Summary: The inaccurate caricatures of Net Applications are further doubted, not just by GNU/Linux proponents (who do have some hard numbers)

INACCURACY that is imposed by design (data/method) can be called "bias" and bias is always up for sale. It is the business model of so-called 'analysts' and PR people (who overlap to an extent). As we frequently remind readers, anti-GNU/Linux trolls like to point to Net Applications, which is paid by Microsoft and Apple. Alex Faaborg from Mozilla notes:

The data shown here is from Net Applications. This is proportional to Web usage on each platform, and not individual users. So for instance if iOS users browse the Web more than Android users, their box becomes proportionally larger.

Also I should add the caveat that Net Applications usually reports lower numbers for Firefox market share compared to the other public data sources (and our own internal metrics), but nonetheless, this treemap sure has a lot of orange in it.

In other news, Mr. Pogson counters new FUD of the “GNU/Linux Desktop is DEAD” flavour:

Yet another “GNU/Linux Desktop is DEAD” FUD-piece. Basically the authour writes that it won’t happen because it won’t happen, a circular argument. He even claims Dell, HP, ASUS and others selling PCs with GNU/Linux is not happening. I agree Dell is rather weak in its effort but HP intends to put Linux on most of its PCs and ASUS already does (ExpressGate – “In response to great user feedback, our plan is to proliferate Express Gate across our entire motherboard product portfolio, starting with over one million motherboards per month,” says Joe Hsieh, General Manager, ASUS Motherboard Business Unit. “Consumers want to turn their PCs on and off like any other appliance, and Express Gate has made that possible.”).

He goes on to claim that those defecting from M$ are going to Apple which is partly true but he has the wrong numbers for shares to show that. GNU/Linux is on about 10% of PCs and MacOS is on about 4%. M$ is losing, certainly, but Apple scarcely sells any desktops outside USA/Europe.

The skewed Apple statistics from Net Applications have always served as evidence of US-centric bias. Did having Apple as a Net Applications customer contribute towards this? No wonder corporate press which us funded by Apple and Microsoft (key advertisers) is grooming Net Applications. ⬆

“There's a lot of Linux out there -- much more than Microsoft generally signals publicly -- and their customers are using it...”

--Paul DeGroot, a Directions On Microsoft analyst