Thinking about buying a new Linux-based home PC? Happy hunting.
While for years mainstream computer makers such as IBM, HP and Dell have been professing their love for alternatives to Microsoft Windows, the overwhelming majority of open source-powered machines are business servers and high-priced workstations.
Finding an entry-level home PC that doesn't have a Windows XP sticker on it requires consumers to search through a maze of Web sites. If they try calling a major PC maker, the agent is likely to have a hard time steering them towards a Linux-based or bare-bones system.
"There is no champion for Linux clients among the major vendors," PC industry analyst Roger Kay said.
Red Hat chief executive Matthew Szulik said open source software hasn't caught on in the industry as much as he'd like. Red Hat itself only has a modest Linux product aimed at a relatively narrow set of customers such as those manning the phones at call centres.
"The (Linux) desktop is like teenage sex. Everybody's talking about it, but nobody's doing it," Szulik said during his keynote speech at the Vortex conference in San Francisco last week.
Consumers can always buy a copy of Linux and install it themselves. Best Buy offers Novell's Suse Linux version 10.0 in a box for $59.95 (£33.89). Linspire is offering its shrink-wrapped software for $99.99 online and in stores. Wal-Mart sells Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES v.3.0 Basic Edition for Intel processors online for $348 and, as always, downloading an open source operating system is also an option. However, you need an OS like Windows to connect to the Internet first, unless you've got a copy from a co-worker or friend.
Clearly, Windows continues to dominate the computing world. About 94.4 percent of all the PCs and other handheld devices shipped in 2003 run Windows, according to the latest statistics published by research firm IDC. Apple's Mac OS X ranked second, with 3.2 percent of the total operating system market, while Linux placed third with 1.4 percent. Other software, such as DOS, made up the final 1 percent.
About 828.5 million desktops have shipped in the last 10 years, research firm IDC said. The overwhelming majority have some type of Microsoft Windows client running on them.
That's not to say Linux will sit on the sidelines. The operating
system in various forms will continue to take a bite out of Windows
over the next few years, IDC expects. Sales of PCs running the Linux operating system will reach $10bn
by 2008, according to a 2004 IDC study of the Linux ecosystem. The firm
also predicts that the overall Linux ecosystem will grow 25.9 percent
annually to reach $35.7bn in 2008. Of that, IDC estimates $14bn will be
packaged software, $10bn PCs and $11bn servers.
Even though the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco two years ago
saw a considerable amount of buzz about breaking the Windows
stronghold, talk about Linux on the desktop has all but faded, leaving
vendors to fend for themselves.
"It's no surprise that there are only a handful of non-Microsoft
offerings out there for consumers today. Desktop Linux only makes up
between...
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Talkback
The problem with the statistics in this article are that they aren't reperesentative of the actual number of users (on the desktop) of these operating systems. Probably a better way to judge these would be to look at web browser statistics.
Last month Linux has 3.3% of all desktop web browsering users, whereas the Mac has 3.2% and Windows 98 and Windows NT together had 3.2%.
Two years ago (in October) Linux had 2.5%, Mac had 2.1% and Windows 98 and Windows NT together had 15.5%.
So as you can see Linux is gaining users (and so is the Mac). The problem is the lack of choice avaibable from vendors. This isn't really their fault, because unless they're very big their buisness depends on Windos PC sales and Microsoft won't give them cheap unit prices unless they recommend Windows XP Pro.
The licensing practices used by Microsoft are of dubious legality. But the fact of the matter is, in the west at least, Microsoft has OEMs and Corporations arms twisted up behind their backs.
The greatest hope for Desktop Linux is in the east where there isn't market inertial and low cost is critical. In the west it is only companies (like the one I work for, and others such as Google) that are sick of being held hostage to Windows licensing terms and sick of the poor reliability and performance of Windows and are prepared to stand up to a bully.
Another alternative to buying Linux is to buy one of the many Linux magazines which comes with a trial Linux disc inside. I have tried quite a few,all with good results.Linux is all I use to cruise the net,anymore.The new distros, likeSUSE, UBUNTU,and MANDRIVA,are amazing.I am a relative noob in this ,and I have gotten good results nonetheless.I highly recommend it(LINUX).