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| Building and dismantling the Windows advantage |
| By Thom Holwerda, submitted by Piet Simons on 2012-07-05 22:27:06 |
| Interesting charts by Horace Dediu: "As a result the Mac began to whittle down the advantage Windows had. The ratio of Windows to Mac units shipped fell to below 20, a level that was last reached before Windows 95 launched. It's as if the Mac reversed the Windows advantage. This was an amazing turnaround for the Mac. But the story does not end there." Too bad Dediu didn't include Android devices in his charts. The picture would change dramatically, and would downplay the important of either Windows or Mac/iOS. We're in a three-horse race - not the two-horse race Dediu paints. |
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| Comment by shmerl |
| By shmerl on 2012-07-05 22:54:52 |
| Erosion of Windows dominance from Mac OSX helps to reduce some lock in into Windows APIs. For example it's beneficial that game production companies start paying more attention to OpenGL now. It gives hope for Linux games renaissance as well. Games are considered one of the major blocking factors for better Linux desktop adoption. |
 - Score: 7 |
| RE: Comment by shmerl |
| By woegjiub on 2012-07-05 23:52:25 |
|
Hopefully this trend is only just beginning, and there will be a near-parity of games availability for *nix and windows. Given the interest shown on sites like reddit and 4chan, the availability of linux-native AAA games would dramatically increase the userbase (obviously not to the point "year of the linux desktop" proponents spout, but certainly a >0.5% marketshare increase [something like 50% increase on current]). Desktop OSes may just be about to become more diverse, given the effort from companies like valve, canonical, and (as much as I hate to admit it) apple most of all. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[2]: Comment by shmerl |
| By garf on 2012-07-06 00:05:10 |
|
I'm hoping that the Linux efforts by companies like Valve have a big impact on things like proper hardware drivers... For example, companies like Logitech that have gaming devices (like the G-series keyboards). On my old G-15, yeah the LCD screen works, but I have never been able to get the 18 G-keys to work... Hopefully it improves drivers across the board. It has the potential to get these big companies involved in the entire linux stack... |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[3]: Comment by shmerl |
| By ssokolow on 2012-07-06 01:21:56 |
|
> For example, companies like Logitech that have gaming devices (like the G-series keyboards). On my old G-15, yeah the LCD screen works, but I have never been able to get the 18 G-keys to work... Hopefully it improves drivers across the board. It has the potential to get these big companies involved in the entire linux stack... Strange. I have one of those and, given that the LCD needs G15Daemon as far as I know, it should work for you. Didn't give me any problems. Did you make sure your kernel has uinput either built-in or loaded as a module? (That's how G15Daemon remaps the weird hardware keycodes from the three USB HID devices exported by the keyboard to something sane) Did you set up Xmodmap using the provided config to assign X11 key symbols to the G keys? As I remember, the keycodes G15Daemon emits don't map to any by default. Edited 2012-07-06 01:23 UTC |
| - Score: 3 |
| "Paints" |
| By jared_wilkes on 2012-07-06 02:12:42 |
| Dediu isn't "painting" a two-horse race; he's modeling disruption. It is a three-horse race (or maybe more), but any primacy of Google's Android position is solely derived on the back of the iOS-fueled Apple disruption. Dediu is always clear on what he is looking at and what he is not looking at. He may even disagree with me that Android momentum is "on the back" of iOS, but just because this post's data only compares Windows OS v. Apple platforms does not mean that he thinks Android is not in the race. Please. |
| - Score: 5 |
| Android and iPhone |
| By thesunnyk on 2012-07-06 02:39:00 |
|
There isn't enough Android on tablets to warrant any data on Android tablets displacing PCs. However, I don't buy the iPhone line either. I mean, until very recently, you needed a PC (or mac) just to get an iPhone to work. I'm not even sure if they do OTA updates yet. The iPhone is tied inextricably to iTunes, so to say that someone buying an iPhone is now no longer buying a PC is just ridiculous. And that's ignoring the fact that PCs and phones have such enormously different form factors that they effectively occupy different markets. |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE[4]: Comment by shmerl |
| By Elv13 on 2012-07-06 02:39:06 |
| The 18 gkeys are more problematic than the old 6 gkeys. I have both and only the 6 gkeys work fine (the 18 one is the newer g510, but it is the same gardware as the last g15, just rebranded and with a scrollwheel built in) |
| - Score: 3 |
| You can't have your cake and eat it too |
| By Nelson on 2012-07-06 02:48:42 |
|
Windows 8 is continuously slammed by some on here because its "a tablet OS" and isn't productive, however this article shows clear trends of where the industry is going. It has without a doubt moved to mobile form factors and left desktops in the dust in favor of notebook form factors. (Battery consciousness and sub 20inch screens being key here) This is followed up by an even more dramatic move to tablets. By 2016 tablets are expected to outpace the entire PC market. This is why the Apple strategy is bound to win eventually, if Microsoft does nothing. This is exactly what the big bet in Windows 8 is about. Hell, this is probably behind Google's recent power play into the Tablet market. All the big players recognize where the next war is. Exciting times. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[5]: Comment by shmerl |
| By ssokolow on 2012-07-06 03:00:21 |
|
> The 18 gkeys are more problematic than the old 6 gkeys. I have both and only the 6 gkeys work fine (the 18 one is the newer g510, but it is the same gardware as the last g15, just rebranded and with a scrollwheel built in) No, actually. The G15 originally had 18 G keys and a blue backlight. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil... Then they pared it down for the second-generation G15, which has 6 G keys. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil... I didn't know they'd re-created the original G15 with the new non-hinged LCD and restyled multimedia keys under the name G510. http://www.logitech.com/en-us/ke... I have the very first kind, for which G15Daemon was originally written. Edited 2012-07-06 03:00 UTC |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: You can't have your cake and eat it too |
| By shmerl on 2012-07-06 03:20:22 |
|
Tablets won't replace high end desktops for a long time still. They are a significant market, but they aren't not replacing desktops by any means. Edited 2012-07-06 03:21 UTC |
| - Score: 4 |
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