While gaming is still 2.64%, meaning that the Chromebooks and discounted PCs without windows contribute massively to the stat
I’m already using Debian 13 on my work PC. It’s a self-issued work PC, but still.
🐧🌊
Antarctica rises!
Penguin wave
I wonder if it isn’t still just a piss in the wind. All Microsoft has to do is require something propretary and the US government and their customers will just roll it out. I don’t fee like we have the ability to choose with our wallets anymore. If they can’t win fairly, Microsoft will cheat and collude with other companies to make them your only option.
That is what they have always done. Embrace, extend, extinguish.
That is what they have always done. Embrace, extend, extinguish.
Jesus, way to advertise your age, dude. This hasn’t been the case for over 20 years. MS was the largest contributor to the Linux repos in around 2010 resulting in WSL. Nothing got extinguished, but we got a bunch of nice compatibility layers from it, not to mention people trying it out and then switching full-time to Linux.
MS was the largest contributor to the Linux repos in around 2010 resulting in WSL.
embrace
I love to cheer for linux (Fedora user here 😎) but the math and logic in the blog post is off. Firstly, the linux desktop-share for US government websites is much higher, because to calculate it, you have to exclude iOS and Android. But then again, the data may be skewed and linux-users may just be much more prominent visitors of US government websites. I think this sounds credible as many linux users are technically apt and active citizens.
Nevertheless, if the trend is true it is encouraging! Cannot verify because analytics.usa.gov only provides data a calendar year into the past by default and I can’t be bothered to get an api key to see if more can be fetched.
The real desktop linux share for the last 30 days can be calculated:
windows = 33.2 macos = 11.6 linux = 6.9 linux / (windows + macos + linux) = 0.13346228If the average tech nerd uses linux and uses two computers every day and the average non tech nerd has only one device and uses his computer only once a week.
Could this distort such a usage report?
Or 1 tech need has containerised 100,000 instances of Linux and is turning them on and off.
I tried to find out how DAP identifies users and I think it’s based on device fingerprinting rather than IP address. So, I think, if you were to use two separate linux devices to access a .gov site using DAP it would register as two separate users. I don’t believe frequency of use matters.
Is Linux desktop marketshare increasing or is desktop marketshare decreasing as a whole, though?
Linux market share is increasing even in the charts with all OSes, desktop and mobile.
Yes
The year of Linux is finally here. Let’s go!
Who is using Linux, though? Like, 6% (or 11.3% as others have pointed out) means tens or hundreds of millions of people. But where are they?
How do we know these numbers indicate real people?
I’ve been using it for over 2 decades as a main OS. I loathe using windows now. Their ads, including web results, and privacy issues. It’s just become cumbersome. You have multiple choices of desktop environments in linux. Don’t like your current DE? Switch to another gnome, kde, cinnimon, mint, etc. You need a program? Install it from the package manager. Remote mount a drive? sure, you don’t have to jump through hoops like windows.
I’ve been advocating for Linux for decades. People who have historically just dismissed me have been trying and many have converted.
Also (credit where it’s due) behind the scenes Valve has been greasing the wheels on a transition to Linux gaming … which has quite often been the biggest fiction point in the past.
I’vs seen several content creators outside the traditional Linux bubble try Linux, notably including PewDiePie.
Copilot has shaken many small businesses out of complacency, often into modern self-hosted turn-key Linux solutions.
I have friends on Windows 10 who tell me they will not move to 11 - they’re hoping Microsoft folds, but they’re beginning to build a Linux-shaped parachute.
Who is using Linux, though?
My parents, both of whom are 70+, are using Linux laptops. I installed it for them.
Hi, I’m here. Been using Linux Desktop for years, not solely nor religiously, since I usually have more than one machines at a time. Work, personal, family and such.
Also, does it exactly matter? Hundred of thousands, millions probably, of devices run Windows and they’re not desktop machines. Think info screens, ATMs, Kiosk devices, Industrial Machines and the list goes on.
It doesn’t surprise me that someone (a) on lemmy and (b) in the Linux community would respond with this comment though. But the number of people on lemmy is only a few digits.
It does matter – when I think “Desktop Market Share,” I’m already excluding the type of windows devices you just mentioned.
I mean you asked. There is nothing special about me, I’m not a basement dweller, I have a job and a family, pay taxes and whatever. I’m not in the US if that matters. And I prefer to use other operating systems than windows or macos.
I know, I know. I appreciate your response. But it’s just an anecdote, not really a broad answer IMO.
I use windows and have been since I was a kid in a very computer savvy home. Build my first computer at 8 or 9 years old with surplus 80’s parts, ISO slots and all. First OS install was dos with a shell GUI and have had every major windows iteration starting g with 3.1 and up. Of the more modern ones that followed the windows 95 esthetic, I loved windows 2000 pro, hated xp, then loved 7 pro, hated 8, and accepted windows 8.1. When it came to windows 10 I was already getting frustrated with the excessive bloat and OS level Spyware. Now with eindows 11 BIOS level Spyware and so much bloat even the most modern CPUs lag, this is now a bridge too far for me. I will not be upgrading to 11 and will instead be jumping over to Linux. I played around with Linux in the 2000’s and a bit with server stuff, but never took it seriously as a desktop replacement OS until now.
So who are the ‘real’ people switching over? People like me. I don’t work in IT. 99% of my computer usage is for things I can do through a web browser, office suit, or gaming through steam, all of which is now very accessible through Linux. If this was Linux from 10 or 15 years ago, I don’t think you would have seen the shift happen, but where it is at now is more accessible for the common user than ever before.
All my extended family has been converted to linux because all they need is a browser, libre office and rustdesk for me to tech support them. The only issue is still printers but tbh they are equally awful on all platforms these days.
I did not know about rustdesk. It looks to be very promising, I will give it a try!
I thought Linux had decent printer support compared to windows.
I think they are comparable in that regard honestly?
Printer manufacturers obviously try their best to make their printers work well with Windows.
Printer support on Linux is provided by CUPS, which is developed by Apple. Apple wants its Mac (and maybe also iPhone and iPad?) customers to have good printer support, so they try their best to make CUPS work well.
Printer manufacturers obviously try their best to make their printers work well with Windows.
As a guy who’s worked in IT for around 20 years: LOL.
Depends on the brand really. Some like HP and Epson haven’t worked as good in my own experience compared to Brother.
Decent printers yes, some demons from ninth circle of hell somehow are more problematic on anything non-windows.
some demons from ninth circle of hell
What a rude way to invoke cupsd
It does, in my experience. At least in Linux Mint.
At home, my old Brother laser is tucked off in a far corner of the house connected to wifi, and my wired home PC as well as my wifi work laptop both see it and can print to it just fine.
At work even those big printers show up and function.
Kubuntu LTS works pretty damn near out-of-the-box as well.
5% is 1-20 users.
I doubt in my city that 1 in 20 people are using desktop Linux, which means there must be higher concentrations somewhere else, maybe in some corporate fleets or university labs.
So where are the big concentrations of desktop Linux in the US? I’m not hearing more stories of big migrations happening outside of ChromeOS.
Linux usage is very non-uniform. I think the important clusters are:
- Scientific communities, especially physicists (CERN even has their own distro!).
- Financial sector
- Programmers in general
- Family members of other Linux users
- Poorer countries that can’t afford Windows licenses or newer hardware. (Linux usage in India or Turkey is waay higher than the West)
- Countries that have bad relations with America
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People fed up with windows’ shit
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Privacy advocates
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[Coming Soon] People who can’t upgrade to 11 due to hardware who can’t afford a new PC.
People who can’t upgrade to 11
They’ll stay in Windows 10 and ignore security risks.
Some, and some will learn a better way. And the more the poor security starts to affect people, the more will either bite the bullet and upgrade, or switch. And switching becomes more likely if they know someone else in one of the above categories, too.
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So, if we consider a classroom, it’s roughly 1 or 2 students using linux in each class. I don’t think it’s too far off from real life experience.
Steamdeck and other linux gaming consoles maybe?
Steamdeck is great, but there are not enough of them to change statistics like this.
I am on linux mint on both my laptop and my desktop. I only need my phone to be degoogled and I will be all set.
My advice is to always go in short steps, proving the ground and getting to know the alternatives. I’d recommend installing f-droid and having fun testing all the free apps you can, removing google stuff one by one, then, after feeling comfortable, trying a custom rom, and when you eventually need a new phone, looking for a model more friendly to degoogling.
Check out the supported device lists of Graphene OS, Postmarket OS and Ubuntu Touch.
As a long time Ubuntu touch supporter and tester, I unfortunately have to say that it simply isn’t ready for a lot of users at the moment :(
Even if you’re willing to put up with most of its shortcomings, VoLTE device support is extremely limited.
But don’t get me wrong, I REALLY want this stuff to be the future, I think it just needs a bit more time.
Its honestly one of the easiest things people can do to reject the messed up corporate dystopia we have. Especially if you do it with both computers and phones.
And not only an easy thing to do, but something that bothers the big tech a lot! If it didn’t bother, they wouldn’t care to invest so much in making it harder for us, and if it bothers them, it means we’re on the right track.
Once again, someone misreports the number. It’s not 6% of desktop OS market share. It’s 6% of all OS market share. There’s about 50-50 split between desktop and mobile OSes, which means the correct desktop market share of Linux, according to that site, is 12%.
source: https://analytics.usa.gov/
This is the result currently (last 7 days):
Windows 35.5% 11 18.5% 10 16% 7 0.8% 2000 0.1% 8.1 < 0.1% 8 < 0.1% iOS 29.6% Android 15.9% Macintosh 12.3% Linux 5.2% Chrome OS 1.4% Other < 0.1%If we exclude Android and iOS (which make for 29.6 + 15.9 = 45.5%), then the contribution of each of the others would increase (by 100/45.5 = 2.19), leading to 11.388% (5.2 * 2.19).
Linux being in double digits: you love to see it
Windows 2000 having a larger market share than 8: you also love to see it, lol. I had some fun years where I was mostly using UNIX for school stuff and Win2k for games.
