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.

The DRM Infection Masquerading as an OS

Charlie Demerjian on Vista's high points:

4) Mahjong Titans: If you don't have anything real to talk about, why not tout fluff. (Read this next part as me feigning excitement) Holy sh*t, Mah-fscking-jong!!! Way cool. I was only expecting a database filesystem and middleware layer four years ago, but Mahjong just blows me away. Now I understand where all those years, programmer-decades and billions of dollars went, certainly not flushed if you get Mahjong Titans! Damn grrl. Can you imagine if you could get this kind of awesomeness on the web for free, or at any of 17 billion freeware sites? Never happen, would it?