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Tom Potts wrote: > Interesting article > http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2009/01/madtux-closes-its-doors.html > > See the comments for some interesting - and intelligently challenged figures. > They do suggest things are seriously on the up for Linux - and shilling too! Clearly GNU/Linux installs on Netbooks are doing better than the general desktop. But the browser figures are unlikely to be far out for general desktop use, if these people are using them to surf (which seems likely). How to square the two? Simple Netbook sales are relatively small. IDC estimate 10,000,000 last year. With ~400,000,000 Internet users, it is ~2.5%. Even if the NetBook market were 50% GNU/Linux, then that would reflect at most 1.25%. Reality is always more complex, and a lot of these are bought for occasional use, use on trains, or when travelling, which probably means the browser figures under report them numerically (if not in terms of actual usage). That vendors are shipping desktop GNU/Linux in quantity is more important than the absolute numbers. As it means the big manufacturers are building GNU/Linux expertise, dealing with support issues, and may be making hardware choices with running stuff other than Microsoft Windows. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html