Can we believe the 6.91% Linux share figure that NetMarketShare launched?

Statistics

The answer is yes and no. Many portals echoed the news of the 6.91% share of Linux that launched to the fore thanks to the report and studies conducted by NetMarketShare. Many claimed that Linux had surpassed Apple's MacOS, although they are still very far from the quota that Windows has. The spirits were coming to the top of all Linux fans, but it didn't take long for other media to lower expectations, saying no, that they were not very credible figures and that they should not pay too much attention to it. With headlines like Linux has not surpassed MacOS, and other jugs of cold water for the community.

Why? Well, the truth is that the origin is in the computers counted to reach that 6.91%. Apparently NetMarketShare has had access to the access statistics of many web pages (about 40.000) and around the data obtained they have been able to form this figure, also accounting for ChromeOS to add that high quota. Remember that the GNU / Linux share would be around 2 or 3% without accounting for this Linux-based operating system from Google. By the way, Android or other operating systems based on it have not been counted, since otherwise it would be the most used operating system of all ...

Then? Should I be excited about the figure? It is false? Well, I believe that neither the optimism of some nor the pessimism is real. And I would even say that there is reason to believe in optimism and that this figure is real. Why? The figure as I say has been helped by the famous and successful Google ChromeBook that have the ChromeOS system, I repeat, based on Linux. If we are meticulous, GNU / Linux has a lower quota as I have said, but systems with Linux kernel I would dare to say that they exceed that figure of 6.91% on the desktop, since there are laptops with Android or systems based on this that have not been accounted for.

Y this is where the deception of those who have taken pessimism as their banner comes and they want by active or passive to say that Linux is only used by four isolated people ... Why remove Android from the report if it is installed on a laptop or desktop computer? Why not also count ChromeOS if it has a Linux kernel? I agree not to count tables and smartphones with Android and other systems for mobile devices because it would not be fair to Apple and Microsoft, but I think it is fair to include ChromeOS and others even though it does not refer to GNU / Linux. Are XP systems excluded from the Windows quota for not using ModernUI or classic MacOS? Why exclude ChromeOS or Android (and others) for not being GNU?

PS: comment, but this reminds me of the manipulation of politicians when they lengthen or shorten the scale of the abscissa or ordinate axis so that the same graph appears more or less inclined according to their political preferences ... Pure manipulation like this


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  1.   José Luis said

    The percentage for September has been corrected at least 2 times on the aforementioned website. The current is 3,04%.
    Particularly I stay with the trend. I think it is the only reasonable and reliable thing.
    PS The word "this" never has an accent.

  2.   Cesar Yanes said

    On the contrary, I think that the figures could be above 8% ... And it is that manipulations could be the order of the day to try not to recognize the truth!

  3.   xesc said

    Frankly I have a hard time believing that there are so many Linux distributions (how many will there be 200, 300, 500?), All of them with their respective teams of programmers. And obviously the user communities that use the distribution ...
    And all these people only suppose 2% ??? (And what is the margin of error ?? 0,25%, 1%… ..?).

    Frankly, I don't believe it.

    I doubt very much that Arch Linux or Debian programmers do it for a "toast to the sun" and that companies like Red Hat, Suse or Canonical will spend their money on distributions that "nobody uses".

  4.   José Luis said

    I also think it will be much older.
    And I would like it to be even more.
    When I finish my transition from Windows to GNU / Linux I will miss several programs that do not exist in Linux.
    Unfortunately, at the moment there are many companies that do not pay to release versions for Linux.
    But hey, while, slow or fast, the percentage goes up and up. And distributions keep getting better.

    1.    j said

      To be honest, it seems to me that the entities that use linux for servers do not count, there is if neither windows competes with it, but it is natural we are talking about the desktop and if there is so little percentage it could be due to the disappointments (difficulties) that some distros have caused to users newcomers and veterans, its «absurd complexity», because it is not difficult, the truth is that you waste time sometimes in small nonsense that some want to work for example, you install an app and in the next start I throw you the graphical environment, without internet access How do you reinstall that, has and for a change you had to deliver a work that very important day of school and you do cd to Documents cp the work and you realize that you do not know the memory directory, for a change you do not have time to investigate why in 5 minutes the schoolboy arrives, you take the machine and show it to the teacher and he makes you very ..., believe me it has happened to me and if I bear this it is because I hate guindus because for worse balls and past in him, Anyway, I'll tell you an anecdote so you understand my point, my dad, a user from Ubuntu 8x to 14.04, once told me that Linux is for people with a lot of free time who don't mind losing it in configuring it, he's a busy man and well I stayed here, but he's right.

  5.   Diego regero said

    What is incredible is that it had 1% until two years ago, something that has a very simple explanation because many of these analyzes considered the Ubuntus as if they were Windows.