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(When) Will Linux Pass Apple On The Desktop?

Posted by timothy on from the my-little-3-percenters dept.

EisPick writes "A column posted today on Slate ponders projections that Linux PCs will pass Apple in desktop market share next year. Will Linux do to OS X what it already has done to Tru64, Irix, HP/UX, AIX and Solaris and emerge as the only viable competitor to Windows on the desktop?"

4 of 1,316 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Will Linux do to OS X what it already has... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not to mention the fact that the experience of OS X on the desktop kicks ass on KDE or GNOME. I love Linux as a server OS, but I moved to Mac for the desktop. In my mind, there's not much incentive to go the other way.

  2. Re:I wish Linux luck... by AtaruMoroboshi · · Score: 5, Informative

    "$1999 for an entry level G5?"

    there is nothing entry level about any of the G5's. If there was, they'd be in a new iMac, not Power Mac.

  3. Re:No by dbrutus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Linux is more likely to be a positive than a negative for Apple. Without Linux, would KDE be where it is today? Would KDE even exist? But without KDE, Apple wouldn't have been able to take KHTML and make Safari. But it's not one-sided as the KHTML group benefited by getting a great many feature and stability improvements to their library contributed back to their project from Apple.

    Linux is for when you're young, poor, and in need of serious computing horsepower. OS X is for when you've got money in the bank and you don't want to have to deal with the Linux hassle.

    Will Linux eventually get its usability act together and challenged OS X on its own turf? Maybe, but on its way there, Linux would much more quickly gut Windows dominance and that's a result I can live with.

  4. Re:Will Linux do to OS X what it already has... by sleeper0 · · Score: 5, Informative
    i think the best way to gauge the real split for desktop OS's is browser impressions for each platform. This way it realistically measures desktops in use and not shipped units or servers. It also catches people who use multiple desktop OS's and should accurately track the split between them.

    Google Zeitgeist is a great way to take a look at those figures over time at a pretty universal location.

    For may '03 google lists linux at 1% and mac at 3%. Linux zealots may look at that and say well 2% is miniscule with the rate of growth that won't take long, etc. But go back and look at june 2001 zeitgeist and you'll see similar numbers. Linux with 1% and Mac with 4%

    The conclusion i draw from those numbers is that linux desktop use isnt growing at any significant rate at all, and the only danger Apple has in getting passed on the desktop is if they lose a dramatic amount of market share to windows.