Linux Market Share On Desktop Increased By About 50% In 2011

[sunewbie]

Desktop Linux market share had a growth of about 50% last year according to the recent data by NetMarketShare.

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http://www.ubuntuvibes.com/2012/01/linu ... u+Vibes%29

[xenopeek]

Yeah

But perhaps Linux users just frequent more of the tracked websites Statistics

[DrHu]

It is still statistically an insignificant percentage, for as you may know the favorite Linux (UNIX) style OS is Apples OS-X, and that platform has for the past few years been growing fast

• --although it seems windows is still the perennial favorite at the top of all the rankings, even if other products such as Apple devices have better cache (style)

..I know Apple OS-X is not Linux..

And sometimes Apple wins some against Microsoft; witness ITunes vs Zune

However I am no more a fan of Apple than I am of Microsoft, except I can appreciate that Microsoft being a mass marketer has managed to drive down prices for computers, such that I can get good quality machines: desktops or notebooks for good and sometimes quite low prices, without needing to resort to that one laptop per child level of hardware..
--in that way Microsoft helps me directly, Apple not so much

[sunewbie]

@DrHu

I agree with you completely.

Piracy is a free marketing. Company does not need to spend a single penny. What has to be done is done by others and company officially does not support piracy, but is happy about it, since piracy made everything happen. It made wind 95, 98, XP and now 7 free for many people and so it is instrumental in having one PC in (nearly) one home. Plus tons of apps.

Forget about -ve sides, we all now, still as you have said, it does have +ve impact.

Hey Vincent, you are now mod. congrats

today I got a newsletter from OMG discussing similar topic: Linux Marketshare is Rising and pointed out that

Statistics from one company alone are rarely able to paint the fullest picture.

[akavir]

The number is insignificant FOR NOW. However, I'm going to say in the next 5 years, linux may actually over take apple. And the way mint is going, you're likely to see it take the #2 spot behind microsoft. Hell, if we could just get more game manufacturers on board with linux releases, we might actually take a big share of windows users away. Because, for me at least, the ONLY reason I have a windows partition on my HTPC is for gaming! I freed the hard drive space from my laptops and only have a linux partition on both mine, and my wife's computer. I've succesfully converted 3 people in the past month since Mint 12 came out. All people on netbooks that were sick of Windows 7 starter edition. I finally feel like it's the first distro I could recommend to almost anyone and make their computer more productive. Games is the only thing we're lacking. And it's either going to take a heck of a boost in the effectiveness of Wine(doubtful) or getting more software distributors on board(totally possible and the market share increases!)

[sunewbie]

what about good photoshop, corel draw, vb.net alternatives. Linux will flourish if Linux programmers like python, vala, mono programmers are available in abundance i.e. as easily as vb.net programmers.

Accounting and inventory are the ones which companies like to customize and in Mumbai, India, generally the trend is to meet in person. So people prefer local programmers.

[akavir]

For most windows applications there are alternatives in linux. I find that I like GIMP better than photoshop, IMHO. I realize there are a few things it can't do, but for 90% of the image editing needs, it does the job. Games are the only thing you can't truly get in Linux. That said, if the game companies jump on board, the rest of the market will follow. For me, the only thing that's seriously lack is GOOD video editing. Something Apple is still king of.

But as far as audio, Linux is already where it's at. I started in Linux 6 years ago when I was getting my audio engineering degree. I was trained on macs, and will agree that if you have the money it's the way to go. But I was looking for an OS that was more stable, but didn't come with the price point of Apple. What I found were audio apps in Linux that rivaled paid software that cost thousands of dollars. We're almost there in open-source community!

[sunewbie]

Games are the only thing you can't truly get in Linux. That said, if the game companies jump on board, the rest of the market will follow. For me, the only thing that's seriously lack is GOOD video editing. Something Apple is still king of.

...But I was looking for an OS that was more stable, but didn't come with the price point of Apple. What I found were audio apps in Linux that rivaled paid software that cost thousands of dollars. We're almost there in open-source community!

+1

[MALsPa]

The number is insignificant FOR NOW. However, I'm going to say in the next 5 years, linux may actually over take apple. And the way mint is going, you're likely to see it take the #2 spot behind microsoft.

Can't see it happening. I don't use anything from Windows or Apple at home, and haven't for some years now, but I don't see how either Linux or Linux Mint could possibly overtake Apple, let alone in 5 years.

[akavir]

Many said Android would never overtake iOS, and it only took 2 years. Linux is gaining a lot of ground, and I think what we will see is second generation slate/netbooks coming with linux to keep the cost down, and selling like hotcakes!

[xenopeek]

Games is the only thing we're lacking. And it's either going to take a heck of a boost in the effectiveness of Wine(doubtful) or getting more software distributors on board(totally possible and the market share increases!)

In 2011 the availability of Linux games has taken a leap, and while publishers like EA Games are not publishing games for Linux, more and more games from independent studios and developers become available on Linux.

I've been using the Desura games client on Linux, and they have a ton of games (some free, most for a small price). If you bought games through Humble Bundle (who hasn't head about these guys yet?), you can add these to your Desura account for free as well. Last year also saw the launch of Gameolith Linux games store, and Indievania is also selling Linux games. Penguspy has been reviewing free and paid games available on Linux for a while now.

I'm not advertising any of these, but just to show there are a lot of good games to enjoy on Linux and the quality and quantity available is growing since 2011

[sunewbie]

For updates on games Ubuntu Vibes is a good place

For general news I have subscribed to The Next Web