Week 6: Trends in Linux

Linux OS, with time, is emerging as a fairly popular Operating System.  There was time when Desktop PC was considered to be the major part of the Computers segment.  Times have changed, thanks to new powerful Clouds and computing grids, servers now form a big part of the computers.  On Desktop PCs, Windows still holds the majority, followed by OSX which forms around 10% of the desktop market.  But 2011 and 2012 are the years of OS: Android.  Best metrics for popularity of an OS are Virus and the Games.  Both of them are on the rise for Linux.



Linux in Desktop PC's

Windows wins here.  Linux loses by a large margin.  Linux Desktop market share is nearly 0.83% where as Microsoft Windows 7 claims the major share of 42.65% while the other releases of Windows XP and Vista claim 36.44% and 10.88%.  However, beyond these numbers, the trend is somewhat bright for Linux.  In the beginning of 2011.  Linux was only 0.74% which rose to 0.83% by the end of the year.  Its slow, but its going up.  Same goes for OSX, but windos share is gradually falling.

Linux in Servers

Windows servers lead in the market share over Linux Servers but the trend is shifting towards Linux flavors.  First quarter of 2010 in terms of units sold, Windows had a 75.3% market share, (1,379,487 units)compared to 20.8% for Linux (380,429 units) and 3.6% (65,451 units) for Unix.

Linux in Mobile devices: Smartphones, Tablets

2011 & 2012 are years of Mobile.  People use smartphones more than they use desktops, so it's the most important OS of all.  Android is based on the Linux Kernel and is by far the most popular smartphone OS in the world, with Symbian on the steep fall.  Linux has already won over Windows, smartphones alone take Linux market share to be higher than no. of windows PCs.  Android is growing with over millions of apps for the OS already available in the appMarket, with 400,000 apps already.

Click on the link below to read the article were my information came from, and to see a inforgraphic for Growth of Linux.

http://geeknizer.com/linux-growth-rate-trends-visualized-infographic/