I found some browser OS platform statistics when I was browsing the other day. Is it just me or has both linux and mac gained a lot of ground over the last 5-6 years? The windows family is still dominating, but does not seem to be moving forward. Could the reason be mobile devices, iPhone etc., and that people are using their mobile to surf in a greater degree? Are more and more poor people in the world being set up with Ubuntu dists on cheap laptops? Techwizards, please enlight me. :) [Edited by - trasseltass on September 3, 2009 3:12:33 AM]

I don't know how accurate those statistics are - I've usually heard the Linux marketshare to be quotes as closer to 1% rather than 5%. I have a feeling that the w3schools.com website only tracks their own users - which wouldn't be very representative of the entire population.

I think the standard for these sorts of statistics is Net Applications. Their statistics are meant to be representative of the general population. According to them, Linux has indeed increased in market share over the past couple of years - from 0.65% in November 2007 to 0.94% last month. But I think that's hardly earth-shattering.

I think the recent popularity of netbooks has been attributed to Linux's rising share - but aside from the initial couple of months after the launch of the eeePC, Windows is still dominating netbooks.

Since Windows already holds ~90% of the market, it'd be difficult for them to "move forward" and capture an even greater percentage of the market. There will always be other niches to fill, after all.

Yea, it's difficult to know how accurate the statistics are.. I was thinking more about the general trend. Linux and apple gaining ground and windows family losing ground.

I've just been having this gut feeling ever since more and more of my friends started choosing iBooks over portable PCs.. iPhones are selling well, a lot of people run Ubuntu on their netbooks, etc.

Again, if you dominate a market as thoroughly as Windows does home computer OS'es, it's pretty much impossible to increase your market share because it's already too close to 100%.

Quote: Original post by trasseltass
I found some browser OS platform statistics when I was browsing the other day.

What's up with July? Looks like some Vista users switched back to XP, and then the following month changed their mind again. :)

Quote: Original post by WanMaster

Quote: Original post by trasseltass
I found some browser OS platform statistics when I was browsing the other day.

What's up with July? Looks like some Vista users switched back to XP, and then the following month changed their mind again. :)

The people hit the beach with their XP netbooks, or something. ;)

Well, the site itself says, that "Statistics are often misleading".

Quote: The Site
Statistics Are Often Misleading

You cannot - as a web developer - rely only on statistics. Statistics can often be misleading.

Global averages may not always be relevant to your web site. Different sites attract different audiences. Some web sites attract professional developers using professional hardware, while other sites attract hobbyists using old low spec computers.

Quotes

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics."
Benjamin Disraeli

"Then there was the man who drowned crossing a stream with an average depth of six inches."
W. I. E. Gates

I like the second quote. [grin] Reminds me of "Majority of people has above-average number of hands." [grin]

Other than that, I suppose Linux is gaining grounds because it's continuously getting more and more usable for the casual user -- long gone are the times you had to open your MBR in a hex editor just to get the thing booting. Also, there's the whole Linux propaganda thing.

Regarding Macs -- I'm always amazed by them. You don't meet a Mac over here. I've only seen a single Mac in my life -- from my personal point of view, Linux is much more popular than Mac in this part of the world.

>>Other than that, I suppose Linux is gaining grounds because it's continuously getting more and more usable for the casual user

Perhaps but I believe the chief reason is more machines are being sold with linux installed now
A/ netbooks from dell,HP,acer etc
B/ its starting to appear on phones, including this beast, perhaps the best phone currently on the planet

http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/08/27/nokia.n900.official/

resolution 800x480 with a keyboard!

Quote: Original post by Oxyd
Regarding Macs -- I'm always amazed by them. You don't meet a Mac over here. I've only seen a single Mac in my life -- from my personal point of view, Linux is much more popular than Mac in this part of the world.

Heh, strange [smile] Here you see about the same number of Linux laptops as Windows laptops, maybe 3 laptops out of 10 are Linux and Windows laptops — the rest are Macs.

I'm seeing more and more macs, my guess is that it is due to the recent price breaks.