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Date:      Wed, 23 Feb 2005 04:30:35 -0800
From:      "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
To:        "Robert Kim, Wireless Internet / Wifi Hotspot Advisor" <robertk@video-phones-evdo.com>, "List Free Bsd" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   RE: Different OS's? Marketshare
Message-ID:  <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNIEHPFAAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>
In-Reply-To: <!~!UENERkVCMDkAAQACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABgAAAAAAAAAkUru9e0Xgkm1jphiEj0758KAAAAQAAAAVNKPkcwi5Uq3w6wWDp/biAEAAAAA@video-phones-evdo.com>

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Robert Kim,
> Wireless Internet / Wifi Hotspot Advisor
> Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 7:49 AM
> To: List Free Bsd
> Subject: Different OS's? Marketshare
>
>
> Different OS's? Marketshare...
>
> any idea how many major OS's are out there today and what market share
> they have?
>
> i think
>
> WIN 70%
> Lin 20%
> Apple 5%
> so who is the other 5 % ???
>
> you realze the statisticians and economists hold that 2 percent is the
> break point...
>

Break even for what?  Oh I get it - break even to make a profit, right?

Hmm I wonder who gets the profits from the sale of FreeBSD?  Do you
suppose
they would be overly concerned with the 2% rule?

This is one of the (many) problems with trying to hold a free OS up to
a measuring stick designed for measuring commercial OSes.

Note that Linux is doing much better against these measuring sticks
because
the Linux community, for all their loud proclamations about being GPL,
has been steadily making Linux less and less distinguishable from the
commercial OSs.  When for example was the last time you saw a Linux
enthusiast with a burned CDROM of an ISO he downloaded somewhere?  The
ones I see all have colorful cardboard boxes with penguins on them
that they bought at Fry's.

Consider that even if FreeBSD had 50% of all running computers - if those
50% of computers all belong to people that never buy software and only
run freeware, the people that create these measuring sticks would bend
over backwards to be sure those 50% were not counted.  Not because they
have anything against FreeBSD, but simply because the customers of the
data these measuring sticks produce cannot sell anything to that 50% -
thus they don't care if that 50% exists or not.

Ted



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