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Linux Reaches 32% Netbook Market Share
christian.einfeldt writes "Linux netbooks have captured 32% of the global netbook market, says Jeff Orr, an analyst with consumer computer research firm ABI Research. The largest share of netbook sales is in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, according to Orr. ABI's latest figures align with a statement by Dell executives in February of this year, to the effect that Linux netbooks comprised about 33% of Dell shipments of Dell Inspiron mini 9s netbooks. These data points cast doubt on claims by Microsoft that Windows XP has captured 98% of the netbook market (a figure Microsoft later revised to 93%). In an interview with DesktopLinux.com, Orr made clear that the 32% Linux netbook market share did not include either user-installed Linux or dual-boot systems, but was confined to just pre-installed Linux shipments."
The requirements to run FL Studio compared to Pro Tools or Cubase is huuge. It's like saying SketchUp for hobby stuff works fine, therefore 3ds Max to create models for a hollywood movie will work fine as well (yes, I know Blender etc etc are available on Linux). When you're dealing with serious audio work, you're talking about layers and layers of synths and DSPs running. You NEED every bit of performance out of your machine. Emulation just isn't going to cut it.
You can get Linux to work for a lot of audio work. Ardor is passable/usable for many basic, and some advance stuff. But for truly high-end stuff, nothing comes even close to the commercial programs out on Windows and OSX.
I'm a Linux user myself, and I have installed both on many desktops. (A couple dozen linux, and 1000s of windows) I've never run into a problem that I couldn't solve on either system. I have to say though that it takes on averaage 70% (number I just made up based on my own usage) longer to solve a problem on Linux because it is basically that much harder to do, whether due to out of date documentation, rtfm culture, hacker elite mentality, or just stupid UI design... sometimes meaning no UI at all except for a command line. I usually try not to feed a troll, especially one that uninformed people seem to be applauding as insightful. IMHO I have to point out that XP may have its share of problems, but it has a lot of drivers out of the box or downloadable and they are easy to install. Basically good install is a strength, and one Linux could well continue to try and learn from. XP, Vista, 2k, 2k3, 2k8, 7 are very easy to install on the average. There are also some Linux versions that are easy to install. I like those too. But if you want good performance out of Linux you need to go the extra mile. Linux comes out of the box performing crappy usually. Windows comes out of the box performing good. I like Linux because I don't mind tweaking and recompiling until I get the excellent performance potentail that I deserve. I like windows because sometimes I don't want the hassle of tweaking and recompiling everything.