Linux Pre-Installs In the UK Hit 2.8%

schliz alerts us to a story out of the UK PC distribution channel. It seems that the percentage of systems pre-installed with Linux has gone up 28 times since Vista shipped, from 0.1% in January 2007 to 2.8% last June. Still not huge numbers, but Apple did OK for years with similar market share figures. Linux's headway comes in the face of the marketing money that manufacturers pass out to distributors, money that has historically been important to their profits: "In the late 1990s competition was so keen that distributors were said to sell at or below cost and take their profit direct from the marketing funds they received from vendors. Vendors nowadays keep watch to see their marketing funds are actually spent on marketing, but distribution runs on single figure profits and vendor marketing funds are a crucial aid."

Comments

Re:Linux will grow

[DogDude]

non-functional unless I pay somebody money for them.

Yeah, so? I don't begrudge paying people for their work. It's kinda' how the world works. Obviously, based on Linux's mind blowing, astounding, progress all the way to a high of 2.8% market share for one short period, in one medium-sized market, after more than a decade, that a few other people agree with me as well.

Regardless of what other people are doing, you're still whining about having to compensate other people for their work. Cry me a fuckin' river.

Re:For How Long?

[Teun]

Nah.

In fact, Dell XPS m1330's are routinely more expensive with Ubuntu installed.

Dell m1330's are routinely more valuable with Ubuntu installed.

There, fixed it for you!