Wow, only one about percent! That's the total linux market share according to browser stats. It all depends on which stats you refer to, but I'm not going to argue about a fraction of a percent. I've totally moved over to Linux on all my machines - both my laptops and my desktops are running some version of Ubuntu.
What really astounds me is that Linux, but more specifically Ubuntu, doesn't have a larger market share. It's free and except for time, costs nothing to install. However, Microsoft would argue that the cost incurred in terms of time and support outweighs the initial purchase, but for a home user - I doubt it. I reformatted my laptop with the latest Ubuntu 9.10 a few days ago, and the most time consuming activity by far was the copying of data to another location. Once I was set up to go and had my USB startup disk plugged in, it took a timed 10 minutes to install and working with everything. Even my Windows colleagues were impressed. After the installing Ubuntu 9.10 on my Dell Latitude E6500, there was nothing extra to do. Everything worked - Sound, Video, Wireless, 3G mobile, web cam etc. There is no ways that you could ever install any version of Windows that fast (Including Office).
Both have their place and I actually still work on Windows every day, but for anything personal, I definitely prefer Ubuntu. I just can't understand why Ubuntu doesn't have a larger market share. I think that some of the reasons include lack of marketing, the legacy perception that Linux is difficult to use and Windows entrenchment in terms of applications. Granted, this is why I still use Windows on a daily basis, but as a software developer, I'm not exactly the average user.
As I work for a Microsoft Gold Partner company, we get previews of Microsoft's products before launch with many free licenses. For example, I could have started using Windows 7, more than a year ago already. So with that in mind, I was once asked whether I prefer Windows or Linux - if both were free. It's a very simplified question but it suddenly becomes a whole lot more difficult... But I suppose, by now it should be obvious what my decision was... Ubuntu!
What really astounds me is that Linux, but more specifically Ubuntu, doesn't have a larger market share. It's free and except for time, costs nothing to install. However, Microsoft would argue that the cost incurred in terms of time and support outweighs the initial purchase, but for a home user - I doubt it. I reformatted my laptop with the latest Ubuntu 9.10 a few days ago, and the most time consuming activity by far was the copying of data to another location. Once I was set up to go and had my USB startup disk plugged in, it took a timed 10 minutes to install and working with everything. Even my Windows colleagues were impressed. After the installing Ubuntu 9.10 on my Dell Latitude E6500, there was nothing extra to do. Everything worked - Sound, Video, Wireless, 3G mobile, web cam etc. There is no ways that you could ever install any version of Windows that fast (Including Office).
Both have their place and I actually still work on Windows every day, but for anything personal, I definitely prefer Ubuntu. I just can't understand why Ubuntu doesn't have a larger market share. I think that some of the reasons include lack of marketing, the legacy perception that Linux is difficult to use and Windows entrenchment in terms of applications. Granted, this is why I still use Windows on a daily basis, but as a software developer, I'm not exactly the average user.
As I work for a Microsoft Gold Partner company, we get previews of Microsoft's products before launch with many free licenses. For example, I could have started using Windows 7, more than a year ago already. So with that in mind, I was once asked whether I prefer Windows or Linux - if both were free. It's a very simplified question but it suddenly becomes a whole lot more difficult... But I suppose, by now it should be obvious what my decision was... Ubuntu!
0 comments