How Linux Can Take The Marketshare Microsoft Throws Away
Regardless of what you think Microsoft is doing wrong, no one seems to think that Microsoft is doing a great job. They may still have the top position (by a lot) in desktop market share, but they are losing it fast. The point is, Microsoft seems to be shooting themselves in the foot. They may recover, especially with new management coming in, but they are certainly going to throw away a lot of market share, before they recover. The question is, how does Linux capture that thrown-away market share?
Right now, an average user who is frusterated with Windows is far more likely to turn to a Mac than Linux, since most people know some avid Mac users. As it stands, I suspect that Apple will pick up most of the desktop users that leave Microsoft, and Linux will pick up most of the business users. That’s pretty good, but Linux can do bettter.
As an average PC user looking to buy a Mac, you would most likely be surprised by the high prices. You can argue all day about Macs being more expensive for what you get or not, but they definitely start higher-end than your bottom-line PC. This is Linux’s easiest to understand advantage over the Mac.
To push this advantage, I believe a volunteer-based (so no big company paying tons of money for TV ads or anything) joint Dell and Ubuntu advertising campaign would be effective. The name Dell, which almost everyone knows, would make it clear that “Linux is not just for geeks” and the price would make people seriously think about trying Linux. Plus, Dell might be able to arrange some sort of “buy a PC with Linux, and if you don’t like it, we will replace it with a Windows PC for just $50″ (or whatever Windows costs to Dell.)
With an advertising effort like this, Linux might be able to make people who are moving away from Microsoft thing twice before moving to the Mac.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Dell……
this will never happen.
their computers are good, but am very disappointed at them for keeping Ubuntu in an obscure corner of their site.
i would bet far more on Asus and Acer (both big Taiwanese companies)
Asus has done more for linux deployment recently, then all other companies combined.
i have become a big fan.
About Apple…
This is only happening in a few countries (like the USA), they don’t have much reach in other parts of the world.
In my country most people don’t knows what Apple is (not even ipods are popular here, people just purchase any cheap MP4 capable device)
cheap UMPCs will be the bridge for linux. The interface people will know will be that of eeePC Xandros-easy-mode and hopefully Ubuntu remix
June 27th, 2008 at 6:29 am
That’s what’s I’ve been telling everyone who wants to hear it. First business users, then the home users will follow. It was no different with Windows.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I agree that UMPCs and cheap computers are a great area for Linux, but M$ won’t let it slide that easy. They will continue to ‘allow’ XP just to save face, and market share until Windows 7. By then, even low end PCs and UMPCs will be powerful enough to run Windows 7, as long as M$ comes through with a more modular approach, or they will start packing Windows Mobile on them.
I think attracting more game developers would be a huge advantage for Linux. Hopefully Steam comes through with full Linux support. Maybe we should start building our own PCs, or reselling Dell, etc. with UT (when 2007 arrives on Linux), DoomIII, ETQW, and some games that work good on WINE, like The Orange Box. If they are pre-configured, and you can cut deals with the manufacturer, that could be a sweet-spot.
July 17th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Apple is indeed doing well in the US and even here in the EU I see a lot more macs lately. But it is only a matter of time before the tide will turn for the Mac OS. It is still bound to their own hardware (legally at least) and I think it is very unlikely that that Mac hardware will become dominant.
Would Apple change that policy and, like once IBM, allow clones and end-user sale of their OS then it would be another story but for some reason Apple doesn’t seem to be moving towards these options.
Linux is not bound to any hardware and gaining more and more attention in developing markets. There are 1.000.000.000 Pc’s out there, but that amount will double in ten years and a lot, I mean, A LOT ! of them will be Linux based.