Linux Market Share: A Lousy Percent?

[EmperorNero]

May of you don't know me, I switched to Linux a week or so ago and I didn't really take it serious as of two weeks ago.
Now that I use it , I just wonder why I didn't switch to it earlier.
Well, actually I'm running a dual install with XP until I figured out Ubuntu.

I was very surprised to see that Linux only has about a market share of a percent, even for Desktop systems it's little more.
Considering that it's free and in many areas better than windows.

Though the market share has about doubled since November '07.

Do you think that Linux will be the future? (I hope you can be unbiased about this. )
Or will there be something new around by then, maybe open source as well?

[techieMoe]

I was very surprised to see that Linux only has about a market share of a percent, even for Desktop systems it's little more.
Considering that it's free and in many areas better than windows.

Though the market share has about doubled since November '07.

"Market share" is something that really only makes sense to "marketers." It's very hard to really determine how many users are out there using Linux when (unlike Microsoft or Apple, for instance) there aren't any hard data like sales numbers to use.

Am I saying there isn't a clear majority out there skewed toward Microsoft Windows? Absolutely not. Most of the world uses what came on their computer to begin with and never thinks twice. In 90% of those cases that means Windows.

Do you think that Linux will be the future? (I hope you can be unbiased about this. )
Or will there be something new around by then, maybe open source as well?

I can be unbiased in saying I don't really care if Linux is the future of computing. I'm a pragmatist above all else. I used Apple's OS X for many years because I considered it the best tool for the job, and when it ceased to be I moved to Linux. If something better than Linux comes along, I'll probably move to that.

[impNERD]

I agree with techieMoe. There's another problem though, there are many linux guys who dual boot, but of course Microsoft sees the sale number and counts it towards their marketshare.

[elija]

I was very surprised to see that Linux only has about a market share of a percent, even for Desktop systems it's little more. Considering that it's free and in many areas better than windows.

It has a bigger share in the server room but in the desktop arena how can a free OS compete with the marketing budget of "Big Software". It is up to us to spread the word; I take the approach - try it you might like it and if not it's cost you nothing. I also wonder what market share would be if all the pirated copies of Windows were removed from the equation.

Though the market share has about doubled since November '07.

Yeah. Vista was great marketing for alternatives.

Do you think that Linux will be the future? (I hope you can be unbiased about this. )
Or will there be something new around by then, maybe open source as well?

Linux is definitely the best at the moment but there will always be contenders, BSD, Syllable, Haiku etc. I like to try alternatives every now and then. Just to see if I like it

[MikeTbob]

I agree with techieMoe, market share is meaningless when it comes to open source software and especially Linux. No one has any idea how many Linux users exist. In my opinion, whoever these "market share people" are, they are using safe and easily explained numbers and I would bet there are actually more Linux users than they think.

I don't think Linux is the future, but I do think Linux will play an important part of the future, and if not then that's okay too. I like Linux just the way it is.

[computerophil]

I was very surprised to see that Linux only has about a market share of a percent, even for Desktop systems it's little more.
Considering that it's free and in many areas better than windows.

Though the market share has about doubled since November '07.

Do you think that Linux will be the future? (I hope you can be unbiased about this. )
Or will there be something new around by then, maybe open source as well?

First of all who made the study? I don't believe the 1%. Linux is free and no one knows how many people use it really.
Ofcourse there is just a small share but Computers are mainly sold with windows on it and people stick to the they have on the computer at the beginning.
But more and more people are set up with windows (Vista) and Linux developed very much last years so I think the battle of marketshare hasn't begone yet.

[carlosponti]

I think that the user market is going to be based soley on who paid for a computer with an os or an os. since linux is only sold on a limited number of pc's and not sold much as a boxed os at a store its hard to quantify. another thing is how many users out there that dont have internet access or dial up so its hard to measure who they are. on linux tracker there seems to be a huge amount of linux users in total. another thing that might obscure things is how many people use windows dual boot so how do they fit in a market share.


i frankly dont care about the market share deal either. i use it and dont get bothered by microsoft unless something i use is restricted to windows.

[computerophil]

I think that the user market is going to be based soley on who paid for a computer with an os or an os. since linux is only sold on a limited number of pc's and not sold much as a boxed os at a store its hard to quantify. another thing is how many users out there that dont have internet access or dial up so its hard to measure who they are. on linux tracker there seems to be a huge amount of linux users in total. another thing that might obscure things is how many people use windows dual boot so how do they fit in a market share.


i frankly dont care about the market share deal either. i use it and dont get bothered by microsoft unless something i use is restricted to windows.

You could express yourself better than I could but this what I wanted to say - thank you

[EmperorNero]

"Market share" is something that really only makes sense to "marketers." It's very hard to really determine how many users are out there using Linux when (unlike Microsoft or Apple, for instance) there aren't any hard data like sales numbers to use.

I agree with techieMoe, market share is meaningless when it comes to open source software and especially Linux. No one has any idea how many Linux users exist.

i frankly dont care about the market share deal either. i use it and dont get bothered by microsoft unless something i use is restricted to windows.

Yes, it seems to be hard to determine the real market share of operating systems.
Yet I don't think it's meaningless. The bigger the mainstream attention Linux has, the more software will be produced for it, right?

[MikeTbob]

Yes, it seems to be hard to determine the real market share of operating systems.
Yet I don't think it's meaningless. The bigger the mainstream attention Linux has, the more software will be produced for it, right?

Well, I'm pretty sure that might be true but in my mind the biggest thing Linux needs is more cooperation from Device makers, so we can get better hardware support without the need to reverse engineer the current proprietary drivers. Many new people become interested in Linux only to lose patience real quickly when they can't get the wireless modem or soundcard working.

Linux already has more software than what I need, but yes, it would be nice if Linux could produce the next wave of "Killer-must-have Applications".