> ChromeOS is no more what people consider “Linux” than iOS, MacOS etc is considered BSD.
ChromiumOS is a Linux distribution and ChromeOS is basically ChromiumOS with Google Play etc. Whereas macOS isn't just FreeBSD with the App Store and Safari and in particular it's only licensed to run on Apple's hardware.
> Linux is at less than 5% and was at around 1% in 2012.
It was around 1% forever, until recently it wasn't.
> ChromeOS is at less than 2% and most of that is in schools. Macs had much more than 2% in 2010.
Macs had 6% in 2010, which is the same as Linux has now. And the Macs were disproportionately in schools too. Now the Mac market share is above 20%, because eventually the people using it in schools start using it somewhere else, so if people are using non-Windows systems in schools now...
> What company is going to pay for Linux Crapware?
The same ones paying for Windows Crapware, presumably.
> Now the Mac market share is above 20%, because eventually the people using it in schools start using it somewhere else
Absolutely no kid says “I love these shitty Chrome OS laptops that I have to use in schools. Can I have one at home!” When they get to choose a computer for college at least in the US, they overwhelmingly choose Macs.
And Dell overtook Apple in schools in 1999.
Even back in 2010, 70% of students were choosing to buy Macs for college
And saying that Linux grew from 1% to 5% in 10 years means it’s going to grow to 25% reads like every startup pitch. “We doubled from 1% to 2% in a year. At this rate we will have almost 70% of the market in 6 years!”
The “Year of the Desktop Linux” has been a meme for over 25 years.
> Absolutely no kid says “I love these shitty Chrome OS laptops that I have to use in schools. Can I have one at home!” When they get to choose a computer for college at least in the US, they overwhelmingly choose Macs.
The value of ChromeOS to Linux in general is that it has no Windows-specific dependencies. They don't have to like the hardware, Linux runs on all kinds of hardware. But if they cut their teeth on Windows then they're trained on MS Office etc., and on ChromeOS they're not.
Then they get a job and don't expect MS Office, so a work PC running Ubuntu is just fine.
> And saying that Linux grew from 1% to 5% in 10 years means it’s going to grow to 25% reads like every startup pitch. “We doubled from 1% to 2% in a year. At this rate we will have almost 70% of the market in 6 years!”
Except that it was from 1.x% to 4.x% in four years, as a result of a confluence of factors that continue to be present: Historical Windows-specific software is declining as it's converted to web and mobile, Valve continues to increase the viability of Linux gaming (which is the largest remaining holdout in the former category), users are increasingly frustrated with Microsoft who is now making more money from Azure than Windows and increasingly unafraid to piss people off with start menu ads and dark patterns, Windows 10 is about to go EOL and with it the vast quantities of PC hardware that don't officially support Windows 11 but run Linux just fine, etc.
Is it going to continue to increase at >50% a year forever? Probably not. Is it going to keep going up? It certainly seems that way.
> The value of ChromeOS to Linux in general is that it has no Windows-specific dependencies. They don't have to like the hardware,
Linux runs on all kinds of hardware.
And none of the hardware that Linux runs on runs 15 hours on a battery, quiet and fanless. In the US people with money (or student loans) have a choice, they have been actively choosing Macs since 2010.
> But if they cut their teeth on Windows then they're trained on MS Office etc., and on ChromeOS they're not.
And they can go to Walmart and buy an $850 M1 MacBook Air that can run MS Office, all of the other commercial software, still have a faster quieter ARM based Mac and it integrates with their other Apple devices - iPhone has a 70% market share in the US.
> the vast quantities of PC hardware that don't officially support Windows 11 but run Linux just fine, etc.
And what’s more likely? They put Linux on their old slow laptops that run hot, loud and with piss poor battery life - all of which is worse with Linux - or they just buy another Windows computer or Mac that runs all of their software?
If they are using Office365, they don’t have to buy new software even if they do switch to Mac.
And the ones with such low power consumption are either fanless or the fans don't run anyway because you don't need a fan to dissipate two watts.
> And they can go to Walmart and buy an $850 M1 MacBook Air that can run MS Office, all of the other commercial software
But they don't need any commercial software. All of that stuff is dead and dying, replaced by web pages. Whether that's good or not, it's certainly happening.
> still have a faster quieter ARM based Mac
That $850 M1 is five years old. For the same price you can get a faster Ryzen laptop on a newer TSMC process. Meanwhile if you want a higher end machine, Apple overcharges so much for RAM that most people can't afford it. Notice how much lower Mac market share is than iPhone.
> it integrates with their other Apple devices
This is not a reason for anybody to use Windows, and Android has 70% global market share, so by this logic the global PC market should be trending toward 70% Linux and 30% Mac.
> And what’s more likely? They put Linux on their old slow laptops that run hot, loud and with piss poor battery life - all of which is worse with Linux - or they just buy another Windows computer or Mac that runs all of their software?
People have a random laptop which is 80% as fast as a new laptop and gets 6+ hours of battery life under Linux, but doesn't support Windows 11. Option one is they keep it and put Linux on it, which saves them hundreds to thousands of dollars for a new laptop, which is a pretty big advantage. Option two is they sell it and buy a new laptop, and then someone else buys it to put Linux on it and the installed base of Linux users still goes up.
> If they are using Office365, they don’t have to buy new software even if they do switch to Mac.
> Of course it does? People have reported 20+ hour battery life on Linux laptops:
With a poor trackpad and only if you use the low quality screen?
> But they don't need any commercial software. All of that stuff is dead and dying, replaced by web pages.
Who are these people in the mainstream that don’t want any commercial software?
You better tell Microsoft and Adobe that native software is dying…
> For the same price you can get a faster Ryzen laptop on a newer TSMC process.
And then you lose the whole better battery life, cool, quiet and fanless. Also the M2 MacBook Air is $999 with 16 GB RAM and faster.
> Meanwhile if you want a higher end machine, Apple overcharges so much for RAM that most people can't afford it.
The M2 MacBook Air comes with 16GB RAM now. But you were talking about people who are okay with an old laptop and not running commercial software. Are they really going to run anything so intensive that they need more than 16GB RAM?
> Notice how much lower Mac market share is than iPhone.
And notice how much higher it is when people have a choice and have money - ie college students and professionals and even developers? How many companies are going out of their way serving people who are poor or cheap?
> it integrates with their other Apple devices
This is not a reason for anybody to use Windows,
We are talking about people who have to buy computers anyway because as you said W10 is EOL or children growing up with Chromebooks.
They aren’t buying Windows computers for the most part.
> and Android has 70% global market share, so by this logic the global PC market should be trending toward 70% Linux and 30% Mac.
And see what people with money are buying globally - Macs and iPhones. They definitely aren’t buying Windows computers.
How many of those computers were sold to businesses? Why would anyone buy computers with Linux?
> People have a random laptop which is 80% as fast as a new laptop and gets 6+ hours of battery life under Linux. Option one is they keep it and put Linux on it, which saves them hundreds to thousands of dollars for a new laptop,
You can buy a cheap Dell for $400 and it can run all of their software or a Macbokk Air for $899 when not on sale or even a Mac Mini for $699.
> Option two is they sell it and buy a new laptop, and then someone else buys it to put Linux on it and the installed base of Linux users still goes up.
People aren’t selling old useless PCs for the most part nor or people buying them over a sub $500 PC
> If they are using Office365, they don’t have to buy new software even if they do switch to Mac.
They're not using Office365, that's the point.
They are using something besides a web browser, if they are just using a browser, why not just use an iPad or even their phone - and most people are doing that. You can see by the number of computers sold each year compared to the number of phones
ChromiumOS is a Linux distribution and ChromeOS is basically ChromiumOS with Google Play etc. Whereas macOS isn't just FreeBSD with the App Store and Safari and in particular it's only licensed to run on Apple's hardware.
> Linux is at less than 5% and was at around 1% in 2012.
It was around 1% forever, until recently it wasn't.
> ChromeOS is at less than 2% and most of that is in schools. Macs had much more than 2% in 2010.
Macs had 6% in 2010, which is the same as Linux has now. And the Macs were disproportionately in schools too. Now the Mac market share is above 20%, because eventually the people using it in schools start using it somewhere else, so if people are using non-Windows systems in schools now...
> What company is going to pay for Linux Crapware?
The same ones paying for Windows Crapware, presumably.