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Linux Marketshare on Desktops Apparently Hit 6.91% in September, Higher Than Mac
- bigheadpercoli 9y agoBased on the chart the share was a stable 2.5% this year. Then there was a slight uptick in July, and a rapid increase from 2.5% to 7.5%. Was there any major Linux release that would explain that ? Otherwise, i'd go with "This report contains preview data that has NOT been reviewed by Quality Assurance."
- skinnymuch 9y agoSeems like here in this thread like before, casual consensus, is Chromebooks and headless Chrome. The data could be a bit wrong too like you're saying. It doesn't seem like Chromebooks should've made that big of an effect. Maybe a ton of schools are using them now though?
- omarforgotpwd 9y agoAnecdotally, I have to say yeahhhhhhhh riggghttttt. Especially since this seems to have happened suddenly in Aug / Sept. Headless Chrome seems like a far more likely explaination than “2017 is actually finally the year of desktop linux”.
- digi_owl 9y agoCould be. There is a similar, but much smaller, uptick in Chrome browser usage for the same period. Edit: And now it is gone. Seems there is some tweaking of the numbers happening...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pavlov 9y agoDo Chromebooks count? The uptick from August to September looks enormous, but if Chromebooks did well in back-to-school sales to students and schools, it might be real.
- dlp211 9y agoNot just sales to individuals, but schools are adopting the Chromebook as a part of their infrastructure. They are actually a really awesome solution for the EDU space.
- brianwawok 9y agoIndeed. Every single kid in my kids district has a chromebook. 800ish right there.
- jbverschoor 9y agoMaybe its te headless rendering support in chrome.
- giancarlostoro 9y agoI would easily blame Windows 10. Automated forced updates, in file-manager advertising (although to be fair it's just for their cloud file hosting offering so it doesn't bother me half as much as it bothers most). There's other things as well, and Windows 8 the previous incarnation was not well received either. Microsoft really needs to revamp their entire OS team because everywhere else in MS land people are getting happier, but when it comes to the OS itself people are still upset. I've been using Ubuntu / Linux for as long as Windows 10 has been out. I used to use it on and off, but now that Linux is usable on some of my more modern hardware it's hard to switch back. I only use Windows at work for .NET development.
- skinnymuch 9y agoWhy would some backlash against Windows present itself all of a sudden in a 1-2 month span now? You're also using a lot of "I". Windows 10 has been received decently by the public. Windows 8 wasn't but it wasn't the worst reception either since a lot of people were so happy with Windows 7. This could possibly make sense if Windows 10 hadn't come out. But even then the number increase is too great in a short time span to blame Windows 8/10
- skinnymuch 9y agoThe last few times this stuff has appeared here and elsewhere, most assumptions are Chromebooks and school year are accounting for a big part of it. Technically Chromebooks are Linux, but it doesn't seem right to combine them with Linux when doing broad charts or data like this. It would be better to separate it out. A smaller part could be headless Chrome being fully unleashed. Though I'm not so sure about this.
- giancarlostoro 9y agoI would wager its a mixture of people frustrated with both Microsoft and Apple recently going all in on Linux maybe, but it's hard to prove that I suppose?
- dlp211 9y agoI'd take that wager every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
- charlesdm 9y agoI've never seen anyone aside from devs running a linux desktop device, so while I'm not saying this can't be right, I am a bit sceptical. For an average user, Linux can still be quite challenging to use as their main OS.
- jdright 9y agoThere is nothing challenging to my father. 67 years. Internet browsing is exactly the same and he feel safer.
- giancarlostoro 9y agoA few months ago, I saw one of my dads friends (my dad is 59) share a product that you plug in via the USB port on an "old laptop" and it brings life to it. It was no doubt a Linux distort on a USB stick. The product claims to bring life back to old slow laptops. If he can get excited about it without understanding what it does, and we know once you have a USB stick running Linux you're pretty much golden depending on how much you want to do, well he would probably enjoy running Linux off that USB stick and not know the difference. Just tell him where the "Internet" icon is. Also many older people adopted iOS and Android and I never had to stand by and explain it all to neither of my parents despite them not being Windows based devices. People adapt. Just hard to say what caused this Linux spike.
- archildress 9y agoSimple explanation: Chromebooks in schools being powered on.
- digi_owl 9y agoErr, it seems netmarketshare is actively tweaking their data. I just hit refresh on the page, and the number dropped from 6.91 to 4.94...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pmontra 9y agoOMGBuntu doesn't believe the figure http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/10/linux-marketshare-6-91-percent-september-2017 http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/10/linux-marketshare-6-91-pe... > The figure is impressive but is also highly irregular and out of sync with the reported Linux marketshare from other companies like StatCounter and Wikimedia. > [...] > Netmarketshare also stress that the graph showing Linux’s big leap is based on “preview data that has NOT been reviewed by Quality Assurance”. Anecdotally, I was at an Erlang and Elixir event on Saturday morning. The first three speakers were using Ubuntu machines. I didn't notice what the fourth one used. Maybe it's the subject but conferences use to be MacBook monocultures with an occasional Linux or Windows machine.
- ReverseCold 9y agoSeptember is when school starts in the US, leading to increased Chromebook usage(?) That's one likely reason.
- NiveaGeForce 9y agohttp://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide
- mikl 9y agoFrom 2.5% in July to 4.9% in September. Seems highly unlikely that many millions of people decided to switch desktop OS within a couple of months, without anyone noticing.
- kelukelugames 9y agoI wish MGTO and photoshop worked on Linux. I would switch in a heartbeat.
- bigbugbag 9y agoI've always wondered about the people using linux for privacy reason going the extra step to mask their operating system and block trackers. Would they appear anywhere here ? Out of all people using linux as their desktop/laptop I know about a third are privacy minded and take this extra step.
- AlexeyBrin 9y agoIt seems that they are tweaking the results live because I see 4.94% now. Almost 2% lower than Mac.
- z3t4 9y agoI think in the last 20 years Linux has become many orders of magnitude better on all fronts. It's a rolling snowball that has already surpassed other platforms on many levels. The only reason there's only 6-7% market share is that's there very few people selling it. I would say it's an huge market opportunity.
- y4mi 9y agouuuh, no. i've got ubuntu (i3wm) on my home machine and would never consider anything else for my development environment. Not having to manually manage windows was an eye opener to me. but from my experience, most people aren't open to change. they don't want to relearn anything. they just want their old way, forever and ever on. there will be some software that they've used for years. This software will probably be (at best) similar to the linux alternative. But it will be different. And they don't want different. They want the same UX. This applies to both Windows and Apple Users. Its especially confusing if said person knows jack shit about their chosen platform.
- jacksmith21006 9y agoIs this because of the popularity of Chromebooks?
- nadiad 9y agoLinux will dominate the desktop share and we are all waiting for that day. Cheers :)