Time for everyone to leave now..... 3278

Microsoft has their "Fast Facts" site, it's advertized on nearly every page that even mentions Linux, and provides as much pro-microsoft information as they can possibly get, even when it's outdated, inaccurate, and distorted.

This newsgroup is one of the few places where it is possible to challenge these "Benchmarks" in a public forum.

Perhaps, when Linux machines are sitting on the retailer shelves next to Windows PCs and Macs, or Vista PCs and Macs, this group will be less and less significant.

In the Microsoft Bashing groups, there are discussions of numerous topics, and the discussions of Linux would just get lost in the mess.

The COLA group is focused on LINUX vs Microsoft. It's highly unlikely that Microsoft or the WinTrolls are going to sit back and Let us tell how wonderful Linux is unchallenged.

Windows still has nearly 90% of nearly 1 billion PCs deployed worldwide. Linux is growing, fueled in no small part by a message of promotion and support by Linux users.

Note that most of the topics are STARTED by WinTrolls, who are here to bash Linux. We respond, often with overwhelming counter-arguments.

Sometimes it feels very repebreastive, but then again, it's the WinTrolls who keep coming up with the same claims and arguments, claiming that Linux doesn't even BELONG in the marketplace.

The Linux on Desktop didn't really "officially" begin until 1998, when Linus suggested that we should go for the desktop. Prior to this, MOST of the Linux effort was focused on getting Linux out as a SERVER. The Linux workstation was primarily a tool to aid developers who were creating software and solutions that would ultimately run on Linux servers.

Linux has the BEST advertising in the form of word of mouth endorsements by other Linux users.

The Linux Server effort has been remarkably successful. Linux has over 30% of the total server market by unit volume, and now generates over $30 billion-year in a market that's growing at over 40% per year. Some companies like Novell are reporting Linux revenue growth rates in excess of 400% per year. Keep in mind that the bulk of Linux revenue is in SUPPORT and Consulting.contracts.

The Linux desktop market is just beginning to catch the same kind of fire. Today the Linux market has grown from 3% to nearly 14% of the global market (Nearly 140 million units deployed) and has grown to a multibillion dollar industry.

Looking at Linux growth rate, compared to the Windows growth rate, Linux could overtake Windows in annual unit volumes within the next 12-24 months.

The question for today is when the OEMs will start selling Linux PCs in Retail Stores. Will they wait until nearly every PC sold is converted to Linux aftermarket?

Of course, Microsoft wants to remain in exclusive control over the PC, but Linux has made it as easy as possible for OEMs to offer both Windows and Linux running concurrently on the same machine. There is no legal justification for Microsoft and the OEMs continuing to exclude Linux from the Retail Marketplace.

Erik and DFS will try to distract us from that fundamental issue, but this really is the fundamental issue.

Will OEMs sign up for another 10 years of "Loss Leaders" under the "Microsoft Monopoly" with Vista? Or will they begin to insist on having the ability to offer a more profitable solution?

The flip side for the OEMs is that if they continue to participate in exclusionary contracts which exclude Linux, they could find themselves defendents in Clayton Act cases, and could be pushed into settlements where Linux gets full access to the marketplace.

OpenOffice has been deployed on something like 200 million PCs last year. But how many PCs are offered with OpenOffice? Yes, that's only 20% of the total PC market, but that's more deployements than the number of PCs sold by ALL OEMs in the last year.

FireFox has been deployed on something like 250 million PCs, and again has not been offered preinstalled on any PCs.

Anyone want to take a guess on how many copies of VMWare Player have been downloaded? Any guesses on how many have been deployed? Any guessses on how many Linux VMs have been downloaded?

And there's the point. We don't really know how many Linux deployements there really are out there. We know how many PCs are shipped with Windows. We know how many PCs running Windows are used to browse the Web. We know the percentage of IP addresses using Linux to browse certain sites. But then again, most of that information is no longer published - ironically because there is such an underrepresentation of Linux.

There are some reports which you can BUY, and for $1,000 per viewer - you can see current reports showing the most conservative possible estimates of Linux and the most conservative projections.

The outdated reports show Linux at 7% of the total market, and project growth at 10%-year. Those were reports for 2003.