Linux, show us the numbers…

The Linux community see a bright light given that Dell is offering a Linux desktop package through their 530n and 6400n models. Some small voices announce that it’s the end of Microsoft and that the software giant is facing one of the biggest threat in years.

Dreams are free. Go ahead Linux.

I don’t see consumers especially at the enterprise level converting to Linux.

What is funny is that people and companies already has a long list of reasons why they do not want to upgrade their Windows XP to Windows Vista. Companies with tens of thousands of applications in their inventory do not have the resources and time to test all of them when upgrading to Windows Vista and as such they are delaying the upgrade until Microsoft completely stops all support of the old operating system.

Moving to Linux? I seriously doubt any Manager or CIO would even spend time proposing such a move to their company.

On the consumer perspective, worrying whether their smart phones, mobile devices, any kind of USB device, cameras, etc. would work once they move to Linux is a No no. Consumers already whine about their vintage printers not working on Windows Vista. Consumers complain that their data isn’t synching up to their PDAs in Vista. People complain about so many things and the price of a free operating system plus compatability trouble is not worth the time.

It is reported that Linux needs to convert 2.5 million users a year for a 1 percent market share. Even if Toshiba joins Dell in offering a linux based computer package, that is a tough dream for even a free operating system.

For all the arguments that Linux has, numbers tell the story. At the end of the day, what matters most is the market share. Linux, show us the numbers and we’ll agree…