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Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

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Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#161
post #76

I think adoption has to do with the fact that desktop environment efforts are divided across so many distros.

What do you mean by that? DEs development is separate from distros. Distros often select a particular DE to be their default, but "desktop environment efforts" aren't really something the distros do.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#162
post #81
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal evidence, but Steams' Proton compatibility layer that lets you run Windows-only games on Linux works really really well. I haven't had to log into years and years by now.

I’ve been wanting to do this for years on an old (and severely underpowered) MacBook Pro which I use with Windows exclusively for Games. Do you have any recommendation for an extremely lightweight Linus distro which installs and runs Steam fine? It would be used exclusively for that, so it shouldn’t run a ton of background stuff.

Check out Bazzite. It started as a way to approximate SteamOS for general hardware.

Or if you have an AMD GPU, you could even try SteamOS itself, though it's intended for handhelds.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#163
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android systems don't even run the linux kernel in any real sense, pretty much every downstream kernel has millions of lines of patched code that will never make it upstream in their current form. Of course, that's no different from mostly any other "Linux" embedded device, but it's very different indeed from what's standard on desktop systems.

I would still count it as the Linux kernel. They don't change the syscall API, it's really mostly at the BSP level, right? Said differently: if manufacturers cared to mainstream their changes, they could. And we would all be better for it.

> I would still count it as the Linux kernel.

This may be technically true, except it has no single meaningful implication, like no Linux software works there.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#164

This begs the question: At what threshold would we consider it 'the year of Linux on the desktop'? 5% seems too low. Would it be 30%? Or 51%? Answering that question in the public sphere may quell many of the "Is ___ going to the year of the Linux desktop?" posts we get each year.

I think the year of Linux on the desktop will actually be the year of Chromium on Linux on the desktop (instead of Chrome on Windows), ie. is it really the Linux on the desktop if the only application you run is the browser for SaaS anyway?

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#165

Linux will be stuck in the 5% range as long as people who love Linux are the ones making Linux. You still cannot crtl+V in the terminal. No faster way to scare off users than give them a CLI heavy OS and have the trip over the very first copy+paste command they try to run (once they figure out the circa ~1982 cursor) I really cannot say enough about the total fumble of Linux distros in an age when people are more des…

> Linux will be stuck in the 5% range as long as people who love Linux are the ones making Linux.

This makes no sense. There are so many different ways to use Linux, there is not a single profile of "people who love Linux".

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#166
post #106

I think that there are multiple things at play: 1. The statistics only show Desktop usage relative to each other. But I could totally imagine that macOS "loses" users to iPadOS. Similarly, Windows could be losing users to smartphones in general (I see more and more people who don't actually have a personal computer anymore). 2. Valve (and others, surely) is doing an incredible job with video games on Linux. 20 years…

> Similarly, Windows could be losing users to smartphones in general But this is desktop only. If someone stop using windows completely, it won't show a decrease in windows usage. This will basically only show when people switch from desktop OS.

You sure about that math? If there are 2 linux users and 8 windows users, then that's 20% linux, 80% windows. If one windows user quits using computers, then that's 2 linux users (out of 9 total) and 7 windows users (out of 9 total), or 22% linux and 77% windows users.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#167
post #53

I have to wonder how much of this is people switching to Linux vs the larger trend of people not having traditional computers to begin with. Outside of gamers, I don't know anyone that has a computer at home that is not their work laptop if they have one. At least in my circle everyone I know has moved to their general computing being on phones and tablets which is not captured here. So is a solid chunk of this the p…

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Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#168
The posts on this thread arguing that Android is not a real Linux should take a look at the increasingly blurred lines between MacOS and iPadOS. Android tablets are on a similar trajectory. ChromeOS Flex pretty much is a desktop Linux distro with an Android runtime.

Some people will find the idea of elements of a mobile OS on their desktop attractive. Other people will find it less unattractive than buying a new PC to run Windows 11.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#169
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would still count it as the Linux kernel. They don't change the syscall API, it's really mostly at the BSP level, right? Said differently: if manufacturers cared to mainstream their changes, they could. And we would all be better for it.

> I would still count it as the Linux kernel. This may be technically true, except it has no single meaningful implication, like no Linux software works there.

I think this really undervalues what Linux provides. The Android software is Linux software.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the Windows license was burned into the BIOS, so a reinstall would pick it up automatically?

The biggest issue right now is really the upcoming EOL of Windows 10. Most of these machines will be old enough (pre Intel 8th gen or Zen 2) that they won't be officially supported by Windows 11.

I make a note of both in listings where that is applicable.
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