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  • #91
    It would be good to know how many people bought a PC with windows, removed it and installed Linux. I have done it two times in the last 10 years, because for the most part, I had no choice.

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    • #92
      Originally posted by V!NCENT
      In the USA, not your country?, 18% of all Dell sales in the year 2009 were netbooks. Of all netbooks sold by Dell in 2009, (1/3)rd were sold with Ubuntu. 18 / 3 = 6%, mutherfucker!

      Executive summary: no (but I like inspector Callahan).


      You are, again, failing to understand the data. You should not be ashamed, though, there's people pretending to be journalists in the same position. I guess I'll have to expose this without sarcasm for once--apparently it gets on the way of communication. The data basically are:

      1. A Forrester Research study according to which, 18% of PC sales in the US in 2009 were netbooks.

      2. A study by ABI Research, from Oct-Nov 2009, where they predicted that 32% netbooks sold globally for the whole year would come with Linux.

      3. The words of a Dell employee (Feb 2009), according to which, a third of a particular computer they sell, the Inspiron Mini 9, is shipped with Ubuntu; adding that this figure "is well above the standard attach rate for other systems that offer Linux".


      So first of all, you didn't understand where the figures came from, wrongly stating that they referred to Dell sales. Now, I thought I wouldn't have to explain why the third point above is a completely useless piece of information, but apparently it's not so obvious. Let's see: a) it refers to a single manufacturer; b) it refers to a single product line out of the dozens Dell offers; c) it specifically states that this figure is higher than "the standard"; d) attach rate figures can be distorted during the initial period of a product life, which, for the Mini 9 at the time this information was disclosed was a mere 5 months. Note that this information was wrongly presented in that travesti of a debunking article as "Dell also reported that nearly a third of their netbook sales in 2009 were systems preloaded with Ubuntu". This is not an innocent mistake, for the linked site displays the correct title: "One Third of Dell Inspiron Mini 9s Sold Run Linux".

      Having got rid of all that Dell nonsense, let me tackle the first two points. The obvious objection is that they refer to different markets (US and global). Assuming you can mix and match them is a big step which must be somehow justified (more on that in a second). The other objection, in principle weaker, is that the Linux netbook share is an estimation. Of course, I would only limit myself to point the existence of this caveat, but I would not reject any conclusions simply because the data are projections. However, it is worth noting that there were similar studies conducted in the US casting very different figures. I have no reason to believe one over the other, so a sane conclusion is that, indeed, the US market doesn't accurately represent the worldwide one. Actually, in the words of Jeff Orr, the analyst at ABI where the global figures come from, "just because you live in the United States, don't assume that everything is on Windows", and "non-U.S. consumers have less experience with Windows -- and thus less reliance". Other analyst from ABI, while questioning evidence put forward regarding Linux netbooks return rates, stated that "[US preference for Windows netbooks] isn't true around the world". Mr. Orr himself, when explicitly asked about the 93% US netbook Windows market share, said that "the figures [...] were only for the United States", and that "Microsoft did not include Dell in its figures as the company was selling directly to the public". In summary, he stated that "[...] it [is] not possible to extrapolate figures for one region based on those of another as the usage patterns [are] totally different".

      But I'm not done yet. It's September 2010. Why are we relying on predicted figures for 2009 made one year ago? For no reason, apparently; only some days after the article you should have never trusted was published (7/09/10), another one appeared in iTWire, "GNU/Linux netbook marketshare 24pc in 2009, trending lower" (15/09/10), authored by Sam Varghese, a guy smart enough as to ask the people at ABI for the updated, actual data. Thus, the actual numbers for the global market, according to them, are 24% Linux market share in the netbook sector (remember, 32% was the prediction). Orr also said that "the first half of 2010 was not looking good for GNU/Linux netbooks", and "ABI Research predicts that Linux market share in netbooks for 2010 will at best be flat year-over-year, if not decline".

      So, even if you irrationally decide to ignore how wrong is to conflate the figures from Forrester and ABI studies, what you can argue at best is that 18*0.24=4.3% Linux market share in 2009 from netbooks alone. But we can do better, for ABI claims that "total netbook shipments for 2009 topped 36 million units to all regions of the world". All you need now is data for total PCs sold worldwide last year. According to Gartner, this number was 306 million. Combining those you get 2.8% Linux market share from netbooks in 2009 (36/306*0.24*100). Not that bad, if you ask me, especially considering that you can have Linux for free and that this is only netbooks. Anyway, feel free to find other sources of information, but please, stop spouting nonsense. It's preferable that you just believe uncle Svartalf when he claims to have insider information about movements in the industry which make him feel positive about this than blatantly making rubbish up.

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      • #93
        Well no; I don't have exact data. I also have no data about China's Red Flag Linux, but I can use Dell, avarge joes, for knowing that the Linux' marketshare is above 1%. Linux marketshare is also growing. Maybe we should take that Steve Balmer chart.

        Yeah yeah not scientificaly, but c'mon; Red Flag Linux. That's gotta make the global Linux marketshare more then 1%!

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        • #94
          And it most likely is! The point is not losing our heads and give ourselves to sketchy estimations as if they were the ultimate answer. Also remember that annual market share for an emergent OS such as Linux is bound to be higher than the proportion of overall installations with respect to the total. And conversely, a (hopefully) declining OS like Windows should have lower market share (as taken from the number of units sold) than their market penetration (I think this is the right term, not sure). With this in mind, it is not that surprising that web statistics are lower than those coming from units sold. Of course, this applies to Windows and Macs better than to Linux, for you can have it for free!

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          • #95
            Maybe we should collect some data, just for fun. Let's count how many internet conncetions there are in the world, cut that by the amount of sold Apple computers and Linux downloads in 2010, just for fun

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            • #96
              Originally posted by V!NCENT View Post
              Maybe we should collect some data, just for fun. Let's count how many internet conncetions there are in the world, cut that by the amount of sold Apple computers and Linux downloads in 2010, just for fun
              It'd be nice if distros could make it easier to track uptake but I see no way for them to do this without users crying fowl about privacy violation.

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              • #97
                Can we go back on topic?

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                • #98
                  Originally posted by Beiruty View Post
                  Can we go back on topic?
                  No. Random discussions bring more pageviews. More fun, too.

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                  • #99
                    Originally posted by Beiruty View Post
                    Can we go back on topic?

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                    • Originally posted by V!NCENT View Post
                      I hate you! I am now scared. Silly me, I should have known that the jocker is watching me.

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