Is Linux market share is 8x larger than most people think? Debunking the 1% Myth

aitlyn Martin over at O’Reilly Broadcast has posted an interesting article titled “Debunking the 1% Myth” where she investigates what the true market share of Linux on desktops and laptops actually is.

Her findings are very interesting – she notes that “netbooks alone Linux captured nearly 6% of the desktop market in 2009″ which, coupled with other numbers, puts her final market share estimate at 8% – just under Apple Mac OS X. She also suggests Dell, and Ubuntu, has played a key part in increasing Linux’s market share.

“The best estimate for present sales is around 8%, which puts Linux just a little behind or perhaps just about even with MacOS.”

If you combine embedded and mobile devices such as Android, Linux server installations and dual-boot installs (where Windows is counted as the default operating system), it’s quite obvious that Linux’s market share in the world of computers isn’t small at all – in fact it’s rather large and steadily growing.

"Does anyone believe that Microsoft would see Linux as a serious competitor is Linux had captured just 1% of the market? That doesn't seem very likely, does it? All the figures I have quoted so far represent sales of systems preloaded with a given operating system: Windows, MacOS or Linux. They do not represent actual usage. If you go down to the local brick and mortar computer shop or big box retailer, buy a system with Windows, wipe the hard drive and install Linux that still counts as a Windows system, not a Linux system."