2015 – GNU/Linux Beats Vista

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Robert Pogson

I read an article online that threw out some “red meat”, that Vista was still ahead of GNU/Linux on desktops. That’s false. While Vista has lately been ahead of GNU/Linux in page-views, the PCs bearing GNU/Linux are still out there but many are turned off during school and college summer breaks in the northern hemisphere. Back in April, GNU/Linux was beating Vista on good days. Vista has been declining since then. Just wait for September… That was the pattern in 2014:

  • January – GNU/Linux ~1+%
  • May – GNU/Linux ~1.5%
  • August – GNU/Linux ~1.3%
  • October GNU/Linux ~1.5%

This year, the effect will be more pronounced as more OEMs and retailers are delivering GNU/Linux desktops than in 2014. Further Chrome OS has share and it’s a browser running on GNU/Linux. There’s a lot of Chrome OS in USAian schools. Globally, Chrome OS had 0.46% share in May but only 0.29% in August, so the assertion will be dead with school coming back. Then there’s Android/Linux…

See Top 7 Desktop OSs from 1 Jan to 3 Aug 2015

About Robert Pogson

I am a retired teacher in Canada. I taught in the subject areas where I have worked for almost forty years: maths, physics, chemistry and computers. I love hunting, fishing, picking berries and mushrooms, too.
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4 Responses to 2015 – GNU/Linux Beats Vista

  1. dougman says:
    August 5, 2015 at 11:08 pm

    Factually, Linux beat Vista when it was released, as Vista was far too slow! Vista had 50M lines of code and at the time the Linux kernel (2.6.20) had 8M lines of code.

    Windows XP: 45 million
    Windows Vista : 50 million
    Windows 7: 40 million
    Windows 8: 60 million
    Windows10: 50 million

    Now version 4.1 of the Linux kernel, released in June 2015, has grown to over 19.5 million lines of code and is contributed by almost 14,000 programmers versus ~1000 developers for Windows OS.

    Linux is where all cool kids hang out and where all the work is.

    http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-media/announcements/2015/03/2015-linux-jobs-report-linux-professionals-high-demand

    http://marketing.dice.com/pdf/Dice_linuxjobsreport_2015.pdf

  2. DrLoser says:
    August 5, 2015 at 3:10 pm

    Thank the Lord! Thank the Lord!
    Only one hundred and eight months, and the Linux Desktop has finally crept above Windows Vista!
    What fresh new thrill will we be gifted, by this astonishing cornucopia of technological marvels?
    I’d suggest Windows 7, myself.
    But then, unlike you, Robert, I have some faint idea how the market works.

  3. Deaf Spy says:
    August 5, 2015 at 4:00 am

    And they are all at the same address, so they get counted as one
    Are you really so ignorant or is it your tender years?

  4. YY says:
    August 5, 2015 at 3:12 am

    Yea, and don’t forget. A LOT of companies and government are using Linux, usually with a small clients. And they are all at the same address, so they get counted as one.
    The reality is that Linux is much, much, more ubiquitous than any measurement done right now!

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