Linux Reaches 1% Usage Share 414
je ne sais quoi writes "The April data is out for the Net Applications 'market share' survey of operating systems (more accurately referred to as a usage share). For the first time, Linux has reached 1%. This past month the Linux share increased by 0.12% which is well above the average monthly increase of 0.02%. Historically, the Net Applications estimate of market share has been lower than that of other organizations who measure this, but the abnormally large increase reported this month brings it closer to the median estimate of 1.11%. For other operating systems, Windows XP continued its slow decline by 0.64% to 62.21%, whereas Vista use is still increasing to 23.90%, but its rate of adoption is slowing. That is, this month's increase of 0.48% is well below the 12-month average increase of 0.78% and down from the peak rate of increase of 1.00% per month on average in January-February 2008. The total Windows share dropped to 87.90%. Mac OS use decreased slightly to 9.73% from 9.77%, but usage share of the iPhone and iPod Touch combined increased by 0.1%."
Re:In related news... (Score:5, Informative)
It's because 90% of /. readers browse /. using their Windows work machines, then go home and use Linux.
Re:Okay (Score:3, Informative)
When it's pre-loaded.
Re:I used to be in that 1% (Score:4, Informative)
Gutsy had poor bluetooth support. Hardy had decent bluetooth support. Intrepid broke bluetooth support, I skipped over it for Jaunty which works perfectly.
Sometimes it takes a while to get things right, but I can absolutely assure you they've got it crystal clear now. I can pair my bluetooth mouse on a new installation in seconds and I use the earpiece thing I use for my phone to listen to music whenever I remember to charge it.
Re:bluetooth RF engineer and Ubuntu (Score:5, Informative)
To be fair, bluetooth audio wasn't simple in Linux (and I know what I'm talking about, I've been using a bluetooth headset for some years with Linux now). .asoundrc and you were in trouble using Skype on 64-bit systems (at least so was I, had to copy some libs from 32-bit chroot to make it work).
First you had to use snd-bt-sco driver with btsco program, you couldn't avoid some console work, had to explicitly start btsco to make it work. But it did work pretty stable, however.
Then, around bluez-3, they have started using ALSA for bluetooth, you had to put your dongle ID in
Only about a month ago, with pulseaudio-0.9.15 and blueman project it has become possible for me to set up and use my headset the easy way, exactly as I want it to work, and that's without knowing its ID, without console fiddling and so on.
You turn it on and pulseaudio reroutes earlier chosen sound streams to the headset, even if it's already playing. I can pick up/end twinkle calls with headset's button, blueman's killer feature for me.
Skype on my 64-bit system has trouble with it though, but they promise a fix soon (doesn't matter for my family because we use SIP with ekiga/twinkle anyway).
Of course, there has been bluesoeil for Linux, but I haven't used it.
Re:Not a very reliable conclusion (Score:2, Informative)
Devices like the G1 from T-mobile and Nokia internet tablets, which are not bought for having Linux, but rather for the functionality they provide, should probably not be listed under Linux.
That's probably exactly why they aren't listed under Linux. Android is right behind Java ME.
Windows 87.90%
Mac 9.73%
Linux 1.02%
iPhone 0.55%
iPod Touch 0.15%
Java ME 0.07%
Android 0.07%
Symbian 0.06%
Windows Mobile 0.05%
Playstation 0.05%
BlackBerry 0.03%
FreeBSD 0.02%
Palm 0.02%
Nintendo Wii 0.01%
SunOS 0.01%
BREW 0.00%
OpenBSD 0.00%
OpenVMS 0.00%
HP-UX 0.00%
SCO 0.00%
SCP 0.00%
AIX 0.00%
NetBSD 0.00%
Web TV 0.00%
Nintendo DS 0.00%
Re:But seriously folks (Score:3, Informative)
Ahem... No PC in your solution 2 does not make any sense.
The average consumer will likely need to do one or more of the following on the PC:
- Browse a webpage with flash content, such as an ecard.
- Look at stupid Powerpoints sent by his friends.
- Edit word documents.
- Manage a photos library
- Manage a music library
Those are all things you cant do on the iPhone.
Also:
- You cant tether with an iPhone (not the average consumer anyway)
- The iPhone data plan is an extra $30 (in the US), not $15 as you suggest.
So iPhone is not a replacement for your PC... I use my PC a lot less since I have an iPhone, but its not a replacement.
Re:Okay (Score:3, Informative)
If they don't:
1. Game,
2. Use Adobe products, or
3. Use some other Windows-only software
then it's already desirable for non-tech-literate users. Certainly if it's already installed and configured by a manufacturer, with a simple recovery disc that fixes everything if you somehow manage to break it (no more likely than with Windows, and probably a bit less likely).
Where it fails, IMO, is with professionals in various fields who are reliant on software that's Windows-only and with hardcore users who want bleeding-edge hardware and the games to go with it.
Where it succeeds is with your basic email+IM+browser+Flash games+Solitaire+MS Word (OO.org writer) users and with tinkerers/coders who appreciate *nix power tools. It's great for the non-tech-literate, and has been since, oh, Ubuntu 6.06 or so.
Re:Does eeePC even release Linux version anymore? (Score:3, Informative)
But you can still get Dell's Mini 9 [dell.com] and System76's Starling Netbook [system76.com] with Ubuntu.
Also, brace for the ARM wave of netbooks [osnews.com] this year, such as this 299$ Touch Book from Always Innovating [osnews.com].
Re:bluetooth RF engineer and Ubuntu (Score:1, Informative)
SCO = Synchronous Connection Oriented
Bluez = Linux kernel implementation of the A2DP Bluetooth protocol for stereo audio & handsets .asoundrc is a config file for ALSA
To be fair, Windows doesn't natively support Bluetooth audio either, using third party drivers to add that functionality, however they're typically pre-installed and/or pushed to you via Windows Update.
If they're not, you can still just easily install them (double-click an exe) and be done.
Re:Methodology? How do they measure that? (Score:3, Informative)
A request for an ad served up on a page does not include information about the search terms that were used to reach the parent page.
Most ads are served up via javascript these days. Javascript can easily grab search terms via document.referer.