It was just an analogy. My point is still that if you get 1 million nerds using Linux in 2006, and even if they remain 1 million as the whole market dies in 2028, that doesn't say much more about Linux than it did in 2006 when only 1% of desktop users used it.

On a side note, I'm no computer scientist (I don't even know what that means, and I'm from the SF bay area), but I used MS products since 1989. A friend gifted me a 2017 iMac Pro recently. I was impressed.. for 3 days. And then I wondered how people even work like this. Finder limitations, dock limitations, and the final nail in the coffin was no cutting files via command x. Apparently that's a thing apple people have put up with for decades? It just doesn't seem made for serious work.

It's an amazing Linux Mint machine though.

> It was just an analogy. My point is still that if you get 1 million nerds using Linux in 2006, and even if they remain 1 million as the whole market dies in 2028, that doesn't say much more about Linux than it did in 2006 when only 1% of desktop users used it.

Exactly this is the point I was trying to make.

If the percent goes up but the actual number of Linux machines stays the same that really isnt saying much about Linux it self. If that were the case there was no shift or growth.

Or it is possible that it is both of these which means maybe there was a growth and shift but not at as big of a number as the percent may imply.

5% of 2 million and 10% of 1 million are both 100,000.