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Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

linuxiac.com

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Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#161

Post by AmericanChopper »

sumuyuda wrote: post #139
AmericanChopper wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SteamDecks aren’t desktop PCs. If you were including gaming consoles/handhelds, then BSD would be way ahead of Linux with all the PlayStations that have been sold (and maybe with Nintendo switches too, depending on how you chose to count those).

You can actually switch to desktop mode, which is a full KDE environment, so it is a Linux desktop PC.

A desktop PC is not a type of operating system. It’s a type of computer designed for a specific use case, distinct from servers, mobile devices, handheld gaming devices or gaming consoles. A windows server or Linux server with KDE/gnome is not a desktop. A mobile phone isn’t a desktop, and it wouldn’t become a desktop even if you installed a plain Linux distro with KDE on it. A PlayStation, switch or Xbox isn’t a desktop PC, and neither is a steamdeck.

It’s an arbitrarily defined category of computer, and this statistics site doesn’t mention how they’ve specified that definition, but it seems they haven’t included any server, mobile/handheld, or gaming console devices at all, not just the steamdeck.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#162

Post by cfn »

I am part of the 3% having moved my main driver a few months ago. This is not the first time I move from Windows to Linux (Ubuntu). The last time I moved back to Windows was because Unity was dropped in favor of Gnome and I decided I didn't want a non mainstream DE. Things were already bad as they were.

I am happy with it but yesterday morning the computer wouldn't boot so I had to do some hand waving to fix the problem. No idea what caused it.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#163

Post by Dylan16807 »

bruce511 wrote: post #68
DiabloD3 wrote: post #49

I wonder why they keep making these articles. Linux is on more computers both today and all of the computers ever made put together than any other OS. It is on virtually all servers on the Internet, the majority OS on phones, its in many TVs and STBs and streaming sticks, its one of the few OSes ever in space, its one of the few OSes ever on Mars, and it is also the OS behind ChromeOS (which that article mistakenly b…

And yet not having a presence on the desktop stings a bit doesn't it :). You can conquer the world, dominate every space and yet there's thus little voice inside saying "but you're not good enough. See over there, in that one space, you're a weakling. " Welcome to the human condition.

I'm not worried about whether Linux is "good enough". I want Microsoft to stop having a monopoly.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#164

Post by nextlevelwizard »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #49

I wonder why they keep making these articles. Linux is on more computers both today and all of the computers ever made put together than any other OS. It is on virtually all servers on the Internet, the majority OS on phones, its in many TVs and STBs and streaming sticks, its one of the few OSes ever in space, its one of the few OSes ever on Mars, and it is also the OS behind ChromeOS (which that article mistakenly b…

I guess it is more that if you dont know that you are using Linux then you aren't.

For anyone who cares about these stats using Linux is the most important thing about computing.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#166

Post by Nux »

self_awareness wrote: post #104
ben0x539 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ok maybe i'm a sore loser, but looking at where the popular desktop OSes have been going going i think i'm fine with linux remaining an enthusiast thing

Exactly my thoughts. I think Linux is in a good sweet spot; popular enough so that applications advertise support for Linux, but not popular enough to be spoiled and optimized for the "casual" user.

I think we're past the sweet spot, things are starting to go "casual user", you only need to check what Ubuntu and Fedora are pushing,in a way the "windows ification" of Linux: gnome 3/4,systemd+,snapd,telemetry etc.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#167

Post by Dylan16807 »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #153
76SlashDolphin wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal but I bring my steam deck with a dock and M&K with me when I visit family since I don't have a desktop computer there. Also, the Steam Deck's OS is by far the closest you can get to a traditional Linux distro since it's GNU+Linux under the hood. The built-in desktop mode is extremely close to a basic KDE Arch install, especially after you disable read-only mode. Android doesn't have as full-featured of a de…

Is a windows server a desktop PC. If not, why?

If you daily drive it with a GUI, then it's close enough.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#168

Post by trabant00 »

For over 20 years Linux has been my main desktop OS and also my profession. And I hope the year of the Linux desktop never comes. Why? Because I've seen what happened with other niche hobbies of mine that went mainstream. Once the money started pouring in and the race for market share took over the priorities changed drastically from enthusiast hobby to whatever brought one more ounce of commercial success. This already happened to the server side of Linux which has become a pile of over-complicated unstable undocumented mess.

Desktop Linux has reached perfection IMHO. People complain about too many distros, package formats, desktop environments, init managers, audio servers and so on. I just love it, I pick and choose whatever I like and I like pretty weird things. I have excellent support and QA from community disto packaging - my Arch install is over 10 years old and I never had to do anything to it besides tinkering for fun. My Debian private server requires 30 minutes every 2 years to switch to the new release. The documentation is heavenly. The commercial offerings (that run on Linux) that pay my bills aren't even in the same league. Neither is Windows or Mac.

I want Linux to remain an enthusiast OS. It's not good for my parents, my non-tech friends, and maybe it's not good for you either. That's not a bad thing and I do not want it to change.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#169

Post by phendrenad2 »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #49

I wonder why they keep making these articles. Linux is on more computers both today and all of the computers ever made put together than any other OS. It is on virtually all servers on the Internet, the majority OS on phones, its in many TVs and STBs and streaming sticks, its one of the few OSes ever in space, its one of the few OSes ever on Mars, and it is also the OS behind ChromeOS (which that article mistakenly b…

They keep making these articles because your points are irrelevant to the discussion here. People want Linux desktop market share, because they know what the more market share Linux gains, the better the experience will be (more testing, more apps ported, etc.) Nobody who is cheering on the 3% number is going to be satisfied by obscure facts like "Android is Linux" (it isn't to the users of locked-down phones) and "Servers run Linux" (does that matter in the slightest to the person loading the webpage?)

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#170

Post by H8crilA »

nine_k wrote: post #156
7e wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, Linux is on many, many devices which have proprietary UIs. And there it does pretty well, because the kernel just provides generic functionality cheaply. It’s a commodity backend that could be swapped with another commodity backend without any users knowing or caring. Hooray. Linux is the go to choice when you could just as well be using something else that’s really cheap, like BSD. However, desktop Linux is wh…

The kernel does not provide "generic" functionality; it provides very specific, often top-notch functionality which you can't easily find elsewhere, at least not as an easy replacement. Linux has the largest collection of various hardware drivers, and a rather wide community of kernel developers who know how to produce them. Linux has a number of specialty filesystems, some pretty important for embedded development.…

Let's remember that until fairly recently the Windows kernel supported only one architecture, lol.
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