Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

ostechnix.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 635 posts

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#321

Post by BLKNSLVR »

oblio wrote: post #290
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #277

I had a Teams meeting for an outside of work topic this morning. Since all my personal machines are Linux based I was kinda happy I had my work laptop available with Windows and Teams installed. Booting it up about half an hour before the meeting... Installing updates... After rebooting twice and only five minutes before the meeting started I reverted to my Linux desktop, opened the email with the link to the Teams m…

Do you use your Windows laptop daily?

Normally, yes. Due to current circumstances I hadn't used it the day before (Tuesday) although I did use it Monday.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#322

Post by Nemo_bis »

donatj wrote: post #145

Windows 11 not working on otherwise perfectly good PCs I imagine is at least a small part of it. I've got an 8-core Ryzen system I think from 2016 that's still very powerful and more than good enough for my needs, but Microsoft is insisting I "throw it away and buy a new one", in this economy no less! I also think a number of influencers like PewDiePie moving to Linux has to have moved the needle at least a little as…

It's conceivably part of the reason.

Earlier reporting on Windows MAU noted "400 million Windows PCs vanished in 3 years" (https://www.zdnet.com/article/400-million-windows-pcs-vanish... ). As Windows 11 wrecks havoc on older PCs, many may just sit unused or get discarded, thereby increasing the relative share of the surviving PCs (including Linux PCs).

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#323

Post by charcircuit »

zozbot234 wrote: post #120
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…

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.

This has been repeated for so long that in the meantime enough of the changes have been upstreamed such that Android has been able to run with the upstream kernel since 6 years ago.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#324

Post by happymellon »

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.

By picking a standard menu option I can go to a traditional desktop and use Libre Office and Firefox.

Can I so that with a Switch?

I can plug in a USB dock, with a monitor, mouse and keyboard and edit images with GIMP.

Can I do that with a PS5?

If I like the Steam Deck UI, I can install a package on my desktop and pick it on login, thus gaining basically all of this functionality. I in fact do have the SteamOS 3 UI installed on a gaming PC, and it works really well.

Can I install the PS5 UI and the ability to play PlayStation games on a BSD box?

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#325

Post by MostlyStable »

IsTom wrote: post #234
paulcole wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think his point was that it's not linux but rather that it's not a desktop, and if it counts as a desktop, then so do the rest of the gaming consoles runnining non-linux, which probably didn't get counted so the 5% would be lower.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#326

Post by VagabundoP »

xaitv wrote: post #255
Fokamul wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At least in my circle everyone I know has moved to their general computing being on phones and tablets which is not captured here Interesting, could you tell me which part of US you are from? --- My 2 cents, small country, mid-Europe, more or less in the middle of list of GDP / AIC per capita in EU. Nearly everyone has some sort of PC or laptops for personal use. Now it's changing, kids(~5-13yrs old) are using phon…

Netherlands here. Most people I know (outside of gamers) tend to have a laptop only if they have one for work anyway, they use their phones for banking, tax, searching the correct spelling of words etc. That's in the age groups from like 30 all the way to 70. I don't think I know any non-gamer that has an actual desktop, just people with laptops. For the gamers consoles are the vast majority, of the PC gamers pretty…

College students will have laptops or a laptop-like device.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#327

Post by scarface_74 »

jabroni_salad wrote: post #309
Fokamul wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At least in my circle everyone I know has moved to their general computing being on phones and tablets which is not captured here Interesting, could you tell me which part of US you are from? --- My 2 cents, small country, mid-Europe, more or less in the middle of list of GDP / AIC per capita in EU. Nearly everyone has some sort of PC or laptops for personal use. Now it's changing, kids(~5-13yrs old) are using phon…

(US minnesota) recently a 23 year old new hire advised me that he doesn't have a normal computer or laptop and he buys plane tickets, files his taxes, plans projects etc on a phone or ipad. Thinking that some tasks are better suited to a desk / 2 monitors is apparently a millennial thing now .

I had my first personal computer in 1986. But I can easily do all of those things just as conveniently on my phone.

90% of tax payers claim the standard deduction. That means filing your taxes just means going to Turbo tax and it importing your W2’s automatically if your employer uses one of the major payment providers like ADP or worse case taking a picture of your W2, clicking “Next” a few times after answering a few questions and it’s done.

Why would I need a desktop to buy plane tickets? I launch my airline app, get the ticket.

Plans? For my personal projects I use Trello. I have an M2 MacBook Air that I only bought when I was between jobs for around a month to do a side contract.

My wife wanted a new computer to replace her aging x86 MacBook Air and then her older iPad went out. We bought an iPad Air 13 inch and paid $70 for a regular old Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and that’s her “computer” now.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#328

Post by happymellon »

nerdjon wrote: post #105
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…

Admittedly yeah SteamOS does walk that line, and I guess technically given that I think these numbers are based on browser data it would only be capturing the people that actually go into desktop mode (maybe?). But, I think there is a conversation around this to ask how many of the people using a Steam Deck actually go into desktop mode or care that it is Linux (or even understand that it is Linux) vs would switch to…

> how many of the people using a Steam Deck actually go into desktop mode or care that it is Linux

How many Windows users care that it is Windows? They just want to click on the Internet icon.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#329

Post by booleandilemma »

tiborsaas wrote: post #43
ryandv wrote: post #22

Based on the history of the tech industry, Linux adoption should be kept at this level and advanced no further. This is already the sweet spot for the "year of the Linux desktop," which should be celebrated by experts, technical users, and the sufficiently motivated. Once the unwashed masses start coming in, the software and its interaction patterns pander to the lowest common denominator and the quality of the mediu…

"oh no, the peasants are using MY operating system, this can't be good"

The problem when the masses come in is then we lose the whimsy. They will be offended by commands like "kill" and "fsck" and there will be stupid campaigns to change things.

It happened with git a few years ago, when people were up in arms over its use of the word "master". Stupid, pointless changes will be made to appease these people.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#330

Post by juliusdavies »

827a wrote: post #250
zokier wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. Cloudflare has also OS stats available and I'd imagine they are far more reliable. Some silver lining of them having such wide dragnet on the web. They report 4.4% Linux desktop marketshare in the US. Tbh I believe the summer vacation season probably influences the numbers here, but there is some real growth too. https://radar.cloudflare.com/explorer?dataSet=http&groupBy=o...

1. Radar is also reporting a Linux increase over the past month: 3.3% to 4.4%. 2. Both StatsCounter and Radar break out Linux and ChromeOS; if you combine them, StatsCounter hits 7.7%; Radar hits 6.3%. 3. That being said: Both StatsCounter and Radar experienced an anomalous drop in ChromeOS clients & rise in Linux clients over the past month. StatsCounter took ChromeOS from ~4.4% to 2.7%. Radar took it 2.6% -> 1.9%.…

I find this compelling, alongside the fact ChromeBooks are well placed in retail shops and usually the cheapest things you can buy. They are also ubiquitous in elementary schools. This is more about ChromeBooks than linux.

Add the fact that all my kids hate their school chromebooks.... maybe this isn't such great news for Linux afterall.

Post reply on HN