I’m already using Debian 13 on my work PC. It’s a self-issued work PC, but still.
🐧🌊
Antarctica rises!
Penguin wave
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) = 0.13346228Is Linux desktop marketshare increasing or is desktop marketshare decreasing as a whole, though?
If you’re sitting on a Windows 10 machine that can’t upgrade to Windows 11, or if you’re tired of Apple’s walled garden, now’s the time to explore PureOS, a FSF endorsed GNU/Linux distribution.
God damn it. This is how you scare people away from Linux.
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!
If 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?
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.
Or 1 tech need has containerised 100,000 instances of Linux and is turning them on and off.
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.
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 thought Linux had decent printer support compared to windows.
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.
Mint is based on ubuntu so that makes sense to me!
Depends on the brand really. Some like HP and Epson haven’t worked as good in my own experience compared to Brother.
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.
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
I did not know about rustdesk. It looks to be very promising, I will give it a try!
Support for Windows 10 ends on October 14, 2025.
Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer.
But what if you could make your current one fast and secure again?
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
thanks for the breakdown. i was going to ask if they were counting android as linux and using other shoddy methodologies, but this looks good to me
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.
The Quiet Revolution?
is this implying that windows is catholicism and we’re mass secularizing our computers?
cause hell yea
I thought the quiet revolution was a specific thing to Quebec.
Otherwise it’s just Sparkling Nonverbal Civil Disobedience.
Is this the century of Linux?
That could actually be a reasonable view, considering Windows has fallen off since the late 90’s or early 00’s, depending on what version you draw the line on.
To be fair, it is pretty hard to keep increasing your market share when you get closer and closer to 100%.
But yes, 2000 or XP was the last respectable version of Windows. Maybe Win7, but I never used it.
2000 or XP was the last respectable version of Windows.
Generally it’s a sine wave: XP SP3 good, Vista bad, 7 good, 8 bad, 10 good-ish, 11… nevermind.
Windows is falling off because they missed the mobile boat.
Most people never needed a full computer. All they do is consume and a phone and iPad is more than enough for that.
The desktop market is shrinking and the steam deck is pumping Linux numbers in an increasingly smaller pond.
yeah that’s the sad truth. I was watching a video yesterday about like “All creators should be on YouTube” because Instagram, Twitter, etc., will open your Patreon link logged-out in a WebView…
I’m the only one watching videos on a desktop I guess
