Re: [Caml-list] Why don't you use batteries?

[Jon Harrop <jon@ffconsultancy.com>]

On Saturday 05 September 2009 10:44:58 David Allsopp wrote:
> Rakotomandimby Mihamina wrote:
> > I must insist on the fact this is probably specific to some OS.
> > On debian and Ubuntu, adding one line to sources.list and issuing one
> > command line does the trick.
> > That is easy, espacially for those already using them.
>
> Using a very simple analysis from
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_desktop_operating_systems,
> 97.14%[1] of the computers in the world run an OS which does not have a
> "Linux"-style package manager (very sad, but true). Therefore a one-click
> installer should be a higher priority than supporting package managers *if*
> you want wider adoption of the system at all. Many developers will be using
> Windows whether they want to or not (or OS X - though I apologise if OS X
> does in fact have a package manager; please subtract 4.59% the previous
> number if it does) because they'll be in companies whose IT infrastructure
> is Windows, even if they have a few *nix boxes in the machine room "for
> those weird developers".

You're quoting statistics that cover secretaries, housewives and teenage 
gamers and trying to apply them to OCaml programmers. Windows' market share 
among technical users and programmers is significantly smaller and among 
OCaml programmers is smaller still.

For example, if you look at sales of technical software like ours or 
Mathematica, Windows has only ~60% market share.

-- 
Dr Jon Harrop, Flying Frog Consultancy Ltd.
http://www.ffconsultancy.com/?e