Net Applications: The Mathematics Failing

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2012-06-02 12:56:44 UTC
Modified: 2012-06-02 12:56:44 UTC

Net Applications

Summary: Criticism and scepticism of data from a firm most often cited to belittle GNU/Linux

THE question of GNU/Linux market share occupied more of our time a few years ago. The bottom line is, by adhering to biased data (which cannot be extrapolated to international trends) some Apple- and Microsoft-funded firms like to tell us that Linux market share (they intentionally do not say "GNU/Linux") is at around 1%, never mind the numbers released by Linux vendors, never mind Android, etc. It's almost libellous, but the lie has been repeated so many times so as be normalised and accepted by many as a permissible stance. Mr. Pogson likes to look deeper at the raw data and then highlight contradictions or other flaws. The latest:

How do they shift the data for a whole country with a few thousand users in California? They count business-use more than anything. Google happens to be a business. All those schools, government offices and individuals count for nothing with NetApplications. Google no more doubles usage of GNU/Linux in USA than they cut usage of that other OS by 5%.

We wrote about Net Applications before, e.g. in

Lack of scepticism is a sure win for PR. Deception thrives in complacency and passiveness. ⬆

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Net Applications: The Mathematics Failing

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