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Probably so.

See, Microsoft counts a lot of weird stuff as "shipped units," like
cash registers, ATMs, etc. They probably count X-boxes too.
They also count all the systems that ship with Windows installed
but then get wiped and have Linux or BSD installed. When they
get wiped to have a different version of Windows installed they
end up counting both versions. So, yeah, Microsoft's numbers
are way overinflated.

Counting Linux is tricky too, because you don't necessarily have
to go out and buy it, and you can download the source once and
compile it and install it on thousands of different machines.

Mac OS is about the only case where you know the real numbers,
because every Mac ships with it, and every upgrade is installed
over a previous version of Mac OS, so they don't count. (There
are Macs running Linux and BSD, but those numbers probably
aren't significant, and they're mostly dual-boot systems.)

Based on my experience working for lots of different corporate,
government and academic organizations, Macs are probably less
than 10% (unless you count home users), but they are way more
than the 3% you often hear, and I do believe the claim that Linux
has overtaken Mac on the desktop. As a Mac user, this doesn't
bother me at all. Most of the people who switch to Linux are
switching from Windows (usually after having been forced to
switch to Windows from some other type of Unix), so I know it's
not hurting Apple's market share. Also, I've never had anyone
tell me I had to use Linux, and there's no possibility of it's
becoming a monopoly. Anyone can market their own brand of
Linux, even Apple, and if anyone ever does make a version of
Linux that's better for my purposes than Mac OS X, I'll happily
switch to Linux.

Posted by: Immanuel Tranz-Mischen   Posted on: 09/17/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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