May 5, 2009
by sjvn01
2 Comments

How many desktop Linux users?

So how many desktop Linux users are there? If you believe in Net Applications’ numbers it’s just over 1%. If you want to buy W3Counter’s numbers, 2.16% of users use Linux. Or, if you want to go by my own Web site, Practical Technology’s AWStats statistics, 29.9% of desktop users prefer Linux.

The truth is we really don’t know how many Linux desktop users there are. That’s a pity because those numbers do matter. The more Linux desktop users there are, the more likely it is that ISVs (independent software vendors) and PC manufacturers will support desktop Linux. If Linux is to ever stop being considered a ‘niche’ desktop operating system, it needs more than just users, it needs an accurate way to count those users.

Web site surveys are all well and good, but they only tell part of the story. And, as the numbers I cite above shows, Web site numbers show an enormous range. Some of that may represent bias. The Boycott Novell Web site, for example, recently proclaims that Net Applications’ operating system numbers are a “Big Lie” and pointed out that Microsoft was one of Net Applications’ biggest customers. My own site focuses a lot on Linux, so it’s no surprise that I have a high percentage of Linux-using visitors.

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May 4, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

KDE 4.2: Finally a new Linux desktop I can like

I won’t rehash my feelings about earlier versions of KDE. Suffice it to say I didn’t like it and you can review my comments about KDE 4.0 and KDE 4.1 elsewhere. At first glance, I also wasn’t impressed with KDE 4.2, but I decided to give it one more try, after some performance fixes in the latest edition, and I’m finally impressed.

What got me to look at KDE 4.2.2 was the unofficial release of openSUSE 11.1 ‘Reloaded’ with KDE 4.2.2 packages. As Joe Brockmeier, openSUSE’s community manager told me, “This is an installable live CD, so it’s good for anybody who wants to run 11.1 without having to grab all of the updates since December, and for users who want to test out the latest & greatest KDE without having to re-do their system.”

Brockmeier, aka Zonker, added “This is not an ‘official’ release, so it’s not gotten the same level of testing as an ‘official’ release, but should be a relatively good release and is based on packages from 11.1, excepting the later KDE software.”

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May 2, 2009
by sjvn01
1 Comment

1% Linux, 99% to go

I know Linux makes a great desktop. You may know that it makes a great desktop. But, most people wouldn’t know Linux from a hole in the ground. Things are finally changing though. According to one survey, Linux finally has crossed over the 1% of the Web client market.

Net Applications, a Web site analytics company, just published their April 2009 Web users survey, Market Share, and they found that “Linux usage share on client devices has surpassed 1% for the first time in our tracking. Linux has been successful primarily as a server operating system, but client usage share has not kept pace with server share Linux has reached this important milestone on the client as Linux-based systems have become more functional, easier to use, and pre-installed on computers from vendors like Dell.”

It’s about time!

Desktop Linux has faced an uphill climb. It’s had to face Microsoft’s Windows monopoly on the desktop. It’s had to deal with its undeserved reputation for being hard to use. But still, slowly, ever so slowly, it’s made gains.

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April 30, 2009
by sjvn01
1 Comment

The Windows 7 ‘give away’

If Microsoft likes anything more than making money, it’s completely dominating a market. After years of uncontested desktop operating system rule, the combination of the Vista flop, the growing maturity of the Linux desktop, and the Mac’s growing popularity, Microsoft was losing its grip. So now, by giving away the Windows 7 RC (release candidate), which won’t expire until June 1 2010, Microsoft is now in the free software business.

Mind you, Microsoft isn’t making Windows 7 free in the sense of truly free software, where the real freedom is the freedom of thought and open-source code, but free as in ‘free beer.’ This actually goes further than my own suggestion that Microsoft owed its poor, benighted Vista customers a free upgrade to Windows 7.

It’s a good deal for Vista users. I’ve been running Windows 7 both on PCs and netbooks. There’s no question in my mind that Windows 7 RC is already better than Vista SP1.

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April 29, 2009
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Has the GPL out-lived its usefulness?

There have always been two schools of intellectual property thought in free software/open-source circles, and boy have they had their flame wars over the years. Things have been calm lately, but recently, Eric S. Raymond, co-founder of the OSI (Open Source Initiative), has thrown a match on the gasoline again in an essay entitled, The Economic Case Against the GPL.

Raymond argues that open source is a more “efficient system of software production.” Raymond is using the term “efficiency’ here in the precise sense economists use it. Of two systems of production, the more efficient is the one which produces more units of output for a given input of factors of production.” As Black Duck Software recently revealed in its study that showed that open-source software is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the facts are on Raymond’s side.

But, Raymond doesn’t stop there. He believes that the GPL causes FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) and that, in turn, this “slows down open-source adoption.”

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April 28, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

Are there too many desktop Linuxes?

I like choice. I like being able to pick just the right operating system for the right job. But, when I look in the mirror, I don’t see an ordinary user. I see someone who regularly uses no less 7 different Linux distributions; 3 versions of Windows, and Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard, and I’m not even going to mention the server operating systems. Most people want to use 1 (one) operating system and that’s more than enough for them. And, that may be one of the reasons why desktop Linux has had fits gaining market share.

In a recent feature, Neil McAllister asks whether desktop Linux is too fragmented to succeed. He comments, “Unlike Windows or Mac OS X, each of which is the product of a single vendor, Linux comes in many different distributions that target the desktop, and each has its own look and feel. Some are based on the Gnome desktop environment, while others use KDE, and still others let the user choose between both.”

Again, for people who love choice, that’s great. But, how many people are there really who can tell you the differences between something as ‘obvious’ as KDE 4.2x and GNOME 2.26 desktop interfaces. Perhaps a million in the whole world. That’s not many compared to the hundreds of millions who use Windows on a daily basis.

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