Are People Losing Interest in Linux?

Are People Losing Interest in Linux?: Linux is slowly but surely losing popularity. That is according to Google Trends, a well-known tool from Google Labs that shows the most popularly searched terms from the beginning of 2004 up to present. The graph below shows the downward curve of searches for the "linux" keyword:

Should Linux users, lovers and enthusiasts like us be miserable about this? --I don't think we should be.

My theory is that people are becoming more aware and well-informed about Linux nowadays and doesn’t depend much on Google. They already know what sites to visit when they needed news or information on Linux. Another factor to consider is the popularity of Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. People now are more specific (they don’t just type the keyword ‘linux’) when searching for data regarding their favorite distros. Social bookmarking could also be another key reason for this descending trend. More and more people are relying on Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon and other social bookmarking sites in discovering articles, blogs, and just about anything related to Linux or any other subject matter.


Same thing is also happening to Microsoft (as shown above), but not Apple. Apple is steadily going upwards, and its Google search volume is now equal to that of Linux. But why is Linux sliding sharply more than Microsoft? Are people really losing interest in Linux? Is Google Trends reliable enough? And is it really a measure of a subject’s popularity?

Let me know your thoughts!