Linux still down in Installed base capacity

[techfan80]

The latest update of Apple MAc operating System OS X, Known as Snow Leopard, went on sale this Friday.By 0745BST on Friday around 50 people were queuing outside Apple's flagship Apple store in Regent Street. The store opens at 0900BST.

According to Statistics by Gartner Windows has a major Market share of 95% as of August 2009 followed by Mac 3%. Linux trails with a mere 2%. Currently Chrome OS from Google is in the making, Windows 7 is due on 22 October,
and Opensuse 11.2 Milestone is already released for testing, Snow Leopard from Apple is also out. Of this only Linux is open source.

I came to know Linux some time back and I started using linux opensuse at version 9.1 and its great! Is Gartner saying the truth or its people who have refused to change?

Check this out

[ken_yap]

That's more or less right. Incumbency and preinstallation have a great effect. Here's a page listing the results of various surveys:

Usage share of desktop operating systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[techfan80]

Surely, incumbency and pre-installation have had adverse effects on Linux sales. What I wanted to know is what is Novell doing about this? The link you provided shows a somewhat shaky growth for Linux usage, a times even going down but hardly surpassing 2%.I would like my brothers, sis and mom to also switch to Linux. At least my Dad has

Six independent surveys have been carried out up to July 2009. This goes to the Linux employees in the forum: whats the way forward to remove this incumbency?

[ken_yap]

Why is it that Novell has to do something about it? Everybody is involved, from the developers to the end users.

[microchip8]

You may want to read this before falling into the trap of these "market/OS surveys" Linux News: Distros: Lies, **** Lies and Linux Market Share Statistics

[Knurpht]

I care for linux, care for open source, don't care about figures on market share, since it's never clear what the figures are based upon. And yes, it is very complicated, getting even more complicated even with virtualization. What counts for me, is that I see the linux share around me finally increase in a way I've been hoping for for years, specially amongst young people.

[john_hudson]

Most statistics allegedly about Linux' installation base refer only to desktop and laptop computers and ignore supercomputers, mainframe computers where Linux is normally virtualised, command line driven servers, digital TVs., satellite navigation systems, automobile systems, mobile 'phones etc. etc.

[ken_yap]

Far more useful than poring over statistics about market share is reflecting on how F/OSS is changing the market by providing a choice. If you look at a Windows desktop now, chances are there are a few open source programs in there. Obviously Firefox is making a difference, but so are Thunderbird, VLC, Miro, ClamAV, putty, Filezilla, Pidgin and dozens of other F/OSS software. The landscape would be quite different if PC users were at the mercy of proprietary software.

Not to mention the F/OSS in the backend servers of web services.

Yesterday a friend of mine showed me a clip he captured with a ball-point pen camera. I noticed that he used VLC to play it. Yes, he volunteered, it's far better than the early days, now VLC will take pretty much anything you throw at it.

Perhaps one of these days Windows users will turn on a Linux desktop and say to themselves, hey I know those programs (FF, VLC, Chrome, etc etc), I've used them already. Or maybe the user will say: desktop, what's that for? I've been using my handheld devices for years.

[hendersj]

On Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:46:01 +0000, techfan80 wrote:

> What I wanted to know is what is Novell doing about this?

IIRC, Novell has distribution agreements with Lenovo, Dell, and HP for
various SLE versions of Linux.

Jim



--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Moderator

[cjcox]

Two things:

1. Gartner will say positive things about you if you pay them.

2. Gartner will be very mad that I shared #1 with you.