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20% desktop market share by mid-200620% desktop market share by mid-2006Posted Aug 21, 2003 20:17 UTC (Thu) by crouchet (guest, #1084)In reply to: 20% desktop market share by mid-2006 by tjc Parent article: Global IT firm predicts Linux will have 20% desktop market share by 2008 (NewsForge)
>>Open Office as an alternative to MSFT Office is a big piece of the puzzle, but the real obstacle is the thousands of smaller apps produced by 3rd party ISVs that most companies, organizations, and industries depend on. It's not likely that there will be enough interest on the part of volunteers to produce open source alternatives to all of these 3rd party apps.<< I don't think this is really the issue. Sure, there are lots of those specialized programs out there and the users will not move until they can get than functionality on Linux but that really is only a small fraction of the people who use PCs. We have long seen some users who were tied to a particular OS or hardware such as Apple or SGI because the one program that would do their special task would ONLY run there. That did not stop the adoption of Windoze and it will not stop Linux. Linux now has all the tools most users will need on their desktop. The issues now are old familiar issues: Those making purchasing decisions are not personally familiar with Linux and are therefore wary; ANY migration is a hassle; IT only wants to support one os (and preferably force everyone to have identical desktops and software installations); unlike most LWN readers, most users hate it when anything changes on thier computer. The answer to all of these is simple: keep using and improving Linux and give it time.
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