Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#1

Post by davux » Tue, May 08, 2012, 1:19 AM UTC

Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs
phoronix.com

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#2

Post by nextparadigms » Tue, May 08, 2012, 1:46 AM UTC

About time. In many countries there are laptops that come with "FreeDos", which is rather pointless. If they aren't going to use Windows, why not just use a great Linux distro like Ubuntu?

Sure Microsoft might not like that, but unless Microsoft is paying them to not allow Linux on their laptops (which I think would be illegal), then who cares?

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#3

Post by glesica » Tue, May 08, 2012, 2:12 AM UTC

Doing deals with OEMs actually seems like a better strategy today than it was even just a few years ago when Canonical did their original deal with Dell.

For one thing, Ubuntu has (for better or worse) made significant progress toward their UI vision. Unity has been polarizing, but many users (especially the "normal" people who are likely to buy an Inspiron or similar) seem to like it.

Even more importantly, a significant number of users today (in any case, more than there were back then) basically only care about having a web browser installed. This means they are less likely to care about having MS Windows (FF and Chrome run on all three "major" platforms).

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#4

Post by plessthanpt05 » Tue, May 08, 2012, 2:31 AM UTC

If these figures are legit, then this is pretty cool news for the open source / Linux community; however, wonder what real user #'s look like since this "...count also obviously doesn't count those that install Ubuntu manually or obtain Ubuntu installations via other means," which seems to be the way that most folks currently get Ubuntu. Either way, hope the trend continues so, at the very least, consumers come to realize there is an alternative to Windows (besides Mac of course).

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#5

Post by moylan » Tue, May 08, 2012, 2:39 AM UTC

i'd rather pay an ubuntu tax than a microsoft tax so i really look forward to buying a new machine with the option of ubuntu even if it costs a little more.

but my main concern will be the those who buy an ubuntu machine and then expect to run ms office or other windows only piece of software on it. i will be getting those calls. thankfully most of the home users aren't as dependent on windows only apps anymore.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#6

Post by w1ntermute » Tue, May 08, 2012, 3:04 AM UTC

> Canonical will be opening their first Beijing office this year

> At more than 200 Dell stores in China, there is Ubuntu branding present and Dell China employees knowledgeable about Ubuntu Linux.

One of the things I noticed when I went to download Precise Pangolin is that there's a "Chinese Ubuntu" link featured prominently at the bottom of the page[0]. It looks like they've made China a primary target market, since the vast majority of Windows users there are running pirated copies and cannot afford to pay for a legitimate copy.

0: http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#7

Post by dsirijus » Tue, May 08, 2012, 3:04 AM UTC

What percentage of PCs ship with FreeDOS? And how's that indicator of the popularity of the FreeDOS system?

Most of Ubuntu preinstalls won't even live to boot. A shame really.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#8

Post by vibrunazo » Tue, May 08, 2012, 3:12 AM UTC

moylan wrote: post #5

i'd rather pay an ubuntu tax than a microsoft tax so i really look forward to buying a new machine with the option of ubuntu even if it costs a little more. but my main concern will be the those who buy an ubuntu machine and then expect to run ms office or other windows only piece of software on it. i will be getting those calls. thankfully most of the home users aren't as dependent on windows only apps anymore.

Just rename their libre office to Word and Excel. I've tried it with 2 relatives and so far it's working, no complaints :)

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#9

Post by freehunter » Tue, May 08, 2012, 3:14 AM UTC

Here's the big question on my mind: why can I not go on Amazon right now and buy an Ubuntu laptop? There is one I have seen (and I have searched for a while), where someone is reselling used laptops with Ubuntu installed.

There are so many device makers out there trying to replicate the feel of a MacBook Pro with Windows. Seems like it would be easier with Ubuntu. The success of Apple sprang mostly from marketing and differentiation, it could happen to Ubuntu with a little motivation.

Re: Ubuntu To Soon Ship On 5% Of PCs

#10

Post by sk5t » Tue, May 08, 2012, 3:36 AM UTC

My honest first thought: hasn't Ubuntu's share of the Linux market been dropping since their introduction of the universally-reviled, highly unintuitive Unity UI? I tried out 12.04 a couple months ago, tried to use it for a few weeks, and very enthusiastically retreated back to CentOS.