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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

#331
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…

> everyone I know has moved to their general computing being on phones and tablets And of the remaining desktop/laptop users, 90% of their work is being done in a browser. Which makes Linux distros like Ubuntu suitable for more people.

If you are doing all of your work in a browser anyway, you might as well use a less finicky iPad with longer battery life with a regular Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

Why would I recommend a Linux system?

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#334
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be a bit contrarian on this. I think the biggest obstacle in the Linux world is people knee jerk recommending Debian/Ubuntu/Mint/outdated linux. If people rallied around the current SOTA, Fedora, we would've hit 5% a few years ago. The variety of distros cause people to get confused, and go with the most heavily marketed distros, Ubuntu flavors. Just because Ubuntu gave away free CDs 20 years ago, doesnt make…

Fundamentally, Linux is Linux. Differences between distros are vastly overstated, and they mostly amount to different default selections and configurations of the same underlying components. Ultimately, anything that will run on one Linux distro will run on any other, with the only significant differences being on distros that run on unusual architectures or have made major changes to the kernel.

This is idealistic not realistic.

With enough effort, this is true... but out of the box, you are going to have significantly more bugs and conflicts using outdated distros.

I'd love to see a 'time in terminal' by distro. I imagine Fedora would be in the mere minutes per year, and Ubuntu in the hours per year.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#335

I feel like this is more about Linux remaining reliable and the other platforms getting worse, rather than Linux getting substantially better. I no longer have a windows machine. If I can't get a game to run on Linux then I don't bother with it. I played Clair Obscur start, to finish, in Mint on a 3090 with zero issues. I just forced it to load in steam since linux isn't officially supported.

> Linux remaining reliable and the other platforms getting worse, rather than Linux getting substantially better.

But that's a very key point of advantage in by-design open-ness and non-commercialisation.

It's taken 30(-odd?) years and the coining of the word enshittification, but the advantages of this ideology is now having the last of the clay and sand brushed off it, baring its beauty to a growing audience.

And Linux has, in fact, gotten steadily better over that time too, but it's been a slow consistent grind, so it doesn't appear as grand as a sudden red-curtain-unveiling-worthy improvement, but it is, in fact, that grand.

(What Valve / Steam / Proton has done may be the closest to a rapid increase of usability / marketability, but even that has been relatively subtly under the radar unless you're paying attention).

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#339
I don't get the anti-Linux hate that some people have. I get apathy, it's normal not to care. But I don't understand why anyone would actively root against a free and open alternative.

This is great news btw, and consistent with what is coming out of the Steam survey.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#340
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…

I'm not sure but going on 3 years now after having mostly only used it full time at a previous job where everyone's workstation was a Linux one.

It helps that I can now do all of my gaming on Linux, so I'm not touching Windows again, outside of an employer paying for my work devices to use it on.

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