[GRLUG] Linux desktop marketshare

[Michael Mol]

On Dec 11, 2007 12:34 PM, Don Wood <dond at standalelumber.com> wrote:
> http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS2414535067.html
>
> I believe most of this.

This line got me to lose interest:

"While all this has been going on, broadband Internet connectivity has
become almost as easily available as cell phone coverage."

Grade A bull.  Much of Muskegon county doesn't even have DSL, and
there are no estimates for when it might be rolled out.  When I lived
in Muskegon, I used 56k dial-up.  I know lots of people *in Grand
Rapids* who can barely afford dial-up, much less broadband.  Should my
living arrangements change, I'll likely be dropping back to dial-up
myself.

All the buzz is about Verizon's 20Mb/s FIOS, or Comcast's demoing
150Mb/s connectivity.  The controversy over how the FCC measures
broadband coverage seems like a distant memory.  Read/Write Web
recently had an article talking about the coming Internet slow-down,
saying "It will be like the bad old days of dial-up."

It's amazing how many people fail to realize those "bad old days" are
still here for a huge demographic.  It brings to mind people's wonder
at the beginning of the Atomic Age.  Nothing really changed (Where are
all the nuke plants now?  Why are we having a debate over coal plants
in Kansas?), people just thought everything was different, somehow.

If you really wanted, I bet you could make a killing with webservices
catering to low-bandwidth customers.  Ditch flash, video and large
images, and focus on text content.  There's a huge peasant class on
the Internet right now that nobody seems to remember.

-- 
:wq