4 ms·

Linux has about half of the market share of all OS X versions combined. Not too bad considering there's not exactly many systems that come with Linux preinstall

by kriro 10y ago

Linux has about half of the market share of all OS X versions combined. Not too bad considering there's not exactly many systems that come with Linux preinstalled. Still minuscule compared to the Windows market share but I'd gladly announce that the year of the Linux desktop has finally arrived if it gets to OS X level...which isn't all that far to go.

quonn 10y ago
Nitpick: More like a third (0.36).
- kriro 10y ago
  You are correct, I only scanned the other OS X versions from the bottom and kind of missed the 1.1% of 10.10.
bostand 10y ago
I think the actual Linux market share is higher. I know a lot of enterprises that have switched to Linux (for reason completely unrelated to the os itself).
- kobeya 10y ago
  which should be reflected in these numbers, no?
  - bostand 10y ago
    Look at their sampling methods. They use analytics from certain sites (news, social media, gov, ...) A lot of enterprises are beyond proxies and many places don't allow you to access internet outside a few select sites
    - majewsky 10y ago
      A proxy won't mingle with the User-Agent header, or with the tracking JS that runs in the browser.
      - bostand 10y ago
        I guess there are different types of proxies. The ones we use definitely strip and modify headers.
- wiz21c 10y ago
  > I think the actual Linux market share is higher. I know a lot of enterprises that have switched to Linux (for reason completely unrelated to the os itself). So they switched to Linux because well, not because it's Linux. Funny :-) You probably meant : they switched to Linux for none of the reasons HN's readers like Linux (open, free, people-like-us, etc)
tim333 10y ago
I wonder if they are counting Chromebooks which run a modified Linux. Those are starting to catch Mac https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/23/chromebook-mac-google-pc-sales https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/23/chromeboo...
- pmontra 10y ago
  I'd put them into their own category. But remember that Chromebooks are a US only story. There are very few of them outside the USA. One good year in the USA doesn't gain many percentage points in a worldwide stat.
  - Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
    Why? Just because Google made a Linux distro makes it no longer qualify as a Linux distro?
    - ekianjo 10y ago
      well the user space is nothing like any other distro.
      - ryao 10y ago
        Google Chrome OS is based on Gentoo Linux.
    - lallysingh 10y ago
      It's not a prior Linux distribution until you add crouton. Same as why Android isn't a Linux distribution.
  - broodbucket 10y ago
    Huh? They're sold and somewhat popular here in Australia
  - therockhead 10y ago
    They are widely available in Europe. Do you mean they don't sell well outside of the USA ?
sh_tinh_hair 10y ago
I've used Linux and FreeBSD (desktop|laptop @work/home) for everything since 2002. Within the last five years it really has been a very simple and feature rich environment with acceptable stability for most distributions. Think if I hadn't started with KDE at that time I would be much more fond of OS X.

by kriro 10y ago

quonn 10y ago

Nitpick: More like a third (0.36).

kriro 10y ago
You are correct, I only scanned the other OS X versions from the bottom and kind of missed the 1.1% of 10.10.

bostand 10y ago

I think the actual Linux market share is higher. I know a lot of enterprises that have switched to Linux (for reason completely unrelated to the os itself).

kobeya 10y ago
which should be reflected in these numbers, no?
- bostand 10y ago
  Look at their sampling methods. They use analytics from certain sites (news, social media, gov, ...) A lot of enterprises are beyond proxies and many places don't allow you to access internet outside a few select sites
  - majewsky 10y ago
    A proxy won't mingle with the User-Agent header, or with the tracking JS that runs in the browser.
    - bostand 10y ago
      I guess there are different types of proxies. The ones we use definitely strip and modify headers.
wiz21c 10y ago
> I think the actual Linux market share is higher. I know a lot of enterprises that have switched to Linux (for reason completely unrelated to the os itself). So they switched to Linux because well, not because it's Linux. Funny :-) You probably meant : they switched to Linux for none of the reasons HN's readers like Linux (open, free, people-like-us, etc)

tim333 10y ago

I wonder if they are counting Chromebooks which run a modified Linux. Those are starting to catch Mac https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/23/chromebook-mac-google-pc-sales https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/23/chromeboo...

pmontra 10y ago
I'd put them into their own category. But remember that Chromebooks are a US only story. There are very few of them outside the USA. One good year in the USA doesn't gain many percentage points in a worldwide stat.
- Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
  Why? Just because Google made a Linux distro makes it no longer qualify as a Linux distro?
  - ekianjo 10y ago
    well the user space is nothing like any other distro.
    - ryao 10y ago
      Google Chrome OS is based on Gentoo Linux.
  - lallysingh 10y ago
    It's not a prior Linux distribution until you add crouton. Same as why Android isn't a Linux distribution.
- broodbucket 10y ago
  Huh? They're sold and somewhat popular here in Australia
- therockhead 10y ago
  They are widely available in Europe. Do you mean they don't sell well outside of the USA ?

sh_tinh_hair 10y ago

I've used Linux and FreeBSD (desktop|laptop @work/home) for everything since 2002. Within the last five years it really has been a very simple and feature rich environment with acceptable stability for most distributions. Think if I hadn't started with KDE at that time I would be much more fond of OS X.