On Tue, 2011-04-12 at 04:22 -0500, harrismh777 wrote: > Ian Kelly wrote: > >> > The desktop > >> > is all that is left... and that is dying... rapidly. Their lockin is > >> > well > >> > entrenched (like Borg implants ) but the number of mom& pops ( like my > >> > entire extended family, for instance) who are moving to Ubuntu > >> > (themselves) > >> > is astounding! It will not be long and Microsoft will die... and none > >> > too > >> > soon. > > > So what is that number? Anecdotes are unreliable; I would like to see > > the actual data. The only non-techie I personally know who uses Linux > > is my wife, and she only uses it because it's what's installed at > > home. My brother-in-law was a Linux fan at one time but has > > regressed. > > This is very difficult... and I'm not dodging the ball here... its > just the truth. The 'market share' data are bogus. Reason? ... because > the free software 'market' is not a market. It is not measured in any > way, and it is almost impossible to determine therefore in any accurate > fashion. There really are no data... what we need here is a census of sorts. > Here is an anecdote for you... our tax prep this year was done > on-line via Firefox. We use software through a large and well-known tax > company which for this purpose supports *only* Firefox 3.6 or higher... > go figure. Is not that interesting..? I know, just an anecdote. > Here is another anecdote for you.... the university is supporting > *only* Firefox for Moodle and Blackboard usage... very interesting. > Well, since most students are carrying a Mac Book, and the rest are > running Ubuntu, they really cannot support *only* IE can they? They are > supporting one browser, and Firefox got the job. I know, just an anecdote. > > IE is dead. It is flat dead... almost nobody is using it... > > The market data are worthless in this discussion, because free > software and free software platforms are not measured in the 'market'. > Please allow me one more anecdote... I have purchased several machines > over the last ten years... all of them preloaded with Windows > (something) and all of them running IE (something). NONE of those > machines ever saw the light of day as "Windows" machines. I purchased > the hardware *only* recovered my cost on the M$ license, and quickly > loaded my linux system of choice... and I've used them all, believe me. > The point here is that the 'market' data would show that my > machines were purchased, installed, and running... activated even. But > the truth is that *Best Buy* activated them, not me, and Microsoft is > claiming that I am using their popular operating system (which I'm not) > and the market data shows Microsoft doing so well in the Desktop market. > The truth is something quite different. I am not and have not used > Microsoft products for over 12 years now. (not at all) And, all of my > systems today are running *only* free software (not even kernels with > 'blobs' in them). I use only free (as in freedom) software on all of my > systems (Desk and server) as does my *entire* family (well, I influenced > them, of course). > > I read in the blogs today that Microsoft is now claiming that > Windows 7 has 39% market share... SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM I don't > like SPAM ! ... just eggs and ham... Give me a break !!! I don't > even know one person who has Win7 installed, running, and likes it... > not even one. Where is all this 39% market share...?? Probably the > numbers from *Best Buy* on preloads... that get reloaded... or > corporations that buy bulk preloads, and then reload their images over > the top... > > <sigh> > > kind regards, > m harris > > > >
The pre-builts from Best Buy that get reloaded, reloaded with what? I live in California, the center of software development. I only know one person who uses Linux, and they only use it for work (he doesn't even live in CA anymore). I have say your delusions about the use of free software are somewhat hilarious. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
