50 Places Linux is Running That You Might Not Expect

[Zhao]

Looks like this article already have a little more than one month, but I found it on another forum today. I don't know if has already been posted around here, but it's very interesting in my opinion

[Snowhog]

Re: 50 Places Linux is Running That You Might Not Expect

That's why one shouldn't place a whole lot of credence on the market percentage when looking at Linux. Windows has by far, the largest share of the PC market. But those markets that Windows isn't in (or has been lost to) are not insignificant. Linux is, and remains, a (perceived) 'threat' to Windows, else, they wouldn't give a hoot about it.

[GreyGeek]

Re: 50 Places Linux is Running That You Might Not Expect

That article sites the NetApplications claim that Linux has less than 1% of the desktop market share. NetApplications is a Microsoft proxy that makes its money by selling relabeled Windows executables. Steve Ballmer himself, in a speech he gave over a year ago, presented a graphic which showed that the Linux desktop market share was slightly greater than Apple's. We know that Apple, at that time, held a 10% market share, so I'd estimate that the Linux desktop market share was about 12%. VISTA continued to do poorly and Win7 wasn't the secure OS Microsoft claimed it was, so, IMO, the Linux desktop market share has only gone up, especially in other countries where Microsoft does not have so much political (i.e. "Campaign donations", a.k.a. bribes) influence. One can also sense the decline of Windows by virtue of the decline of IE. Both Apple and Linux have increased their market share, and the retail sales channels show it. What the retail channels do NOT show is the number of copies of Linux downloaded for free, AND, the number of times each copy is used to replace a copy of Windows. Windows retail channel count doesn't reflect those copies of Windows replaced by Linux, nor do Linux retail sales channel counts reflect the copies of Linux that replace Windows. So, the Windows installed base, as reflected in the retail sales channel, is OVER ESTIMATED and the Linux installed base is grossly under estimated.

Why does this situation exist? Because anyone who wants a good selection of computers and peripherals at a reasonable price still have to buy PCs that only come with Windows preinstalled. The PCs that are offered with Linux preinstalled are sub quality and lack sufficient peripheral choices. This sad state of affairs could be remedied immediately IF the appropriate Federal agencies and courts enforced the existing laws against monopolies and collusions and broke Microsoft's illegal strangle-hold on the PC OEMs and require that their hardware be OS independent and naked. Then, Microsoft would have to compete on merit, not politics, and if their recent offerings are any indicator, they would have a tough time.

[Zhao]

Re: 50 Places Linux is Running That You Might Not Expect

Apparently the article has some wrong information, some photos were not well chosen either, while many other places and countries could and should be included. However the intention was good (I think, since I didn't wrote it :P), to show the wide use of GNU/Linux which keeps rising.

Thanks GreyGeek for adding all that information