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desktop linux users doubled

phun-ky.net — "Some great news from desktoplinux.com! They recently revealed the desktop survey results. The facts are there, the number of desktop linux users has doubled the last year!"

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  • willynilly, on 10/10/2007, -48/+23More ***** Linux cheerleading and meaningless numbers.

    "Guys, this could be the year that desktop Linux finally takes off!"
    -some schmoe, 2002
    • knomevol, on 10/10/2007, -14/+2this could be the year that microsoft takes a lesson from the supreme law of the land in the united states.

      allow the employees to democratically vote on corporate mission.

      they would be unstoppable.

      unfortunately for them, open source allows a better ascertation of such ideal.

      and, for the mostpart, profitless, as it were.

      well, i'm a bsd guy, myself.
    • capiCrimm, on 10/10/2007, -4/+4 As long as linux desktop usage is not declining or stabilizing they're right in a sense. It's just a slow launch.
    • DavidBGie, on 10/10/2007, -18/+8"desktop Linux users doubled"

      From 100 to 200! Whooooooot!
    • OneAndOnlySnob, on 10/10/2007, -2/+18I hope this is "The Year People Stop Saying That *****". I think Linux's future looks pretty promising, but nobody ***** says, "This is the Year Of Desktop Linux". Shut up, for *****'s sake. Don't speak again until you have something intelligent to add.
      • DavidBGie, on 10/10/2007, -18/+5Ok, Linux sucks because it is about a decade behind Windows. Apple managed to get BSD up to OSX in a couple of years with a little work. Linux developers are just LAZY! They are just racking in the support cash for their crappy software. If anyone takes over the desktop it will be Apple and BSD. Linux will be just another OS/2. Is that intelligent enough for you Brainiac?!
        • jdhore1, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5Linux developers are not lazy. Would YOU be able to balance a job, a life (wife, gf, whatever) AND an application that you're not getting paid to work on? I know i wouldn't. Apple got their ***** done for 2 reasons: 1. They had hundreds of people being paid to work 8 hours a day working on OS X...There's not nearly that much manpower for linux.
          2. They didn't have to really worry about only having 10 people working on 1 subsystem, 200 working on another, etc like Linux does. With OS X, if the kernel guys were falling behind, the manager could just tell a few guys to go over and work on the kernel for a bit...Can't do that in linux.

          I think with the limited amount of resources Linux has, it's doing damn good. If the major devs were paid for their Linux work (they could make it their full-time job), Linux would be as good, if not better than OS X.
          • MacParrot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7jdhore1, the basic flaw in your premise is that DavidBGie would actually be able to find a girlfriend or wife...well, or even find a person of the opposite sex to sleep with.
        • TheFinaleofSeem, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2Except that a lot of Linux developers do get paid. Do you think distros like Suse are developed by the community?
          • jdhore1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1The people putting the distros together are (some of them), but the core devs of stuff necessary to the distro aren't...a least the majority of them (KDE devs, GNOME devs, Mono devs, kernel devs, udev devs, Apache devs, etc...the list goes on and on)
        • abhiroop, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Its funny how u said...wife, gf as though most (if not all) linux devs are male (of course barring homosexuals)
          • jdhore1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Indeed...It's kind of sad, but, it's a fact...I'd love to see how many women are working on code at MS. Probably less than the amount working on code for OSS projects.
        • Stonekeeper, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Your baseless rants just got you ont my blocked list. GRATZ!
    • brundlefly76, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5The survey wasnt controlled at all - it was just a frontpage web survey, and they even mention how this year the survey got dugg.
  • geoken, on 10/10/2007, -10/+61Innacurate.

    The number of people who took desktoplinux.com's survey doubled. This doesn't really reveal to much.

    From the horses mouth;
    "Part of the increase undoubtedly was because this year's survey received front page coverage on both Digg and the German news site, Heise Online. "
    • rpgmaker, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7Sure that the Linux users are so much more now than what they were before but I don't think that the DesktopLinux.com's survey is accurate.
      • Atomic1fire, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1First glance I thought it said doubted :/
    • toxicvarn90, on 10/10/2007, -12/+4All I know is unless Linux gets it's act together and it stops having all these forks and all these different softwares because of it's open source development process and had a clear road to follow THEN you'll see a rise in users.

      Until then Linux will be like Java, build it up once, debug forever.
      • melve, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7I'm not sure what you mean by "all these different forks." Forks occasionally happen, but usually when there is a significant number of people who are dissatisfied with the direction of a project. And this usually leads to better software. A perfect example is when the Xserver forked from XFree86 a few years ago. That project had stagnated, so the Xorg people forked, and now we're seeing tons of improvements to that project (e.g. compositing support that allowed compiz fusion to be created).
      • Atomic1fire, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Forks mean competition and also they mean an eating utensil but thats not the point (accidental pun)
        Competition means better stuff now
        Forks can be a good thing
        if It means competition in the Linux market
        then Companies will go with the best
        and eventually you will have 2-4 good Linux distros supported on Pcs
        and not close to a million
    • krinn, on 10/10/2007, -4/+7Linux use is up in other surveys also. I don't think it's inaccurate.

      http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=5&qpcustom=Linux
    • Tenoq, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4Duplicate, and inaccurate headline. Was posted a couple of days ago, thanks, b-bye.
    • JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2My survey of digg comments indicates a growing number of *former* desktop Linux users as well compared to a year ago. And my survey has about as much validity as this one from desktoplinux.com ... which is to say, not much.
  • schestowitz, on 10/10/2007, -7/+38You can't count Linux users, so the headline is nonsensical.
    • sctwp09, on 10/10/2007, -2/+18Even schestowitz disagrees with the article...
    • Jack0Neill, on 10/10/2007, -12/+5Sure you can, just use your fingers /and/ your toes.
      • Atomic1fire, on 10/10/2007, -3/+11what are you
        A mutant
        Because you must have a crapload of fingers and toes
        • pcghost, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I'm sorry, but despite being the Linux fanatic that I surely am, that was still funny.
  • rhylan, on 10/10/2007, -12/+10Hey, im one of them - i installed ubuntu for the first time yesterday. Loving it so far, only thing is i cant get stage6 movies from tvlinks to work...

    I might go back to windows just for that, it would be a shame though - i do really like ubuntu
    • Erowid, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4Checked out that site, and it seems to just be some flash app? Installing flashplayer would solve that problem. Check out http://www.ubuntuforums.org and do a search for "insall flash" or something and I'm sure you'll find step by step, easy to follow instructions.
    • mbradbury, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7mplayer plug-in will let you watch stage6
      • init100, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Correct. I just checked, and the mplayer plugin was used to view the movie.
    • trogdoor, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Go to Applications -> Add/Remove search for "divx" and check the first box, alternatively for most online videos you can right click the video and choose "Open with Movie Player" and when Totem tries to open the movie its automatic codec installation will kick in and offer to install the right codec for you.
    • Salgat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/446

      Use that and for the divx tab, check it and add xine to it.
    • rhylan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Cheers everyone! All that talk about a helpful linux community was right after all! :D
      • tulsapoke, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Hey thanks for the tip about that TVlinks site. That site is kickass. Welcome to Ubuntu!
  • ElbridgeGerry, on 10/10/2007, -5/+22Linux lacks capital letter support.
  • borninda818, on 10/10/2007, -8/+11Explains why teenagers aren't having sex anymore.
  • GoodOldJacob, on 10/10/2007, -4/+12That's nothing. The population of elephants has doubled in the last 6 months!
    • capiCrimm, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7so can I get that ivory flashlight I've always wanted now?
  • marcos89, on 10/10/2007, -7/+5rhylan....if u mean the "divx" videos then you can use mplayerplug-in, the package has this bug where it installs 2 plugin files in the wrong folder...heres how i fixed it:

    sudo cp /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/mplayerplug-in-dvx.* /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/


    then launch firefox, access the "URL" about:plugins and you should see "DivX" :-)
    • Trax416, on 10/10/2007, -11/+3Lines of code like that are the reason Linux will never, ever be as popular as windows.
      • mendred, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9Umm its not code..its a simplified version of
        open ur file manager as administrator goto the folder /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ and copy all files that start with mplayerplug-in-dvx. to folder /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins

        Never used the copy command in windows command prompt? Np. My dad had never used the linux terminal either..yet when i send him commands by mail to troubleshoot any issues he may have, he has no trouble opening a console, and pasting the commands to get his stuff working..there is a gui way of doing it alrgiht..but then there is the added hassle of actually guiding him through the steps by phone..go here..click this..what message comes up? Click ok and so on..Support is so simple because of the flexibiltiy of the console.

        So in a nutshell Linux may never be as popular as windows or for all you know it may surpass it in popularity, but the reason you have stated is not valid.

        • Atomic1fire, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2you mean copy paste this instead of click this then that
      • trogdoor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Like I responded earlier, ( using this amazing "reply" feature I have been hearing about ) it is *much* simpler than that:

        "Go to Applications -> Add/Remove search for "divx" and check the first box, alternatively for most online videos you can right click the video and choose "Open with Movie Player" and when Totem tries to open the movie its automatic codec installation will kick in and offer to install the right codec for you."
    • Reidtheweed01, on 10/10/2007, -7/+2please tell me that is not actually how you always have to go about fixing things in linux.
      • trogdoor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2It's not.
      • Meep3D, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Actually for a significant amount of stuff that's not that common, it's the only way to get it working. Just had to use the CLI to mount a volume as NTFS-3g - there's no GUI for that.
        • Nossie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2in all honesty.... for the most part in linux as a basic user you dont need the command line....

          but why should the CLI deter anyone?

          Whats better faster and easier for a newbie to do (and I'm pulling this one with ***** so dont bitch about my instructions)

          In windows:
          open my computer..
          open the C: drive
          open program files and open firefox folder to find plugins
          copy files from x folder to plugins folder
          restart firefox

          OR...
          click terminal
          copy and paste this line, press enter, put in admin password and restart firefox
          sudo cp /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/mplayerplug-in-dvx.* /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/

          keep in mind that your grandmother has little knowledge of either method... so if you are showing someone how to fix a problem then copying the script is far far easier.
          • Meep3D, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Your grandma would use an installer without having to manually move files about from system folders on Windows. Manually moving files to install just isn't the way it's done.

            And with the CLI method she is at the mercy of someone else providing the information - if she didn't have someone to tell her exactly what to type she would never be able to accomplish it.
          • marx2k, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This method is used because it's the installer that messed up the placement of the files. Your grandmother would be on her way to GeekSquad with her computer in the backseat if an installer for a program in Windows messed up (And they do. All the time)

            The only time I've had to use the CLI to install anything was when I was feeling adventurous and wanted to compile stuff myself or do SVN updates on software like Nicotine ( http://nicotine-plus.sourceforge.net/ )

            Of course, this is all stuff grandma doesn't really have to worry about.
        • ZippyV, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Like an average Linux user can come up with:
          " sudo cp /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/mplayerplug-in-dvx.* /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/ "
          Faster, only if you have the script.
        • Meep3D, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1The point is there is no possible way to figure anything out with a CLI, it's entirely about copying out of forums, google, post it notes and trying to remember obscure package names/commands in your head. The whole point of a GUI is it allows the user to figure things out without being reliant on a manual - If this ntfs-3g thing had a GUI I would have been able to figure it out in seconds, rather than typing out obscure commands that no normal user would ever have managed (or it would have taken all day). It was sda2, rather than hda1, and just by using your magic 'copy/paste' they would have failed entirely with no clue on wtf they were meant to do.

          The mentality and approach of Linux is CLI, with GUI support added later, but the CLI is the main focus for developers. You can't just bolt on usability after the fact, it needs to be designed from the ground up with usability as the focus. Look at Microsoft and their attempts to add security 'after the fact', it requires a lot more effort to add security in later (and even then it's not entirely effective) than it would have been to concentrate on it in the first place. Same goes with usability.
          • lufthanza, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0so, this magical command would be something like 'ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows'? Took me all of 3 seconds to learn how to do that.
          • Meep3D, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Yeah, like a newbie with no CLI experience would know to use sda2 instead of hda1. Because its soooo obvious.
        • marx2k, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0@ZippyV - if you can't figure out a simple copy command, you should just stop using a computer. now.
  • UtahApocalyse, on 10/10/2007, -11/+54?
  • kurupttek, on 10/10/2007, -7/+2why do the use vista background?
    whatever?!!!
    • venom8599, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1Because they want to...
    • Dumbledorito, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3Why don't you use your education when you type?
  • dsn0wman, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6I am not sure how anyone could accurately count the number of Linux users. But then again I like the headline so I guess it's up to some Windows guy to disprove it. ;-)
    • weizbox, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2How about desktoplinux.com (the source) for disproving it?

      'Since DesktopLinux.com's recently completed survey is a self-selected group, we can't claim scientific proof that the number of desktop Linux users has more than doubled in the past year.'
      That statement still holds true... even if they want to post an update on there saying they take it back. They are using the same data from before... so they're not going to magically get different results this time around as far as accurate representation of Linux users go.

      The fact that it is something extremely difficult keep track of is proof that this survey, with a very small amount of users submitting, is nothing more than a sampling of what is going on. The site's popularity and language as well is a factor.
  • NoTiG, on 10/10/2007, -5/+13I never saw this poll and I use linux. I think the desktop usage is underestimated
  • ShainRules, on 10/10/2007, -24/+18So 8 people use Linux now?
    • Arctirus, on 10/10/2007, -8/+2I missed your comment before basically typing the same thing. I estimated 10 though.
    • mictester, on 10/10/2007, -5/+1In this neighbourhood, Windows usage is
    • Coldkill, on 10/10/2007, -6/+0haha, you think you're funny?
  • thoughttrain, on 10/10/2007, -12/+4Windows is dirt. Everything else is okay
    • Dylson, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Why would you say that?
      • schotty, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Actually he is not too far off. I use many Linux distributions, most MS Windows revisions, and Macs in my day to day work and Linux and Mac at home. As good as Linux and Mac are over Windows, none are really that good. The computing experience is alot better in some areas than when the Apple ][ and Commodore 64 were new and amazing. But really, its not as good as it could or should be.
  • DigeratiMVP, on 10/10/2007, -13/+3I be loving me some Linux!

    Windows's ***** WEAK !
  • jeshjohn, on 10/10/2007, -8/+8I am installing ubuntu on my dell laptop right now.
    • zwaldowski, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0Good luck, I'm sure it will work well. Just please, for God's sake, do not ask for help on Digg, you'll feed the flame.
  • superyounan1, on 10/10/2007, -9/+8glad to say I'm one of the recent adopters!
  • whodathunk, on 10/10/2007, -6/+14But.... I keep hearing people say that Linux is not ready for the desktop...

    'they' must know more than desktop linux users do...
    • brufleth, on 10/10/2007, -4/+4No they just value their time and/or don't need another hobby. Different strokes.
      • marx2k, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0They value their time by trolling Digg forums, posting the same comment over and over and over again? Sounds like another hobby to me.
      • thisisnotapipe, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2yeah, all that wasted time installing device drivers....oh wait
  • DigeratiMVP, on 10/10/2007, -5/+12Its very ready for the desktop. I converted a freind 3 weeks ago to ubuntu just by letting im test drive the live run cd. He was soo tired of his XPS dell with XP on it not doing simple things that it should, and he was sold on ubuntu, scrubbed windows and it was on, and he has been happy.
  • krnldmp, on 10/10/2007, -6/+6The only absolute difference between them is one is free and you can rip it apart and see exactly WTF is going on, Since late 90's working at a small ISP I've prefered LInux
    • krnldmp, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1sorry, that's two, not one, but they are the absolutes

      everything else is mostly bicker
    • brufleth, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3My time is not worth zero and Linux is a much larger time sink.
  • ha1f, on 10/10/2007, -9/+2So?
    • krnldmp, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5I don't have to trust a commercial product that's illegal to modify, and I like modifying things to make them work my way.
    • zwaldowski, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1DO YOU POST THIS IN EVERY FRICKING LINUX ARTICLE?
  • mrblue182, on 10/10/2007, -9/+7what is this "Linux" you speak of?
  • CoastalEddy, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6I made the leap to FC (currently FC7) 4 years ago and would never consider going back. The only time I need use Windows is to cross-browser test on IE.

    But I've never been 'polled'. Who knows what the stats are?
  • Jack0Neill, on 10/10/2007, -14/+7If you are a religious *nix fanboy, then call this your miracle, or coming of the "penguin".

    *nix used to be for servers, but even the new Windows Servers are taking off and *nix is being dropped.

    *Nix is not meant for desktop use. I'd rather see someone use a Mac than *nix. But any smart user will use Windows. Ease of use, compatibility, speed. The benefits are countless. If you have problems with Windows, then most likely it's your fault.
    • Acglaphotis, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5So it's my fault people create viruses for that incredibly unstable os?
      • Atomic1fire, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I guess that depends on the circumstances
        but prior versions of windows sucked in stableness
      • Synapse84, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1it's your fault to be stupid enough to click "Install" to that "setup.exe" when you're browsing pr0n, or if your still running Internet Explorer, or if your too dumb to install Avast! Antivirus + Comodo Firewall Pro + keep the system up to date.

        oh, and windows (XP anyways..) is a stable OS. I run windows for about 9->15 hours a day... no crashes, no BSOD's, nothing. Just pure productivity, gaming, research, programming, whatever i want to do at the time.
        enjoy editing your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to change your resolution... i dunno i just find going in windows and moving a slider a lot easier... but hey, thats me and the rest of the worlds population.

        My Current Windows XP Server's Uptime: 5 months, 18 days, 7 hours, 20 minutes, 42 seconds.
        that number would be higher if i didn't lose power. (no UPS). Before that it was around 8 months.
      • Jack0Neill, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Windows is used for over 90% of the public computer world, with *nix and Mac combined totalling under 10%.
        Now, if you're a virus writer and you want to be noticed; which would you write for? Gee... that's a tough one.
        • marx2k, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Can you cite those numbers? (And dont link to other Digg posters to do so?)
    • TheFinaleofSeem, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Or crappy drivers, or sneaky spyware, or bugs...it's not always the user's fault. Eliminate the utter noobs that turn their Windows boxes into petri dishes within days and people still have plenty of problems with Windows.
      • Synapse84, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1crappy drivers? No. Learn how to install Drivers properly.
        Spyware? dump Internet Explorer, and use something better. (Firefox, Opera).
        Bugs? keep your system up to date and don't browse "shady" websites or go around broadcasting your IP.

        all things that the user can control... hell for the sake of trying it, i've had my Windows 1 YEAR late on updates and ran that for a year... guess how many times i got an "exploit".... Zero.

        the only people that have problems with Windows are people that don't understand it (Linux People), retarded users (normal people), or "System Tweakers" that decide turning off the "DNS Client Service" is a good idea.... lol.
    • roguetrick, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0A Mac is a *nix. BSD.
      • Synapse84, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1but a Mac is more integrated with the kernel then linux.

        So you don't get that horrible lag feeling when using a Mac.
        ~2-3 seconds lag to open normal applications like "calculator" on linux is stupid.
  • secretmoney, on 10/10/2007, -13/+8So they went from 2 users to 4 users that's cool i guess
  • nusuni, on 10/10/2007, -11/+13Yes, they doubled from .01% to .02%. Woohoo!
    • atdigg, on 10/10/2007, -4/+4It's more like from 1% to 2% but that means 1,000,000 new users or so, if I'd promote a product that got one million new users in a year I would be happy.
    • Meep3D, on 10/10/2007, -7/+1It's more like 0.2% to 0.3%. If you think Linux has 2% marketshare your delusional. Also despite uptake increasing market share is actually staying the same due to the userbase expanding.
      • brufleth, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Nevermind that many people install it to play with but still use something else for a good chunk of their home desktop needs.
        • marx2k, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Those people wouldn't be voting it as their OS of choice on polls, then
  • Greywhind, on 10/10/2007, -4/+4I've convinced two new users to dual-boot Ubuntu. Both love it. Granted, neither is particularly ignorant of computers, however one was totally new to Linux and the other had very limited Linux experience.

    Desktop Linux is growing, although this survey may not be conclusive evidence.
  • Arctirus, on 10/10/2007, -11/+6There are 10 of them now?

    Yeah, digg me down ;-)
    • Coldkill, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4You asked for it so you shall receive. I have no idea how you got positive digs, especially when your oh so hilarious joke has been repeated several times already
  • CYR1X, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9Who else is going to take the desktop linux poll on desktoplinux.com?
  • gorndog, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Given that the 2006 survey never made the front page of Digg, I'm actually suprised participation in the poll was only about double that of the previous year.

    Here are the posts about the 2006 Poll on Digg:
    http://digg.com/linux_unix/What_Linux_desktop_do_you_use (47 Votes)
    http://digg.com/linux_unix/Vote_in_the_2006_Desktop_Linux_Survey (47 votes)
    http://digg.com/linux_unix/Desktop_Linux_survey_launches (13 votes)

    Ubuntu alone has betwen 6 million and 12 million users, according to Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth (July 2007). Yes, that is a fraction of the Windows installed base of nearly 1 billion, but ten million of anything is enough to pay attention to.
    • Atomic1fire, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4does that mean Jack0Neill
      has more then 12 million fingers and toes
  • strm, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4I use slackware on my main machine and ubuntu on my laptop, I've been a linux user for over 2 years now, and let me tell you, aside from specific development for the platform, I do all my little things on linux, perl, php just to name a couple, its just so much easier... I do dual boot on both to windows to get the best of both worlds though. But don't speak of convenience or speed of windows when compared to linux, all windows can do for me is play games natively and run visual studio, everything else linux does better.
    • brufleth, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I do a significant amount of perl based engineering tool development. I do it in windows and unix. In windows I usually use cygwin. How in the world is it in any way better on a *nix than in Windows? Its the same damn thing.
  • cozb, on 10/10/2007, -6/+0they can all get together and play miniature golf now.
  • norman619, on 10/10/2007, -8/+1WOW!!! They went from 5 Linux desktop users to 10. Quite the coup they have going on there....
  • V1ncent, on 10/10/2007, -9/+3Hey! That's 20 to 40, mister!
    • Darcy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7OK, that's enough. This joke stopped being funny after the second commenter made it.
  • cmysites, on 10/10/2007, -5/+0I'll wait for the poll to come out that tells me if this poll was accurate.
    --
    Max ... Out!
    http://www.cmyos.com - free online operating system
  • jayssite, on 10/10/2007, -10/+0WOW!!! They went from 5 Linux desktop users to 10. Quite the coup they have going on there!
    • Darcy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6ah ah ahh, ooh ooh ooh, ah ah, brilliant! absolutely brilliant! I wonder why no one else thought of that joke?
    • kingmoffa, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2think you forgot the million. 5 to 10 million perhaps.
  • aliguana, on 10/10/2007, -8/+4well, have fun with that. I'm off to do some work in Adobe CS3 now. Then, when I get home, I may play a game or two. But whatever...
  • potp, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4God dammit. The desktop linux survey was not scientific. It was just a ***** random web survey with no control what so ever over the applicants representation. Also the survey got more respondent this year because the link to the survey hit diggs front page and other people took notice off it. in short the number of linux desktop users didnt double, only the number of people who responded to that crappy survey doubled.
  • brakezone, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1These comments are awsome.

    Also, it is 100% true that Windows users have doubled in the last 21 hours since this article has been posted... doubled in size from all the ***** that digg feeds them!

    Linux users go back to windows now. Save yourselves from yourselves and listen to these fine intelligent people whose great speculations are always right on the mark.
    • aliguana, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2its about choice. If people choose a Linux desktop, fine. If people choose a Windows desktop, fine. If people choose an OSX desktop, fine. If someone chooses a Windows desktop over a Linux one (or vice-versa), then thats their business, why are you getting so angry about it?
  • bapo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2well i'm one, i install ubuntu on my laptop after it took about 2 hours to connect to the wireless at uni with windows xp, it envolved installing certificates and stuff i don't understand. ubuntu was even easier than OSX i was connected in about 2 seconds :P
  • mmark, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0i'm part of that group i'm part of that group--
    but didnt take the survey
  • thefinger, on 10/10/2007, -5/+5Let's see. Tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Puppy, and Knoppix. There are plenty more distros of course. But I've seen enough. These things seem so cobbled together ... desktop manager on top of x on top of a command line -- In the 90s, they were smacking MS around for this kind of layering. In their ignorance, some people still do.

    Printing was impossible to set up, non intuitive to beat all hell. In XP, plunk in a cd, install a driver, done.

    Text to speech (which is something I need very much), is a joke in Linux. It's barely there. Festival sucked. Orca didn't work enough to suck.

    What else... Amorok, bloated. Open Office, sloooowwww, at everything, starting, running etc.

    Booting... slow, no matter what got tweaked.

    Firefox, in Ubuntu, apparently not getting the same kind of attention that the Windows version gets. It's just slow. Maybe that's the word to sum it up.

    Fonts, by default, ugly. At least the ms font set fixed that one.

    What I appreciated..

    how GRUB respected my xp install.

    Ubuntu's method of updating. Much easier to update a Ubuntu setup than an XP one. Far fewer snags.

    Wine. Amazing. I was more impressed with what it could run than disppointed with what it couldn't.

    Still, back to XP, again! As I had b*ched to a friend, I spent 90% of the time tweaking Linux, only to get it moving 75% as fast as XP does on the same machine.

    Sorry. This ain't working. I'm sure it kicks ass on servers, just like they say it does. But desktop Linux has been a disappointment for me.

    I come back to XP, run Word, Winamp, anything at all. And it all looks slicker than when I left it. Guess I should thank Linux for that but I don't feel all that grateful. Maybe I'll try some other distro next year.
    • brufleth, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2You sir have just made a valid review of Linux. It is a lot of fun if you enjoy tweaking. I used it quite a lot in college and use Unix daily at work still. I was always amazed at how many hours could go by while I was trying to setup something that was completely brainless on almost any other OS. Sure with some time on forums and searching the web you could find a solution...after six hours or so. When you have something better you want to or need to be doing though it just isn't worth it.
  • ordminute, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2It is very difficult to guage how many Linux users there are.

    When you hear about Linux having 1% share of the desktop, they're talking about people that have gone to a shop and bought Linux. Only a very small number of people do that.

    A better guage is finding out how many people are using the respositories to actually install software once the OS is on their machine.

    Around a year ago Canonical (company that funds Ubuntu) there were around 8 million unique IPs using the Ubuntu repositories. That'll be around 10-11 million Ubuntu users now as the distro had only been around a couple of years at that point.
  • mr5150, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0For a community based/Created and maintained O/S I think this is awesome news. Doesn't matter if the count is 4 or 8...lol it's that many less on M$.

    Try Sabayon Linux-Totally Rocks! Use to use Fedora for a couple of years but have now made the move to Sabayon for the total experience which FC6/7 just seem to miss for me - Before that it was Mandrake and that was nice O/S.
  • cr1t, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1So went from 14,535 to 38,500. Wow!
    /sar
    • sin2051, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0Congrats on being the first to be so witty in these comments.
      /sar
  • MacParrot, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1For a moment I thought it was some "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" kind of thing. You know, like a pitch for a new movie. Picture this: Screen Writer trying to get work talking to a produce who only knows a few tech buzzwords...

    Screen Writer: I'm telling ya, it could be great! Duplicates of some new monster every few hours...
    Producer: Need some kind of tech angle...bring the kids in. They like technology right?
    SW: What? No. it's because of pollution...
    P: Sorry kid, my money, my movie, Let's make them programmers...or Hackers! PERFECT!
    SW: That's just insane! It doesn't make any sense! You may as well call them Linux Users...
    P: Linux! My grandson keeps trying to get me to try something like that. I think it's from Africa or something. Ubonetwo or some such.
    SW: I won't do it. You're changing the very basic part of my story...
    P: Here's a check for 100 grand. How soon can you get started on "The Doubled Linux Users!"?
    SW: Have it to you by next week sir
    • marx2k, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Dont quit your day job, if you have one.
  • c0ldfusi0n, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I agree with all the "Bury as Inaccurate" comments. However, i am pretty damn sure that Ubuntu (as much as diggers love to hate it) contributed to a great increase in Linux desktop usage, and that's one thing no one needs a survey to prove.
    • ph001, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I beg to differ, topic is not inaccurate, "desktop linux users doubled", according to the survey results, they have. I am not talking about why it has doubled, what sources they use, or how they collect data for the survey.
      • weizbox, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1did you even bother to go to desktoplinux.com and read 'we can't claim scientific proof that the number of desktop Linux users has more than doubled in the past year'? According to desktoplinux, the number of desktop linux users has not doubled, since they don't know it as a fact... all they know is that they had more people fill out the survey.
  • OBKenobi, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I saw this article earlier and chose not to submit it.
  • DigeratiMVP, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Even Micheal Dell be luvin him some ubuntu on his personal laptop... http://digg.com/linux_unix/Michael_Dell_uses_Ubuntu
  • DiTherBox, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Well, I gotta say... I tried... REALLY tried to install Linux (Ubuntu) and make it work. I wanted to have both Windows and Linux on the same machine. What a bad move. After three days and nights trying to make both get along, I finally managed to make a decent installation with a dual boot. It took only a couple of hours before Windows utterly ATE Linux. My Ubuntu DISAPPEARED from my computer.

    In the end I just kept windows 'cause unlike Linux, I did not have to go through 4 hours of shrieking and cursing just to "mount" a ***** external hard drive.
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