The Problem With Estimating Linux Desktop Market Share

jammag writes "It's long been one of those exceptionally hard-to-quantify numbers: exactly what percentage of the desktop PC market is held by Linux? Doubters suggest it hovers around a negligible one percent, while partisans suggest it's in excess of 10 percent. Bruce Byfield explores the various sources of estimates, dismissers' and fan boys' alike, and guesstimates it might realistically be 5-6%. Still, he admits, 'the objectivity of numbers is often just a myth.'"

Comments

Re:Guesstimates?

[Cyberax]

Have you ever wondered why developers prefer DirectX?

Well, because it's just BETTER than the OpenGL mess.

Re:Guesstimates?

[Jamie's Nightmare]

There are many Linux games. The Unreal tournament series for one, the quake series, Enemy Territory, etc.

Actually, there are few Linux games at all. The 3 you cite came out first on Windows and later ported to Linux. The only reason the Linux ports exist is because these game engines are old and used OpenGL anyway. Gaming on Linux is like shopping at The Salvation Army. Everything is "hand me downs" and stuff that hasn't been popular for a long ass time.

There there is Wine, probably the most over hyped application you will find on Linux. The problem is that Wine is incredibly shoddy. If you are lucky and the game or application you want to run is popular with the developers then it might work. For every game you say works "flawlessly", by your definition, I can slap another 10 in your face that either do not work at all, or have performance problems and glitches so severe you would rather just play a board game.