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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

#231

Post by danso »

jsnell wrote: post #18

The statscounter data is not reliable, and it is just embarrassing how often these posts make it to the HN frontpage. You even have a demonstration in this very article, with the surge of classic Mac OS to 7% for several months . The data is obviously nonsense, and when it has errors nobody at the company cares about them. But when they have persistent "data reporting issues", why are we supposed to believe any of th…

Mentioned this in another comment [0], but analytics.usa.gov has the % of visitors on Linux operating systems at 5.7% in 2025, up from 4.5% in 2024. Of course "visitors to U.S. government websites" is not fully representative of all U.S. computer users, but it's worth noting.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44582058

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#232

Post by api »

I’ve said for over a decade that Linux can win a huge chunk of the desktop if it just stays as good as it is and waits. Meanwhile Microsoft keeps making Windows suck more.

Apple could do the same to some extent if they cut their prices some.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#233

Post by msgodel »

palata wrote: post #189
fsflover wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can recompile software for a different architecture relatively easily. You can't easily rewrite GNU/Linux software to run on Android.

And you can't easily rewrite Qt software to use GTK. Still they both run on Linux.

You probably could if Android weren't intentionally constrained by Google to prevent it. That's what fsflover is trying to point out: Android is more of a television firmware than an OS and counting it like a PC OS makes very little sense because you can't use it like one.

EDIT: I think you still don't understand. It doesn't matter what hardware Android runs on it's written to be appliance firmware. Even if you put it on a laptop it just turns the laptop into what is essentially a television.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#234

Post by IsTom »

paulcole wrote: post #219
palata wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your points, except this: > thanks to the Steam Deck [...] but I would be reluctant to call that Linux Desktop anymore than I would call Android an uptick for Linux. The Steam Deck very much runs Linux Desktop. Android runs the Linux kernel, but everything else is different. SteamOS is a Linux distribution based on Arch. If you run your Steam Deck in "desktop mode", it is very much a Linux Desktop (with…

If your belief is that Steam Deck is Linux Desktop then you need to count Switch/PS5/Xbox as desktops as well and take those into account with the OS percentages.

Steam Deck has (accessible in menu by default) desktop mode that is just KDE with desktop icons and everything.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#236

Post by exiguus »

tempfile wrote: post #176
exiguus wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, as a long time Linux Desktop user, i have at least 4, refurbished bought Notebooks in my place yet. Beside the 4, another 3 new new bought Notebooks. The reason why I buy refurbished is, that my use-cases don't need the newest hardware and for a long time, older hardware was more compatible with Linux and BSD for me. Also, you get for a small price, high quality hardware. If you now ask yourself, why that m…

I am the same. I decided a few years ago that I really really like the thinkpad t450, and have gradually bought 5 of them online for a total cost of about 300 USD. I may never need to buy a laptop ever again.

Yes, over the past 15 years I bought at least a dozen used thinkpads of the X series (x201, x220, x230 and x1). Most of them are now with other family members and friends (they are now also Linux Desktop user). And I still use 3 of them. One daily, the other weekly, and the 3rd for conferences. Beside that, I am also a fan of the T and yet of the P series. And I have a small collection of thinkpads with the big blue logo from the A and R series, but that's mostly just for fun.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#237

Post by JohnFen »

nerdjon wrote: 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…

> Outside of gamers, I don't know anyone that has a computer at home that is not their work laptop if they have one.

Interesting. I don't know anyone who doesn't have a personal computer at home. Mostly laptops. With the exceptions of nerds like myself, the signifier that someone is a gamer is that their home computer is a tower rather than a laptop.

I wonder how much regional variation there is around this sort of thing? It sounds like it might be quite a lot.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#238

Post by chrisweekly »

JohnFen wrote: post #237
nerdjon wrote: 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…

> Outside of gamers, I don't know anyone that has a computer at home that is not their work laptop if they have one. Interesting. I don't know anyone who doesn't have a personal computer at home. Mostly laptops. With the exceptions of nerds like myself, the signifier that someone is a gamer is that their home computer is a tower rather than a laptop. I wonder how much regional variation there is around this sort of t…

FWIW, this is my experience too. I'm 50yo, live in the Boston area.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#239

Post by JadoJodo »

I am in this category, but I'm growing increasingly frustrated with the state of the market for OS's:

I've used macOS for work for many years and Arch-based derivatives for personal desktop. The challenge with that has always been gaming: Gaming on Linux _mostly_ works, but third-party launchers (e.g., Battle.net, Origin, etc.) HATE it. I also don't love the Proton shuffle (i.e., "Which version of Proton do I need to use to get this to work?"), but it's tolerable for me. I'll tell you for whom it _isn't_ tolerable: my wife (who mostly uses a different system running Windows 10, but sometimes wants to use the more powerful gaming PC running Linux). And thus the only remaining choice for the home system has been Linux + Windows (in some capacity).

Now, I've not used Windows full-time since 7, but I recently installed Windows 11 (via QEMU using LookingGlass) and it is simply TERRIBLE. There are full-blown ads in the Start Menu, the built-in search ignores your default browser/search engine settings, and (critically) __you can no longer put the Start Menu bar at the top of the screen__ (It's less common, but I've done this my entire life).

I think it comes down to the following wishes:

A. I wish Windows 8/10/11 didn't suck so much.

B. I wish Linux was widely-supported by ALL game platforms.

C. I wish macOS gaming wasn't so expensive.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#240

Post by fsflover »

hagbard_c wrote: post #193
fsflover wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's completely incompatible, so in practice it's a different OS. Doesn't mean it's not valuable.

Try Termux and you'll be surprised how much 'Linux' software runs fine on Android, this includes things made to run under X11 etc.

https://github.com/termux-play-store/
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