In this post I will compare some market share results of Operating systems.The results will be more surprising than you thought.Also I will actually try to research the data in here,so you can take it half seriously.
Desktop
So let's first start with desktop market shares.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Desktop_and_laptop_computers
So basically the traditional stats:Windows 90%,Mac OS on 8% and Linux on 2%.Nothing surprising here.
Windows is the definitive winner here.
Server
Some of you will say that servers are unimportant but,they will be a bit important for the conclusion.
https://secure1.securityspace.com/s_survey/data/201211/index.html
On this Link Apache=Linux.Apache has 69% while Windows has 15%.The Winner is clear here.
Supercomputers
These are quite important for the potential scientists among us.Otherwise their numbers are not very important.
http://www.top500.org/statistics/overtime/
Linux in the top500 supercomputers dominates more than 82% of market share.And note,There Linux is even split into multiple categories.Otherwise there is Unix with 2%,Microsoft with 0.4% and BSD with 0.2%.Microsoft has troubles there with BSD.
Embedded devices
Those are everywhere around us.
http://seminar2.techonline.com/~additionalresources/esd_apr2012/ubme_embeddedmarket2012_full.pdf
Linux there has 30% While Windows has 14%.This market is very fragmented so those are actually the 2 best scores.
Well this is all fine and nice but Desktop is by far the most important one out of those.So you might get the wrong impression that Windows is winning.Prepare to be surprised.
Android is Linux.
Basically yes,Android has the Linux kernel and that alone is enough to make it a Linux distribution.
What is actually a Linux system?What is Linux?
Linux is only a operating system kernel.The rest of every Linux distribution is something else which is not in actuality Linux,but commonly they are called 'a Linux system' as a whole because the Linux kernel is the central part of every 'Linux distribution'.The rest of the average Linux system is called 'GNU tools',so we come to the full official name of Linux systems:"GNU/Linux".
Some of you might say google does not give it's code backIt does.It is even legally boud to do so because of the GPL license.Also take a look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#Linux_kernel
As you can see there is constant code exchange between Google and Linux developers.Also some Google engineers call it a Linux distro.
Also some of you may say:"But Android is a different platform,you can't run native GNU/Linux apps on Android or vice versa.Android and GNU/Linux are different platforms."Yes,no and it does not matter.
It does not matter because you can't run Ubuntu Linux apps on Red hat Linux and vice versa.Yet still almost all of us will agree both of them are Linux distro's.Some will say:"But Android does not have GNU tools!"It does not need to,by definition of what a Linux distro is all it needs to have is the Linux kernle,nothing else.
Also yes you can't run native Linux apps on vanilla Android but...
There is a not so hard workaround which will enable you to run native Linux apps on Android,hell you will even be able to directly install from Debian repositories(but i can't find the site where I found that info):
http://geeknizer.com/install-run-linux-applications-on-android/http://geeknizer.com/install-run-linux-applications-on-android/
So maybe even if we look at the matter in the context of platforms,maybe Android is not part of the GNU/Linux platform it almost certainly is a Android/Linux platform.
Also here is even more:
http://www.androidcentral.com/ask-ac-android-linux
Smartphones and Tablets:
Lately the smartphone and tablet markets have become just as important as the desktop/laptop market.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#Market_share
Just look at that.Compared to Android even iOS is a far second.Windows phone is even a far third there.
http://tabtimes.com/resources/the-state-of-the-tablet-market
iOS(51%) is still the first there with Android(40%) being a not so far second.However Android has almost double the shipment rate of iOS meaning it could take over that market eventually.And Microsoft is nowhere near those 2.
And here is one last source for you to read:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/linux-windows-microsoft-android-ios,20220.html
The conclusion:
Linux has a bigger market share almost everywhere except on Desktop.
ooh,pheew...This article was in the making for a long time because I kept delaying it XD...
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