Nobody would argue that Linux has an appreciable market share. They could however say that they have an appreciating share. Cause in fact they do. Since Microsoft launched Vista in January 2007, U.K. preinstalls of Linux have multiplied 28 times.
But unfortunately for Linux, 28 times a little is still a little. However, consider that pre-Vista, Linux was being shipped on only .1% of PC’s. That’s nothing, but 2.8% is definitely something. Something from nothing cannot be ignored. Remember it was not too long ago Apple had a market share of nothing…
All this probably goes more to show that customers are not embracing Vista, and are instead searching for alternative options. According to market research firm, Context, 93% of PC’s still ship with Vista. But the newest evolution of Linux, Ubuntu seems to be making strides in the right direction.
Why aren’t they embracing Vista?
I avoided it for a while, but recently moved over to it with a fresh install and haven’t had any issues. It does use up a bit of RAM, but 2GB shouldn’t be out of reach for most new computers.
Linux has very appreciable market share on servers. You must be talking about just desktops, but you haven’t made that clear at all. Also, pre-installs have little to do with what people are already running. Even when Linux is pre-installed, the individual Linux user will probably archive the pre-install and replace it with their favorite distribution. The corporate user will definitely remove any pre-install and overwrite it with the corporate Linux load, so that they are sure they know what software they are running, and that there are no surprises on the disk.
It is nice to see that Linux is being pre-installed on more and more systems. I have been using Ubuntu for some time now and I see no reason to go back to Windows. It has lower system requirements, runs faster, is more secure and, if you install the Compiz and AWN packages, it provides an awesome desktop experience.
Although 93% of new PCs ship with Vista, the same used to be true for Windows98, XP etc. What happens then is that some users get sick of M$, so they try dual-booting with Linux. Then, after a while, they find that they no longer need Windows and they erase Windows. They don’t care that they wasted money on Vista, they are just glad to see the back of it. So-o-o-o, maybe the 93% doesn’t stay 93%? Maybe it reduces with time?