Linux currently powers a majority of the world’s web servers and supercomputers. As a desktop OS, however, Linux has yet to gain mainstream acceptance. That said, there are some countries where people have embraced Linux on the desktop to a greater degree than most.
FTA: “there are at least 15 million desktop Linux users out there”.
I suppose that is tue enough, but there are 52 million Linux desktops deployed to students in Brazil alone.
http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/04/deploying-kde-to-52-million-youn…
http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS9272932512.html
Brazil somehow doesn’t even appear in the list from the article.
You might want to read those articles again.
52 million students is very different from 52 million installations. They’re all in labs which are (hopefully) used by many students each. The article is correct in drawing the only conclusion it can:
Maybe they should have said that the number of acutal users could be much higher due to some of those installations being part of labs but that’s not a conclusion the data lets them draw.
The number of desktop Linux users is set to accelerate in BRIC countries and developing nations.
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2010/12/putin-orders-russian-move…
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9201699/China_OS_makers_part…
http://www.olpcnews.com/
I can’t see that it matters much if some of these expanding numbers of users are using the same machine.
As much as I’d like to get a clear picture of Linux usage, the current methods of approximation are faulty. Unfortunately, there’s simply no way to get any close-to-real data.
StatCounter tracks ~3 million sites out of over 100 million out there (Google estimate of 2 years ago). That’s a very small sample. Also, it does not take into account the habits of Linux users and what sites they are more likely to visit. It simply picked some completely random sites and examined their traffic.
It’s also rather easy to find data sources that make you strongly doubt the 15 million figure. For example, in 2010 Ubuntu alone was claiming 12 million desktops, and I find it hard to believe they alone account for 80% of the Linux desktops, given the relative popularity of PCLinuxOS, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Mint and Arch, to name just a few of the more widely used distros.
These are probably the best numbers you can get:
http://stats.wikimedia.org/archive/squid_reports/2011-03/SquidRepor…
You know what sites the users visited, it is all the WikiMedia sites, so mostly Wikipedia.
But Wikipedia gets a lot of visitors Alexa says they rank 8 worldwide: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org
At the end of the day, it just says (this was March): Windows XP is at the top of the list, which is kind of sad. My guess is even Microsoft isn’t to happy about that. It also makes webdevelopers sad, because it means IE8 will remain for a long time. As there is no IE9 for Windows XP.
Android has the largest Linux share, Ubuntu has the largest desktop share.
The share of Mac PPC users is still bigger than all the other Linux distributions and mobile devices.
Ubuntu has 41% of the Linux desktop share:
2.74% of Linux users, minus 1 for Android:
(100÷(2.74−1))×0.72=41.37931..whatever %
Here are some numbers per country:
http://stats.wikimedia.org/archive/squid_reports/2011-03/SquidRepor…
Edited 2011-05-16 09:35 UTC
I personally believe the 15 million figure is quite right, but I doubt Ubuntu’s claim of 12 million desktops. It’s likely a lot lower in reality.
Ubuntu claims always seem to be more hype than substance, so doubt those numbers may be right.
But I’d say that 15 million is on the low side, with the big distributions adding it all up. Something like 25% higher sounds more correct.
With OpenSUSE at about 7-8 million and Fedora around 4-6 million. Even with some recession the last year, it still has a size-able install base in South America and Asia. Mandriva should at least clock in at 2-3 million. They are always ignored when people pull up Linux user numbers. But you should always include two distributions that are huge in Asia, Red Flag and Turbolinux. They should at least add up to a few millions user, but I would not be surprised if they eclipse even the possible inflated number of Ubuntu.
If all of Linux desktop is a mere 15 million (despite there being 52 million Linux desktops for Brazillian students ???), and Ubuntu is indeed a lot lower than 12 million, then someone has got the utterly wrong idea and has set themselves an impossible goal:
http://www.techdrivein.com/2011/05/goal-is-200-million-ubuntu-users…
“Our goal is 200 million users of Ubuntu in 4 years“, said Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth.
So, I’m wondering if it is Mark Shuttleworth or WereCatf who might have a better idea of the current number of Ubuntu installations?
Edited 2011-05-17 05:07 UTC
There are not 52 million Linux desktop machines in Brazil. I believe what you’re referring to is the Brazilian schools being outfitted with Linux machines in the computer labs, allowing 52 million students to access the machines.
Even given that, the 52 million number is probably a bit optimistic even seen as a number of Linux users. 52 million is likely the total number of all school children in Brazil, so that’s an incredibly inaccurate way to count.
There may not be 52 million Linux desktop machines in Brazil, but there are 52 million Linux desktops in Brazil. There are 52 million Linux desktop users in Brazil. More in fact, because the 52 million only counts the Brazilian students.
I think the habit of counting all the people that could use the Linux installations is a bit ineffective to try to count users.
For example, to transpose the language we’re using to another setting: all students in Brazil are baseball players because all schools have access to a baseball diamond. Ergo, Brazil has 52 million baseball players.
It’s interesting to take a look at global figures:
http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-monthly-201004-201104-bar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
Also, it’s interesting to look at trends: http://www.google.com/trends?q=windows%2C+linux%2C+os+x&cta…
Google trends aren’t very telling, though…
Statcounter posts stats for “Mobile vs. Desktop.”
Mobile is about 5% world-wide and in North America. In Europe and South America, no better than 2%.
It doesn’t matter to Statcounter whether you are accessing the web through a virtual machine, a dual boot or triple boot system.
What matters is the OS that is running the browser – and almost certainly the environment in which you are spending nost of your time,
Google chose Android as its theme and Evo as its mascot.
Eve’s brother out of Apple and Pixar. Not Tux. That ought to tell the geek something.
The ChromeOS is a thin client – server model on a global scale. Rather like PSN.
One definition of “freedom” is “independence -” and, on that level, the geek’s willingmess to embrace the Google way of life can seem a little strange.
H.265/HEVC should be ready in a year two.
Half the bit-rate of H.264 or WebM for the same video quality. Scales from smartphone to the next generation 4Kx2K home theater.
Google is ultimately a business and not an ideology. It will make the compromises it needs to protect its platforms even if”openess” and “freedom” as the geek understands it.
A topic tangentially related to this thread is discussed here:
http://www.networkcomputing.com/virtualization/survey-half-of-enter…
Survey: Half Of Enterprise Software Will Be Open Source Within Five Years
“A survey being released today at an open source conference in San Francisco shows that 56 percent of respondents predict that more than half of the software purchases made by businesses and other enterprises over the next five years will be of open source software. The organizers of the Open Source Business Conference 2011 say that this is because customers have overcome their reluctance towards using open source, such as concerns about licenses, and are embracing its virtues, such as flexibility, lower cost and avoiding vendor lock-in.”