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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

#501

Post by ActorNightly »

p_j_w wrote: post #491
ActorNightly wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 11 only sucks if you get the Home version. If you get the Pro version you can disable all the annoyances. New things pop up here and there with each update every few years (recently asking to connect my phone so I can see notifications), but those can be disabled easily. It does suck resources so using it on Laptops is not ideal, but for desktop its by far the best, mostly because of WSL2 integration, which i…

>New things pop up here and there with each update every few years In my experience this is every few weeks.

Then you haven't disabled advertisements or product recommendations. You can do that in the Pro version.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#502

Post by ac29 »

latexr wrote: post #81
WJW wrote: 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.

You can login directly to steam big picture mode using gamescope if you have no need for a traditional desktop: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam#Big_Picture_Mode_from...

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#503

Post by 827a »

zokier wrote: post #368
827a wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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%.…

ChromeOS drop is pretty easily explained by it being predominantly used in education and schools being closed for summer. And that drop muddies all other numbers, because of course the percentages of others go up when one goes down. In summary, I'd wait until November (or at least October) before making any broad conclusions.

Yeah, schools being out explains the major drop in ChromeOS devices; check out Radar's 12 month view and how ChromeOS data looked August/September 2024.

But if it significantly explained the rise in other percentages, we'd see all the other shares go up. However, Windows and MacOS are flat; 64% and 30%, respectively, last and this month.

Only Linux went up; so its likely there's some genuine linux desktop adoption going on. But the rise in Linux marketshare is pretty steep; two months ago Radar measured it at 2.6%, now its 4.4%.

It could be legit. There's been a significant uptick in tech Youtubers pushing linux content (LTT and Jayz have both done recent videos on it), including the Lenovo Legion Linux vs Windows perf comparisons which found Linux to be faster, Lex Fridman just interviewed DHH and they spoke at length about linux setups (~1M viewers on that likely), and the pushback against Apple in the tech circles is reaching a fever pitch.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#505

Post by hollerith »

okasaki wrote: post #388
hollerith wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. Most of these headlines about Linux market share ("mind share"?) are completely uninformative about how widespread the use of Linux is in reality. 12 years ago or so, a similar headline appeared, then someone explained that the Chinese government had recently cracked down on Windows pirating (to appease the Americans) with the result that some PC vendors had stopped including (pirated copies of) Window…

What's "windows pirating" when Microsoft offers public ISO downloads and you can activate them with MAS?

The details of how the Chinese PC buyer gets Windows on his new PC is irrelevant to my point (as is whether it deserves the name "pirating").

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#506

Post by chrsw »

Impressive because nobody has ever successfully made a Linux desktop computer targeted at consumers the way Apple has. I wouldn't count Chromebooks or Android devices. I mean a system you would use as a workstation or a power user's computer. And I don't mean a Windows PC that you have the option of pre-installing Linux on like from Dell or HP. I mean a computer designed and built around Linux.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#507

Post by adamc »

dmd wrote: post #214
adamc wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must be circles. I just visited relatives, and brought my laptop as well as my phone; I barely used the laptop. But my brother always uses his, and his kids used laptops, and even one of my great nieces used a laptop. Did they have phones? Yes. Games isn't the only driver. It's hard to do things like write papers on phones.

Nearly everyone in our family’s (public, Massachusetts) high school writes papers exclusively on their phone.

Interesting. My great nieces have Lenovos (Windows) that they use for school work and light gaming. They'd like better gaming laptops, but don't have them.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#508

Post by trod1234 »

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…

This is largely people who were previously Windows customers but who chose to go another way. Microsoft is doing a lot of shenanigans with their monopoly power, and anti-trust is largely toothless.

I know quite a lot of professionals, who for them the last straw was purchasing the professional edition, and then finding out later after an update that their company lock screens now have ad's posted; and worse, those ads frequently have malware that cause even more headaches for them in a unmanageable way.

The bean counters at MS pushed their biggest supporters over the knifes edge, and alot more people are getting serious about alternatives to MS now.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#509

Post by gosub100 »

ActorNightly wrote: post #348
JadoJodo wrote: post #239

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…

Windows 11 only sucks if you get the Home version. If you get the Pro version you can disable all the annoyances. New things pop up here and there with each update every few years (recently asking to connect my phone so I can see notifications), but those can be disabled easily. It does suck resources so using it on Laptops is not ideal, but for desktop its by far the best, mostly because of WSL2 integration, which i…

I agree with this. Couple years ago I splurged on a nice Thinkpad X1 carbon, and decided to give windows a try after abstaining for many years. I really liked the WSL but overall it was a resource hog. It would blast the fan for seemingly no reason, the task manager would slow down, the laptop would overheat. And even playing basic games like freecell would randomly fail to launch, probably because it couldn't reach the ad server.

What really surprised me was how hard it is to switch back to Linux. After about a year using windows there was a ton of friction to get my mindset back in Linux. But I made the switch and I will never use windows willingly again.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#510

Post by hoherd »

roody15 wrote: post #504

It’s surprising to me it’s not higher. Gaming is excellent on Linux and Windows 11 is simply not good. Just a relative easier distro like Ubuntu is outstanding and learning curve is lower than ever.

I think it's going to keep increasing. I know people who resisted linux for decades and after playing with a Steam Deck are now considering building a linux gaming PC. This is in large part because they are investing into the Steam ecosystem for the first time ever and seeing how great it is. Mad props to Valve for all their work on Proton and Steam.
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