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Is Linux's "Overall Market Share" Statistic Meaningful?
ruphus13 writes "Linux recently achieved 1% market share of the overall operating system market. But, does that statistic really mean anything useful? This article makes the case that it doesn't. It states, 'Framed in the "overall market share" terminology, the information (or how it was gathered and calculated) isn't necessarily questionable, it's more that it's meaningless. It's nebulous, even when one looks at several months worth of data. [How] Linux is used in various business settings answers an actual question — and the answer can be used to ask further questions, form opinions — and maybe one day even explain to some degree what 1% of the market share really means. ... Operating systems aren't immortal beings, and by rights, there can't be (there shouldn't be) only one. ... No one system can be everything to everyone, and no one system (however powerful, or stable) can do everything perfectly that just one person might require of it in the course of a day. While observing trends and measuring market share are important, the results (good or bad) shouldn't be any platform's measure of self-worth or validation. It's a data point to build on (we're weak in this area, strong in this area, our platform is being used a lot more this quarter, where did all of our users go?) in order to improve and stay relevant.'"
You can pretty much do anything you can think of with it, in IT terms.
Windows... Mac... Not so much. Sure you can beat them into shape after buying a bunch of addons of varying expense... They're designed for specific markets, they're great in their niche, but outside they are a pain.
You want a 100,000 machine cluster? With linux you can. You want a pocket pda/phone. With Linux you can. Not only you can, but YOU can.
Imagine some benefactor had given you a garage with all the tools and materials you could ever need. For free. Wouldn't that be cool? Think of the things you could do with it. That's Linux. Windows in comparison is a Ford sedan. You use it for travel.
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