn't work (190 votes) 13.66%
Planning on it (70 votes) 5.03%
No (904 votes) 64.99%
(Total Votes: 1391 )

What is this all about? We thought this month it would be interesting to see how many users out there have tried online dating and how it worked for them.

What does Computer Hope think? We have not tried online dating, so we would have voted no this month.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Do you have a wireless network?
Conducted April 1 - 30, 2005

Yes (1076 votes) 48.69%
No (1079 votes) 48.82%
Not sure (55 votes) 2.49%
(Total Votes: 2210 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity with wireless networks, we thought it would be interesting this month to see how many users out there have a wireless network in their home or office setup.

What does Computer Hope think? Although we do not primarily use it, we do have a wireless network, therefore we would have voted "Yes" for this month's poll.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Which is your favorite search engine?
Conducted March 1 - 31, 2005

Ask Jeeves (141 votes) 4.38%
Google (2590 votes) 80.48%
MSN (95 votes) 2.95%
Yahoo (280 votes) 8.70%
Other (112 votes) 3.48%
(Total Votes: 3218 )

What is this all about? We have ran this poll in the past and we thought it would be interesting to see if everyone still feels the same way about their favorite Search Engine. As we and probably most of you expected, Google overwhelmingly was everyone's favorite search engine.

What does Computer Hope think? We would have to agree with the overwhelming majority of our users that our favorite search engine is Google. 

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

Have you installed Linux on your computer?
Conducted February 1 - 28, 2005

Yes, but uninstalled (306 votes) 19.02%
Yes, still installed (469 votes) 29.15%
No (834 votes) 51.83%
(Total Votes: 1609 )

What is this all about? With the increasing popularity of Linux variants we thought it would be interesting this month to see how many users out there have tried Linux and are still running it. We were surprised to see that over half of our audience has not even tried Linux.

What does Computer Hope think? We have several computers and several different configurations setup. Therefore we would have answered "Yes, still installed" for this month's poll.

Click here to see other users' comments about this poll

What is your display resolution set to?
Conducted January 1 - 31, 2005

640 x 480 (166 votes) 3.47%
800 x 600 (857 votes) 17.93%
1024 x 768 (2667 votes) 55.78%
1152 x 864 (375 votes) 7.84%
Other (716 votes) 14.98%
(Total Votes: 4781 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of bigger monitors and flat panels we thought it would be interesting this month to see what everyone is running for their resolution.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of our users we also run all our displays at 1024x768. 

Do you play computer games?
Conducted December 1 - 31, 2004

Yes (1419 votes) 69.90%
No (611 votes) 30.10%
(Total Votes: 2030 )

What is this all about? With the gaming industry now the second most profitable entertainment industry we thought it would be interesting this month to see how many of our visitors play computer games.  

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of our visitors Computer Hope would have voted Yes for this month's poll.

When was your last computer hardware upgrade?
Conducted November 1 - 30, 2004

Less than 3 months (501 votes) 33.47%
Between 3-6 months (170 votes) 11.36%
Between 6-12 months (223 votes) 14.90%
Between 1-2 years (257 votes) 17.17%
Over 2 years ago (346 votes) 23.11%
(Total Votes: 1497 )

What is this all about? We thought it would be interesting this month to see how many of our visitors have recently upgraded their computers because of the decreases of computer prices and the increasing demands of computer software. 

What does Computer Hope think? As you may have imagined Computer Hope has several computers and because we must test and learn about all new technologies we find ourselves frequently upgrading the hardware in our computer. For this month's poll we would have voted: Less than 3 months.

Click here for other users comments about this month's poll

Which Operating System are you using?
Conducted October 1 - 31, 2004

Windows 95/98/ME (713 votes) 18.84%
Windows NT/2K/XP (2689 votes) 71.06%
Mac OS (106 votes) 2.80%
BeOS (13 votes) 0.34%
Unix / Linux (263 votes) 6.95%
(Total Votes: 3784 )

What is this all about? With the increasing popularity of Linux / Unix and the new versions of Microsoft Windows we thought it would be interesting this month to see what operating system our users are using. 

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope has computers running each of these operating systems or variants of each of these operating systems. However, we primarily have computers running Windows NT/2K/XP and therefore we voted for Windows NT/2K/XP.

We also conducted this poll in July 2000, as can be seen from the below results many users are moving into later versions of Microsoft Windows.

Windows 95 / 98 (539 votes) 61.95%
Windows NT / 2000 (198 votes) 22.76%
Mac OS (38 votes) 4.37%
BeOS (11 votes) 1.26%
Unix / Linux (84 votes) 9.66%
(Total Votes: 870 )

Click here for other users comments about this month's poll

Which Internet browser do you prefer?
Conducted September 1 - 30, 2004

Internet Explorer (1262 votes) 42.49%
Firefox / Mozilla (1167 votes) 39.29%
Opera (220 votes) 7.41%
Netscape (182 votes) 6.13%
Other (139 votes) 4.68%
(Total Votes: 2970 )

What is this all about? With the popularity of alternative Internet Explorer browsers we thought it would be interesting this month to see what browser everyone prefers.

What does Computer Hope think? We are now using Firefox as our primary browser, although Microsoft Internet Explorer has made a lot of improvements with Service Pack 2, we still enjoy Firefox's features such as tabbed browsing.

Click here for other users comments about this month's poll

What is your favorite media player?
Conducted July & August 2004. 

RealPlayer (269 votes) 11.01%
WINAMP (816 votes) 33.39%
Windows Media Player (1012 votes) 41.41%
XMMS (84 votes) 3.44%
Other (263 votes) 10.76%
(Total Votes: 2444 )

Why Two months? Computer Hope ran into several issues July causing the results of the polls to get reset three times during the month. Because of these issues we thought it would be best to have the polls roll over into the month of August.

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of playing multimedia files on computers we thought it would be interesting to see what everyone's favorite media player is. 

What does Computer Hope think? Like many of our users we would have voted for WINAMP. We really enjoy the WINAMP media player for any audio files. However, often resort to using Windows Media Player for playing video files.

Click here for other users comments about this month's poll

Do you still illegally download songs from the Internet?
Conducted June 1 - 30, 2004

Yes (760 votes) 44.89%
No (759 votes) 44.83%
Maybe (174 votes) 10.28%
(Total Votes: 1693 )

What is this all about? With the increased crack down on Internet Piracy, especially that pertaining to downloading free songs, we thought it would be interesting this month to see how many users still download songs illegally from the Internet.

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope understands the reasons of why users may want to download songs illegally and also why companies want to prevent users from getting songs for free. With the wide availability of legal music sharing networks and because it is illegal we would have voted "No" for this month's poll.

Do you have a spyware protection installed on your computer?
Conducted May 1 - 31, 2004

Yes (1140 votes) 64.63%
No (452 votes) 25.62%
Not sure (172 votes) 9.75%
(Total Votes: 1764 )

What is this all about? With the ever growing threat of spyware and malware being installed on Internet users computers' we thought it would be interesting this month to see how many of you have protection. 

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of our users we have one or more spyware protection programs installed on each of our computers and highly recommend users consider installing one on their computers. A listing of some of the available spyware, malware, adware detection and removal programs can be found through document CH000578.

Do you spend more time on the computer than you do watching TV?
Conducted April 1 - 30, 2004

Yes (2175 votes) 84.43%
No (313 votes) 12.15%
Not sure (88 votes) 3.42%
(Total Votes: 2576 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of computers and the Internet we thought this month it would be interesting to see how many users are now using their computers more than watching their TV we were actually surprised and happy to see how many more users were using their computer more than watching their TV.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of our users we are also on our computer more than in front of the TV. Therefore this month we voted Yes.

Which computer pioneer do you envy the most?
Conducted March 1 - 31, 2004

Bill Gates (1033 votes) 50.22%
Steve Jobs (251 votes) 12.20%
Linus Torvalds (524 votes) 25.47%
Tim Berners-Lee (89 votes) 4.33%
Other (160 votes) 7.78%
(Total Votes: 2057 )

What is this all about? We thought it would be infesting to see which computer pioneer you envy the most and/or believe has influenced the computer industry.

What does Computer Hope think? Although each of these individuals have greatly affected the computer Industry like the majority of our audience we would have also voted for Bill Gates because of everything he and his company has done.

What type of computer do you use?
Conducted February 1 - 29, 2004

Desktop (1353 votes) 74.55%
Laptop (371 votes) 20.44%
PDA / Mobile (24 votes) 1.32%
Server (43 votes) 2.37%
Other (24 votes) 1.32%
(Total Votes: 1815 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of other types of computers or electronic devices and the drop in prices in all types of computers we thought it would be interesting this month to see what users are using. 

What does Computer Hope think? Although Computer Hope does utilize each of the devices listed in the above list we primarily utilize desktops. 

Are you a computer geek / nerd?
Conducted January 1 - 31, 2004

Yes (1002 votes) 46.01%
No (720 votes) 33.06%
Not sure (456 votes) 20.94%
(Total Votes: 2178 )

What is this all about? With the ever-growing popularity of computers and the Internet we thought it would be interesting to see how many of you consider yourself a geek or nerd.

What does Computer Hope think? Running a computer help site, sending the majority of the day on the computer, spending several hours each week programming, and with our love of science and mathematics I think the answer is obvious.

What size of monitor do you have?
Conducted End of November through December 31, 2004

15-inch (377 votes) 16.80%
17-inch (1085 votes) 48.35%
19-inch (559 votes) 24.91%
21-inch (141 votes) 6.28%
22-inch or bigger (82 votes) 3.65%
(Total Votes: 2244 )

Why Two months? Computer Hope was working on other projects that completely filled all of our available hard disk drive space that caused our polls to become continuously reset. Because we did not want to have only a few days of results we decided to run the poll into the next month of December.

What is this all about? With the decrease in price on computer monitors and other display devices this month we thought we would pose this month's question to get a better understanding of users' monitor sizes. 

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope has several monitors, the majority of our monitors our 19", however we also have 17" and 15" monitors.

How much total hard disk space does your computer have?
Conducted October 1 - 31, 2003

50GB or less (1310 votes) 45.93%
51 - 100GB (759 votes) 26.61%
101 - 200GB (457 votes) 16.02%
201GB or more (244 votes) 8.56%
Not sure (82 votes) 2.88%
(Total Votes: 2852 )

What is this all about? With the increased size of hard disk drive space and the decrease in price we thought it would be interesting this month to see what the total hard disk space each of your computers have.

What does Computer Hope think? The majority of Computer Hopes computer have hard disk drive space that total between 50 and 100GB. Therefore Computer Hope would have answered 51-100GB for this month's poll.

Has your computer ever been infected with a computer virus or worm?
Conducted September 1 - 30, 2003

Yes (1139 votes) 63.35%
No (543 votes) 30.20%
Not sure (116 votes) 6.45%
(Total Votes: 1798 )

What is this all about? With the recent blaster worm infecting several Microsoft Windows computers we thought it would be interesting this month to see how many of our visitors have ever been infected with a computer virus or worm.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of our voters this month we have also had our computers infected with one or more viruses or worms.

What's the average amount of SPAM do you receive weekly?
Conducted August 1 - 31, 2003

None (106 votes) 6.26%
1 to 50 (534 votes) 31.54%
50 to 100 (385 votes) 22.74%
Over 100 (635 votes) 37.51%
Not sure (33 votes) 1.95%
(Total Votes: 1693 )

What is this all about? With the unfortunate increase of solicited e-mail, also known as SPAM, we thought it would be interesting this month to see how much SPAM each of our visitors receive each week.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of this month's voters unfortunately we also receive over 100 messages weekly.  We have listed additional steps in document CH000477 that will help prevent SPAM. However, unfortunately will not completely stop SPAM.

Do you purchase CDs more or less with the availability of MP3s?
Conducted July 1 - 31, 2003

More (203 votes) 28.51%
Less (218 votes) 30.62%
Same (291 votes) 40.87%
(Total Votes: 712 )

What is this all about? MP3 files have always  been a big controversy after the introduction of P2P programs and there are numerous theories and ideas to what this has done to the music industry. We thought with all the recent activity in the news that it would be interesting to see how MP3s have affected peoples' purchasing habits.

What does Computer Hope think? We were amazed on how close each of the votes were this month. Computer Hope believes MP3 files are a great method of listening to music that you would normally not have listed to and would have voted for "More" in this month's poll. We have been introduced to many music artists that we normally would have missed at the local music store. 

Do you think computers will some day be smarter than humans?
Conducted May 1 - 31, 2003

Yes (634 votes) 36.69%
No (1001 votes) 57.93%
Not sure (93 votes) 5.38%
(Total Votes: 1728 )

What is this all about? With improvements in AI being made frequently as well as the increased speed in computer and the countless movies made about computers and their intelligence we thought it would be interesting to see what our visitors thought about the subject.

What does Computer Hope think? Although there is different types of intelligence Computer Hope believes that in the future Computers will exceed the overall intelligence of humans. Therefore we would have answered "Yes" to this month's poll.

How often do you use floppies?
Conducted May 1 - 31, 2003

Every day (329 votes) 13.65%
A few times a week (432 votes) 17.93%
A few times a month (614 votes) 25.48%
A few times a year (747 votes) 31.00%
Never (288 votes) 11.95%
(Total Votes: 2410 )

What is this all about? With the limited size a floppy diskette provides and the increased popularity of recordable CDs and other media we thought it would be interesting to see how many of our users are using floppies and how often.

What does Computer Hope think? We were actually amazed at the results of this month's poll. We assumed with more and more computers not including floppies and users needing more storage space that a larger percentage of our visitors would have not used a floppies so often. However, Computer Hope would have voted for "a few times a month" for this month's poll.   

Which Internet Browser do you prefer?
Conducted April 1 - 31, 2003

Internet Explorer (1583 votes) 68.95%
Netscape (298 votes) 12.98%
Opera (218 votes) 9.49%
Mosaic (24 votes) 1.05%
Other (173 votes) 7.53%
(Total Votes: 2296 )

What is this all about? A poll that we ran on May of 2000 that we thought would be interesting to see what people currently prefer for their Internet browser in comparison to three years ago. In our previous poll Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape were neck and neck with Internet Explorer wining by a 15 votes. This year as you can see from the above results Microsoft Internet Explorer is largely the browser of choice for people visiting our site.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of our users we also prefer Microsoft Internet Explorer. While we do not seclude ourselves to Internet Explorer, we find that Microsoft Internet Explorer has a much broader compatibility among most sites and Internet utilities on the Internet, in addition we enjoy its interface and link system. If we had to choose a second we would have chosen Opera. This is another great browser that users should definitely consider as a contender to Internet Explorer. 

Do you have your own website?
Conducted March 1 - 31, 2003

Yes (527 votes) 42.13%
No (724 votes) 57.87%
(Total Votes: 1251 )

What this is all about? With the popularity of the Internet we thought it would be interesting to see how many others were contributing to it with their own web site.

What does Computer Hope think? Well of course we would have voted "Yes" for this month's poll.

What do you use the computer for?
Conducted February 1 - 28, 2003

Business (68 votes) 5.08%
Entertainment (208 votes) 15.55%
Communication (73 votes) 5.46%
Study (168 votes) 12.56%
All the above (821 votes) 61.36%
(Total Votes: 1338 )

What is this all about? With the wide available options a computer is capable of doing we thought it would be interesting to see what everyone uses their computers for.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of our visitors we also utilize our computer for each of these categories.

Which type of display do you have?
Conducted January 1 - 31, 2003

Standard monitor (1516 votes) 73.17%
LCD display (455 votes) 21.96%
Plasma (53 votes) 2.56%
Projection (24 votes) 1.16%
Other (24 votes) 1.16%
(Total Votes: 2072 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity and decrease of price of LCD displays we thought it would be interesting to see what percentage of our visitors were using as their display.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of those of you who voted Computer Hope also has only Standard monitors, although does utilize LCD displays with its portable computers. We were surprised to see that only 21.96% of those who voted had a LCD display, we thought it would have been much higher. 

Have you suffered from a computer stress related injury?
Conducted December 1 - 31, 2002

Yes (432 votes) 44.49%
No (419 votes) 43.15%
Not sure (120 votes) 12.36%
(Total Votes: 971 )

What is this all about? With the popularity of computers and devices that require repetitive motion, it has been reported that there has been an increase of individuals that have suffered from stress related injuries. There are several different theories behind the causes and treatments to computer stress injuries and we thought it would be interesting to see how many of our visitors have suffered from a computer stress related injury. 

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope would have voted "No" this month as the majority of us have not suffered from any computer stress injuries. We were very surprised to see how many of you have suffered from a computer stress related injury.

Do you think computer games are addictive?
Conducted November 1 - 30, 2002

Yes (1026 votes) 64.45%
No (168 votes) 10.55%
Sometimes (398 votes) 25.00%
(Total Votes: 1592 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of computer games, especially MMORPG games, we thought it would be interesting to see how many of you believe that computer games are or can be addictive.

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope completely agrees with the majority of its visitors who have voted in this month's poll. As we mentioned earlier with the increased popularity of MMORPG games and the time requirements often required for those games. Many of these games and games like them can become addictive.

Which is your favorite search engine?
Conducted October 1 - 31, 2002

AlltheWeb (55 votes) 1.95%
AltaVista (93 votes) 3.29%
Google (2254 votes) 79.82%
Yahoo (274 votes) 9.70%
Other (148 votes) 5.24%
(Total Votes: 2824 )

What is this all about? Computer Hope conducted this same poll back in September 2000. We thought with the improvements made by different companies in search technologies it would be interesting to see what people use for a search engine today, compared with what they used in the past. 

What does Computer Hope think? With the available search options in Google, the page ranging and overall good results found by Google. Today, Computer Hope would have voted for Google as its favorite search engine.

What's your Internet connection?
Conducted September 1 - 30, 2002 

Cable (1237 votes) 41.66%
DSL (753 votes) 25.36%
Wireless (53 votes) 1.79%
Modem (840 votes) 28.29%
Other (86 votes) 2.90%
(Total Votes: 2969 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity, availability and options of broadband we thought it would be interesting this month to see if our users were using broadband connections and if so what type of broadband was being used.

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope uses a broadband connection at work and at home. The majority of the votes for Computer Hope would have gone to Wireless broadband solution.

How many computer problems have you had in the last month?
Conducted August 1 - 31, 2002

None (227 votes) 16.77%
1 to 3 (509 votes) 37.59%
4 to 6 (213 votes) 15.73%
7 to 10 (68 votes) 5.02%
Over 10 (337 votes) 24.89%
(Total Votes: 1354 )

What is this all about? Being a site devoted to computer support and help we thought it would be interesting to hold a poll to see how many issues, on average, each of our users are experiencing with their computer each month.

What does Computer Hope think? This question is difficult for us to answer because we commonly come across new issues when attempting to duplicate issues or testing new products. Overall the average of how many computer problems we had last month is well over 10. However, this is on multiple computers.

How many hours a week are you on the Internet?
Conducted July 1 - 31, 2002

Less than 5 (218 votes) 8.83%
6 to 10 (339 votes) 13.73%
11 to 20 (460 votes) 18.63%
21 to 30 (444 votes) 17.98%
Over 31 hours (1008 votes) 40.83%
(Total Votes: 2469 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of the Internet and the increased use of the Internet at most businesses and for school we thought it would be interesting to see how many hours everyone is on the Internet.

What does Computer Hope think? As you would have likely expected Computer Hope employees spend well over 31 hours on the Internet. Taking the overall average of around 8 hours a day on the Internet we commonly spend around 60 hours on the Internet each week. 

Which version of Microsoft Windows is your favorite?
Conducted June 1 - 30, 2002

Window 95 (117 votes) 3.18%
Windows 98 (1185 votes) 32.23%
Windows ME (278 votes) 7.56%
Windows 2000 (905 votes) 24.61%
Windows XP (1192 votes) 32.42%
(Total Votes: 3677 )

What is this all about? With the wide variety of Microsoft Operating systems available to an IBM compatible computer user, we thought it would be interesting to see which Version of Windows you enjoy most.

What does Computer Hope think? When given the task to decide which Microsoft operating system we enjoy most we would have voted Microsoft Windows 2000. While this operating system is commonly used in a business environment and will soon be replaced by Windows XP. We enjoy Windows 2000 because of the overall stability of the operating system and the lack of overall changes that we have to manually change back to how Microsoft Windows used to operate. Overall We enjoy both Windows XP and 2000, we really just dislike many of the new features. 

How many hours a week are you on the computer?
Conducted May 1 - 31, 2002

Less than 5 (94 votes) 3.35%
6 to 10 (205 votes) 7.31%
11 to 20 (360 votes) 12.83%
21 to 30 (428 votes) 15.26%
Over 31 hours (1718 votes) 61.25%
(Total Votes: 2805 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of computers we thought it would be interesting to see how often people are on their computers.

What does Computer Hope think? The Computer Hope staff spends a great amount of time on computers. We would have voted Over 31 hours.

What is the speed of your computer processor?
Conducted April 1 - 30, 2002

Below 200MHz (224 votes) 5.23%
200 - 500MHz (1086 votes) 25.33%
500 - 900MHz (1485 votes) 34.64%
Over 1GHz (1405 votes) 32.77%
Don't Know (87 votes) 2.03%
(Total Votes: 4287 )

What is this all about? Computer processor speeds continue to increase in speed. We thought it would be interesting to see how our poll voting visitors' computer processors compare. As you can see from the above results it was a close between the '500 - 900MHz' and 'Over 1GHz'. 

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope has several computers each with different speeds of processors. However, the computer this is being viewed on is a 800 MHz computer. Therefore we would have answered 500 - 900 MHz.

What do you do with your SPAM?
Conducted March 1 - 31, 2002

Delete it (2036 votes) 75.72%
Read it (47 votes) 1.75%
Respond to it (29 votes) 1.08%
Unsubscribe it (337 votes) 12.53%
Eat it (240 votes) 8.93%
(Total Votes: 2689 )

What is this all about? With the increase of junk e-mail or SPAM we thought it would be interesting to see what exactly people are doing with it.

What does Computer Hope think? Like the majority of our users we delete our SPAM, although occasionally we also eat it. Computer Hope also created CH000477 with additional information on how users can help prevent SPAM or junk e-mail.

Which Instant Messenger do you use?
Conducted February 1 - 28, 2002

ICQ / AOL (684 votes) 29.19%
Yahoo (436 votes) 18.61%
MSN (867 votes) 37.00%
Tiscali (12 votes) 0.51%
None / Not Sure (344 votes) 14.68%
(Total Votes: 2343 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of Instant Messengers we thought it would be fun and informative seeing what the majority of users are currently using as their Instant Messenger. This can be informative because Instant Messengers are currently not capable of speaking with one another, therefore it is a good idea to see which Instant Messengers are most popular.

What does Computer Hope think? In the past we have used ICQ / AOL, Yahoo and MSN Instant Messengers. However, because of time constraints we are currently using none.

Do you have your own home network?
Conducted January 1 - 31, 2002

Yes (877 votes) 58.47%
No (602 votes) 40.13%
Not sure (21 votes) 1.40%
(Total Votes: 1500 )

What is this all about? With the increased popularity of computers and more users getting more than one computer we thought after last month's poll that it would be interesting how many users have their own home network.

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope has several computers and of course a medium size computer network. Therefore we would have voted Yes.

How many computers do you own?
Conducted December 1 - 31, 2001

1 (507 votes) 19.46%
2 (706 votes) 27.10%
3 (565 votes) 21.69%
4 (302 votes) 11.59%
5 or more (525 votes) 20.15%
(Total Votes: 2605 )

What is this all about? With computers becoming cheaper and users wishing to run faster programs or just have a new computer we thought it would be interesting to see just how many computers people personally own. 

What does Computer Hope think? Computer Hope would have voted 5 or more as we have 5 or more computers.

What is your favorite computer related movie?
Conducted November 1 - 30, 2001

WarGames (298 votes) 26.03%
Hackers (339 votes) 29.61%
Sneakers (171 votes) 14.93%
Tron (210 votes) 18.34%
Other (127 votes) 11.09%
(Total Votes: 1145 )

What is this all about? We have always enjoyed computer related movies and thought that it would be fun to see what computer related movie is your favorite. 

What does Computer Hope think? All of the movies listed in November's poll are great Computer related movies even those not listed such as Matrix or Swordfish. However, like the majority of the voters we would have voted that hackers is our favorite computer related movie. Even though some may argue that hackers is not realistic 

How many MP3 files do you have?
Conducted October 1 - 31, 2001

None (308 votes) 18.75%
Under 100 (248 votes) 15.09%
100 - 300 (313 votes) 19.05%
500 - 1000 (263 votes)