The first officially-released build of Windows XP SP3 has surfaced, with 1073 patches/hotfixes and several new features. This build has been made available to testers as a part of the Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 beta program and is available in English, German, and Japanese.
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Member since:2005-11-10
5%? Yeah.. right.
Even though if it was 5%, you consider that something significant for OS that costs $0? Wow..
Alas, I don't think it is anywhere close to that number.
W3Counter has Linux at 1.38%:
http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php
There's a reason why an increasing number of Windows applications are being ported to Linux. Increasing user base.
Yeah.. who is porting them? Adobe? AutoDesk?
Last time I checked any computer store I didn't see a single application or game for Linux. You did? Where exactly?
P.S.
Don't forget to mod me down, like you always do. And give yourself +1, like you always do.
Edited 2007-10-07 23:06
Member since:2007-07-13
Gonzo said:
> W3Counter has Linux at 1.38%:
Well, the same page says that the number of hits for China is 2.07%. By the same reasoning does that make the Chinese as insignificant as Linux?
Things people quoting such statistics often forget are: 1) that such stats are approximations that only refer to desktop use. Don't forget there is plenty of money in servers and Linux is doing ok there!
2) For those small proportion of business that use Linux on the desktop they may not appear on sites such as w3counter as company policy may restrict such use.
3) If Linux desktop use is 1.38% then that is probably a desirable market segment to access, since they will be 'smarter than the average bear' and make purchasing or influencing decisions for others.
4) That 1.38% is a pretty hefty number, even if it is a small proportion of the boxes out there. This is because the size of the market (the entire number of desktops) is still increasing rapidly. Given the lack of marketing for consumers it's pretty impressive.
Actually the whole "Develop only for Windows because it is the biggest" never made sense to me. It is entirely analogous to "Forget W3C compliance and develop only for Internet Explorer" on the web. Now with Firefox having a decent number of installs everyone who developed for IE only looks like a bit short-sighted. As the number of Linux desktop grows (not that it will ever dominate the number of Windows installs, but it will increase in governments) then everyone who doesn't have a cross-platform option will look the same. It really isn't that hard to build stuff right in the first place so that it works anywhere (the best software development houses can do this when they have the will, eg. ID software, or most Java developers).
> Last time I checked any computer store I didn't see a single application or game for Linux.
Agreed, but the commercial stuff for Linux is available online rather than retail. Although obviously the lack of retail availability is a PITA for the average consumer.
All I'm saying is be careful with statistics. The statistic is worthless if you don't think about all the implications of it.
Anyway, good on Microsoft. While I get to use, and prefer, Linux for my main desktop (I'm a astrophysicist turned IT consultant doing extremely well from Linux) it's good to see that Microsoft are at least slowly attempting to clean up the engineering mess that lies under Windows.
Member since:
2005-10-02
Sure, 5% is insignificant
There's a reason why an increasing number of Windows applications are being ported to Linux. Increasing user base.