Some interesting stats
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tracyanne Sep 18, 2008 7:51 AM EDT |
Accoridng this article http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task... Mandriva has in excess of 7 Million usersQuoting:Mandriva he said is the publisher of the award winning and easy to use Mandriva Linux Desktop and Server products (operating system, Open Office, educational and financial applications, games etc. “Mandriva is one of the most popular Linux editions in the world with a global client base in excess of 7 million” Mr Ajisomo said. and according to this article http://robitaille.wordpress.com/2006/12/30/ubuntu-now-has-ov... Ubuntu has over 8 Million users Quoting:According to Mark Shuttleworth in an interview published today in the Red Herring, Ubuntu now has over 8 million users. which means that Ubuntu and Mandriva have a similar number of users, with, based on Mark Shuttleworths assessment Mandriva running a close second. Interestingly that is at odds with the download popularity metric that puts Ubuntu way ahead of just about everything, and Mandriva a very poor 5th. Some other interesting points from the second article. Quoting:According to the w3schools web site, in November 2006 the OS market share of Windows was 86.1%, 3.3% for Linux, and 3.5% for Mac (and for July 2004 , it was 90.5% Windows, 3.1% Linux and 2.4% Mac). Remember that previously in 2004 we found that there were 600 million Windows users out of 661 millions? So that gives us a market share of 90.7% of Windows computers in 2004. Linux and Mac have a similar number of users. Quoting:So we now have 3.3% of 825 million PC users. That give us 27.2 million Linux users today. |
| jdixon Sep 18, 2008 10:41 AM EDT |
> That give us 27.2 million Linux users today. But if Ubuntu has 8 million and Mandriva has 7 million, that only leaves 12 million for all the other distros. Now, I'd bet that the Fedora is pretty close to Ubuntu and Mandriva, and I doubt Debian is far behind. Add in SuSE, and I expect we're already over the 27 million figure, without even getting to the other distros. |
| rijelkentaurus Sep 18, 2008 2:56 PM EDT |
Hey, my laptop at home counts as a Vistar install, even though it's never run it. In a totally nonscientific observation, Linux is scaring MS a lot more than Apple appears to be, so I'd say the Linux numbers are WAY higher than anyone is going to estimate. @ jdixon, don't forget about Red Hat, it has a very large userbase, both in the professional world and in the form of the clones. I think Linux left the 27million figure in the dust quite a while back, just my O. You can't really measure it. |
| herzeleid Sep 18, 2008 3:23 PM EDT |
> You can't really measure it. Heisenberg effect? |
| number6x Sep 18, 2008 3:30 PM EDT |
I've said it for years, mostly joking, but think about sites that get 'Slashdotted' Sites crumble because they get featured on a Linux oriented site like Slashdot. You don't hear about sites being 'ZDNetted' or even 'CNNed'. When a company web page gets featured on a PC centered site or a neutral site, nada. But the Linux geeks seem to have numbers that the other non Linux sites can't muster. It could be that the Windows users machines want to go to the link they click, but the flash adds and other junk at the Windows centric sites just causes a BSOD before the link gets resolved. There might be more Windows users, but their numbers are neutralized by all of the random crashes. |
| bigg Sep 18, 2008 3:36 PM EDT |
If we're going to count Linux installs vs. Windows licenses, Linux probably has a higher "market share". I've probably done at least 60 Linux installs on my 4 work and home machines (more if I count my wife's computers) vs. 4 Windows licenses. That doesn't include VMWare or Virtualbox installs. My opinion is that it's the mindshare of the geek crowd that matters if you are talking about the future, not the number of boxes sold with an attached Windows license. My employer won't buy a non-Windows computer, but I've booted into XP exactly once. |
| number6x Sep 18, 2008 5:05 PM EDT |
bigg, Between Myth TV, smart Phones, and Netbooks Linux has been getting a greater mindshare of the non-technical yet geeky crowd. Ubuntu seems to help in mindshare of regular non-technical, non-geeky computer users. I'm reminded of the mid to late 90's when the non-Linux yet still technical IT crowd started seeing Linux as a viable low-end file and print server... Then a mail server... Then a web server... Then a database server... Then a viable server platform for any IT need. The mindshare is growing. |
| tracyanne Sep 18, 2008 5:10 PM EDT |
Just a note about the Mandriva figures, Mandriva have a pretty good way of estimating the number of Mandriva installs out there, as they have a paid for version, Powerpack, so they can easily ascertain a minimum number based on the number of Powerpack subscriptions that are sold. In addition their Corporate Server and Desktop products are also sold. Which leads me to suspect that the Mandriva figures are conservative. Mandriva seems to have a very strong presence in Africa and South America, and the ex Soviet countries and Russia. I'm not sure how Mark Shuttleworth might arrive at his figures, probably based on CDs mailed out. Fedora/Red Hat has got to be at least as strong as Mandriva and Ubuntu, and the same applies to SuSE, so I'm seeing at least 32 Million, even if we assume no more than the same number, as each of the above Distros, for all of the others combined, we're talking at least 40 Million. Based on this article http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/hardware/soa/Apple-reports-reco... Apple seem to be claiming sales of Mac at about 8 million units a year, that's for the 2007/2008 period, which includes a 41% increase in sales, I'd say that Linux and Mac are at least level pegging. Based on my usual wet finger metric, I believe that Linux uptake is actually higher than Mac sales. The conclusion I draw is that Windows uptake, if not sales (as almost every PC sold is a Windows sale) are slipping. The ramification of this is that while the actual number of Windows Licenses has increased (they can't not) the flow on effect is that there are less sales of Microsoft upstream products like Office. This will hurt Microsoft, as they are probably not making any profit from the Windows OEM licenses, as most if not all of that income is probably eaten up in product promotions. |
| tracyanne Sep 18, 2008 5:23 PM EDT |
Another note, Xandros is no slouch when it comes to sales, most of their distribution is a for sale product, I believe they are in there with a similar number of units as Mandriva, Ubuntu, Red Hat SuSE. I think desktop Linux uptake is very healthy, and it is frightening some people. |
| number6x Sep 18, 2008 5:30 PM EDT |
Windows total sales are probably increasing, and yet their market share is probably shrinking. Market share is not all that important in a non-saturated market. Apple used the be the market leader in personal computer sales in the late 70's. It took them 4 years to sell their millionth Apple II from 1977 until 1981. They sell 8 million Macs a year now, so their market share is small, but they are selling 32 times as many computers as when they were the king of market share. 25 years from now Microsoft may have 4% or 40% market share, but they may be shipping more copies of Windows than they are now and they might be a more profitable company. Linux is growing, and it will continue to grow. Linux, or some FOSS OS, will be the market leader. |
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