[KLUG Advocacy] Linux Outpacing Macintosh On Desktops

[Adam Williams]

>>>... The article as a whole has a lot of [other] interesting
>>> things to convey to readers.
>>Yes, like this quote:
>>"We have found," Dekkers said, "that one of the major issues put forward
>>- no support and no accountability - is false"
>>Which was worth reading the whole article.
>Exactly, among others. I was surprised to see the article highlighted the way 
>it was, after reading it.
>>>>Depends on the poll, desktop users vs. desktop systems.
>>>Yeah, you have to read the fine print carefully. A number of these studies
>>>are pretty conditional.
>>I would think one could measure the business desktop count,
>You might, but there's a lot of diversity there, and a good sampling effort 
>would have to reach places that are nominally under the radar, which is where
>Linux became entrenched before a lot of organizations even realized it, or at 
>very least were willing to ackowledge.
>>but home systems would be a mine field.  
>Please expland on this, I simply don't understand why you think so.

If you survey a business that has, say ~100 desktops, on the whole those
machines will be pretty homogeneous.  The managers will have
documentation of the exceptions.  Maybe not across the entire business,
but certainly each business unit will possess this information.

Home systems are likely to be misreported,  either deliberately or
because the person doesn't even understand the question.  Also home
systems may be dual-boot machines (pretty rare on a business desktop),
etc.. that muddies the meaning of the question.

Q: "What OS do you use at home?"
A: "My system is a Compaq."

>>It would be interesting to see a geographic Linux penetration study.  Is
>>it more common in some parts of the country than others?
>Good question. I have some speculation on what the distribution may be, but
>it really doesn't mattter; there's enough of that in any case.