Linked by on Wed 1st Feb 2006 19:53 UTC
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RE[2]: Novell Shows Off
by rayiner on Thu 2nd Feb 2006 00:14 UTC in reply to "RE: Novell Shows Off"
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It's a myth that Linux-haters are trying to spread. They act as if Linux has "failed" on the desktop, when in reality its market share growth is outpacing everything else. HP by itself sells about 1m Linux desktops every year, about 1/4 of Apple's total 2005 sales (and Apple had a great year in 2005).

I think Americans in general underestimate the success Linux has had on the desktop, for a number of reasons. First, they probably don't see the hundreds of thousands of Linux desktops at work in universities, engineering firms, etc. Second, a huge percentage of Linux desktop sales are in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Of HP's 1m Linux desktops per year, only 15% are sold within the United States. Meanwhile, they see Apple's healthy US sales, and assume that the success translates to all other markets. Of course, Apple's sales outside the US are much lower than they are inside the US. Indeed, Apple sells far fewer machines in Europe than in the United States, even though Europe is a bigger overall market for PCs. Its sales in Asia (including Japan), the Middle East, and Africa are by comparison tiny.

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