A quick look around the Internet will reveal that the general consensus is that the desktop market share of GNU/Linux distributions is about 1-2%. I have a theory about why that percentage is not higher for desktop usage, which I term “obscurity through omission”.

I have come across a recent example that had the opportunity to mention Linux, but did not. This was an article in this months “PC Authority“, where author Jon Honeyball discusses Dropbox. He mentions that there are clients for Windows and Mac. He fails to mention that there are also clients for Ubuntu and Fedora, in both 32 and 64 bit versions, as well as the ability to compile from source. Dropbox releases updated client versions for Windows, Mac and Linux simultaneously, showing that, to them, Linux is equally valued. However “PC Authority” readers would not know that Dropbox can be used on Linux just as easily as on Windows and Mac.

This is but one example. I am sure that readers of this blog post could come up with many, many more examples of Linux just being forgotten about or actively ignored. Most hardware and peripherals work just as well on Linux as they do on Windows and Mac, but we’d never know from the manufacturers or the reviewers. I am convinced that if given wider coverage, then people might begin to question “what’s Linux?” This may lead to greater adoption of Linux, which I happen to think is a good thing.

I will readily admit that “obscurity through omission” is just one of potentially many reasons why the adoption of Linux is currently quite low, but I believe it to be a contributing factor. What do you think?