Technology and operating system market share

There is an obsession Linux fanatics have: Microsoft Windows. Their obsession includes, among other things, an obsession about how much market share Windows has. The answer: Not as much as they think.

In addition to Macintosh users and Linux on a lot of servers (and the occasional ultra-geek who uses Linux on the desktop), there’s a lot of technology out there where Microsoft doesn’t have a dominant market position:

• Cell phones (WinCE is a niche player)
• Portable book readers (Kindle, iPad, etc.)
• Car computer systems
• Servers (While there is IIS and Exchange, Microsoft can’t undersell Linux, BSD, etc.)
• Dedicated video game consoles (There is the Xbox, but it has to compete with the Playstation and whatever console Nintendo has)
• DVD and Blu-ray players, as well as stereo systems and DVRs
• GPS navigators

In my last blog where I talked about how we use technology, and how things have changed in the last two decades, I noted a lot of places where people use technology, most of which involve uses not dominated or controlled by Microsoft.

The idea that Microsoft controls computing and how people use computers is a rather silly idea.