[ Thanks to Prashanth for this link.
]
“Caitlyn Martin of O’Reilly Broadcast has another
interesting article about why the figure of Linux market share is
quite a bit more than the oft-quoted 1%. She starts out by doing a
bit of math: (1 Linux netbook)/(3 total netbooks) * (18 total
netbooks)/(100 (desktops + laptops + netbooks)) = (6 Linux
netbooks)/(100 (desktops + laptops + netbooks)) — Linux
netbook sales alone constitute 6% of the total desktop market. I
can’t argue with that. It’s also a really impressive number; the
number for total Linux desktop sales (that includes desktops,
laptops, and netbooks) will obviously be higher — I don’t
know by how much, but the total number is certainly at least 6%. I
think it’s great that Linux desktop sales have come this far.“The bigger question regards the meaning of this number, and I
believe the problems with this article occur before and after the
calculations. For one, the author starts by saying that Linux
market share in servers and embedded systems is significant. I
don’t think anyone ever doubted this, and several studies have
shown that Linux distributions are in fact in the majority on these
types of hardware. Therefore, I think it isn’t quite right to start
the article like this when the title clearly indicates a discussion
about Linux desktop market share. That said, this is a fairly minor
issue.”