Presidential Candidates' Web Site Types

by John R. Carlsen

This color-coded table of World-Wide Web site servers and their operating systems used by United States Presidential candidates is based on information found in the article Is the next President of the United States running Linux? by Douglas Karr (2007/06/23), apparently based on data obtained from Netcraft.

A summary of the operating systems used by the candidates follows below.

Site Operating System, Server and Host by Candidate

The table below includes announced, likely and withdrawn candidates in the 2008 United States Presidential election. In the table below, the names of candidates that have withdrawn have been stricken and endorsements indicated via arrows.

† withdrew/not a candidate:

• 2008/02/07: Mitt Romney withdrew his candidacy. (wiki:Mitt_Romney)
• 2008/01/30: John Edwards withdrew his candidacy. (wiki:John_Edwards)
• 2008/01/29: Rudy Giuliani withdrew his candidacy, endorsing John McCain. (wiki:Rudy_Giuliani)
• 2008/01/24: Dennis Kucinich withdrew his candidacy. (wiki:Dennis_Kucinich)
• 2008/01/22: Fred Thompson withdrew his candidacy. (wiki:Fred_Thompson)
• 2008/01/19: Duncan Hunter withdrew his candidacy, subsequently endorsing Mike Huckabee. (wiki:Duncan_Hunter)
• 2008/01/09: Bill Richardson withdrew his candidacy citing poor results in Iowa and New Hampshire, and lack of funds to continue. (wiki:Bill_Richardson)
• 2008/01/03: Christopher Dodd withdrew his candidacy. (wiki:Christopher_Dodd)
• 2008/01/03: Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy. (wiki:Joe_Biden)
• 2007/12/20: Tom Tancredo withdrew his candidacy, endorsing Mitt Romney. (wiki:Tom_Tancredo)
• 2007/10/18: Sam Brownback withdrew his candidacy, later endorsing John McCain. (wiki:Sam_Brownback)
• 2007/09/29: A spokesperson announced that Newt Gingrich had decided not to run. (wiki:Newt_Gingrich)
• 2007/09/15: Wesley Clark "was mentioned as a potential 2008 presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket before endorsing Hillary Clinton". (wiki:Wesley_Clark)
• 2007/09/10: Chuck Hagel announced that he will not seek the presidency. (wiki:Chuck_Hagel)
• 2007/08/12: Tommy Thompson withdrew his candidacy, later (in 2007/10) endorsing Rudy Giuliani. (wiki:Tommy_Thompson)
• 2007/07/14: Jim Gilmore withdrew his candidacy. (wiki:Jim_Gilmore)

Operating System Summary

The tables below summarize the operating systems used by candidates' World-Wide Web sites, including the percentage of the candidates' parties and percentage of all candidates.

2007 June

As tabulated below, the operating systems most-used in June 2007 by Presidential candidates are Linux (by 70% of Democrats) and Windows Server 2003 (by 69% of Republicans).

2008 February

As of February 2008, operating systems used were split more evenly between candidates.

Related Reading

For more information about the World-Wide Web, see An Introduction to the World-Wide Web.

For more information about Linux and Unix, see An Introduction to the Unix Operating System.