Desktop Linux Share Overtaking Macintosh

prostoalex writes "Business Week magazine is optimistic about desktop Linux's future, telling a story of Capital Cardiology Associates, whose 160 employees migrated to Linux desktops. Furthermore, Business Week expects IDC to announce desktop Linux installations to reach 3.2%, for the first time overtaking Macintosh market share. By 2007, IDC forecasts, Linux will be installed on 6% of the desktops. It's also worth mentioning that desktop Linux market share for 2002 was 2.8% and that year it was behind Apple's operating system."

just to get it out of the way

[Anonymous Coward]

ok, just to get it out of the way:

Apple is dying. Macintosh is Dying

No its not. OS X rules.

Now onto some actual discussion.

Now if we could just get...

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux - 51%

and Mac - 49%

Re:WOW

[Dukael_Mikakis]

Linux installations to reach 3.2%, for the first time overtaking Macintosh market share. By 2007, IDC forecasts, Linux will be installed on 6% of the desktops.

So that means in 2052 we'll have over 50% market share!

And in 2102 we'll be on 100% of all machines!!

And in 2202 there'll be 2 Linux distros on every machine!!!

And in 2302 ...

Re:Good news

[phrasebook]

Sounds like its a little too exclusive if you can't afford to be in it. Oh well, maybe you can just peer in through the Windows.

Re:WOW

[whiteranger99x]

And in 2302 ...

We'll be used as batteries for our robotic overlords, whom I for one welcome :P

Re:FACTS PLEASE

[dameron]

I'll believe it when I see some kind of data. I have yet to see Linux being used in a desktop environment. I've seen a few macs, but a majority have been Windows based.

And I've never seen Bigfoot but I know it exists. Your point?

-dameron

Re:WOW

[fromtheblueline]

[pink elephant ballon wafts in, all eyes follow]

And a gay president by 2065?

"We're trying to be realistic."

To paraphrase Disraeli

[pixelgeek]

There are lies, damn lies, and market share percentages.

Re:As A Mac User

[Anonymous Coward]

Why should you care? It's not like Linux is stealing market share from Apple(if anything, I know many Linux users who have picked up Macs because of OS X).

I won't though. Linux for my desktop and BSD for my servers. No one argue with me about my choice for servers, I can't help it. Some girl in this hot devil outfit came up to me and gave me this CD once, and that's the closest I've come to having a date... So I'm sticking with BSD for my fond memories of my closest encounter yet with a hot woman...

Re:FIrst post W00T

[dbIII]

ANd to think the halftime ad in the Superbowl featured IBM's Linux ad...

But that was OK, they didn't show the nipple.

Re:As A Mac User

[Greenisus]

Apple may only have 3% market share, but it's the top [techtv.com] 3%.

It's not purple...

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean, not any geek could hack on a purple box.

It's not purple, it's grape.

Besides, purple is for pussies. I hack on a "Flower Power" iMac myself.

Re:Now if we could just get...

[Trillan]

Now now. If that were to really happen, we two factions would have no choice but to kill each other...

Right now, we occasionally fight, but we don't have to. We're doing it strictly for fun.

But....

[Anonymous Coward]

But BSD is dying!

Re:Er...

[Anonymous Coward]

> Those percentages are probably new sales and do not reflect the existing desktops out there.

Yeah, and guess what. Nobody gives a shit about fuckwits who use Performa 6300s or bondi blue iMacs. They don't buy software. They don't buy hardware. They don't even buy new Macs.

So, Apple has an enormous amount of deadweight userbase. Yey! Nobody care cares but the foaming zealots.

--posted from a mac.

Re:Good news

[Anonymous Coward]

WE the Mac owners wish to be a small and exclusive club. (Too bad I can't afford the new G5) MM

Oh no... soon Mac users will run the country because only the rich can afford to buy a computer from Apple and a congressman.

Re:As A Mac User

[RedWizzard]

Apple may only have 3% market share, but it's the top 3%.

I definitely agree, provided your measuring by pretentiousness.

Re:WOW

[andy55]

I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords.

Re:More design software for Linux on the cards the

[Anonymous Coward]

...you'll find that the reason a lot of designers prefer working on Macs is that the Mac is somehow inspiring; it drives people to be creative; it feels less like a computer and more like an extension of your creative soul.

So they are zealots too, in other words. ;-)

Re:More design software for Linux on the cards the

[ratsnapple tea]

Yeah, basically. :-)

Heh, If You Can't Afford It...

[Durindana]

... You Ain't the Target Market

Re:But....

[Kierthos]

No, it's just pining for the fjords.

Kierthos

Re:Never seen a Mac in my life

[Anonymous Coward]

>I have never seen a Mac in my life (just in picture). Suprised ? Well, I live in Poland
If you're ever in Warsaw go down Nowowiejska from the subway station to the Warsaw Instiute of Technology, you'll find an Apple dealer on your left side :-P
Not many of them out in the wild though.

Do I count?

[Chuck Bucket]

I use Linux as a desktop, but I run it on an iBook. Does this confuse the poll?

CB

Re:Statistics

[fafaforza]

avoid relying on [surveys] too heavily. (Unfortunately govt.s often ignore this).

I find the above statement highly dubious. Do you have a survey to support this?

Re:if only apple was x86

[DrSkwid]

You have to press keys, how gauche.

I bet you've never even tried a proper [bell-labs.com] interface.

Um, yes, it's free.

[Knights who say 'INT]

Duh.

How hard do you think it is for someone to switch from a properly functioning product (Mac/Windows/commercial Unix) to an inferior similar that costs +inf% less than what they used?

I happen to like cashmere and silk, but most of my clothing is cotton or cotton+polyester.

Duh.

Re:Now if we could just get...

[Ryan Amos]

Well, while you're installing drivers and patching your kernel to interface with the nuclear ICBMs, I can just plug them in on my Mac with iNuke and destroy you immediately. Do not doubt the superiority of the Mac. ;)