"If you consider NetApplications' data set, then Linux owns only about 1 percent of the desktop OS market and Windows has almost 92 percent. But if you consider all computing platforms, including mobile, than Windows has only 20 percent and Linux has 42 percent - and that would be in the form of Google's Android alone." No more or less legitimate than claiming Windows owns 92% of the market. It's all a matter of perspective.
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Member since:2008-09-21
See, Linux isn't only a Kernel but also a set of API's provided by the Kernel. The term Linux refers to both AND to construction kits on top. That is your common base.
You can add, combined, exchange the Kernel itself (compile features in/out, modules, patches). You can add, combine, exchange the stack on top up to the applications. Linux is by no means static on this like Windows is. Linux is highly dynamic and there exist 1001^1002 possible combinations.
You will not find a single distribution shipping exact the same like another (even if you leave apps out). This is a key-point of Linux.
That's why its all "one Linux" since it describes a construction kit. Android is one implementation but even there different Android versions utilize the Kernel very different (eg Android 4.2 includes SELinux). This is VERY different from Windows.
So, if you like to break that numbers in pieces then what criteria would you use to cut when even Android 4.1 and 4.2 have so different kernels?
Your suggestion seems to be to cut into the smallest pieces possible. Why? To make your point that the largest smallest piece is smaller then all the pieces of Windows together (and I am not only talking here about CE-based WP7 and NT-based WP8, or SP's, or home/pro/enterprise but also drivers/localization/etc which are NEVER separate counted)?
Edited 2013-01-23 15:53 UTC
Member since:2006-01-24
When someone says Linux they're implying it is a Operating System which it is not.
Says who? You?
It's clearly inaccurate, Linux is just the kernel. So when we say a Linux based system all that means is that it uses the Linux kernel.
Android uses the Linux kernel but it is NOT a Linux "distribution" or what is really an Operating System.
Android is an operating system which uses the Linux kernel. What is 'really an operating system' in your world?
But this article didn't measure web browser market share, nor did it measure operating systems, it measured the market share which uses the Linux kernel.
The title should probably have been Linux now has double the marketshare of Windows NT
Member since:
2007-05-05
Unless you are trying to measure the marketshare of Linux... Which as you quite clearly pointed out, is a kernel and not an Operating System. So how do you measure the marketshare of a kernel? You count all the Operating Systems using it...
Do you consider statistics of marketshare by browser engine "ludicrous"? Knowing the total number of browsers using WebKit is far from useless information... Same exact thing.
But that is comparing marketshare of an OS vs a kernel. Apples vs oranges. Doesn't make any sense.
When someone says Linux they're implying it is a Operating System which it is not. Android uses the Linux kernel but it is NOT a Linux "distribution" or what is really an Operating System.
No, I don't consider it ludicrous. But when measuring marketshare like that it is quite clear that they're referring to the engine or the browser and not spinning the numbers to mean something they're not. Browser marketshare is measured for each browser as in Chrome / Safari, etc. not WebKit even though they're all using WebKit.