Has Google Made Linux Popular?

Has Google done what no other company has been able to do? Have they taken the relatively obscure (but free and highly useful) Linux operating and popularized it? Jack Wallen of Techrepublic thinks so.

By developing both ChromeOS and Android from the Linux kernel, and then making sure to properly support it, Google may be overcoming the public's fear of Linux. Could they also be responsible in some part for Apple giving away its operating system for free as well? Or Microsoft's recent decision (no doubt only because their hand is being forced) to significantly reduce the price of Windows 8?

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