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wandalalakers
March 24th, 2010, 06:06 PM
Got this email from a friend and I was tickled to read it.

http://www.focus.com/fyi/information-technology/50-places-linux-running-you-might-not-expect/print/

FYI
50 Places Linux is Running That You Might Not Expect

By Focus Editors

It was not long ago when Microsoft Windows had a tight stranglehold on the operating system market. Walk into a Circuit City or Staples, it seemed, and virtually any computer you took home would be running the most current flavor of Windows. Ditto for computers ordered direct from a manufacturer. In the last decade, though, the operating system market has begun to change. Slightly more than 5% of all computers now run Mac, according to NetMarketShare.com. Linux is hovering just beneath 1% of the overall market share in operating systems. And although that might sound like a small number, Linux is far more than just a fringe OS. In fact, it's running in quite a few more places than you probably suspect. Below are fifty places Linux is running today in place of Windows or Mac. For easy reading, they are divided amongst government, home, business, and educational usage.

Business Users of Linux

Businesses, as well as governments, have slowly begun to realize the various benefits that Linux and open source software can provide. In fact, given that costs are more important to the decision making of businesses than governments, they arguably have an even greater incentive to check it out. Below are several businesses that have made the switch or begun making the switch from Windows to Linux.
Novell

Longtime software and services company Novell announced in 2006 that it was undergoing a company-wide migration from Windows to Linux on employee desktop computers. As of April of that year, roughly half of Novell's 5,000+ work force had migrated to Linux, with that figure expected to climb to 80% by November. It was a bold and sweeping change for such a large, established company, and it took over a year for the migration to take effect following its announcement in 2006.
Google

Believe it or not, the gigantic, ever-growing cluster of servers that power Google's search and other apps runs Linux. Of course, in typical fashion, Google was not content to simply run an out of the box version on its own hardware. Intsead, the search giant had its engineers cook up a customized version of Ubuntu referred to within the company as "Goobuntu." Linux is also frequently used internally on desktop machines, beyond its use on Google servers.

$am
March 24th, 2010, 08:29 PM
You forgot the US national weather service. I volunteered there for a month in 2006, and I think they use redhat.

kg4cna
March 25th, 2010, 03:58 AM
+1

I knew about some....but I really had no idea so many corps, govt's and institutions in so many countries were onboard with Linux!

Great read, thanks for sharing that info!

Allen

Tamlynmac
March 25th, 2010, 08:20 PM
pcdoctor

Amazing, I was also unaware of some in your list.

Thanks for sharing.

tgalati4
March 26th, 2010, 12:45 AM
My neighbor runs Ubuntu. So with me, that makes 2 more.

kleskjr
March 26th, 2010, 01:06 AM
Some years ago I worked in a gambling/entertainment company and we were programing games for slot machines. OS- Linux of course, it was my first meeting with Ubuntu :)

Marlonsm
March 26th, 2010, 01:11 AM
My college also uses Linux in some computers, too bad the distro they've chosen looks exactly like Windows XP, the only visible change is the Start button that has Tux in it.

kg4cna
March 26th, 2010, 09:09 AM
My college also uses Linux in some computers, too bad the distro they've chosen looks exactly like Windows XP, the only visible change is the Start button that has Tux in it.

Sad :( Trying to make Linux look like Windows. That's one of the many
things I love about Linux. It DOES NOT look like Windows.

Marlonsm
March 26th, 2010, 03:00 PM
Sad :( Trying to make Linux look like Windows. That's one of the many
things I love about Linux. It DOES NOT look like Windows.

For a college I don't think that's much of a problem. But for home users, I've seen many complaining that they couldn't install an antivirus in it, thinking Linux was just like Windows.

prodigy_
March 26th, 2010, 04:11 PM
Cisco's own IT staff could not get its network printign to work properly using Windows NT
Why doesn't that surprise me...

Mark76
March 26th, 2010, 05:55 PM
The London Stock Exchange.

Or at least they're planning to.

Swagman
March 26th, 2010, 07:46 PM
Soon..

The NHS

Well.. They have to make a billion + saving somewhere !!

Austin25
March 27th, 2010, 03:02 AM
This is so encouraging...
I love Linux.

A_M_S
March 27th, 2010, 03:30 AM
Thank you for sharing this info.

I'm using linux for 1 year and loving it.

spartan_87
March 27th, 2010, 05:30 AM
Thanks for sharing this awesome article. I love seeing so many big companies, organizations, and countries switching to linux.

With so many it seems hard to believe that linux still only hold just under 1% of the market. But its steadily climbing, thats for sure.

Sef
March 27th, 2010, 07:10 AM
Moved to community cafe.

speedwell68
March 27th, 2010, 11:36 AM
Thanks for sharing this awesome article. I love seeing so many big companies, organizations, and countries switching to linux.

With so many it seems hard to believe that linux still only hold just under 1% of the market. But its steadily climbing, thats for sure.

Net usage statistics are not really to be believed IMHO. I have seen Linux usage statistics that but the figure at anywhere between < 1% to 8%, so I guess the true figure lies at around 4%.

Anyway, I work for Cornwall Council and we use real time information signs on bus stops. The signs run Linux.

infinitejones
March 27th, 2010, 11:47 AM
There are free internet access terminals at Sydney Airport and I noticed a couple of months ago that they're running Ubuntu.

l.billon
March 27th, 2010, 11:55 AM
Interesting article, knew that main scientific organisations used it but never heard of the military applications...

abhibharti
March 27th, 2010, 12:14 PM
My college. :)
They got it installed by a service engineer.

Jekshadow
March 28th, 2010, 08:44 AM
Why doesn't that surprise me...

There is a reason that Mac OS X, nearly every GNU/Linux distribution and all of the BSDs use CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System), while Windows uses its own, unique, system that never works well.

Psumi
March 28th, 2010, 08:51 AM
Didn't expect one of my anime club friends used ubuntu as her main OS. So yeah...

markbuntu
March 29th, 2010, 12:28 AM
Most ships and aircraft in the world use linux for their navigation and many other systems, many are embedded. Pretty much any industrial/commercial application where there is a great need for reliabile real time operation you will find unix or linux systems. The industrial computing market is some $20Billion a year. Microsoft is non-existent in this market.