Don’t panic, thats just me running it on PC, laptop, worklaptop, pinenote, pinephone, steamdeck and in multiple VMs for experimentation. (and don’t forget my randomized fingerprinting setup in the browser)
Was gonna ask if this stat included the Steam Deck, as that’s also accounting for the vast majority of Linux gaming numbers. Whether it does include the Deck or not, it’s a nice rise, but all the better if it doesn’t include the Deck. I wonder if the popularity of using Linux on the Raspberry Pi is helping too.
How many people are reading blogs on their steam decks though? I don’t think it’s having much of an effect for statcounter
You never know, given the Deck has desktop mode. That said, still is a good thing with or without the Deck bolstering the numbers.
How is the PineNote coming along?
I love the idea of the Pinenote, but could never afford one.
This was my question too
How are you randomising your fingerprint? I’m very interested
It rubs the lotion on it’s skin.
Hoe is the pinenote? I have been debating on buying one
https://lemmy.world/comment/8047127
Hardware is pretty solid, software is extremely lacking.
Only buy one if you want to develop for it.
Thanks, I hoped the software would have been a bit more developed by now. I don’t have the time to mess about with it sadly
With MS enshitifying Windows at an ever increasing pace and the hard work of open source developers, volunteers, advocates, to make Linux better and more approachable, I won’t be surprised at all to see that percentage move up.
“You mean its free and doesn’t try to sell me other products the whole time I’m using it?”
There is the psychological factor that Windows behaves more like malware with their forced full screen overlays to shove the Edge into your ass. Over and over again. Microsoft doesn’t take No for an answer like an abusive partner.
You put words to the feeling I get whenever I turn on my work PC. It has relatively little to do with my actual work. It’s the dread of the psychological abuse of everything asking me to update, upgrade, and look at how cool our AI is, try all of our other products, share your opinion, etc. etc. etc. I would be twice as productive if they let me BYOOS (bring your own OS) and if my day to day tools were Linux compatible. There are best practices for this kind of thing, but many of the most “reputable” tech companies willingly disregard them in favor of mind games and dark psychology.
damn, you might get me back on Windows if it feel like that 🥴
And Microsoft keeps enshitifying Windows because they know they can get away with it. So many businesses are backed into a corner and have essential parts of their business that are only compatible with Microsoft’s tech. They can’t switch, they won’t even entertain the idea (much less the time/energy required to test it out). The folks at Microsoft know they’ve won. I won’t be surprised when they make Windows 12’s compatibility even more egregious than 11’s.
Linux also surpassed 10% in my country, Greece (10.72%).
I prepared a couple of old laptops I had around recently, to gift to my niece and cousin, and I put Debian with XFce in both of them. Worked great. And I think that’s why Linux is big in Greece. Consider that when someone buys a car here, they use it until the end of its life. Very rarely they sell cars to get something new. The average car is 15 years old in Greece. I think that’s the deal with old laptops and computers too: people try to extend the lives of their machines.
how do you check for individual countries?
Follow the link in the post and click on “edit chart data”… You can select time frame, countries, which data to show, etc.
deleted by creator
Not surprising considering just how much India is running on old hardware. I wouldn’t be surprised if a big chunk of laptops there don’t even support win11.
That is surprising perhaps govts push for adoption in Kerala and elsewhere is the reason.
Kerala?
https://www.zdnet.com/article/india-slowly-dumping-windows-for-linux/
An article from 2007 about Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Wow, OK. I half expected a linux distro called Kerala. Hopefully this stance spreads!
did you just creative commons kerala? is that even how that works. i cant just run a pc program to creative commons every possible phrase
That’s how licenses work. They protect every single word and if somebody uses that word henceforth, they breach the license.
I saw lot of folks in college switch to Linux, especially Ubuntu back in the day. It was considered synonymous with coding here. There was a time I could recognize that Ubuntu’s Unity DE from anywhere before it was killed(and resurrected again recently).
deleted by creator
I switched completely to Linux somewhere around 2016, I guess. I gave Windows 11 a spin recently but it didn’t leave too good of an impression.
how do you check indovidual countries?
deleted by creator
Haven’t we celebrated 3% just a few months ago?
Removed by mod
There’s separate market shares for mobile devices, and combined as well.
Choosing all platforms we currently get:
Linux - 1.54%
Unknown - 2.42%
OS X - 5.87%
iOS - 17.82%
Windows - 27.39%
Android - 43.74%Removed by mod
Android is Linux, too.
Only if you completely disregard the userland and impound the definition of Linux to the kernel base
Sorry guys, this is just me with a basement full of computers running Linux.
Sorry I’ve been reinstalling my computer about once a week.
Same but with local repos and cached debs so they don’t count
We must all do what we can to BECOME the Mirror.
NixOS user spotted!
I’m a bit more of a masochist, Archlinux. I am beginning to see the appeal of having something like NixOS though.
on an unrelated note, people who squeeze in what os they use to every conversation also rises to 4%.
Just wait for VeganOS to drop.
Is equating Linux users to vegans a thing? I came to the conclusion (I thought) on my own…but now reading this here I’m questioning that conclusion
“how do you know someone [does crossfit, is vegan, uses linux]”
“They’ll tell you”
It’s a fairly common joke and seems to get stapled onto any lifestyle choice that someone likes to talk about
Linux users are like vegetarians Arch users like vegans. One is a dietary choice, the other a cult.
It’s a big thing because it’s much easier to make fun of an objectively better lifestyle choice (avoiding meat or Microsoft etc.) than it is to try and argue against it. Especially because that would force people to question their own behaviour and that can be difficult and hurtful.
nah it’s just a reputation because people who make these choices usually try to spread the word, but sometimes it becomes perceived as obnoxious. vegans just got a bad reputation because it was relatively early internet days, i haven’t seen vegans being as obnoxious as weed smokers, for example.
now, weed smoking is objectively not a better lifestyle choice but i think they’re much much worse than vegans ever were. has nothing to do with arguing against things, not that I would argue against veganism anyway; i admire the choice.
hey I try to be vegan for software, but a moderate and balanced diet is the objectively better lifestyle choice than forcing beans and grass down your throat, and producing enough methane to power 2 dutch ovens.(I am from a predominantly vegetarian culture, most of our meat dishes have only 10% meat in them, which I think is a good enough amount)
It’s not making fun of the lifestyle, it’s the the fact that people who partake in these things seemingly bring it up for no reason.
But honestly I can’t remember the last time a vegan brought up being a vegan for no reason. While here on lemmy it seems every opportunity someone has to claim Linux superiority, no matter how weak, they have to let everyone know how “objectively better” they are.
I use arch btw
tips fedora
I did my part.
It’s already at 112% on my desktop.
I use Debian btw
I’m part of that I just upgraded two of my pc’s to Linux.
It’s so good that it counts as an upgrade.
Replacing Windows is always an upgrade
I just installed WSL so I can learn Linux before I totally get rid of windows. If anyone has any suggestions for windows users learning Linux I will read them!
You could look at dual boot instead of WSL. YouTube has some pretty decent tutorial. Just make sure you take all tutorials with a pinch of salt; don’t EVER run a command without looking it up first and checking out what it does; and try to find the most recent tutorials you can.
You may also have a local Linux club that can help you get started too 🙂
Dual booting always fucks up my Windows installation. I have to fix it using Linux every time I wanna use Windows.
I assume you’ve got the boot partitions on the same drive? I’ve found it is easier when you have windows on a completely separate drive.
My only other suggestion would be to check out the Arch Wiki on dual booting - it’s a goldmine for working out dual boot issues.
Not so easy when you’re trying to do this on a laptop.
I would recommend you to try out Linux in a virtual machine and play around with it. You can watch this video if you don’t know how to set this up. You can do much more with a VM than with WSL. It allows you to basically try any Linux Distribution, whereas WSL only supports a few distros. In a VM you also get a desktop environment by default, whereas WSL mostly restricts you to the terminal. Sure, you can run graphical apps in WSLg, but you still don’t have a Linux desktop. Lastly, it’s much easier to take a snapshot of a VM, and roll back in case you break something.
After you get comfortable in a VM, maybe try booting a Live USB of some Linux distribution. That way you will be able to try it out on your actual hardware.
After that, you can set up dual boot. That way, you can still keep your Windows installation, but also use Linux without any restrictions or limitations.
This year I went back to 100% Linux for my computers. I’ve kept my primary PC with Windows just for games but with the advancements that Proton has made to WINE it hasn’t been necessary. The only thing I miss in being able to use Affinity Publisher and Designer on the computer and not just my tablet.
Same here. Thanks to Proton and SteamDeck, things have reached a point where I can find plenty of things to play without keeping a Windows license around.
Last time I did it was 2008 or 2009, the only game I played much was World of Warcraft and it ran great under WINE at the time. I don’t remember exactly why I switched back to windows back then but it was probably games. I know I needed it when I got my VR headset back in 2016 but it’s been a while since I sold that. I don’t know if Steam VR works on Linux or not, I want to have a headset again.
2024 : The year of the Linux desktop
GUYS, IT’S HAPPENING
This time for sure!!!
10th year in a row
I think at 25 in a row it’s a silver jubilee.
How on earth can people stand using Windows full time? Everything I’m on a Microsoft product I feel claustrophobic!
Uh, most apps are still for Windows. That’s why so many people use it.
If you tell someone to use an alternative OS, but then they are left on their own to run alternative versions of apps that don’t work the same, forced to give up features they are use to, or run dozens of different programs through Wine or Proton or emulation or virtualization or whatever, JUST BECAUSE “Microsoft bad”, they’re going to laugh at you and go right back to Windows.
It’s taken Linux 30(?) years to make it to 4%, and a lot of that is recent because of games. It’s still a niche platform.
Maybe. But this does not change the fact that managing Windows is so much pain even if some of clients I manage computers for have Windows because of the software like Adobe, I think every day how good it would be to get rid of it.
Create an ‘average user’ friendly OS. Similar to ElementaryOS but more easier.
The GUI is elegant and its easy to download apps(applications).
For medium to heavy users, have a developer or advance mode.
PopOS, Mint, Ubuntu. All have that mission.
Honestly I’m at a bit of a loss what people think needs to become simpler.
The people hating on it are either shills or people that tried linux 10 years ago and it wouldn’t run their game so they’ll talk shit. I’ve been over a year now full time linux and it plays all the games I have and have gotten. I’m really impressed with how much better it’s gotten over the past few years.
I run pop os with AMD hardware on wayland.
I think the AMD hardware is a big part of things being a good experience.
I know it helps, but I do have an Intel/Nvidia machine hooked to my tv that my son uses and it’s just as flawless so far.
As someone who has tried it on multiple devices in recent years, it still isn’t smooth enough. And I’ve been assembling computers for 2 decades now. So not entirely technically illiterate, but just not adept in linux. Definitely heavily reliant on use cases for how smooth the experience is. The server side is very well developed with years of linux leaning heavier on that side, but the splintering of frontend has a bit of an android effect. Lots of really cool things but still some jank that you can’t get rid of.
“recent years”, yeah I agree, years ago it wasn’t very good for a daily driver, especially if you want to game. I have no complaints now and it feels great to not be using a malware os.
Recent years of 2021, 22, 23, and 24.
Yeah, that is what Linux needs.
More segregation with yet another distro.
/s
Another distribution doesn’t mean segregation. Diversity and compatibility is the strength of Linux.
Yes it comes with a small cost, but without it Linux wouldn’t have the success it has today.
I use both. Sadly, I have lots of software that doesn’t work (or works pretty bad) on Linux. I love Linux, but there’s no denying it can be frustrated, specially if your hardware doesn’t support it, and that applies to too many people who has no saying in the hardware they use.
So in what world? Corporate world, science, CAD modelling…
There is a big misunderstanding in people’s mind. LInux claims to run on pretty much every system (and it does ofc), but people take it as in every device and drivers is supposed to run flawlessly. I bought a 200 euros thinkpad knowing lenovo supported Linux directly, and I’m more satisfied with it than my 3000 euros macbook pro. In fact I havent opened my work one for 6 months+ lol
Mandatory I use arch btw
Current distros doesn’t support many hardware platform, despite being very well funded. Compared to OpenBSD. (NetBSD is too much, right? and it is not really usable.)
Fedora: Only run on amd64, arm64, arm, ppc64le, s390x
Debian: i386, amd64, arm64, arm, ppc64le, mips64le, s390x, riscv64 (testing).
Alpine: same as Debian but no MIPS support
Add your own here.
There isn’t sparc64 support at all!
https://www.openbsd.org/sparc64.html The other architectures that OpenBSD supports have benefited because some kinds of bugs are exposed more often by the 64-bit big endian nature of UltraSPARC.
https://www.openbsd.org/want.html It is important to spread sparc64 around the development community, since it is the most strict platform for detecting non-portable or buggy code.
OpenBSD: alpha, amd64, arm64, armv7, hppa, i386, landisk, loongson, luna88k, macppc, octeon, powerpc64, riscv64, sparc64 (all equally supported except Alpha)
(VAX is discontinued after 6.9)
I use a Windows 10 virtual machine for this purpose and run Linux on my bare metal hardware. And if I absolutely have to use Windows, I can boot the virtual machine, use Windows, and then shut it back down again until I need it again.
I mean, that’s what I do, do you think that’s feasible for everyone? No. Not everyone is willing to go through that much hassle.
CAD world and corporate PLM is supported on REL or SUSE by Siemens NX v12 and Teamcenter
Stuff just works on windows, I have a proxmox box with some Linux vms to run containers and I’ve tried several times over the last 20 years to move to Linux on my main pc but there are just too many faffy bits.
I really dislike what windows has become, it’s bloat ware that’s getting worse and worse, but I begrudgingly use it as I can be productive, the moment I can be as productive in Linux I’m off of windows, but even simple things like drivers are often not as good, lots of commercial software has barebones or no Linux support, there are many different package managers (on one hand great) but some have permission problems due to sandboxing when you need something like your IDE to have access to the dotnet package, also as a developer building apps/libs for Linux is a nightmare.
For example if I make an app for Windows I build a single binary, same for mac os, for Linux it’s the Wild west, varying versions of glibc various versions of gtk and that’s the simpler stuff.
Anyway I REALLY WANT to like Linux and move away from windows to it, but every time I try its hours/days of hoop jumping before I just end up going back to windows and waiting for windows to annoy me so much I try again.
(just to be clear the annoyances I have with windows are it’s constant ad/bloat ware, it’s segregation of settings and duplication of things, it constantly updating and forcing you to turn off all their nonsense AGAIN)
Linux is a far more reliable operating system at the kernel level, which is why the vast majority of the Internet runs on Linux, and is very stable compared to anyone’s personal computer (no matter O.S). It’s also lighter weight at its core, which is a big plus for servers.
The thing about Linux desktops that tend to be finicky is interop with some proprietary software (e.g nvidia drivers) or desktop environments (gnome can freeze/crash if you like running bleeding edge before bugs are ironed out). Windows has issues too however, free software often literally doesn’t run on Windows (requiring WSL, the same way games on Linux require wine), and the desktop environment is essentially indistinguishable from the base operating system. When you get a desktop environment crash on Windows, your system will BSOD and restart with no recourse, in Linux I can ssh into my still functioning computer and kill my DE, or drop to the TTL and do the same thing.
The end might not seem like a big deal for some people (who cares if you have to restart by a button press or kill your DE and login, they’ll take a similar amount of time), but for someone like me where reliability is a big concern (as in, uptime for the half a dozen services/containers I run for people), this is great. People watching media off of jellyfin don’t have to stop because of a DE bug, but on Windows a BSOD would stop their media (and within the last week we’ve had several BSODs on Windows PCs due to bugs relating things like adaptive sync or sometimes just unknown reasons).
For what it’s worth I also game exclusively on Linux, vk3d, dxvk, and proton are godsends. Somethings don’t work, developers who won’t flip the switch for EAC (e.g Fortnite), but for me the games I play always worked. This will actually change soon, Vanguard is coming to League and that only works on Windows, but also probably not my last install of Windows (I tried W11 when it came out because I’m just curious about new tech), but I had to do a TPMBypassCheck despite having ftpm enabled in the BIOS, and afaict, at least from people I know with similar builds to me, if this happened then firmware TPM probably isn’t being picked up by W11, and that means I need to buy a TPM module or drop to W10 to play League. Plus, vanguard is an intense rootkit with full 24/7 access to your O.S so I probably don’t want that installed anyway, even if it happened to work on Linux. Just going to stick to SoD for now in my free time lol
It’s also lighter weight at its core, which is a big plus for servers.
Really? Busybox is more-or-less feature equivalent to a BSD userland (FreeBSD userland can be a bit more bloated, see the ls man page), but how many people have picked that up? Still using GNU coreutils, haha.
I saw many *BSD developers told Linux kernel developers to hang their work for a while and fix quality problems.
Honestly, you get used to whatever you use and learn to avoid the faffy bits. I was like that with Windows back in the day, I just learned how to deal with it.
Now when I have to use a Windows box, I end up in a rage because of all the stupid shit I just used to avoid or knew how. Most of the useful bits are hidden from that Settings app that seems like it’s designed for children.
So really, if you get down to it and pushed your way through the familiarity stage, you’d be fine. If you want something that doesn’t give you much visible complexity for configuration, use Gnome, if you like to have every setting at your fingertips, use Plasma.
If you want your applications in a single bundle, use AppImage which is essentially what MacOS does.
And for development, being able to do things like containers/distrobox for your toolchains right on your dev box, without whatever the hell it is that Windows does these days is pretty sweet.
That’s exactly it. I’ve been using Linux on my desktop for literally decades now and to me it just works.
Whereas using windows is an endless string of frustrations because everything is awkward and broken and unclear and hidden in places that make no sense.
Of course I manage because I’ve been around long enough, but I always wonder why people choose to use it.
I have the same experience as the author you just replied to. While some of what you are saying is true, I have never had everyday issues like these on windows. I switch to Linux once a year to change things up. Mint, arch, Debian… A few major issues I experience
- login screen just freezes after standby
- wifi not automatically recognizing what settings e.g. security protocol my work wifi uses
- external monitors not working
- updates just breaking my whole OS or not working
These are essentials, not something I can simply learn to live with or fix on the fly.
Would love to switch! I can get through work without proprietary software so that’s not the issue.
Well, that sucks. I’ve used it for decades now and the last 8 or 10 years seems really low-maintenance.
Maybe try a Fedora spin like Nobara next time you get around to it. It’s pretty tuned up and seems stable as hell. And fairly cutting edge.
Most people are not really using the OS. All they do is starting the webbrowser and that’s it. They need input & sound from the OS, but that’s it.
I have to use it at a job. It’s awful, the ads on windows 11 especially.
The majority of people … just aren’t into OSes enough to care.
Windows does what they want it to do, comes with the laptop they bought and doesn’t require much setup for them to start using it. Even a tech illiterate can setup a Windows in 15 minutes.
The more advanced users just know how to read settings, and disable all the parts they do not like. Windows can very much be molded to adapt to the users preference, no matter what the Linux fanatics claim. Most of their arguments come from an ignorant perspective that hasn’t rang true for 10+ years.
This is exactly how I feel. I can’t relax into my work (and my work quality is impacted) when I have to use Windows.
What’s the chance that these are actual regular people doing this?
I downloaded Ubuntu recently. Don’t hurt me
I stopped distro hopping around a decade ago, and just use default Ubuntu LTS releases. No shade from me.
I’m not going to pretend that Ubuntu is the coolest, hippest, trendiest distro around, but it’s good enough, stake enough, and gosh darn it I’m just used to it.
Ubuntu is great because they have a huge community and an enterprise-class, fully supported product. No shade for using it. It’s not my cup of tea, I often find myself wanting to be more on the bleeding edge, and I’ve found Endeavor (an Arch variant) to be amazingly capable.
But I’ve also been using Linux on and off since 97 and exclusove (at least in personal life) since like 2015.
Define “regular people”.
Not tech savvy people. Your aunt.
Hold on here how is Linux Desktop beating out chrome OS? Don’t get me wrong I am totally onboard with Linux winning over chrome OS. But I just don’t believe it.
I can got to any local store right now and buy a Chrome OS computer. I can’t say the same for Linux.
Not sure, but I’ll say that if you use ChromeOS, you’re much more likely to buy special hardware (Chromebooks) to run it on. Not many people download ChromeOS to run on their pre-existing computers. But you can just slap Linux on a toaster if you really want to. Even more, Valve’s Steam Deck comes with Linux by default, and that’s basically a desktop with touch and gamepad controls in mind.
I just wish the culture around open source gave more back to the people working on the software, even if it was just businesses. I think we’d see even more delevopment and support if the one guy making a critical driver for some obscure device that only power plants use, could take a vacation or quit his day job.
People around the world depend on open source being freely available and shareable. But if you’re making millions of dollars a year, I think it’s only fair to give some money to the people making your profit possible.
Not sure, but I’ll say that if you use ChromeOS, you’re much more likely to buy special hardware (Chromebooks) to run it on. Not many people download ChromeOS to run on their pre-existing computers.
That is my point. Normal people are not downloading any OS and installing it on their computers. They are going to the local big box store or online store and buying a computer and using whatever that OS is preinstalled. In my neck of the woods those options are Windows, OSX and Chrome OS. There is no Linux computers at your local big box store. And I am sure you could find a Linux computer online if you specifically searched for it but Amazon is going to put the Linux computer on page 500 if you search for “Laptop”
Valve’s Steam Deck comes with Linux by default
Yeah the Steam Deck is the only thing the came to my mind that mainstream people would get that would have Linux pre-installed. However I can’t imagine it is the steam deck is selling anywhere near the numbers to what Chrome OS computers are selling and also these numbers are based on web browsing. Are people using their steam deck to browse the web? I have a Steam Deck and yes Gaming is amazing on it however if I am being honest the desktop experience is terrible I don’t know how they manage to make the on screen keyboard suck so bad. I would prefer browsing the web on my phone over the Steam Deck. The only way I would browse the web on the Steam Deck is if it was fully setup with a Mouse and Keyboard and External monitor.
Granted this is all just based of my single experience and small corner of the world view point. Maybe Linux is poping off in other parts of the world like in India with a huge population base.
Oh no, I got you. I was kind of looking at if from another angle.
You normally can’t buy a machine with desktop Linux pre-installed, but you can with ChromeOS. Despite that, Linux has a bigger market share. I think part of the reason why is specifically because ChromeOS is so limited and intrinsically tied to Google, that people who do things like install new OSes avoid it like the plague. Google’s push to satisfiy shareholders and build walled gardens is the reason their desktop OS isn’t being used.
I’ve installed Android in virtual machines and played with x86 builds on bare metal. I’ve installed Linux on Macbooks, desktops, servers, and handhelds. I’ve tried out BSD on network shares and other little devices. I’ve never done anything like that with ChromeOS. It holds zero appeal to me, despite being easily purchasable at a retail store.
Isn’t chrome os more or less US specific? Yes, I could buy a laptop with chrome os in central Europe if I looked for it, but is it widespread? Absolutely not. I don’t know single person that have (or had) one.
Yeah, why isn’t ChromeOS rolled into Linux?
I know technically ChromeOS is running Linux under the hood but it has been so bastardized by Google that it looses the spirit of Linux that it shouldn’t be consider the same thing. At least in my opinion.
I’m not sure about that. Android isn’t Linux for those reasons, but ChromeOS is much, much closer to a regular GNU/Linux distro. They’re even switching to Wayland from what I’ve heard. 😄
Linux has much better hardware support overall than Windows.
Yeah linux runs on 30+ year old hardware
And brand new $12k CPUs
Sure but at least from my experience if the desktop hardware doesn’t support Windows we are already talking about a very obscure type of hardware that isn’t going to be mass deployed to the general public that would affect this user agent statistic.
The thing with Windows is that you are dependent on the Manufacture to make drivers for the device. Windows supports nothing out of the box. You can see this if you install Windows stock on a device with no internet. Granted that’s very uncommon but depending on the manufacture for support is a mixed bag sometimes.
Sure but that’s a really really narrow scope. Hardware is designed to work with Windows first. It’s unfortunate but it is what it is and saying hardware support is bad on windows is misleading.
I just know from experience with obscure hardware. You can’t run Windows on your router and Windows 11 doesn’t support serial connections.
