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Windows Drops Below 90% Market Share
ozmanjusri writes "Online market share of the dominant Windows operating system has taken its biggest monthly fall in years to drop below 90%, according to Net Applications Inc. Computerworld reports that Microsoft's flagship product has been steadily losing ground to Mac OS X and Linux, and is at its lowest ebb in the market since 1995. 'Mac OS X... [ended] the month at 8.9%. November was the third month running that Apple's operating system remained above 8%.' The stats show that while some customers are 'upgrading' from XP to Vista, many are jumping ship to Apple, while Linux is also steadily gaining ground. A Net Applications executive suggests the slide may be caused by many of the same factors that caused the fall in Internet Explorer use. 'The more home users who are online, using Macs and Firefox and Safari, the more those shares go up,' he said. November has more weekend days, as well Thanksgiving in the US, a result that emphasizes the importance of corporate sales to Microsoft."
This is good news. It surely means the year of the Linux Desktop is impending.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
the year of... windows not on the desktop!
And I get modded flamebait for pointing out earlier today that Apple is gaining market share? It's true. Apple is gaining ground. Of course, it probably doesn't help MS that Vista isn't exactly setting the world on fire.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
OMG! Micro$oft is about ready to go under!!!! There's going to be huge consequences for our economy!!!! Send Steve Ballmer to DC in his private jet to throw some chairs around and get us $25 billion immediately!!!!
"The more home users who are online, using Macs and Firefox and Safari, the more those shares go up,"
Let me get this straight...if more people use a browser, then there are more people using that browser? Brilliant!
Nothing more to say.
slashwhat?
Just curious, but at what point is Microsoft no longer considered a monopoloy? At what percentage are they legally allowed to start pulling the dirty tricks again?
Did it just get colder in hell??
Question: While they're still dominant, would the rapidly decreasing market-share mean that MS will have a better chance of avoiding any monopoly-related issues/charges (or would this only be applicable if their marketshare dropped below XX%)?
In November, 89.6% of users who connected to the Web sites that Net Applications Inc. monitors [...]
It's been below 90% in terms of IP addresses for quite some time. Not a lot of websurfing is done on servers, cluster nodes, or routers.
But then you have to factor in the people that do things like setup firefox to report its running IE6 on Windows XP to get web pages to display correctly (remember when MS would send broken CSS Pages to non-MS browsers a few years ago?). And 4 million SubNetbooks is nothing. Think about how many windows desktops have been sold, over the last 5-6 years that are still being used! (and you can get the EEE PC with XP on it)
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
So 2008 must be the Year of the Linux Desktop !
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I did not RTFA, Is is just the US Market or euro included?
89% market share ought to be enough for anybody.
There's the general opinion of Vista's unsuitability, the rise in Macs, the netbook phenomenon, the economic downturn slowing hardware turnover, all leading to fewer Windows boxes out there. The question is whether MS has any chance of reclaiming them with their even-fatter Windows 7, or accelerate the downturn.
Now if some Large Visible Company decided to jump off the Microsoft Upgrade Treadmill in favor of Some Other OS, *THAT* would be a story...
SCOX(Q) DELENDA EST!!
Microsoft is in trouble!
Next we will see commercials asking people to sponsor a Microsoft employee for as little as 10 cents a day.
You got the touch!
When people realize there are alternatives, they start to look for MORE of them. Firefox specifically is proving that one doesn't need MS to do normal activity. When no website "breaks" because one is using FF, they subtly say "wow". When they learn of new features (tabs) in IE and realize that those were available in FF long before MS got to them, they go "wow".
This would cause people to look at what they do, not what they use to do it, and see if what they need is available elsewhere.
The next big push should be OpenOffice. My kid comes in and shows me her "Powerpoint" (her words) and I know that I haven't put MS Office on her computer, then I point out that it isn't "PowerPoint" but a presentation. She realizes it isn't Microsoft Office and I now have someone who can tell her friends "I didn't use MS Office" (and she will too!).
When people realize they can surf the net (already there) and make "PowerPoints" and "Word Documents" and "Excel Spreadsheet", it will increase the options for discovering that one CAN get along quite nicely without Microsoft.
I've long said that 2007-8 is going to be the beginning of the end for MS. The writing is on the walls, it is just a matter of time before the whole thing collapses.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Goliath has just felt the stone impact his cranium.
The year of the linux desktop looms.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Linux seems to have completely failed to capitalize on Vistas unpopularity, still having less than 1% market share.
These type of stats always ignore the bulk of Linux devices. There are more than 300 million Linux devices sold every year. The total number of Linux devices outnumbers everything else by a wide margin.
However, it is nice to know that Microsoft still supplies 100% of all Windows systems...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
No, when Linux still fails to even capture as much of the market as Windows 2000 your year of the Linux desktop is not this year, nor any time soon.
Not "Windows" Market Share, but specifically Vista Market share only, after all, it's their shiny new thing being forced down all of out throats.
(Yes, I mean to Exclude counting any WinVista Downgrade licenses in the %, and show the *Actual* market share % use of WinVista in PCs since the WinVista release to date.)
Those stats might be more interesting and possibly more insightful to MS losing market share to other PC OS options.
Grouping *EVERYTHING* marketed as "Windows" into one pool is not statistically transparent.
I argue that many would NOT consider WinME, Win2k, WinXP, WinVista, or even Windows Mobile to be the the same category, etc...
Yet, the cited study places a FreeBSD based OS at 10 times the Linux market share.
Hi twitter.
EEE PC has sold more than 4 million, most of them GNU/Linux
Really? I must admit I didn't know much about this but a little bit of Google reveals this interview with ASUS CEO Jerry Shen, which I think was also reported here on Slashdot (about the return rates for Linux devices, which he seems to invalidate):
Here's another article where Shen is also quoted about the ratio of XP to Linux EEE units sold, which he says is 60:40:
So obviously you're just making that up. Nothing like bogus facts and words like "laughable" and "undeniable" to get on moderators' good graces, eh?
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
Microsoft is steadily loosing ground... Okay, that's cool. It'd be nice to put them off their high horses. However, Microsoft has made a lot of mistakes in recent years (Vista being a huge one!) The thing about Microsoft is they have the money to do just about anything they want... So... Windows 7 is already shaping up to be a goody (I've already tried the Pre-beta m3, and although they're still using the Vista bones in the early versions, it's already gettin there)... And all other mistakes... Well a few ad campaigns to the basic end user etc etc... And they'll reconvert, or keep them. (By normal end user I mean the one's that have no clue when it comes to computers except to check e-mail etc etc.) And they'll remain Cemented on top. Even if Apple and Linux gain more followers, In all honesty I can't see Microsoft dropping off the top perch. Especially when the majority of Big business infrastructure is all Microsoft Server etc... (That's a huge market right there). So, good on Apple and Linux, but lets not kid ourselves people.
01001001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01001111 01101100 01101001 01110110 01100101 01110011
I suspect a large amount of XP users are not upgrading to Vista, so I doubt that these statistics really represent market share.
Of course this makes great sense. Design and efficiency in computing are the next big thing, and MSFT seems to do lots of research but no integration.
On the other hand, Apple and others have created very nice, simple and streamlined applications that seem to be driven less by research than by practical testing and design.
Which means that, in the future, Apple and others will continue to gain ground... unless... the new windows... nah...
The story is about online market share, not market share period - they came up with these results by tracking certain websites to see the proportions of the operating systems of their visitors. As the article explains, they think Windows share dropped because there is a higher concentration of Windows PCs at work than at home, and over Thanksgiving, many people weren't at work. Notably, this study doesn't say anything about the total market share of Windows or any other operating system, as seems to be implied in the headline and most of the summary.
Competition is good and I'm all for more competition in the OS market; but Apple policies are awful and, in my opinion, the worse in the IT world. You have only one hardware manufacturer, central control for applications distribution (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/26/google_itunes//) and, in general, a restrictive environment that no geek should find interesting... We are here to break, hack and have fun, and Apple seems to think that's unacceptable.
If you complain about DRM stuff in Windows for compliance with HD standards and playing specific web content wait until Apple DRM that won't allow you to run their software on the hardware you want hits you in the face.
Disclaimer: This is the way I see things and is completely a personal opinion.
Um, iPhones sold about 11m now, worldwide, which would help push the EEPC effect down.
On top of that, Mac sales are also about 10m, worldwide.
So even if Linux is growing, Mac/iPhone is growing faster.
GPL Deconstructed
why won't you people just leave Microsoft alone!!! *cries*
642 days ago I was talking with my friends about the news I was reading about Microsoft at the time and I said that in 2 years Microsoft would no longer be the leader in operating systems and possibly no longer in business. 88 days left and I'll find out if I really was just screwing around.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Are they only counting OEMs or something? I think perhaps those numbers are a bit misleading. Statistics of this sort are rarely accurate.
The game.
"Windows' share typically falls on weekends and after work hours, as users surf from home computers, a larger percentage of which run Mac OS X than do work machines."
So, what they are saying is that people would rather use something else, and do so at home. In effect, people don't want windoze but are forced to use it at work.
Windows sucks and there's your proof.
If those companies sold nothing more than PCs (they certainly don't), or their margins on those PCs were stellar to begin with (they never were), then this might be true. Unfortunately it's just a figment of your imagination, which you continue to try and push as fact, like many other things (ACPI comes to mind).
Why do you lie and make these things up about Microsoft, twitter? Don't they do enough crappy things to satisfy even you?
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
Laughable because you don't agree with them, I assume.
I note that the summary and article provide evidence whereas you haven't. Care to oblige?
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
I wish I could be as much of an optimist as you twitter, however I feel like you didn't factor in all those people that took back their eeepc's after it wouldn't run their windows programs. Remember that news from 6 months ago about the eeepc returns being more for Linux then xp installs?
With that being said there's nothing wrong with lower numbers or conservative numbers. In my opinion a growing number is better then a declining number.
It would in fact probably be more of an advantage to mask all Linux machines as Windows boxes, it'd cache Microsoft off guard and by the time they realised their market share is significantly less then it actually is.. well..
Oh god, I hate replying to myself but I forgot to include the source of the second quote: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/oct/08/linux.windows
Sorry about that.
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
I kind of figured this would start around the time I read about Vista's specs. DRM, bloated beyond anything. Then the more Vista was turned out, the more I can see this happening. Then when netbooks came out, and people was snapping them up like candy, and knew they couldn't possibly run Vista, I could see the other nail. Now that the economy may slip into a depression, well - now how many of us can afford their overpriced licenses, buying new systems every 2 years or so, and not to mention being locked into a 1 OS p/computer that MS does? I've just started using Kunbuntu 8.04.1, and frankly I'm on my way to tossing Win2k for good. Except for a few minor programs that has to be jerks in installing, I've installed about 80% of the programs I use, dual monitor capiblity works like a charm, and best of all. I can use *all* of my harddrives. So tell me why I need XP? Or Vista? Why should I put up with MS's bull about buying a whole new OS everytime I add or change somehting in my computer? I think a lot of people are seeing the same thing, when all we do mostly is work, (except for gamers.) It may come to the point, that Windows will be ONLY a gaming platform - much like a PS3, or so. Lets just hope that like what happened to IE after FF started to bite, they get off their lazy rumps and really do something *good* with Windows, instead of just bloating it up with useless junk. Yeah, and horses will fly too :)
- Kc
-- Kevin C. Redden kcredden@ gmail 392992
I have to wonder how much of this is related to the economy. Granted, Vista isn't exactly the greatest thing to come out of MS in the last few years, but I have to wonder if their exhorbant pricing scheme for Vista and the current economy is also a factor in poor sales and people moving to other platforms. Granted, a Mac will cost you more for the hardware, but the OS is pretty darned cheap and gives you license to put it on multiple pieces of hardware. Linux is free. Are the times hard enough where MS is driving away their customers on multiple fronts?
I just don't trust these stats (and that's not because they don't say what I want them to), from the Net Applications site:
So it's all customers from some analytics service these guys own. But what type of sites use their service? It's hard to believe these figures do not have a built-in bias due to the types of sites providing them.
By far the most popular analytics service is Google Analytics.* If Google were to produce figures like these, I'd be more inclined to believe them, as their analytics software is used on a decent cross-section of sites, including technical ones like Slashdot.
My own data -- with bias due to having a technical audience -- across two sites, says roughly: Windows 75%; Mac 9%; Linux 13% (with 3% AWStats reports as 'Unknown', and other sundry OSs like BSD, OS/2, AmigaOS, BeOS etc.) None of my sites use Net Applications' software, and get around 125,000 visitors a month.
* Sorry I haven't a citation for this, but just look at the source code of almost any site and you'll see a Javascript block from Google Analytics. Also, see this unscientific evidence.
I'm going to transform myself into a mighty hawk. Either that or I'll just go and work at Dixons, haven't decided yet.
No one is buying a GNU/Linux netbook and then torturing themselves with a $200 XP install.
No, but a lot of people buy the cheaper linux netbook, and then install a pirated xp on it.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
I may be odd but I changed my useragent string on my work laptop to read as firefox on linux. I am lucky enough to use firefox at work but I changed it out of principle ... every little bit helps (or at least that's what I tell myself)
I love statistics. Every one you look at tells you a different story, even on the same subject.
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp tells me, that Windows is still above 90% (slightly) using a similar calculation method.
But the article is right in one point: Windows is continuously loosing ground, slowly. At least for the moment. The question is when does it reach a critical point at which application developers start to create their applications for more then just one dominant platform? We are not really there yet. Maybe in 5-10 years if the current tendency prevails.
At some point major software just starts to get developed in a cross-platform fashion which will also trigger better cross-platform frameworks and eventually catalyze the process, but I don't think this will happen until Windows looses another 10%.
It's basically about economy: when does the target audience on non-windows platforms reach the point at which the development for that platforms get profitable.
Don't get me wrong, I particularly hate Microsoft philosophy and products, but I still try to figure out reasonable probabilities. But I'm also no oracle, so I will just lean back in my seat and enjoy the show (misery) from my Linux box.
Please stop. Just stop. Making "funny" versions of things that are reported on Slashdot and then posting links to your blog is SPAMMING. Get it? You're a SPAMMER for doing this. Stop it. You do nothing else here on Slashdot.
The Apple section at the local Best Buy is the busiest part of the whole store. It may be completely anecdotal, but I've been using Macs since 1989 and I've NEVER seen so much mainstream interest.
Hi I'm a Mac! :D :D :D
But, it's still to early to dance a jig over ms going down to 90%. When the windoze-only apps get native counterparts in Linux AND Mac, and THESE two both/each have 12% of the market, then it's time to arrange dancing dates, and maybe warm up for the dance-a-thon.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
What?
The big application developers (That's Microsoft, Adobe and Apple) already mostly develop their apps for two platforms. Apple less than the other two, but they will keep updating itunes on Windows for a long ass time.
FOSS application developers (again, the big ones, Mozilla, Sun, etc.) generally develop for Windows, Mac and Unix-alike (Server application development is much less universal, whatever).
So sure, smaller developers might start targeting Mac and Windows, but I doubt it, as it doesn't matter all that much what $5,000 machine the $75,000 worker uses to run the $15,000 application.
Makers of niche apps and utilities fit in there somewhere, but the fraction that actually charge money is pretty small, and seems to be shrinking (i.e., free and open source solutions are increasing equivalent to for pay stuff).
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
The bogosity of that argument is especially apparent when you consider that Dell, Gateway, IBM/Lenovo and all of the other PC-heavy companies are doing just fine.
CompUSA went bankrupt because Vista isn't selling well? Now that is laughable.
Why is twitter still allowed to post here at all?
That wasn't the Asus Eee pc returned more with linux on it, just the MSI Wind. And that because MSI sold them with incomplete hardware driver support (no webcam, and some other problems) for their choice of linux (opensuse iirc). Not all netbooks are equal.
Macs used to have 15% to 20% marketshare in the early 1990's. Now they have less than 10%, when they had the Mac Clones they really sold a lot of them.
If Apple allowed Mac Clones again, I am sure Macs could easily capture that 20% all over again.
Does that report count retrocomputers that run MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 and Windows 95? I know a lot of people who still do use older PC technology. Modern Linux won't run on them unless it is command line based. The old 8M and constantly swapping Windows 95 machines with a 486DX 66Mhz processor or 386SX processor at 16 Mhz.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Sector 001? Will they become a "DO-Awe-Pole-EE"?
Which will blow the wrist hairs of the other like Data did the Borg Queen?
Might be neat if Apple starts selling Vinculums with every shiny new Mac. Wait... the... Mac... IS a Vinculum, hehehehe. Their Vinculum might bring more order to the CHAOS of the windows Vinculum...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with the XBox. They paid a lot of developers to migrate to their platform from the PC, and now the PC market no longer has any compelling exclusive titles to drive it. Without compelling titles there's no reason to keep the machine current.
Part of what drove the pc market was the games arms race. Without games what do you use the pc for? Internet... I can do that with a 3 year old machine and any operating system. Why would I EVER upgrade? People are going to migrate to the cheapest safest software they can, and the open source community and apple will gladly accommodate.
Microsoft needs to start paying developers to make high graphical games for their latest operating system..
I wouldn't base anything on these statistics...except maybe that you can get /.'ed for just about anything if you say it with a convincing enough headline... Their site states, "We use a unique methodology for collecting this data. We collect data from the browsers of site visitors to our exclusive on-demand network of live stats customers." How? What method? How easily is this method blocked or circumvented? For example, can it be blocked with a browser addin like noscript or by simply turning off cookies?
There's just way too many 'unknowns' for me to put a lot of stock in this kind of info.
For me the reason for not choosing to use one of Microsoft's new Server OSs was lack of drivers. Microsoft along with hardware companies like HP, will only certify a machine for either the desktop world or the server world. I have hardware that I use for desktops that I also wanted to run a server OS, (Server 2008), on, but I could not get drivers that would allow me to run Server 2008 on a "desktop" machine.
Folks, what makes a machine a server or a desktop is the functionality that it provides, not some hardware manufacturer's marketing campaign designed to get us all to spent money on more expensive hardware then we need.
I ended up with older hardware and Linux. And it's doing it's job just fine thank you.
How is fact not the opposite of "not real or true"? Opinion is not knowledge, therefore it is not fact. "Fact" excerpted from the OED:
1. A thing done or performed.
2. The making, doing, or performing.
3. Math. = FACTUM
4. a. Something that has really occurred or is actually the case; something certainly known to be of this character; hence, a particular truth known by actual observation or authentic testimony, as opposed to what is merely inferred, or to a conjecture or fiction; a datum of experience, as distinguished from the conclusions that may be based upon it.
5. Often loosely used for: Something that is alleged to be, or conceivably might be, a âfactâ(TM).
6. a. (Without a and pl.) That which is of the nature of a fact; what has actually happened or is the case; truth attested by direct observation or authentic testimony; reality. matter of fact: a subject of discussion belonging to the domain of fact, as distinguished from matter of inference, of opinion, of law, etc.
b. in fact: in reality (cf. sense 1 and indeed). Now often used parenthetically in an epexegetical statement, or when a more comprehensive assertion is substituted for that which has just been made. in point of fact: with regard to matters of fact; also (and now usually) = in fact.
c. the fact (of the matter): the truth with regard to the subject under discussion.
7. Law. In sing. and pl. The circumstances and incidents of a case, looked at apart from their legal bearing. attorney in fact: see ATTORNEY.
8. attrib. and Comb., as fact-fetishism, -fetishist ns.; fact-bound, -crammed adjs.; fact-collecting, -cramming vbl. ns.; fact-gathering vbl. n. and ppl. adj.; fact-finding ppl. a., that finds out facts; esp. descriptive of a committee, commission, etc., set up to discover and establish the facts of any matter; also as vbl. n., the work involved in such a process; hence (as a back-formation) fact-find v. intr.; also fact-finder; fact-proof a., impervious to facts; fact-sheet, a paper on which facts relevant to a particular issue are set out briefly and clearly.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
I keep seeing references in stories to, "growing Linux market share," but they never seem to actually list what that market share might be or how it's calculated. In this story they have no problem listing the rough percentage of Windows systems and a percentage of Mac systems but don't actually mention a number for Linux systems.
I love Linux very much but I don't think it really counts as "growth" in any noteworthy fashion until we hit 1%.
My cuntry Khazakstan write like you, great justice.
I agree. And how are they determining "market share", anyway? By how much you spend for your OS? Now if we could see how many computers have which operating system installed, it might start to be relevant. For example, I have five computers. All have OpenSuse 11 installed on them. Four of them also have Win XP on them for legacy programs we need. On the fifth I tossed VISTA when I bought the computer and installed OpenSuse. I had to buy all my computers with some form of Windows on them. I hardly ever use Windows. Yet all of them will count for Windows and against Linux because I don't have to pay anything to use Linux. They need to find a way to assess what people are using, not what they bought.
A lot of linux growth will also not be attributed to new sales...
Infact, most new linux users i've encountered installed it on their existing hardware, or bought a new machine with windows and put linux on the older one.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
That's true with nerds too. Why, just the other day, I was Yahooing a javascript method...
See what you did there? "Why, that fool doesn't use Google!" The mainstream - and yet still the coolest - search engine. Because it works the best.
Popularity does not always have a negative feedback loop.
The president of ASUS says sales have been 70% XP, 30% Linux.
Bad upper management decisions doomed CompUSA - such as focusing on advertising printers that had no real profit, instead of advertising their formerly lucrative (and always profitable) Tech Services and Business Services divisions. By the time people in upper management were changed out with people who understood this, the company didnt have the money to fix the problem (though they did come up with very viable plans to do so - just couldnt get the backing at that point).
PCs and Windows sales had nothing to do with it. Do you have any idea how many people didnt even know we repaired PCs? Or that we had a Business Sales and Services department? Or that we offered training on a variety of things?
The above, and no longer catering to the core customers that maintained their profitability were the cause.
I know... I was there.
StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
I bought them both and originally intended to do my own custom build of Linux, but I started to use the XP Home that they came with (tweaked) and they work like a charm.
I disabled Express gate for security reasons.
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
Apple will NEVER get more than maybe 10% of the market. The company doesn't scale well. And they tie OSX to their hardware.
Let's say Apple releases Snow Leopard. It's the greatest OS known to man. it's 50% faster than 10.5, runs ALL Windows applications faster than Windows, has ZFS as the filesystem, and has zero security flaws.
Ok, great, let's run it. But I have to buy a machine from Apple. Now if I just want a machine, I can get one. But Apple has enough problems with releasing new systems with their 8% share now. What happens when this goes to 20%? 30%? They are bottlenecked by the number of systems they can produce. They physically can't get the number of systems out there to get any real marketshare. Is OSX better than Vista? No arguments here. But what already has more share? When you have one company releasing something, and everyone else releasing something else, Windows will win every time. It doesn't matter how great OSX is, or how shitty Windows is. Which this is something most people figured out ages ago. Except for the Apple people, who somehow think OSX can take over the world.
Now if they licensed OSX, and then you have Dell, HP, et.al. selling them, it's another thing. But Jobs will never do this, so talking about it is a moot point.
Only problem with that is if you run Adblock et al, you'll not show up in the stats. If you don't connect to one of the sites running Net Apps partner adverts, you'll not show up in the stats. If you don't use the internet or use it rarely, you'll not show up in the stats.
This site gives a better view as it aggregates data from several different sources and doesn't just use one that can be excluded by an ad blocker.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
Windows apple mix cookies it really just doesn't matter, a week ago I would have gotten worked up over this into some kind of evangelical Linux trip, but I dunno, who really cares? It's a disk, with a bunch of numbers on it, and when you put it in your computer, it draws boxes and prints words and makes pictures and provides a nice platform to play Solitaire. I mean, sounds good to me. Blue screen of death! Best code ever written.
"But seriously dude, what is that in the radiator?"
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yes the downfall of all those companies is Microsoft. What else? Oh wait - Fannie and Freddie - guess which OS was installed on most of their computers? Windows? There you go, MS causing another downfall. All of the auto makers were running Windows too, and look what happened to them! Most of the people who have had their houses foreclosed on, guess which OS they were running. Windows! Again the evil MS at work trying to destroy all of us!
But seriously, Microsoft does just fine screwing up on it's own merits. It doesn't need you attributing every single evil in the world back to it.
"But this one goes to 11!"
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Having 90% market share in 1995 is not the same as 90% market share in 2008. A better comparison would be with a number/volume difference. Also, how do THEY know how many people had Windows in 1995?
iPhone...It's a phone not a PC. We are talking about general purpose computing here. If you want to compare numbers on embedded devices then lets talk about all those gadgets that run Linux that people do not even know about. In terms of the embedded market, Linux isn't as marginalized as on the desktop. Now lets stop comparing PCs to phones even if they are smart phones, unless we talk about how symbian is taking windows market share away as well.
Imagine Ford gets 9 out of 10 car sales, just has it does pretty every year; would you say that's a competitive market?
Chance of negative moderation directly proportional to the number of Open Sores on the leenux hippie
If you mean that OSX is a descendant of FreeBSD then you are mistaken. OSX is a descendant of Mach, which shares a distant common ancestor with FreeBSD.
~ I am logged on, therefore I am.
Nobody cares about "linux devices". The real market share we are looking at growing is consumer desktops and laptops.
Never mind millions of routers or switches with embedded linux.
Never mind any other machines, electronics or gadgets with embedded linux.
Whenever somebody talks about the widespread growth of "linux devices" I tend to think that those people care little about Linux becoming viable competition on the desktop and more about getting linux embedded into devices where it seems to really be finding its niche.
I also think the most of those Apache servers out there are
running a Unix or Linux OS.
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
No, no, no. It's pronounced "DO-Apple-Y."
Let us not become the evil that we deplore.
If XP is not bad enough out of the box, it will be after six months of net use.
The XP Pro install on my primary desktop at my house is 5 years old and still going. It has seen SP1, SP2, and SP3 with no issues. It has never had a virus, worm, or trojan. It serves daily as my MMO gaming computer, multimedia machine, and general internet surfing machine for my family.
The point is that the long-term stability and reliability of the OS has far more to do with the person using it than any other factor. Garbage-In, Garbage-Out.
One of the biggest resons that people are stikking with Windows, is Games.
It is still not the norm to make games for other then Windows, and when game companys do, it is offen whit 6+ month delay after the windows release.
So gamers can't really leave Windows :-(
And there is A LOT of gamers out there
I own an Acer Aspire One with ... well ... something they called Linux on it. Upon boot you are greeted with big shiny colourfull buttons to start some of the applications which are actually installed on the AA1 and you have no way to add any application you might need (VLC or Skype) if you never used any linux distro before. ... and it's a complete turn-down. Even the (shareware) games one can access by default sucks donkey balls : they didn't even think to include any form of solitaire, even though pysol, which would blow your typical "I only play the card game in windows" type of user's mind away, is in the repositories
Of course, a 5 second search on Google will show you how to very easily remove the original desktop menu, revert to a real (xfce) desktop with way more applications, and all the nifty things anyone with some linux experience would expect (like the ability to download and add software easily through Pirut), but that means you have to know that it's possible in the first place. Most people buying notebooks don't have any idea about what Linux distros can or can't offer, so, for them, Linux IS the Linpus desktop
I think the reason many people install pirated (or not) version of XP on it is due to the dumbed down distros netbooks are sold with, and in my paranoid hours I even wonder how much pressure Microsoft is putting on the netbook manufacturers to make sure that Linux looks as bad as possible.
My ~jailbreaked~ (if one could call "alt+f2"->"terminal"->"xfce-panel" a jailbreak) AA1 is happily running Blender2.48, Skype, VLC, Kryta (thanks to a non-standard gtk lib, installing Gimp is non-trivial), Audacity, Armagetronad, scorched3D, and a lot of other ~standard~ stuff on the underlying xfce desktop (It's still the original Linpus distro!). I actually modelled and rendered a rather complex scene using Blender while traveling, and then developped a minigame in python using Geany. I could run compiz quite well if I wanted (I only start it up when showing people what the AA1 is actually capable of, as it's the best way to drain the battery) ... and would have looked for any way to install XP on it, even though it probably would have run like a dog, compared to linpus/xfce
If I had only known XP prior to buying the AA1 I guess I'd have been disgusted and would have had a completely wrong picture about what Linux is capable of
"DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
/. seems to have eaten up my lengthy reply to that, but the gist was :
maybe it's because, when they start their brand new linux powered netbook, all they get is a so-called easy mode instead of a full fledged desktop
If more people would realize that you can add software (including games which are not shareware and subpar, like the ones delivered with the AA1 for example) and comfortably work in a ~windows-like~ environment on any netbook, they might not be so fast at replacing the OS.
My AA1-210 (with a 16GB extension) runs Skype, VLC, Blender 2.48, Kryta, audacity, tons of OSS games (show pysol to any standard "I-only-play-solitaire" XP user to see some brain splattering over the walls, then start armagetronad) and other less ludite soft (code::blocks anyone?) nicely on the XFCE desktop underlying the Linpus' easy mode PoS. If I want to show off, I can even start compiz (which, by the way, is already installed by default, like many other packages which aren't shown in the "easy" mode!).
In my paranoid hours, I wonder how much pressure Microsoft puts on the companies bringing out netbooks to make sure Linux looks as bad as possible
(and if this is a dupe, then I put the blame on slashdot and/or CowboyNeal)
"DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
OK, Microsoft makes a bit more than a billion dollars a week in gross revenue, and more than $930 million per week in profit.
Apple, on $32 Billion in revenue, makes a bit more than $11 billion in profit. Microsoft makes almost as much in a week as Apple does in a month.
Novell plus Red Hat? The two major Linux companies spend a year generating the revenue that Microsoft generates in a week and a half or so.
Google generates less than a third of Microsoft's revenue, and their gross profits are under $10 billion, less than Apple's.
Anyone who thinks that Microsoft doesn't have the resources to hire who it needs to in order to deal with changing market conditions is nuts. A few years ago, Intel was supposedly on the ropes. They changed direction, killed a few processors, and fairly quickly released the Core Duo processors and turned the company around. AMD was left flat-footed, and are only now even coming close to regaining their footing. I don't really care much whether Microsoft does, but I don't think people realize the difference in scale and the difference in resources that can be brought to bear. If Windows 7 works and gains acceptance, it won't matter that Vista had huge problems. And they're spending a ton on stuff like Sharepoint, which is a relatively unique product - and good enough to get a ton of organizations to tolerate vendor "lock in" to get the feature set.
Don't underestimate how much money they have and how many talented people they do have in much of the company. You can certainly compete with them and make money, but it's unlikely that even Google will be able to dislodge them any time soon.
Microsoft's number 1 competitor is the INTERNET. People can now inform the rest of us, even non-savvy computer users, of alternatives and why they should switch -- or at least have a look at what else is out there. People are FED UP with viruses, and getting credit cards and passwords and all kinds of sensitive personal data stolen. The media is blaming Microsoft for not patching ( or unable ) the security holes in their Browser and Operating system. People do not want bloat, blink and marketing shoved down their thoats, any longer. The economic crisis is proof of this. If you have seen microsoft's latest Adverts, ( which basically do NOTHING to convince anyone to switch to Vista for Businesses ) is a COMPLETE failure compared to MAC BookPro's toting Recycled, power efficient GREEN notebooks, which hits on target for a GREAT selling point. MS continues to miss the target with all of their Adverts (across the board) Because, of the Blogosphere, people can talk about products before buying them. They can read the horror stories of credit phishing, viruses, or read groklaw.net and see all the law suites against Microsoft. Microsoft was all powerful BEFORE THE INTERNET. But, Microsoft can no longer 'hide behind lyes' as the truth now gets out, for all to share. Perfect example is VISTA and BOTNETS that infest WINDOWS machines. The INTERNET allows any one to freely download alternative OS's like any of the 500+ Linux Distros. Admins are more and more recommending to their companies, If you want to save in costs, use a FREE Operating System. The Internet is starting to make computing on the 'CLOUD' using Google Docs and ability to easily download a FREE word, spread, and presentation suite for FREE. The Internet truely is Microsoft's worse enemy. If not for the Internet, Microsoft could continue away and extorting others, forcing unlawful OEM deals based on fear. But, now they can not. Why? THE INTERNET exposes them. The new Media of the new Millenium called the INTERNET is changing every bodies views. Slowly but surely, software will become more and more commoditized and competition will be fierce.
PC World in Britain blamed Vista on their large inventory of unsold laptops.
I've seen a Netbook in Carphone Warehouse (owned by Best Buy) that has Ubuntu on it, and one in PC World that has SuSE; so they don't all have useless distros on them, but I guess a lot of people won't understand the difference.
I take issue with your signature. I think you'll find the majority of people on Slashdot were saying that cloud computing was a stupid buzz word way before RMS said anything.
You've just crossed over into.. the Twilight Zone.
This is huge news, looks like the trend is moving away from Windows.
I suggest monitoring websites and using the user agent string to determine what OS people are using.
FTFA:
Holy time warp, Batman! The people in the article are already doing what I suggested after I read the article. How did that happen?
Stop Global Warming!
Just say no to irreversible processes!
The iPhone platform is less than one year old, and at 0.4% has a presence half the size of Linux. Operating System Market Share
MS Vista has 20% of the market, up 8% since January. Linux 0.8%, up 0.2%. Pathetic.
In rounded numbers, Windows - all versions - still has a 90% share.
It takes a Geek to read statistical significance in a 1% drop in a webstat.
The most useful way to read these numbers is simply as a reminder of the growing number of web-enabled mobile devices and home appliances -- a reminder as well that both Apple and Microsoft are both significant and successful players in these emerging markets.
This is good news. It surely means the year of the Linux Desktop is impending.
I think you misspelt "imploding".
It's good to see what your reaction is when you're caught lying through your teeth and someone rips you a new one. You find it "offensive", of all things.
I run 10 systems at home on 3 physical systems.
8 are Linux.
1 is Vista (came with new laptop)
1 is WinXP running in a VM (needed for work)
I doubt that anyone is counting my 8-1-1 setup properly.
If you mean that OSX is a descendant of FreeBSD then you are mistaken.
OS X uses a Mach Kernel, but OS X and FreeBSD OSs include more than a kernel. Much of the OS X userspace is derived from FreeBSD and as such one can claim OS X a a descendent of NextStep (Mach), FreeBSD, and the original MacOS.
Nah, that would just be stuff they both inherited from their common ancestor. It doesn't imply that OSX is derived from FreeBSD. OSX Server is a descendant of NeXTSTEP according to the family tree linked in GP, but regular OSX is what the OP was referring to and that is directly descended from Mach (the distribution).
Palladium never happened.
Is anyone else hugely disappointed that the shift is just from one corporate OS to another? By shifting from Windows to OS X the shift is just more of the same, in the long run.
A pity it's not a shift to Linux and more people adopting open source. I mean Apple don't exactly have a shining record for copyright / customer treatment, etc. So if they become the next big power player, the customer doesn't exactly win, here.
You are mistaken. OS X's kernel is a hybrid of Mach and FreeBSD (uses FreeBSD's VFS, processes, sockets, etc), with some significant additions developed by Apple as well. Also much of OS X's POSIX-y userland is FreeBSD-derived.
-- listen to interesting music, support independent radio... WPRB
GNU/Linux does not have a market share because it operates out of the market. A few GNU/Linux distributions are commercial and therefore can have market share, but the majority of distros operate in out of the market. GNU/Linux is out of the market because it is not a product. Rather, GNU/Linux is an act of free speech, an act of love and passion, and a gift.
So, counting the market share of GNU/Linux has no meaning, since it's not a product. Calling it a competitor to any other OS is also wrong, for the same reason. Calling free software products of competitors are propaganda terms designed to make decision makers believe that GNU/Linux could potentially be subject to regulations about products. But if they suceed in this, then they can cook some new regulation that would effectivelly ban GNU/Linux. Don't let them do this, call GNU/Linux and free software what it really is: free speech, not a product, and therefore protected as free speech rather than subject to product regulations.
Just to tell you an example, suppose a new regulation says that all products must contain encryption that is X bits powerful and the keys be submitted to a central repository, but that the product must take precautions not to let its users discover the keys. Such a regulation would apply on products (IANAL: I am not a lawyer), but what if you printed a book with your words that just happen to be the secret keys? Free speech is protected so printing a book must be ok (IANAL: I am not a lawyer). Now, if someone comes and say "look you hackers, you created an OS and you put it online for download, therefore you have put a product in the market, therefore you must hide the secret key" that would be a cause of trouble if they suceed in labelling free software packages as products. But free software in my view is not a product, it is an exercise of free speech.
So, next time someone labels your free software a product, a market participant, or a competitor to their products, just tell them the truth: your free software was never supposed to be viewed as a product, your free software is instead only an act of free speech, and the fact that it is available online is an exercise of the right of assembly and communication with other people, as well as a gift.
In a similar way, product regulations may say that new TVs should do this and that, but if you are an engineer and you build your own homebrew TV at home and you just want to post its blueprints online to share your passion with fellow homebrew engineers then your creations should be treated as free speech rather than as an attempt to enter the market, therefore in my view amateurs should not be subject to product and market regulation rules in the same way as commercial players are.
Of course I have absolutely no idea whether this line of thinking would make any sense in a legal setting about questions of applicability of product regulations on free software, as I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.
Nah, that would just be stuff they both inherited from their common ancestor.
That just isn't so. Next integrated parts of both FreeBSD and OpenBSD into NextStep, which in turn was pulled into OS X, but Apple also pulled in additional parts of the FreeBSD userspace in the creation of OS X. Heck, they still are doing so as the latest release version (Leopard) pulled in some of the ACL architecture from the TrustedBSD project of FreeBSD. OS X is clearly a direct descendent of FreeBSD via multiple paths.
With most players, you don't have to use any "music manager." Just mount the device and copy.
That's true for MP3 players that implement USB's mass storage device class: the mounter in any operating system since 1999 just treats it as a removable disk drive formatted in FAT16 or FAT32 depending on the capacity. But other MP3 players, especially those that support WMA files with digital restrictions management, are Media Transfer Protocol devices. MTP is a protocol based on the Picture Transfer Protocol used by some scanners and cameras. For PTP and MTP devices, "mount the device" means that the music manager is a shell extension for Windows Explorer, and the issue is that not every graphical shell on other operating systems has such an extension.
If I was an MS shareholder*, I would applaud their attempts at diversifying and reducing, just that tiny little bit, their dependence on PC OS sales. Some efforts have failed (Zune, search), but others are doing well.
-The Xbox 360 is a very successful product in gaming.
-Windows Mobile is a very successful product in the cellphone market.
-Products like Windows CE Automotive are in use.
-MSN/Live Messenger dominates IM, at least in the UK.
*I'm not an MS shareholder and I use PS3/iPhone/iPod/OSX.
that I made a permanent switch from XP to Linux. You're welcome. :P
Lose: misplace or fail || Loose: not bound together
These type of stats always ignore the bulk of Linux devices. There are more than 300 million Linux devices sold every year.
But how many of those Linux devices allow end users to install applications developed by a team of amateurs? Most notably, TiVo DVRs fail this, as they use code signing to reject all binaries not approved by TiVo.
Hey twitter: Saying "M$" doesn't bother me, but you might gain more fans by condensing your rants down to 140 characters or less.
One of my clients just told me this week that four of their people, who were on my maintenance contract for Windows support, would be shifted to Mac laptops. Two other staff members were shifted earlier, and they are happy with their systems after having had problems with Vista and XP. The staff members who were shifted basically don't do much beyond email and Web work, so they don't really need a lot of Windows software. One of the two earlier shifted staff members is running Parallels on her Mac to deal with QuickBooks. This company will probably shift several more people in the new future.
One of my other clients, which does digital media conversion, has brought in a Mac server-grade system to handle some of their video editing which was bogging down their Windows XP workstations.
So, yes, it's happening. The dam is breaking and people are getting fed up with Windows to the degree that they can afford to (i.e., software lock-in.)
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
THIS is the year of Linux??? Just like last year... and the year before... and the year before...
Yes, because changing multiple years long contracts with labels and the reformatting of 7+ million songs can be done at the drop of a hat.
Oh wait...
In that case, you have to also factor in people who set Opera to report itself as Firefox or Internet Explorer. Spoofing is probably more common on Opera than Firefox since Firefox gets more website support than Opera.
Given the current economic slowdown and the relentless pressure on management to "take cost out of the system," I wonder when a medium to large company will decide that it can save a bundle by switching to Gnu/Linux Desktops for most of its employees. I have to admit that such a desktop with Open Office and Gnome [I use Mandriva 2009] does most of what a typical worker needs. Such a platform runs well on modest hardware. I do electron microscopy and image processing and must admit that there are many tasks where a couple of proprietary packages that only run under Windows are essential. Even these run on my Linux box in a virtual machine. Still, I have abandoned several others in favor of some very good F/OSS packages (fityk, Maxima, IPLT, and Sage.) The wonderful Python tools make scientific work and even "gluing together" legacy command line tools very productive.
OSX is a descendant of Mach, which shares a distant common ancestor with FreeBSD.
Some years back, just at the OS X Public Beta launch, and later, the Darwin Project, Apple did a decent job of documenting what was what on their web. No more.
The earliest OS X info was clear - Mach kernel w/ elements from not only FreeBSD but also NetBSD and OpenBSD. The idea was to capitalize (no pun intended) on flexibility, networking and security features. Some of the original documentation supporting this is with some accuracy is wikipedia (sorry - hate to use that for something this important) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Mac_OS_X
There are probably surviving papers from geniuses of the likes of Wilfredo Sanchez explaining why and how this architecture was undertaken - further googling is left as an exercise.
The issue that I take with your statement is that OS X is a Mach descendent. It was originally touted as a BSD with a Mach kernel - the architectural diagram itself argues with that statement.
Perhaps it is more accurate to call it a fusion of Mach and BSD software technologies.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
6 months ago I first saw some Linux Netbooks here in Japan. When I went to buy one for my daughter's birthday last month, I couldn't find a single one. They had all been replaced with Windows XP. Everywhere.
Microsoft strikes again with back room deals to keep Linux out of the market in Japan.
Looks like I'll need to spend a little more and buy a MacBook for my daughter. I absolutely refuse to pay the Microsoft Tax, and can't get any of the Japanese sellers to remove it.
I really think it is a matter of time until a huge chunk of MAC switchers come back to Windows. They were likely sold on all those promises and a hate for Microsoft's OS problems. They will eventually have some problem with MAC like incompatibility or hardware failure that will make them realize that they did not arrive in computer heaven with their expensive MAC purchase.
On another note, I think Ubuntu is really great and does not require proprietary hardware like the MAC. It deserves to grow and become a legitimate competitor. If Steam and Steam games comes to Linux, that would immediately switch many people to full time Linux users.
Now it is an acknowledged 1.1% of a massive market.
I say this as somebody that has installed several Ubuntu machines for family and friends. I wonder how many people like us are not showing on that statistic.
Empirical UK centred tidbit: there are 3 major Linux magazines readily available in shops (Linux Format, Linux Magazine, Linux User) and there is only one for Apple fan boys (MacUser). There must be a market out there that is not necessarily entering the marketing statistics but that can be gauged by other means.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Methinks not. Read the article. There's a brief mention of the Linux market share at the end. It turns out the Linux market share was actually higher in September (.9%) than it is now (.83%). How does anyone except a diehard Linux user equate that with gaining on the Windows market? Coverage of tech events seems to be a lot like coverage of political events in that lies and filtering are used to produce desirable outcomes rather than report the truth.
Will 2009 be the year of the Linux desktop? At this pathetic and uncertain rate of progress, you guys probably will never see that day. Unless Linux becomes incredibly better in the near future, it will always be The-OS-That-Never-Was-The-Successor-To-Windows-And-Had-No-Hope-Of-Beating-Microsoft-Either.
The Mac Heads are in a little better shape. At least they made gains rather than lost ground since September. And they've earned it. When you make serious investments in your products and market them well, you should expect good results. The fact that the two best desktop operating systems in the world are eating away at one another is a good thing for competition and innovation.
As usual, whatever goes on in the Linux world doesn't matter a peep to a vast majority of desktop users. Linux users aren't about to topple capitalism soon, and open source developers just aren't good enough or dedicated enough to rise to the level of excellence of their Microsoft and Apple peers. From a functional, ease of use, and performance point of view, Linux has a LOT of ground to make up.
OSX is a descendant of Mach, which shares a distant common ancestor with FreeBSD
And yet Apple disagrees with you:
While that doesn't mean they don't also inherit from other sources (and explicitly mention the Mach kernel in the same paragraph), they speak rather highly of their FreeBSD lineage.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
*yawn* Let me know when you have some actual evidence to back up your fantasies.
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
So Apple has finally reached the point where they can stop stealing market share from Teh Lunix (Switch!), and is now edging in to the Windows market.
Although much of that 1.1% marketshare could possibly still be turned on to Apple. It's never too late to Think Different.
Typically the newest OSX features are ported to the OSX Server branch. I have no doubt that they borrow compatible technologies from other distributions, but we are talking about where the distribution itself originally forked from.
While MS and hardware manufacturers drop support for perfectly usable hardware Linux will pick up support for them at some point and the support will rarely be removed.
Now, if you talk about new hardware, then yes, Linux may support less devices, but you can still get perfectly working systems (here I include peripherals of all kind) if you stick to dvices using open or documented standards (for example almost all USB disks will work out of the box with Linux, because given the nature of the device it has to work with different OSes, and thus MS has not been able to steal the specification, not yet at least).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Here in the UK Currys and PCWorld amongst others are selling these alongside Windows laptops.
These shops have the pulse in what is going mainstream, if they are selling them this means they are no longer the preserve of the geek.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I want to catch a rocket there.
If MS is having it so great why investors have driven its share price to the floor?
If MS is sitting pretty why do they need to embarrass themselves trying to buy Yahoo instead of fixing their own search engine? Or why do they do "protection" (like mafia bosses) deal with Novell and other Linux companies while at the same time launching not so subtle threats of patent trolling?
Lets not forget neither that MS has now half the cash they used to have, so they are hemorraging it like there is no tomorrow.
I frankly don't understand your rosy vision of MS's situation. A company of such size has a lot of inertia, heck, many banks last year where performing like champs and look where they are now.
MS has problems, the bosses know it, but I do not think they really know how to address them...
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Twitter wrote in his profile:
Liberated in 1999.
Which could explain why twitter wrote this:
If XP is not bad enough out of the box, it will be after six months of net use.
That's funny, I haven't had any issues with Windows XP. It was true Windows was so bad one had to reinstall at least once a year, but that was during the time of Windows 98 and Windows ME(which is the real failure). Heck, Windows XP has been just as stable and secure as Ubuntu has been on my laptop.
As for the size of Windows XP, one only needs around 2 GB of disk space(if that is what you had meant when you had stated 4 GB of SD) for Windows XP, drivers, any office suite, and any other applications such Quicken.
What is funny is you are accusing others of lying when in fact you have been caught in lies yourself.
Oh, a sarcasm detector. That's a /real/ useful device.
Klller apps that don't exist anywhere else? Most certainly not going to happen. Again, 99% of software for Linux is open source. If people like any of those programs they are going to port them to other platforms. That's a given.
I think we should replace this concept.
What Linux needs is a "Killer Use" for witch its the single best tool for the job and there strong incentive to use that instead of the rest.
This has somewhat already happened due to the better scalability of the OS.
The same kernel (Linux) can be run any where from super computer and main frame through desktops, down to netbooks, and even much smaller device - as a firmware on the countless electronic gizmo that you can find in everyday life.
In fact if you stop think about *desktop* computer, chances are that there are already quite a few number of devices running linux in your home or in average Joe's : the cable or DSL modem/router you use to get on the net, the set top box in the cabinet under your TV screen, the networked harddisk enclosure you use to share file and backup stuff to, the embed print server which enables you to print stuff wirelessly from your laptop without needing to hunt an USB cable, the multimedia-harddisk enclosure you use to watch on your TV the DivX you torrented of Piratebay, etc.
The same advantage is to be available soonish for Mac OS X - the desktop Mac OS X on iMac and the embed OS X on iPhone/iPod are quite related.
Meanwhile : Microsoft has a disjointed offering with two separate OS sharing the same name but featuring incompatible API - Windows CE and Windows Vista.
What Linux needs is cumulating such feature which make it a much better choice.
Why would someone code for a platform that is only 1% of the total market? It's financial suicide. The only business that would typically do that would be one trying to push the platform from some idealistic standpoint, but businesses that put ideals like that in front of profits don't tend to remain in business very long.
Well, if for some specific features which are of core importance to your business Linux is a much better choice, Linux will be the target.
I mentioned customizability for embed platforms before. Hence Linux is quite widespread in firmwares.
Linux is a much better choice for clusters too for lots of reasons (NUMA support, better scheduling, etc.).
Thus scientists tend to write software to do their calculations for Linux.
To conquest the desktop, Linux should try to find similar killer features.
If you look back : artistic (GFX, publishing, etc) software has often been written for Mac OS even if Windows had the biggest install base.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Funny thing.. I ordered an XP netbook and wiped it to put Linux on it.. Why? The XP version had more extras (memory, better webcam) because of incentives.
Truly a case where everyone wins. Microsoft gets to claim their OS dominance. The retailer gets a sale. I get better hardware and the knowledge that the Beast of Redmond subsidized my purchase.
I know why I stopped going...
Prices:
Newegg consistently undercut CompUSA by huge amounts. At one point I was looking for a flash drive. Found one at Newegg for $40 with free shipping. At CompUSA it was $80.
Poor selection:
Walked in to buy a Firewire card. None in stock. Needed a powered USB hub that can also operate unpowered. None in stock, not even in another store. Needed some SATA cables. None in stock. These are the types of items that should be there all the time to snag the walk-ins.
Clueless staff:
Tried to buy a serial null modem cable (rs-232). The sales guy kept giving me various USB cables.
Useless staff:
I needed a hard drive. The sales guy was busy checking out customers with a set of cheap binoculars.
Loss of focus:
Cheap binoculars in a computer store??
(And no, the last item wasn't some attempt at clever word play. It happened to me at the Pembroke Pines store in South Florida. That day was my last visit to a CompUSA until that store closed and I went looking for closeouts.)
Is there even a single site that would work on Firefox/Win but not Firefox/Lin?
Any site that relies on an NPAPI plug-in available for Windows and not Linux. For example, to access sites made with Director (not Flash) on Linux, you need to run Firefox and Shockwave Player in Wine.
CompUSA treated customers like shit. Fry's has it's problems, but compared to CompUSA it's a Hawaiian vacation.
Even Best Buy, it's like, well, it's like two fast food outlets, only at one you get sick every time you eat there. The other one is still crappy fast food, but at least you don't get sick. That's CompUSA compared to Best Buy.
Social Credit would solve everything...
And the retailer and manufacturer thinks there's no demand for linux based machines, so the future versions will be windows only and filled with cheap hardware that noone ever bothered to write linux drivers for.
The best part about the linux netbooks from the perspective of long term linux users, is that the manufacturer will go to some effort to ensure the hardware is actually compatible with linux.
Also any sale of a linux based machine tells manufacturers and retailers that there is a demand and userbase for linux, and the chance of something new being developed which is windows-only decreases.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Yeah, they should have an easy toggle switch between "easy mode" and the underlying system... Users like it they stick with it, they don't like it and they can go back...
And there should be a graphical package manager available from which users can easily select and install thousands of apps...
This should all be in the instruction booklet... Once users realize that thousands more apps are a single click away, and they have a "desktop" mode available to them they will be more likely to stick with it.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Or import one from another country, or mail order it... Don't forget to let those retailers know why they lost your sale.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!