• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Noulakaz

Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

  • Home
  • About
  • People
    • Christina & Avinash Meetoo
    • Avinash Meetoo
    • Christina Meetoo
    • Anya Meetoo
    • Kyan Meetoo
  • General
    • News
    • Mauritius
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Business
    • Travel
  • Computing
    • Apple
    • Linux
    • LUGM
    • Programming
    • Web
    • Technology
    • Knowledge Seven
  • Entertainment
    • Music
    • Movies
    • Photography
    • Sports

Linux is more popular than Windows. Finally.

2 June 2013 By Avinash Meetoo 4 Comments

20130602-linux-more-popular

When I started using Linux in 2000, it was just 9 years old and practically no one knew about this strange operating system. Linus Torvalds, its creator, had as ambition to make Linux achieve world domination status. Of course, no one believed him.

Fast forward 13 years (i.e. 22 years after Linux’s birth) and something beautiful happens: Linux is now the most used operating system in the whole world thanks to Android which powers most smartphones and tablets and which is built on Linux. According to a Goldman Sachs’ private report, Android accounts for 41% of all computers on the planet, Apple MacOS X and iOS represent 23% and Windows only 20% (from its 95% of market share in 2004).

When Ubuntu Linux was created in August 2004, Mark Shuttleworth created bug report #1: “Liberation: Microsoft has a majority market share”. He has just closed the bug because, well, the bug is not a bug anymore as Microsoft software represents a minority now…

20130602-android-ios-vs-windows

Interestingly, this makes sense. Until the beginning of the ’90s, the world of computing was very interesting: there were a lot of competing companies like Microsoft, Atari, Commodore, Apple, etc. and this fostered a lot of innovation and major advances were made. When Microsoft Windows became popular at the end of the ’90s, Microsoft crushed all their opponents by abusing their position of dominance and resorting to anti-competitive practices.

In 2007, something special happened: Apple released the iPhone. In the same year, Google announced Android, an operating system for smartphones and tablets, based on Linux, and released for free in 2008. Since then, major companies like Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony have adopted Android.

This means that we’re now mostly in the same situation as before Microsoft crushed its competitors. We now have three platforms, Android, Apple and Microsoft, and this can only mean that more innovation is to come. At the end, we, users, are the ones who are going to benefit more from this.

Laws couldn’t get Microsoft to behave. Linux, indirectly, has.

Filed Under: Apple, Business, Linux, LUGM, News, Technology, Web

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Logan says

    2 June 2013 at 21:12

    Yep :-)

    Linux and BSD as well. I guess nobody counts the Juniper/cisco routers that power the whole internet. Juniper uses FreeBSD, and cisco uses both parts of FreeBSD and OpenBSD.

    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/cable/serv_exch/serv_control/broadband_app/rel38x/swcfg8000_gbe/AppendixC_license.html (Search for OpenBSD or Damien Miller).

    JunOS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junos

    Apple also uses large amount of BSD code from FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and even DragonflyBSD: https://twitter.com/eFrane/statuses/268090735729975296

    Also, Android uses bsd’s libc instead of glibc :-)

    //Logan
    C-x-C-c

  2. Timmy J says

    3 July 2013 at 07:05

    It is legitimately interesting to see the platform distribution numbers move up and down. Of course any market share comparison of >5 years automatically becomes a comparison between apples and oranges and walnuts.

    Desktop vs Server used to be a compelling way to explain how Linux will continue to grow because there appeared to be a natural transition from Unix to Linux. But it didn’t quite play out like that. And Windows Server ended up exceeding expectations and went from ~1% distribution to >20% in just a few years. Now mobile appears to be the compelling way to show Microsoft being threatened from a different angle. Third, Microsoft anti-trust case was primarily about the browser wars. Microsoft not only survived while the Internet bubble bursting

    I enjoy these kind of debates because it involves trying to over-simplify vast, complex ecosystems into an A vs. B competition. I can grok over-simplified arguments and they also make for good headlines, but they are, of course, too shallow to explain the true dynamics at work. They’re more comical than case study.

    To predict the future market share breakdown of operating systems, you can’t use the public discourse that generates all of the media attention: platform purity, robustness & merit of feature set, freedom vs. greed, righteousness, loyalty and the most artificially persuasive emotion of them all: hatred..

    Anyway, the problem I have with this post is that it perpetuates revisionist history explanations despite their lack of completeness and lack of truth. “When Microsoft Windows became popular at the end of the ’90s,” — this is not a true premise, as shown by the graph directly above this statement. “Microsoft crushed all their opponents by abusing their position of dominance and resorting to anti-competitive practices.” — this is an incredibly shallow and incomplete recollection of the times. First off Microsoft did not crush all of its opponents — certainly not when it comes to operating systems. Microsoft’s mission was to have a PC in every home and on every desk running Microsoft software. It was the success of this mission that open the door for thousands of companies to innovate, including Google & Apple. Second, Microsoft and Apple settled their court cases when Mac market share was at a very low level but the only profitable software running on the platform was Microsoft Office. So in a sense, the $100m Microsoft gave Apple helped allow them to survive long enough for Jobs to rework the company and allowed them to create the game changing iPod. It was Windows’ ubiquity that allowed Apple’s revenues to skyrocket without having to worry about selling a computer to the user first.

    Laws couldn’t get Microsoft to behave? This is actually a silly argument, despite how much you hate Bill Gates or Windows. Yes, Linux has had a profound impact on the landscape of desktop and server operating systems. Did you know that Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3 for Solaris? Did you know that Microsoft continues to publish more of its code than nearly all other companies combined? Did you know that Apple sued the Polish supermarket A.pl for copyright infringement? Did you know that the majority of Ubuntu’s user interface standards are taken from the Windows published guidelines?

    – What percentage of software developers only right software for Linux?
    – How many companies have made a billion dollars because of Apple?
    – How many users have saved thousands of dollars because of Linux?

    Almost none is the answer to all 3 questions. Are you actually making the argument that Microsoft prevented innovation? That’s contrary to your statement that the iPod was revolutionary.

    There are so many vectors of frustration tickled by Microsoft bashing that it’s hard to compose a coherent comment that is worth of further discussion. I’m exhausted already and I’m legitimately trying to stimulate conversation. However I fully realize that I am likely to fail. I am sorry about this. I still enjoyed reading your post.

  3. Avinash Meetoo says

    3 July 2013 at 07:15

    Thanks for your interesting comment, Timmy.

    I wrote a post 7 years ago on the point you’re mentioning. Check https://www.noulakaz.net/2006/04/28/thanks-microsoft-for-cheap-pcs/

    I even wrote a poem on Bill Gates :-)

    There are two observations I’ve made over the years : (1) Microsoft is less dangerous now than 10 years ago when they absolutely dominated everything and (2) Linux and open source software are not products, not even companies but, rather, a philosophy. Apples and oranges as you mentioned…

Trackbacks

  1. Interesting Tech Jobs of the Future (for Mauritius) says:
    7 February 2016 at 06:29

    […] Mauritius. Another student asked me about Linux and he was amazed when I told him that, since 2013, there are more computers in the world running Linux than Windows. Finally, a student asked me about the status of my grand project. I told him that, as an […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Our Personal Websites

Avinash Meetoo
Christina Meetoo
Anya Meetoo
Kyan Meetoo

Related Posts

  • Microsoft finally dies…
  • Announcing AndroidMauritius and Knowledge Seven forum
  • I do not want market share. I want freedom!
  • Bill: Linux is great!

Random Posts

  • Kaya died 9 years ago but his songs are still here
  • Beautiful fonts in Linux
  • ADSL bandwidth sucks in Mauritius
  • Playing lottery is a very bad investment

Archives

  • June 2025 (1)
  • May 2025 (3)
  • April 2025 (4)
  • January 2025 (3)
  • December 2024 (2)
  • November 2024 (2)
  • October 2024 (3)
  • September 2024 (7)
  • August 2024 (1)
  • July 2024 (1)
  • June 2024 (2)
  • May 2024 (3)
  • January 2024 (2)
  • December 2023 (1)
  • October 2023 (1)
  • September 2023 (4)
  • August 2023 (3)
  • July 2023 (1)
  • June 2023 (4)
  • May 2023 (1)
  • April 2023 (1)
  • March 2023 (5)
  • February 2023 (1)
  • December 2022 (1)
  • November 2022 (1)
  • October 2022 (4)
  • August 2022 (4)
  • July 2022 (3)
  • June 2022 (5)
  • May 2022 (5)
  • January 2022 (3)
  • December 2021 (2)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • September 2021 (4)
  • August 2021 (2)
  • July 2021 (14)
  • May 2021 (2)
  • April 2021 (4)
  • March 2021 (9)
  • February 2021 (2)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • October 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (2)
  • July 2020 (5)
  • June 2020 (3)
  • May 2020 (5)
  • April 2020 (6)
  • March 2020 (2)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (2)
  • October 2019 (1)
  • September 2019 (2)
  • July 2019 (2)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (3)
  • April 2019 (2)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (3)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • October 2018 (3)
  • August 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (2)
  • June 2018 (1)
  • May 2018 (2)
  • April 2018 (1)
  • February 2018 (1)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • October 2017 (1)
  • September 2017 (1)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (1)
  • May 2017 (4)
  • April 2017 (3)
  • March 2017 (4)
  • February 2017 (5)
  • January 2017 (3)
  • October 2016 (1)
  • September 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (4)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • June 2016 (1)
  • March 2016 (3)
  • February 2016 (3)
  • January 2016 (1)
  • December 2015 (1)
  • November 2015 (2)
  • September 2015 (1)
  • August 2015 (3)
  • March 2015 (1)
  • December 2014 (1)
  • November 2014 (4)
  • October 2014 (1)
  • March 2014 (2)
  • February 2014 (3)
  • December 2013 (1)
  • October 2013 (1)
  • September 2013 (1)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (1)
  • June 2013 (2)
  • May 2013 (1)
  • March 2013 (3)
  • January 2013 (2)
  • December 2012 (3)
  • November 2012 (4)
  • September 2012 (3)
  • August 2012 (2)
  • July 2012 (3)
  • June 2012 (2)
  • May 2012 (1)
  • April 2012 (2)
  • February 2012 (1)
  • January 2012 (4)
  • December 2011 (2)
  • November 2011 (1)
  • October 2011 (4)
  • September 2011 (2)
  • August 2011 (1)
  • July 2011 (2)
  • June 2011 (4)
  • April 2011 (7)
  • March 2011 (2)
  • February 2011 (1)
  • January 2011 (3)
  • November 2010 (3)
  • October 2010 (1)
  • September 2010 (2)
  • August 2010 (4)
  • July 2010 (2)
  • June 2010 (1)
  • May 2010 (3)
  • April 2010 (4)
  • March 2010 (3)
  • February 2010 (3)
  • January 2010 (5)
  • December 2009 (2)
  • November 2009 (3)
  • October 2009 (1)
  • September 2009 (5)
  • August 2009 (3)
  • July 2009 (1)
  • June 2009 (3)
  • May 2009 (2)
  • April 2009 (7)
  • March 2009 (12)
  • February 2009 (10)
  • January 2009 (5)
  • December 2008 (4)
  • November 2008 (11)
  • October 2008 (6)
  • September 2008 (7)
  • August 2008 (3)
  • July 2008 (8)
  • June 2008 (6)
  • May 2008 (5)
  • April 2008 (7)
  • March 2008 (6)
  • February 2008 (3)
  • January 2008 (6)
  • December 2007 (11)
  • November 2007 (10)
  • October 2007 (7)
  • September 2007 (9)
  • August 2007 (3)
  • July 2007 (7)
  • June 2007 (8)
  • May 2007 (14)
  • April 2007 (11)
  • March 2007 (18)
  • February 2007 (14)
  • January 2007 (15)
  • December 2006 (16)
  • November 2006 (10)
  • October 2006 (7)
  • September 2006 (8)
  • August 2006 (8)
  • July 2006 (6)
  • June 2006 (4)
  • May 2006 (13)
  • April 2006 (10)
  • March 2006 (11)
  • February 2006 (7)
  • January 2006 (14)
  • December 2005 (8)
  • November 2005 (6)
  • October 2005 (7)
  • September 2005 (2)
  • August 2005 (6)
  • July 2005 (2)
  • June 2005 (6)
  • May 2005 (15)
  • April 2005 (12)
  • March 2005 (3)
  • February 2005 (8)
  • January 2005 (3)
  • December 2004 (1)
  • November 2004 (2)
  • October 2004 (2)
  • September 2004 (3)
  • August 2004 (3)
  • July 2004 (3)
  • June 2004 (3)
  • May 2004 (6)
  • April 2004 (10)
  • March 2004 (12)
Creative Commons License This work is licensed by Avinash Meetoo under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License.