And it was at 2.92% in Oct 23, so that's approx 38% increase in 4 months! If we keep this level of growth for a year, we're looking at 7.67% marketshare in a year from now!
I'm in the same boat, but all the Win11 drama finally forced me to transition over. Now all my work specific applications run in a Windows 10 VM. I leave it running in the backround. I used one of the debloat PowerShell scripts, killed most of the background bullshit. All my windows apps are on it, it's the best of both worlds. It doesn't affect the performance of my machine at all.
IIRC, it calculates it based on web usage and user agent, so it would count the Steam Decks used to browse the web (aka those used as desktops), but it shouldn't count the others. So I'd say it's quite accurate.
I mean, there's over 2 Billion desktops, according to data in 2019. But because of the whole lockdown stuff, it probably increased pretty significantly in the following years, so let's just say, 2.2 Billion desktops worldwide right now.
Doing some back-of-the-napkin math, 7.67 is about 7.5%, which is 3/4 of 10% and 10% is 1/10 of the whole, so 10% of 2.2 billion is 220 Million, and 3/4 of that is (2/4 or 1/2 plus 1/4 which equals 110m + 55m which is...) 165 million users.
So yeah. There will be dozens. Tens of millions of dozens, to be precise.
Edit: Also, yes. That sort-of proves that there's about half of that (actually abit more than half but it's an estimate), so about 82 Million desktop Linux users right now
(This is assuming all of these 2.2 Billion devices were used to access the internet in the last month)
I was gonna make an unfunded joke comment saying that staying at 3% felt never ending, but your very well funded comment actually brought a smile to my face.
I believe I said it in a different post but 2023 was the year of the Linux desktop. Hardware like Bluetooth and webcams just work. Applications and games have gotten so much easier install thanks to Flatpak and Steam.
Now Plasma 6 is upon us. HDR could be supported this year. At this point avoid Linux only if it's missing a specific app you need.
I like Linux, and I don't plan to use anything else, but yesterday my internet broke because swapping the GPU changed the name of the network interface
That is pretty annoying. I'm thinking of buying a new GPU myself. My Internet also runs off PCIE so I could go through the same thing as well? I wish I had another GPU to try this out.
I did look it up, it seems to come from the way BIOS names resources. Im surprised software such as Network Manager does not pick up on stuff like this.
I mean most video games just work and I game on my machine daily.
The ones that dont are limited to weird kernel based anticheats and that is very few games out of the millions of games out there.
I admit I don't play video games anymore. Especially not in the last year (I did have my eyes on Baldur's Gate). Perhaps I'll start Palworld in a few weeks. I got a lot of games off Humble Bundle (I subscribed to Humble Choice for a year and honestly even with the discounts it wasnt worth it) and Fanatical.
The only game I couldn't get working was the Batman Arkham Trilogy. Everything else I was able to manually force on Proton and play it. Monster Hunter World, Temtem, and GTAV were probably the games I played the most.
Mods suck for the most part on Linux. Though, I never try to mod new games.
Our tracking code is installed on more than 1.5 million sites globally. These sites cover various activities and geographic locations. Every month, we record billions of page views to these sites.
They uses website trackers to compute the data, which is not a reliable way to count linux market share. A large percentage of linux user are privacy conscious, and tend to mess with tracking scripts.
Here are some potential inaccuracy in tracking:
Good amount of unknown is probably people with tracker blocker, which blocked part of their tracking scripts. Or send confusing information to the tracker.
There are probably some Linux Machine shows up as Windows machine, since many browser pretend to run on windows to avoid fingerprinting.
Finally, the linux number itself might be overblown, as many browser has randomized fingerprint to prevent tracking, making them being tracked as different user.
Also a lot of enterprise equipment runs on some kind of Linux and may also inflate the numbers. Linux will always be around, it's windows and Mac os that need their parent companies to survive
Desktop linux has become great since I first tried installing it in 2002. I remember being in my barracks and I had to switch back to windows because I had no way to get the modem drivers I needed.
As amazing as the linux desktop experience has become, windows has really done this to itself. The windows experience 10 years ago was 'fine'. Like it wasn't amazing, it could be improved upon, but it did what it needed to do without bothering the user much.
Windows the OS has lost the thread completely. Its a travesty. I no longer recommend for non-power users to build their own PC (I've helped several family members who were going down the "I want a powerful computer, should I buy a mac?" direction and would steer them to build-a-pc+windows) strictly because Windows has become something entirely different than an operating system. Unfortunately, no Linux desktop experience is quite to the point where I could recommend it and not-expect to get a constant barrage of calls from a family member when they need to install a basic piece of software or their blue tooth headphones wont connect. Because of what Windows has decided to become, after decades of being anti-mac because of their 'ecosystem'/ anti-collaborative approach, I've turned a corner and now recommend Macs for non-power users, but linux for every one else.
This increase in popularity has the potential to create a sea-change in that regard, especially if we can get people to support (financially) the teams that are putting these distros together. I really need a linux distro to recommend that won't get me calls where I have to hop in and figure out why an nvidia driver that was working suddenly stopped working, what the hell is blueman doing, issues with audio drivers, issues with software compatibility.
Like I cant reasonably put my MIL on a linux laptop that I put together for her and expect her to have a good experience. So she gets a mac. But my nieces and nephews? No they are starting linux from day 0.
My non-tech literate aunt has been running her Ebay business from a laptop running Fedora with unattended upgrades for 3 years now. She manages her expenses in Libreoffice calc and accesses everything else through Chrome and prints labels on an old USB HP printer. I don't think she's even noticed I switched her over from Windows 10 when her machine was getting slow.
My Dad's laptop is also on Fedora (though he mainly just uses an Android tablet these days) and I intend to install it on my Grandma's PC when Windows 10 stops being supported. So for the people who'd be happy with something like a Chromebook, which is a good chunk of older folks, it's perfect and I can easily provide support.
That being said if I had to deal with helping kids who wanted to game and use Bluetooth bits and pieces surrounded by RGB crap then yea outside of a few well supported options it could be a nightmare depending on what they've got.
While I get the โwindows badโ point, linux works for your mother in law a lot better than for you because point and click has always worked well for linux from the reports I read. Please do not steer the tech illiterate to apple. It is dumbed down exactly to attract these figures. If you install a stable distro and dont go with need newest everything that linux elitists spew around, youโre golden. System76 and Tuxedo Computers are the way to go as far as I can see atm. They even have their consumer ready builds of linux.
I've had two System76's. Neither was a fricitonless experience. Its MUCH better than it used to be. But its not frictionless. I
If you arent committed to doing your own tech support, and lots of it, don't expect things to go smoothly. They are way better than boutique linux distros, but by no means are they perfect.
We shouldn't delude ourselves into thinking something is some way when it isn't, just because we wish it was. The Linux desktop experience is 100x smoother than it was 25 years ago. The Linux desktop experience this year is 10x better than it was 10 years ago. But its still not quite there yet. Its not frictionless. It doesn't 'just work', when people need to use software like MS office or teams. If I put someone on Linux who isn't committed to the work it takes to run Linux (and it takes work; its easier than ever, but it takes work), I've just created an 'anti-linux' user; some one who will never be convinced to convert because they had a negative experience. One bad experience is all it takes to turn someone off for life. If my goal is to convert as many people as possible to Linux, I'm better off stratifying the users into those I can convert now, and those I may have to wait another 2-5 years for Linux to 'get there' in terms of a frictionless experience.
I think desktop linux will get there, but its important to be realistic about where its at.
I've had my computer-illiterate boomer parents buy Macs for over two decades now because I wanted to keep tech support to a minimum (and because I saw the writing on the wall for Microsoft's abusiveness even back then). However, at this point their next computer is going to be running Linux because I genuinely expect it to be no more trouble than Mac OS.
(In fact, their "next computer" is really just likely to be their current Mac but with Linux installed on it, because it's so old that the latest version of OS X it can run is EOL'd. To be clear, that is Apple deliberately making tech support trouble for me, in a way Linux never would.)
I have several idiot family members running linux.
Its been zero problems. Of course they are not power users, everything they do is pretty much via a browser. Though one does have a scanner/printer set up (that runs with no issue)
only tech support I've ever done is get the question once a year asking "ubuntu says I should upgrade to this new version, should I?" and I say yeup.
Cus I don't want to get woken up at 6 AM to do tech support. I'm just not going to put Linux in front of someone who can't do their own trouble shooting.
You can, no complaints from me, but I'm not going to do that.
My first linux was in '98 and it was redhat 5
.2. I remember buying it from a computer shop I used to frequent as a teenager back then. i think it came on 3 cds or something like that.
The amount of time I spent compiling kernels, building x server and getting confs to work is priceless.
I started with red hat with KDE, which then became fedora, I believe. Then switched to Ubuntu with KDE which then split to Kubuntu. Then tried mint for a while, then back to Kubuntu which I still use.
Now I'm actually considering a different distro, because systemd and snap are pissing me the f off, badly. Ubuntu keeps pushing it, so I'm out. Only, now I need to find basically Ubuntu without system d and snap
As a sidenote, I bought a whole new SSD and I plan to switch from windows 10 to ubuntu (yeah I know) when I have more stability in my life. At the moment I don't want more changes in my life because I have a lot going, but it's coming
The haters will tell you Ubuntu sucks. Every distro has pros and cons. Use whatever you feel comfortable with, and if you feel like trying something else, do it!
ignore anybody giving you grief about whatever distro you use - people need to realise that gatekeeping an OS over minor UI experiences is a dumb fight that discourages normal users getting involved. Whether ubuntu is your gateway into other linux, or the system you end up using for 10 years - you do you, whatever is working is fine.
In any case, ubuntu today is much better than it was even 5 years ago - like the comments on this thread say, things just work. You'll still probably have to use terminal more than you should, but linux is becoming very usable for everybody.
Dumb questions maybe. But I mostly keep Windows for like Battle.net games. Is there any way to play Overwatch II or Diablo IV in Linux? With proton or any other way? Legit would tip me into that realm. Iโm a Debian fan if that matters. But Iโm comfortable in other distros. Except Arch ๐
Battle.net games have been some of the most reliable non-steam games you'll find. You'll have trouble in the Riot Games space (League on Linux, Windows 7, and 8 are all dead in the next month due to Vanguard), and some Epic Games (Fortnite), but if you're a Battle.net/Steam gamer Linux is ready for you.
Diablo IV steam version has officiall support for Linux as far as I know. Or rather, support for Steam Deck via Proton, which is practically the same thing.
I play StarCraft II regularly, have played Diablo IV and just started WarCraft 3 recently, all without any issues. All you need is proton or install steam and add a non-steam game.
Wtf is unknown? What, are they implying that people made their own OS? If the unknown is due to those pc not reporting what OS they have, well that's most definitely Linux because Windows user tend to not care that much about privacy and Apple people tend to kiss Apple ass no matter what so they will not try to ofuscat their OS for privacy as for them having an mac or whatever is something they want to show off!
I was running Bazzite for several months before I switched back to Windows. Unfortunately for me I have a broadcom wifi adapter, it kept disconnecting every 10-15 minutes, and that doesn't bode well for gaming. Outside of that I really enjoyed using it! At least my steamdeck counts towards usage of Linux...
Edit: also steam having to download pre-cached shaders almost every time I started up my computer was kind of annoying. I know you can disable that, but then you're leaving performance on the table iirc.
Ooh I know, but there's also a few games here and there where anti-cheat doesn't work on Linux. Yes I know dual-boot like you said but I'm too lazy to switch between both.
usually you need to try out a few distros to find one that works perfectly with your hardware. always test them in live usb before installing to make sure that wifi, sound, etc works correctly.
Bazzit is based on fedora atomic desktop, which unfortunately don't allow user to test before install.
OP might want to try nobara or just fedora workstation. I personally find ubuntu works across most of the hardware, but people will need to manually update the kernels to get good gaming performance.
Awesome news. I plan to make the full switch to Linux next week. League of Legends is the only reason I use Windows. Next week, they are adding Vanguard, and that'll make it impossible to play on Windows.
Not really. It depends on how much you value privacy. Vanguard is a kernel level anti-cheat. I refuse to give anyone unlimited access to my computer. As such, I'm quitting the game and Windows.