The numbers kind of add up:
- Statcounter gives you 10%
- Cloudflare gives you 5.7% “Likely human” and 8.9% total
- Steam Hardware Survey shows 4% Linux
So even if it is not 10%, it looks like a solid 5% might be possible.
The thing with FOSS is, that market share matters to an extend, only. It’s about support und continued development and financing that (or helping otherwise).
The strain on the FOSS developers isn’t closely related to the market share. Ok, bigger market share, might help to better the financing.
But Linux does well with the current share. (Doesn’t mean its devs do too.) Server wise Linux is already here to stay. Desktop wise… It’s much better than years ago, I must say.
KDE, Pipewire and all the USB and bluetooth device integration is already pretty good. There are bugs and flaws, but nothing serious. Hardware support - I can’t think of any hardware in my possession, that isn’t supported.
All the office apps, browsers, development environments don’t need Windows anymore.
Gaming? Steam will continue to nudge developers to release native Linux versions. Or proper wine configs. They have a steam hardware to sell after all.
Yes, the anti-tamper ring0 and virtualization stuff can’t be easily emulated or virtualized, I heard. Or has that changed?Anything else that needs Windows running natively?
Specialized software still needs native Windows? What about Adobe and the like? Tools without a fully featured replacement and no native Linux version. These might offer Linux support if the share increases.
Personally I made the jump a month or two ago. I don’t think it is 100% AI traffic this increase.
It’s increasingly easier to jump as ai kind of solves any problems u might have which previously would require steep learning curve. Not it’s just hey chatgepete why is Bluetooth not working
Even if that’s true it doesn’t invalidate the 10% market share, I doubt that all 57% of Windows machines are actual users.
This is where I stopped reading. We’re looking at OS X, which was replaced by macOS in 2016, at 21.14%, while macOS itself sits at 8.6%.
Statcounter says on their market share page for macOS that they can’t really reliably show usage stats for anything past 10.15, due to a bug in Apple WebKit. The actual market share of macOS is very likely much higher.
Granted, Windows 11 is not a perfect OS
You don’t say…
So the microsoft toady who wrote the article is saying that linux does ai better than windows 11?
That’s rookie numbers let’s get it to 30% to get massive amounts of new Linux hardware, devices, accessories made. Also, to make unlockable bootloader the standard for phones, tablets, cars, etc
My family had 3 windows machines a few years ago. Now we have 3 Linux machines.
I know we’re not representative of the public at large, but my siblings are interested in transitioning… My friends are having more and more gripes with windows lately… Seems like a revolution is on the horizon. Never seen this sort of willingness, so who knows
And did you help setup any of those machines?
Now imagine a family that doesn’t have a tech guy like you. You think they would ever be able to install any OS, let alone Linux?
For the arch machine, not a chance. For the fedora silver blue machine? Yeah the process was super easy. The hardest part was probably getting the iso on a USB stick, but my wife walked through the initial setup with me via the GUI installer. It was no harder and much faster than a Windows install via a USB stick.
I don’t think my mom could do it solo.
Regardless, it’s pretty much set it and forget it, so if I’m visiting - could setup in 20 minutes and from that point onward no intervention required from me.
It’s not rocket science but I get that some people will just want to use whatever is pre installed or whatever was configured for them.
Now imagine a family that doesn’t have a tech guy like you. You think they would ever be able to install any OS, let alone Linux?
That’s the thing: Many families have a tech guy. The son who knows computers. The neighbor. The dude from work. And yes, if you are able to read, you can install a Linux. It’s not that complicated and there are a lot of really good instructions online.
My siblings are interested in transitioning
Oh, typical Linux- oh wait, not that way.
It’s a slippery slope. Linux - the gateway drug to gender dysphoria 😏
I gave away my old pc to my grandpa and installed a Linux Mint on it. This will prob be better 100% than win 11. He only uses pc for simple things like browsing internet and office work. Installed ONLYOFFICE which is 1:1 Microso.
Trying to convince my dad rn.
Good on you all!!!
Hope you and your family can help others make the switch too.
Nobody deserves to stay over on the horrible side
Edit: Oh and many of us have been getting people to switch or dual boot, and getting others to help out the effort. So definitely seeing the first fruits of that.
Can’t wait for us to get 15% then 30% seeing Linux hardware, and devices gradually become everywhere
Just to echo you. Same, we went to Linux transitioned one computer almost two years ago, then all four in our house slowly. We’ve been windows free for over a year now.
Honestly I don’t think Windows could ever get my family back.
The only Windoes PC in my house is my work PC, and I barely touch it at home.
Here at home two computers change from windows to linux in the past couple months. Windows isn’t coming back 🤗
Household doesnt run a windows device. They f’ed up real bad with win 11.
That describes many of their releases.
When I look back there’s only a handful of Windows operating systems I preferred, and some of them took quite a bit of time and a service pack or two to make that happen.
I switched all my daily use PCs to Linux in 2004 and haven’t looked back. I did have a Plex server running on Windows 10 for about a year but even that has moved to an unRAID server.
Yrah, but that’s what they said about Windows ME…and Vista…and Windows 8…and now 11.
Microsoft learns from their mistakes. It’s what helps them to make sure they make all new mistakes.
What concerns me is that ever since XP, every “good” release is worse than the last good release.
I just got started with Linux this year when I set up my very 1st proxmox mini PC running multiple Ubuntu sever VM to just today getting around to dual booting my media/gaming PC with Cachy OS.
Add on my Steam deck and Iinux is taking over my house with only 2 dual boot windows installed and one will barely get used.
I swapped 4.
I thought those numbers looked fishy, now we know why. Actually, the numbers themselves aren’t fishy, the fishy part is misinterpreting them.
Is there a reliable site that does report user installations of OS’s?
Cloudflare is pretty reliable and usually used to determine desktop use.
Thanks!
Nice try, Windows
Basically, the article says “Windows is doing fine. Microsoft even told us. Also, no one uses AI bots on Windows.”
Home had 4 windows machines a year ago. Now 1 windows machine, a raspberry pi, and 4 linux machines… reckon theres still a real move under the data. Ai may be part but its not all or most.
Here’s the truth of the matter. As a server, Linux runs the show. As a desktop, Linux is basically little league.
There is some growth, but it’s not people getting fed up with microsoft. The real growth comes from Valve.
Despite it’s apperance, SteamOS is considered a linux desktop, and it’s driving growth on linux. I don’t think it’s up to 10%, considering 2 years ago it was at an all time high of 4%. But I can believe it’s at 6%. And even that would be considered tremendous growth. 4% in 30 years, but 2% more in 2 more years? That’s huge.
I keep seeing the same story about linux. People are gaming on steamos, or bazzite, and they have to keep a windows installation on the other partition because select games have anti-cheat that 100% does not work on linux.
But here’s the better news. Console games are dying.
The people I’ve spoken to in real life (outside of Reddit and fediverse bubbles) are more interested in France changing their systems to Linux of all things, which rather surprised me. In their minds, that move gave it a lot of legitimacy.
Linux needs to change from “scary thing that sounds hard” to “easy thing that just works”. If more big names adopt it that will help a lot. Projects like ZorinOS are also a great bridge.
The big thing about France going Linux is less the legitimaxy and more a state player entering the scene with the aim of creating a platfirm with all the tools needed in office settings and then some.
Well the reason that is big, is that regardless of the OS, whether it’s windows, MacOS, or Linux, the concept of a desktop experience itself is shrinking.
Most people today that use desktops do so at work only. Meaning they don’t control if it’s Windows 11, Windows 10, Linux, or some company made propriatary OS (which, is most likely a form of linux). Doesn’t matter. They come into work, use a computer that isn’t theirs, to use an OS they have no say in.
With France using Linux, those people who don’t know how to use a windows PC, will now be the people who don’t know how to use a linux PC. But, like all things, they’ll learn SOMETHING from it.
The major reason that Windows thrives is because businesses use it. When businesses use it, the employees use it. When the employees use it, they learn SOME things from it.
So when it comes time for them to buy a PC, they’ll be firmiliar with linux, and windows becomes the foreign thing they’ve never used.
Thats the glass ceiling. People buy windows because they know windows. And they know windows because their school/job taught them windows.
But if their school/job teaches them linux instead, then that’s what they’ll know when they bring a PC home.
It’s not a huge deal in itself. It becomes a huge deal when you consider the snowball effect.
Yeah I feel like very few people use desktops recreationally anymore… personally I enjoy just “existing” online on a computer. I like tinkering and just doing random stuff. That’s why I use Linux exclusively now, because Windows makes it very hard for me to use the computer the way I want to
little league
If you had said “Enterprise desktop” I’d kinda agree. Depends on how you define the leagues.
I believe there’s growth in the “digital sovereignty” movement as well. Likely more than gaming.
France is going to change that, at least for everything needed by state and public IT systems. They are going for full transition, including software (communication, cloud, office application, databases and business tools etc)
This propaganda was brought to you by Microslop. Seriously though, as there is with all propaganda there is likely some truth to it, but I think the majority are real users. The winds are changing, and Microsoft is afraid.
I demand heckin’ sources for that claim.
