WE HAVE been writing extensively about how Net Applications, contrary to Steve Ballmer, places Apple ahead of GNU/Linux in terms of market share. But Apple is virtually out of existence in the large majority of the world's countries and it has been known for many years that GNU/Linux had gained a lot on the desktop, globally speaking.
Net Applications: Apple just lost half its ‘market share'
The so-called market share reports issued every month by Net Applications have long been controversial — mostly because they didn’t actually measure market share (which business people typically express as the number of widgets they sell in a given period divided by the total number of widgets sold).
What Net Applications did instead was sample data from browsers visiting their clients’ websites and report what percentage came from machines running Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.
“Just having a lot of IP addresses means nothing; it is the distribution and the population of IPs that count...”It is funny how Net Applications always raves about number of IP addresses. Just having a lot of IP addresses means nothing; it is the distribution and the population of IPs that count (here is a great example of it). Net Applications keeps its data secret, obviously, so it usually means it has something to hide, something to be embarrassed of, like Diebold. It is biased in favour parts of the world where GNU/Linux adoption is already known to be very scarce, notably the United States.
Speaking of GNU/Linux adoption, not many people are even aware of the fact that, according to the following new report, "all of the members of the European Union (EU) are required to use open source Linux-based software exclusively, and this includes everything from operating systems to office applications." Here is a broader quote:
When I thought about it, the list of open source software applications is actually quite long. Some of the major open source applications you may have heard about include MySQL, Apache Server, Wordpress, Mozilla Firefox, Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal, just to name a few.
I found it interesting to hear that all of the members of the European Union (EU) are required to use open source Linux-based software exclusively, and this includes everything from operating systems to office applications. There is also a move afoot here in this country to attempt to do a similar thing. A couple of the major programs are Government 2.0, that hopes to leverage Web 2.0 federated social networks in government, and Open Source for America, that advocates greater acceptance of open source software and efforts.
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Open source Linux actually fostered the emergence of a couple of computer categories – the netbook, including the one laptop per child (OLPC) program where a good percentage are sold with Linux as the operating system.
Comments
Chips B. Malroy
2009-08-04 20:25:12
Unless of course the reason that Mac lost 5% which Windows gained , both overnight, is because of the "Laptop Hunters" commercials from Microsoft. HAHA. (While Mac increased it's percentage of $1000 plus laptops sold in the USA from 88% to 91%)
No doubt, Net Apps would not like to correct the browser data, as that would should a whole lot more Firefox adoption as well.
The reason that this data is important, is because commercial coders, and companies look at this data before making a product, like games to sell in Linux for example. Now does anyone suppose that MS would use a site as a just the facts type of site, (think Net Apps, as example) to suppress true linux adoption percentages? Are false percentages being used on sites like these to suppress commercial programs and games being developed for Linux users? I think so, and for other reasons as well, like keeping OEM's from pre-installing Linux on computers for sale.
Ballmer has said that Linux is the main competition, not Mac, in so many words, yet Net Apps gives us these figures, most likely still as bogus, as they were awhile ago before Net Apps 5% correction.
Disclaimer: My opinions are my own, not to be confused with anyone's else's, that includes that of this site, and therefore should not reflect on this site. I do not work for any company that has any interest in any of this.
Chips B. Malroy
2009-08-04 18:29:14
Roy Schestowitz
2009-08-04 19:11:32