January 30, 2018

Why is the marketshare of Windows so high?

On the desktop, the MS-Windows operating system has a marketshare of over 90%. In the enterprise segment, the market share is a bit lower, because some companies are using Red Hat Workstation edition, but is is compared to Windows a small percentage. The question is why? One possible explanation is, that nearly all new sold PC have Windows 10 preinstalled, and even computer experts leave the system untouched. Thy typical hardcore Ubuntu user is not removing Windows from the harddisk, instead he configures his system as a dualboot system. Or he uses virtualbox for running Linux inside the Windows system. But why the ordinary user loves his MS-Windows so much? I think, it has to do with group thinking. The user is doing the same thing like his friends. And if his parents, school mates, his student friends and all the other guys are using Windows or Mac OS, than it is not possible for him to go to another direction. So we must answer the question why a group of people is preferring Windows as an operating system. Here is the answer surprisingly simply: because they have no experience with programming or computer culture. The ordinary people is simply not informed about how computer works. They have other interests. And now the critical question: it is possible for a group of people who hates programming for using Linux? Probably not. The only exception is Android, which is a Linux based operating system but also successful at non-technicans. Another exceptions are chromebooks which are also Linux based and have a high marketshare. The ordinary PC is MS-Windows driven. The reason is, that using a software and developing a it is different. Microsoft is developing the software, they are using C++ compilers and texteditors, while the ordinary user not. He prefers that everything works smoothly, he want to know how to play games and how to write a letter but not how to program an operating system. Bringing Linux to the desktop is equal to educate the masses as computer scientists. This idea is not realistic. I think, the marketshare of Linux on the desktop shows us, that only 1% of worldpopulation is familiar with computer programming, while 99% is not able to write simple Python scripts or compile a C program. I do not think, that it is necessary to bring Linux to the desktop, I believe, that the user must come to Linux. The question is not, why has Linux a marketshare of 1%, the question is, why are only 1% of the world population interested in computer science. I would assume, that it is simply not possible, that somebody who is interested in C++ programming and compiler development is not a fan of Linux and has at least a virtual machine which runs on Ubuntu. The only exception is the Forth community, but until now I do not understand fully why they are interested in Programming but not in Linux.