Linux market share passes 4% for first time
arstechnica.com
We see the nearly 33-year-old OS’s market share growing 31.3 percent from June 2023, when we last reported on Linux market share, to February. Since June, Linux usage has mostly increased gradually. Overall, there's been a big leap in usage compared to five years ago. In February 2019, Linux was reportedly on 1.58 percent of desktops globally.
Well, Microsoft is doing everything they can to get people to switch to Linux right now...
They are succeeding!
I’ve used Linux for years, certainly for all servers, but preferred the Windows desktop environment until last year.
So many shitty, slow updates. Hassle me to give MS my data or switch to Edge half the times I boot up…
I have fully embraced Gnome Shell and love my Debian setup. Feels great to be in control again!
Also, baseline CPU load is way lower and it’s much more rare to have my fans throttle up.
Valve and Microsoft working together to get people to switch to Linux and make 2024 the Year of Linux on the desktop.
Like for real. Ad ridden OS 11 with no support for a ton of processors that are still in use. My system I built in 2015 still runs fantastic, but my AMD 1600x processor didn't make the cut. No loss there. As soon as OS 10 support stops it'll just be a Linux PC.
Valve has also been a huge help with the constant push for Linux gaming and the Steam Deck.
The increase in Linux is actually from Apple. Both Linux and Windows usage increased while MacOS decreased.
To be horribly pedantic... Not necessarily!
It could be Apple users -> Windows users -> Linux users -- with larger numbers of Apple -> Windows conversions than Windows -> Linux conversions...
You know.
Maybe.
I don't really keep up with Apple stuff, what are they doing for this to possibly happen?
Let me show you how with this PowerPoint! The new Windows11 PowerPoint, while shared in teams is both readable....the ant reading needs DLP fast eyes to shake its head at 130FPS so that the 4 available pixels can be translated into full 4K for the ant. That's when the magic happens that some people are not aware, because if you got an ant farm, it will sometimes arrange the top sand into the current 4k frame. Yes, there's a little loss of you use builder's sand vs playground sand. Also there's only one color...sand. and it freezes a lot!... but do you know how hard it is to translate 4k pixel by pixel? The good news is that if everyone is sharing their cameras you get an absolute awesome view of their faces!... everyone squinting trying to see if that little squiggly thing is the updated bracket you're working on or if it's an ant.
For those that are stuck with it: https://github.com/LeDragoX/Win-Debloat-Tools
Everything they can? They just need to kill off windows, they're not doing that.
That depends on how you look at it.
They have a lot of existing contracts they can't simply annul.
Such as? I love Windows 11 for Auto HDR alone. I never have to think about HDR at all in 11. It just works. In 10 the implementation was wonky at best. It often made things look worse so I literally never used it. Can't wait for the dedicated Copilot key as well. 'Bout time they retired the useless Menu key. I don't know of any Linux distro that integrates AI with the OS... Do you? Cause I'm still willing to switch so long as it has AI and a proper HDR implementation.
Ehy would you want "AI" in an OS?
There are very legitimate usecases.
Better offline translation, image descriptions for the less visually able, being able to search for specific images (e.g. going to the gallery app and searching for all your dog pics). This all could be done offline, privately, using ethically-sourced training data.
Is that how Microsoft will use AI? Lmao of course not
It'll be used as a shitty chatbot that only exists to siphon your data and send it to Microsoft so they can target you with more ads, some of which will be pushed to you via that very same AI "assistant".
You have a point and I was a little too against it. Still, having offline AI will transform any PC into a heater, no?
I'm using AI in a very controlled manner, I don't want somebody else to decide for me where it's applied.
Also, Windows 11 doesn't have support for ultrawide monitors, and I happen to have one.
What do you mean it doesn't support ultrawide monitors? I had an ultrawide for almost a decade and every version of Windows supported it flawlessly.
The new task bar can’t be moved to a short edge, so it obstructs a significant part of the screen.
Windows 11 can be displayed on a ultra wide monitor, but it's not designed to work on that aspect ratio.
So you technically can move the task bar to the edge in Windows 11, but it requires a registry change. Ludicrous, but if you're a home user you can do it.
If you're stuck on an IT-managed install for work like I am, however, you're out of luck
I’ve tested that, the taskbar completely breaks when you do that. Visually it’s at the edge, but everything else assumes that it’s below. For example, opening the start menu opens it at the bottom.
Oh so even if you do the registry workaround it's worthless? Lol amazing, good to know.
Hm so you mean the task bar isn't flexible then? Not quite what I understood by not working with ultrawides but I guess I can see where you're coming from.
The only thing you can change is whether it's centered or left justified, it's not flexible at all.
The problem is that it takes up a significant amount of screen space for nothing.
LOL this is not the market share of Linux.
This is the share of Linux in one certain market of web surfers.
Yeah, misleading headline. They're talking about the linux desktop, and based just on browser stats. Marked share of linux as a whole, including all datacenters, servers, cloud infrastructure, and heck, throw in IOT devices, android, routers, etc, I'm pretty sure it's the dominant OS already.
I just realized... Add in every tv sold this decade, the box bought got because the smart TV sucks, and the third one you got because it was cheap. Probably blue ray players too, if you have one.
That's gotta beat PC sales several times over on its own... We truly live in an absurd world
Linux has conquered the universe literally everywhere apart from the use-case it was originally made for - home PCs.
And tbh, I'd imagine it'd be dominant there too if it weren't for anti-competitive behaviour from Microsoft.
Yeah, "increasing market share" would be something like Netflix ditching FreeBSD for Linux.
Bro don't kill the vibe
2% more and they have to let it into the presidential debates.
Mint 2024: Make America Minty Fresh!
You heard it here first.
2024: Year of the Linux Desktop
1991: Year of the Linux Desktop199219931994...
201920202021202220232024
2023 was officially the year of the Linux laptop for me. The year of the linux desktop for myself may or may not be this year.
Same here. After several false starts over the last 30 years, 2023 was the year of the Linux laptop and server cluster for me. I've put in the work now and I am 100% sure that I'm never going back to Windows for those machines. I still have a fancy new Windows gaming machine though. I don't want to switch it to Linux because it's an Intel/Nvidia machine with three screens and a bunch of peripherals. Whoops!
id reckon youd have to wait for steam machines to have a modern reboot, and I dont think valve wants to push that yet till the majority of popular online miltiplayer games run on linux (the major hurdle linux has for gaming) as a home console replacement user is far more likely to also delve into online multiplayer over the handheld on the go player.
Windows 95 lockups drove me to linux. Options are good.
My year was 2007. I stopped caring about the rest of the world following me by about 2015. 17 years since I touched Windows without being paid to do so. feelsgoodman.jpg
*Linux SBC
Year of the Linux desktop babyyyy
Year of the Linux portable gaming handheld?
2 years in a row babyyyy
Year of the Linux Desktop! 1999-2035!
What happened in 2036?
The Y2K38 Epochalypse bug hit 2 years early due to Microsoft's rushed implementation of Windows Subsystem for Linux under CEO Elon Musk, causing all newer systems running Windows to combust due to a combination of the bug, and a cyberattack on Musk's new chip fab plant in the state of Mexas. The only widespread choices after that are WacOS and Ubuntrue, both parent companies owned by Elon Musk after winning in his presidential prelection in 2026 and removing all antitrust legislation. However there is a hobbyist Unix distribution still being passed around called Briarch that fixed the 2038 problem in 2025 when development started, but you have to be in close proximity to someone with it to get it, which is easy in the country of California but not as easy east of the Nutah border, you really have to trust someone to even ask if they have it.
OS Y came out
I always look forward to the penguin images on articles about Linux
It looks like it's because macos lost a lot for some reason over the last couple of years with Windows and Linux picking up that share. Anyone know why?
My company was pushing MacBooks and iMacs on developers for years, now they're reversing course. I'm guessing it's a combination of the upfront cost and the hassle of enterprise administration, tech support, and security having to officially handle 2 different OS's. It's much easier to have everyone on similar setups, and Windows is basically the "default" OS for corporate users.
The new arch continues to mess up brew, which is by far what people use for development on the platform. In addition, docker and other custom tools are paid on Mac but free on Linux. With companies tightening their belts, Linux is starting to make financial sense.
What's this about Docker not being free on MacOS? I have it installed and use it for dev work and it didn't cost anything.
Docker desktop has a license that restricts commercial use depending on the size of your company/employer.
Use Colima to be on the safe side.
Ah right on thanks for the info, I had no idea. My company is less than 10 people with single digit million revenue so it appears we're not violating anything. I knew they had a paid service, but none of that seems unique to MacOS.
I'm going to guess that everything else became so expensive, like food and rent, that people have less money to spend on a computer, and there's is particularly expensive. But that's just my guess.
People migrating to iPads maybe? I figured that Mac and Linux both would be making gains. Especially with apple silicon being 3 generations in and windows 11 sucking so much.
Wonder if iPads are cutting into that all. Considering they are cheaper than a MacBook which basically requires you to drop at least a grand for entry level devices
to the moon 🚀
Why do I see this link every day on my feed with different thumbnails?
I upvote it every time, sorry
Me too! Just confused who is posting them, and how do they found cuter and cuter penguin photos.
We should thank Microsoft for rendering Windows absolutely unusable, to the point that many people are just jumping ship and installing a Linux distro.
Yeah, microsoft making outlook worse and worse every year sends me to thunderbird. And thunderbird suck on Windows, so I finally switched back to linux after years of using windows (I switched to windows when Windows 10 released).
I am surprised that linux is pretty usable at this point, much better than 7 years ago. I feel much more productive in gnome than on Windows at this point.
While I'm surprised it's still usable at this point, with all the enthusiasm about things ending it, but still not as good as 7 years ago for me.
The year of the Linux desktop was 2011.
What kind of things got worse with outlook? I still use it for work, and the ui has changed, sure, but still seems to do everything it used to. In fact, the progressive web app even works quite well on linux!
I am referring to the email client preinstalled with windows, not the office 365 version. MS adds ad to it and dramatically changed the UI (I forgot what problem I encountered with the new UI), that drives me towards thunderbird.
Ahh, gotcha. Last I saw it was called Windows Live Mail and was already just suuuper basic. I am kind of impressed they managed to make it worse haha
As long as you can't see Linux machines in normal computer stores it will not happen. Users never get the opportunity to experience it. Today there is no killer feature really like the other OS have.
The killer features(for me) are: Privacy(by Default), Opensource, Decent performance on old hardware, looks pretty(variable), basic software compatibility(else i would just use TempleOS)
Not once you get on the Web.
I don't know what you call old. Also not once you get on the Web.
Yessir, and for me that could be a sufficient reason alone. Sad that conkeror is no more usable for a browser.
Atleast i am acutely aware of what is phoning home(Unlike M$), I avoid G services like the plague, but whenever i am forced to use them they sit in a separate FF profile, I know what links what and who are in kahoots with whom: If you take the approach that going on the web is equivalent to waltzing in a big public market square, and apply the appropriate precautions, you can ensure you're late night pillow searches are never linked back to your G account.
My hardware is atleast 13 Yr old at this point, and it runs the latest Linux kernel and the Gnome DE just fine, Video playback and the general Internet is just 'fine'; you can equate it to providing a mobility scooter to an old grandma who is mentally fit
Going on the web is equivalent to waltzing into big port city's cheapest and biggest brothel.
OK, so it's 13 years, I was imagining c2d.
I would equate the darkweb to that moniker and not the general clear web (that is at this point running on the infrastructure of just 3-4 companies, so its more like a choice between malls than individual vendors)
What?
No, "the darkweb" is actually cleaner.
Core 2 Duo
agree to disagree
I once nagged my friend to install Zorin Os lite on his c2d laptop with 2gb of RAM, he still uses it to this day
If you don't surf the Web much - yes, still usable.
Maybe if framework gets big?
People go to computer stores?
Yes, non-linux users
I don't think I remember the last time I heard about someone, Linux user or not, going to a computer store. In fact, I don't even know if there are computer stores around here anymore.
Plenty of big box stores here carry computers. There are also also electronics megastores like Mediamarkt, Saturn, and others.
I don't know about where you live, but in Switzerland there are still stores where you can buy computers. In fact, all computers my parents ever bought are from computer stores.
Sweden. People, including my parents, buy computers (and everything else) online over here. Someone mentioned Mediamarkt, and we do have those around here as well, although I've never heard of anyone actually buying a computer there. But I'm sure some do.
Most likely Best Buy, Office Depot, or Wal Mart for the typical brick and mortar. Apple Stores too, but that's a bit beside the point.
Office Depot gets benefits like a workspace where "hey, a laptop broke, we'll get it warranty repaired, but in the mean time hop over to Office Depot and charge whatever because we need a replacement right this minute". Strangely, even after all this time, there are folks that still need to touch and poke and ask questions before they settle.
Online is great if you are very particular and know what you want and can afford to wait a day or two because you want a somewhat less popular model. If you aren't too particular, want some in person reassurances, or in a great hurry, then brick and mortar still wins.
here i was thinking i must be doing it wrong my last 5 rrigs from newegg. latest build
I'm people, does microcenter count?
You can thank me later - I literally installed Linux back as my primary OS after being back on Windows for ages on the day before this report came out the first time.
Same! Just did it last Friday
I've been a regular user of Debian and Ubuntu for the last 20 years and even though I love the idea of Linux taking market share from Windows the article doesn't in any way analyze the reliability of the statistics.
Statcounter says it gets its desktop operating system (OS) usage stats from tracking code installed on over 1.5 million global websites generating over 5 billion monthly page views.
So... How reliable is this actually? There are a millions reasons for me to fake which is and web browser in using. Some sites actively sabotage the user experience and usability if the OS is not identified as Windows or the web browser is not Chrome/Edge.
I've been working IT since the 90's and there's not a 4% market share of Linux when I look at my friends and colleagues that works IT. The ones I know that doesn't work IT definitively don't use Linux. Att least not in other things than Steam Deck and Android (Linux as in "modified kernel") and maybe some premade img for RPi
Shouldn't this effect cause Linux use to be under reported? That is, the real percentage would be higher than 4%?
I would pretty strongly expect significant correlation between people who spoof their user agent and Linux users.
Idk, I'm a woman approaching my senior years who had to have someone else install it. My whole household is on Linux. None of us are in IT.
My grandparents had someone else to install Linux too. It was me btw.
That's the point. As long as you can't buy a laptop with Linux on it at your local computer store, the average user will stick with Windows. And MS will do everything they can to keep it that way.
Down here in Brazil desktops/laptops with Linux are a thing on most mainstream electronics stores. Have been for at least two decades b/cs I remember seeing those as a kid in the 2000s. Because poverty so the stores always have the cheaper options and the ones with Linux are cheaper than windows. Sometimes you can find the exact same configuration but the Linux version is like 200-400 BRL cheaper.
But what most people would do here is buy the Linux desktop to then install pirated versions of windows.
Damn! You really gave me hope there and then smashed it with your last sentence.
A lot of software developers use Linux on their work computers. That's a lot of page views done during work days.
But also many Linux users at home may have to use windows at work so it balances out I guess?
Is it?
Among my friends it's more like 30%
Never heard of this and highly doubt it, but if it were true that's 100% not a website I want to use, so they'd be doing me a favor.
You're free to whatever opinion you might have but it's not a secret that Google used to change their search page to a more limited one if you were using Firefox.
Hence people created add-ons to change the User Agent to mimic Chrome when accessing Google.
Edit: I just reread your comment and noticed that you only quoted the part about Windows.
I'll just let my comment remain but it's okay that you're having an opinion that spoofing OS when accessing websites is not needed.
I'm well aware of that. Browser and OS aren't the same thing. Weird.
I had to check if I was alone on this...I wasn't. First hit on a quick Google:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmasterrace/comments/z5sidv/me_every_time_a_web_page_doesnt_work_because/
So yeah, not alone... this is the hill I'm dying on😁
I've been daily driving Linux for over 3 years and don't remember ever seeing it. And as a web developer I know the only way that would happen is if a shitty business decision mandated it.
...and shitty business decisions there are plenty of.
Gonna second you in this one. My Manjaro box is what I run to as a gold standard if one of my families windows machines using Chrome fails to load something. It's consistent, reliable and fast. What I think is missing from this conversation is: wired or wifi. One of the reasons the Linux machine is the yardstick is that it's not using wifi; never had a first page load fail.
Slack on Linux however... Eesh. Never had an app so reluctant to launch.
Are you also a relatively new Linux user as the guy you are agreeing with has said he is? Because this absolutely happened and was a continuous annoyance in the 2000s.
No, I have been using some form of Linux at home and at work since then too. I distro hopped for many years until one of my coworkers showed me Arch. Oldest story in the book right? I eventually ended up on Manjaro after a drive failure and the need to get something arch-based up fast.
To the substance of your point: no question that the internet was rougher around the edges too though in the early aughts right? Does you want an ActiveX or an ObjectEmbed? Let me load my 2000+ line navigator.appName giant if-then config for my site. Or how about when it was all tables and shim.gif and img tags with width and height. Good times.
There were plenty of these problems between browsers on just one OS. Or even versions of IE. I still see the rows of testing machines in my dreams sometimes, each with a slightly different version of XP and IE. 5.1, 5.5, 6. Ugh. Or how about the early days of flexbox when it was 7s turn.
Chrome wasn't even a thing until 2008 iirc, but that was also post safari-shaking-things-up too. And safari was from WebKit, and WebKit was from who? KHTML baby. (The K is for KDE.)
TLDR you're right, but I don't feel like it is, or ever was just Linux based OS's being targeted so much as bifurcation of standards, or just lack of all the relevant parties (like the W3C and browser makers) sitting down and establishing those standards. It's also a chicken and egg thing with tech too.
None of that is to say it never happened though, I'm just skeptical it was ever at any meaningful scale.
So you are calling everyone out on this because you started using Linux too recently to witness it, therefore it didn't happen.
A quick google search will probably turn up lots of discussion forum results where Linux users were talking about the best way to change their user agent and complaining about sites that forced them to during ~ late 90s -> 2015 (give or take - prob was pretty rare by then).
In most cases it wasn't anti-linux, it was the site being programmed to go "the user agent has to match these things or tell the user it's not compatible with their browser" - but in MANY cases if Windows (or presumably MacOS) wasn't one of the matched things, you received that message. Off the top of my head I specifically remember having to change it to pay my cable bill and get to my bank website.
There were also some more subtle cases where the site would load but some shit would not work (most famously the web interface for Office365 when it was newish).
So you can doubt, but this is what it was like to run Linux in the 2000s.
More recently (for sure post 2016) I recall having to change it to get the Netflix website to let me play content or fix some other bit of functionality on their site. As of today I haven't run netflix in a browser window in years, but I assume that's been resolved by now.
...
So... because I am blocking any and all trackers, I may not count towards this at all? Presumably the same is true of many Lemmy users.
And probably most Linux users, generally.
That's a significant bump since June.
I'm eagerly optimistic about the future of Linux smartphones, as well. I would have already jumped ship if phones like the Librem 5 or the Pinephone had better cameras. Exciting times for Linux folks.
We should each create 5 small VMs with a Linux desktop on them and keep them running.
We'll kick it up to like 5%!
What would people recommend if the main reason you use windows is gaming? I have an AMD CPU and a Nvidia GPU, if drivers are good etc, which OS would you use
Gaming support on Linux is in a really nice place right now. However, if gaming is the only reason you use a laptop, you should stick with Windows, at least for the time being.
To add, if you are on the fence for this reason I'd do an 80/20 dual boot. Buy a second hard drive it doesn't have to be very big, then move your personal files to Linux and use that as a daily driver and have the second drive to just use for nothing but games that won't run on Linux but you really want to play/friends want to play with you. You'll find that you rarely have to use the second boot but the second drive will cover your bases for the edge cases, 256gb or even less should be just fine for the second drive since you should only have 1-2 games that won't play nice with Linux. I wouldn't partition unless you have a massive drive with space to spare it's just really annoying to get the space back into one portion if you decide to go back to a single partition.
I use Linux daily within my job, it's just I'm curious which OS people find the best for gaming (I run servers etc but want to see what people find is the least painful for gaming).
Basically, come the evening after work, I CBA to spend ages configuring stuff to then be able to play as time is precious in the evening
I use mint and barely had to do much trouble shooting and once everything was working how I wanted it didn't break for me I just boot up and play, the things I had to trouble shoot were getting my headphones to work and my Logitech mouse keybindings but they were both 5min searches to find programs to install and fix the problems, if you use Linux for work it will probably be even easier.
I'll have a play later as I have a partition ready for dual boot. I only got windows 11 for cheap to see how it was but the constant bringing up of bing is irritating
Got a desktop, and can support dual boot (I partitioned my SSD at the start to do it so I could test stuff out).
In terms of an os, which would you recommend
If you mean which Linux distribution I'd recommend for a gaming setup, I'd recommend Ubuntu. Many believe it to be the best for gaming on Linux. It also has a large community, so finding support (should you need it) won't be a problem.
Yeah, basically that, I'll have a go with Ubuntu (I use it for servers usually but never used it for my own gaming setup)
It is really nice to see an alternative to US corporate tech making inroads. But to get the numbers even higher the US needs to ban the Chinese and Russians from using Windows and I hope they do.
It's been not that long since most of Windows installations in Russia were pirated ones, with MS updates turned off (in case they try something).
There's a popular opinion that MS liked it this way - they get just as huge a userbase as everywhere else, and they don't have to change pricing policy to make it affordable in ex-USSR.
I'm not sure if there's point to talking seriously about Western software licensing in China.
My point is that numbers won't get higher for such reasons.
I hope there's geometric progression somewhere.
Many Linux distributions suck, and the way many people use Linux sucks too, but it'd still be a bit better world if Linux would be mainstream OS.
Even better if that'd be NetBSD, of course. OpenBSD if performance would be better. FreeBSD - just better.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Linux reached 4.03 percent of global market share in February, according to data from research firm Statcounter.
Statcounter says it gets its desktop operating system (OS) usage stats from tracking code installed on over 1.5 million global websites generating over 5 billion monthly page views.
Since June, ChromeOS adoption took a bit of a dive, representing 2.27 percent of the worldwide market last month.
Windows dominance, meanwhile, mostly increased between June and February, when the Microsoft OS was reportedly on 72.17 percent of computers.
Ultimately, the big OS players are still, by far, Windows and macOS, which represented 87.59 percent of desktop OSes in February.
Still, it’s interesting to watch usage of the open source OS grow, especially as fragmentation and app discovery improve.
The original article contains 675 words, the summary contains 124 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Air passes 10% market share.
It is hard and kinda pointless to talk about market share of something that isn't sold.
It does for software becuase when somthing gains enough marketshare it then becomes somthing that businesses start to consider as a general option.
Like the reason Adobe gets by despite the culture for just pirating their software is becuase even piracy gives market share, and Adobe products are so commonly used that corporations feel obliged to use Adobe licences in their projects.
It's not hard to talk about it at all. People are talking about it right now.
How does it matter whether the software is paid for or not?
thank router firmwares
ixnay
why is this such a big deal when it's still such a small number? I get that it's "increasing" but still
Because it means Linux is gaining enough credibility as a desktop operating system for PC and parts manufacturers to work harder to ensure compatibility.
Everyone seems to want off the Microsoft upgrade train. Consumers don't want to constantly fear that the OS will stop getting security updates because Microsoft doesn't want to make them anymore. Manufacturers of PCs don't want to pay the Microsoft tax. Parts manufacturers know it's actually easier to write drivers for Linux than it is for Windows.
But until Linux shows signs of being a credible and attractive alternative, it's not going to break Microsoft's stranglehold on all three.
It's just a notable milestone. For as long as I can remember Linux marketshare never went above the 3.something% mark.
Fair enough
It's not that small. One more percent and Linux Party gets into federal parlament.
Add in ChromeOS, which is essentially Linux with a proprietary Desktop Environment installed and it's already there.