Linux going to be big in China 3737
Usually 1 above, ghost, but the real question is what does "market" refer to. My view is that it refers to the money that flows in the commerce of the product offering...
The idea that Linux users are unwilling to pay for software is a fallacy. It might be true for a few fringe users, but most are no different from any other consumer... they...
Well, gecko, you can multiply, but you don't seem to be able to understand the result! Consider the companies like Red Hat and Novell who are doing the bulk of the linux business these days. How much do you have to pay them to get a copy of RHEL or Suse and register on the income meter? About the same as Mr. Softee gets for a copy of XP or Windows 2K3 Server, depending on what you are going to do with it. Now that is where the money comes from and the number of copies of linux or Windows in circulation in the commercial sense is about the same.
Who the hell cares what the freebie market is comprised of? There isn't any money there and, unless you just like to beat your head against a wall, there is nothing worthwhile to come of fooling around in that market. If you are interested in making a living and feeding your family, you will look at where the money is and for that, there is some 50 times as much business in the Windows world as there is in the linux world. It really doesn't matter how many copies of freebie linux are given away.