How Many Linux Users Are There (Really)?
Everyone Uses Linux, No One Uses Linux
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 11:58:01 AM
How many Linux users are there really?
It's a darn good question, and there isn't a darn good answer.
In one way, we're all Linux users now.
As Jim Zemlin, the executive director of The Linux Foundation, points out, "I am not joking or trying to be trite, but the answer to this question is: every single person in the modern world every day. Everyone who searches Google, picks up a phone and uses telecommunication infrastructure, watches a new televisions, use a new camera, makes a call on many modern cell phones, trades a stock on a major exchange, watches a weather forecast generated on a supercomputer, logs into Facebook, navigates via air traffic control systems, buys a netbook computer, checks out at a cash register, withdraws cash at an ATM machine, fires up a quick-boot desktop (even those with Windows), or uses one of many medical devices; the list goes on and on."
"It is hard to think of someone in the developed world who doesn't touch Linux every single day. The better question here is who isn't a Linux user," Zemlin concluded.
He's got a point there. If you buy something from Craigslist or keep up with friends on Facebook, you're using Linux. To be exact, you're using Big-IP 9.4.6, which is an embedded high-speed networking system that incorporates Linux. Do you watch videos on YouTube? Linux again. Google? Yes, they run Linux too.
Source : linuxplanet.com