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? :\
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?
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.
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.
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.
That’s good Jim. At least this will increase the number of notebooks and/or desktop workstations. with this we expect the thread of the surveys to change showing an increased installed capacity. Am monitoring this to come up with my own data in the next month for some NGO somewhere. Thanks
Say the community organized a free concert open to the public. Anyone that shows up can walk in and find a seat completely free. However, you are given the option to pay a small fee, which would go to charity, in exchange for servers bringing refreshments to your seat rather than you having to get up and go get your own refreshments.
Days after the concert, it is reported that the concert was a flop. There was not enough public interest in the event because, based on sales, only 2% of the seats were filled. In reality, it was a full house, but numbers show that 2% were there because 98% chose not to pay to see the concert.
That is EXACTLY what is happening in these so called market share reports. Unfortunately, I am part of the statistic. Every machine that I’ve ever owned counts as a MS Windows purchase. They have no way of knowing that Windows typically lasted a whole 10 minutes on the machine before the hard drive was wiped and Linux installed.
Actually I wish I could. Back in the 90’s I used to build machines all the time. Now days I don’t buy desktops so much anymore. I typically buy laptops. If only I could build my own laptop.
I hear all the time from people who have cell phones, gps, security camera devices how well they work and are shocked that they are based on Linux kernels. When some of these people see my laptop the common expression is "What version of Windows is that! It's neat!". It breaks my heart when I tell them it's Linux and they respond ... "Oh I can't use it 'cause it's too much work". You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink eh!>:(
Quite right! Standard market surveys do not include custom OEM’s because the results are based on major brand sales not purchased hardware. A local store here sells 200 systems per week with M$ being placed on less than 5% but the local paper reported they sell less than 1% without M$ pre-installed. >:(
The question should rather be: How many percent of useful CPU cycles are burnt on Linux machines?
When I look at the market shares of Apache, Sendmail & friends then it appears that most of the useful work on the net is done on Linux. M$ is there to play games or browse facebook.
