05 August 2008

What's in a Number?

One of the long-standing jokes has been about GNU/Linux's imminent breakthrough on the desktop. Against that background, this is interesting:

Linux was starting from a rather small base in traditional sales channels: of all PCs sold in the UK last January through indirect channels, a feeble 0.1 per cent had Linux preloaded, according to numbers given to us by market research firm Context.

The Linux share of this route to market has edged up ever since the Vista launch. Then it broke the two per cent barrier in May after the latest release of Ubuntu, the strain of Linux most capable of kicking Microsoft in the shins.

I'd like to see a few months of consistent figures before crying "Hallelujah", but the latest figure of 2.8% is nonetheless impressive given the context. Or, as The Inquirer puts it:

As most everyone in the UK sales channel sups on Microsoft's marketing teat, Linux hasn't got a hope in hell bar customer demand. So its record of 2.8 per cent of all preloads in June is something to be noted.

Er, quite.

2 comments:

Dr. Roy Schestowitz said...

It's a shame that I bought my PC _without an O/S_. Some people get it with
Windows and then wipe it or dual-boot. I never bought a Linux PC.

The UK is one of the slowest countries in the world to adopt FOSS (Firefox
being a noticeable indicator). Maybe China beats it. There was a survey about
this recently.

Glyn Moody said...

Yup. Good points.