Subj : Re: Community
To   : DustCouncil
From : boraxman
Date : Fri Oct 07 2022 22:16:05

 Du>  bo> You're argumentation style is really nothing but trying to find
 Du>  bo> technicalities to nit-pick on, while militantly trying to avoid
 Du>  bo> understanding what is being meant.
 Du> 
 Du> Either saying Linux *is* or *is not* niche is argument-from-anecdote. 
 Du> Absent statistics gathered in a way everyone is happy with, there's no
 Du> index to verify either claim.
 Du> 

You are applying the "argument-from-anedote" logical fallacy erroneously.  I don't know when this idea that observation=anectode=unreliable came from, but I see it all the time and its wrong.

If someone says "I saw the sun rise in the East" and others report the same, is that just anectodal evidence, anecdata to be just dismissed?  No, its an observation.  And its a testable one too.

The market share stats for Linux on the desktop, ie, how many people choose to run Linux on their home computer or laptop, are readily available.  It matches the observation.

We all live on the same planet, so if I say "I've rarely seen this", and you see the same thing...

Tenser made this a point of contention because that is just what some people do.  IT could have easily been refuted by data, or a survey, but he provided neither.

  Du> Anecdotally, in the quarter century I've been at
this job, in a technical  Du> company with several hundred thousands of employees (you have all heard  Du> of it), I have never encountered a Linux desktop. Servers, yes.   Du> Android, yes.
 Du> 
 Du> We did used to have SunOS/Solaris + CDE, but it was for specific
 Du> enterprise applications which, at the time, only ran on that platform. 
 Du> That was on the desk in the pizza box form factor, under monitors, with
 Du> a KVM switch we used to switch to the Windows boxes under our desks, for
 Du> e-mail and everything else.
 Du> 
 Du> https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-share-of-windows-
 Du> 
 Du> I've never seen a survey like this which indicated there was much use of
 Du> desktop Linux.  Be absolutely happy to take a look at one if someone has
 Du> one.
 Du> 

I've seen figures as high as 11% in places like Greece, were they're looking to save money.

Back to my ORIGINAL point, the people who consciously choose Linux over another operation system are in a minority, as MOST people choose, either by comparison or simply not examining alternatives, another system.  Linux offers something different, which, by definition, makes it niche.

Any product, any thing which occupies some space that something else doesn't, exists in a niche.  In Biology, organisms occupy and are specially adapted to niches because it is better then trying to compete elsewhere.

If Linux abandoned its niche, it would be competing head to head with Windows, and lose.  Because it can offer things Windows can't, it has a niche.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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