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I too wonder why, as a linux user, I should care how many other people use the system. It seems to me that we have a really good community going and if more people join in, good for them, but Linux isn't in any danger of fading into obscurity at this time.

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You should care because a certain critical mass is needed to have a decent choice of properly supported hardware and software. There's no immediate need for worry on that front today, since we are well above this critical mass. However, the original article was written in 2003, more than 10 years ago, when things looked rather different.

> You should care because a certain critical mass is needed to have a decent choice of properly supported hardware and software

Except that if they achieve this by hoisting "one true UI" and one true whatever on you, you might find yourself having less and less choice...

Maybe for the newest hardware things are fine and dandy, but even for a laptop I bought 2 years ago, I have some pretty basic linux driver issues (mainly graphics cards). Battery management issues as well. If 50% of the population were using linux this wouldn't happen

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