08.29.21
Gemini version available ♊︎Linux Turns 30 as Windows Market Share Falls Below 30%
Video download link | md5sum ea4893af387306b6eb8e46e9d2d32748
Summary: Linux is 30, Android is Linux-based, and Windows is smaller than Android in terms of market share; but the biggest challenge right now is bringing software freedom to more people
EVERYBODY has been speaking about Linux turning 30 (although the actual anniversary of importance is debatable, as Alex Oliva explained last week).
“…Android is one of the Linux-based operating systems that harm one’s privacy and freedom (even if AOSP is mostly Free software) because it comes with loads of proprietary “apps” and typically tracks locations.”No doubt Linux “has won” so to speak; but Linux is not software freedom, it is just a GPL-licensed kernel which many freedom-respecting operating systems use for practical/pragmatic reasons (Linux has very extensive hardware support that is almost impossible to match). As noted in the video above, Android is one of the Linux-based operating systems that harm one’s privacy and freedom (even if AOSP is mostly Free software) because it comes with loads of proprietary “apps” and typically tracks locations (see “Google’s Software is Malware”).
The Linux (or GNU linux-libre) work by Oliva mostly involves ‘taming’ Linux to make it more freedom-respecting, in turn allowing freedom-oriented distros to avoid the more malicious parts of Linux. Oliva’s work is invaluable!
“The Linux (or GNU linux-libre) work by Oliva mostly involves ‘taming’ Linux to make it more freedom-respecting, in turn allowing freedom-oriented distros to avoid the more malicious parts of Linux.”In the video above I’ve repeatedly alluded to how ubiquitous Android became (one might say “popular”, but that’s not the same thing). Android news is everywhere, all the time, very likely outpacing Windows ‘news’ (mostly paid-for vapourware and puff pieces) because billions of people care about their phones and tablets more than laptops and desktops. There are also tons of anniversary articles about Linux, including some from Android-focused news sites. There’s growing recognition that Linux “has won” in some sense or some senses.
At whose expense?
Mostly Windows!
Microsoft is doing so poorly that it’s buying vendors and rebranding them “Azure” (in order to fake 'growth'), pretending that Azure is somehow an “operating system” now (it is not; they also reused the brand "Surface" in this way). Things have gotten so bad for Microsoft that we caught Windows at 28% market share earlier this year (here’s the latest data in OpenDocument format) and right now it’s still hovering around 30% while Microsoft constantly makes false claims about its market power, in effect defrauding shareholders. Here’s Android/Linux versus Windows, as per the end of August; if Android is combined with ChromeOS and GNU/Linux (“proper”), we’re talking about something close to 50% market share. █
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