6 ms·

Linux Hits 4% on the Desktop

74 points by throwaway1194 3y ago

zvmaz 3y ago
I can't imagine running another OS other than Linux on my personal machine. You get a sense of control and privacy you won't get from the main other OSes.
- simonblack 3y ago
  Linux 23 years and counting. UNIX for the 10 years before that. I looked at Windows around 1993. Couldn't believe how primitive it was for a GUI.
- SinePost 3y ago
  I can. Any of the free BSDs (of which FreeBSD is one of them).
- nerdix 3y ago
  I find using anything other than a tiling window manager to be extremely painful. I keep a Windows 11 partition on my primary for games. Otherwise I would be full-time Linux on my personal machines.
  - aloisdg 3y ago
    I used to dual boot too but I started playing more and more on Linux and I didn't touch my Windows for two years.
    - blooalien 3y ago
      > "I used to dual boot too but I started playing more and more on Linux and I didn't touch my Windows for two years." Pretty much exactly how I ended up on Linux full-time myself. Eventually the only thing left on my Windows partition was EverQuest, and then suddenly one day WINE started supporting that pretty much flawlessly and that was the end of my dual-boot. Then along comes Humble Bundle and GOG and Steam all with a wide variety of Linux-native games, and later on well-emulated Windows games too, and I just never felt the need (or even want) to dual-boot ever again.
  - hackeraccount 3y ago
    I step onto the Windows GUI occasionally for work and I always walk away missing Sway. There's those snap windows but despite that the whole UI just seems so busy and crowded. This could just be because at some point everything I did was either in a terminal or browser (when did that happen?) and Windows always seems to be sitting around waiting for you to open some windowed app.
throwaway1194 3y ago
+1% on Linux marketshare worldwide in less than 8 months. https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide
- nurtbo 3y ago
  1 percentage point but >30% increase!
- justapassenger 3y ago
  It’s all just a bogus data. Over 10% drop in windows market share in few months, that recovered after few more months? How can anyone believe data like this?
  - pvorb 3y ago
    Yeah, it's more likely they had a broken version of their tracking scripts on some OS/browser versions.
    - justapassenger 3y ago
      [dead]
cranberryturkey 3y ago
[flagged]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
thsksbd 3y ago
"There's dozens of us!" I kid. I've been using Debian as my main OS since about 2012. Once Steve Jobs signed Flash's death warrant, Linux as a desktop became feasible. Its bitter sweet though. Linux is feasible because everything is on the web, which is worse than what we had before.
- zvmaz 3y ago
  > Its bitter sweet though. Linux is feasible because everything is on the web, which is worse than what we had before. What do you mean?
  - oleganza 3y ago
    Late 90s argument against linux sounded like “we need to run Office”. Today i don’t need spreadsheets that are not shared in real time with my colleagues. So you use web version of excel/googlesheets and it doesn’t matter what OS is running your webkit-based browser. Also all the “free software” is in someone else’s server.
  - RcouF1uZ4gsC 3y ago
    In the past there was a binary running on your machine working with data stored locally. You had defacto control of your data. You also had defacto control of the program running since you could look at the assembly, maybe even patch it. Now the software, all runs on the cloud on other people’s computers and your data is stored in their systems and you may or may not be able to get it out easily.
  - thsksbd 3y ago
    The whole point of GNU is having control over the binaries run on your local machine. Today our situation is far worse than that, our data is held and processed by third parties. The advantage of the latter is so great that Big Tech no longer cares of you run some weirdo OS. They own you anyway.
    - hammyhavoc 3y ago
      I self-host almost my entire stack and infra.
nurtbo 3y ago
Does a steam deck count as a Linux desktop?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- londons_explore 3y ago
  Indeed - when stats jump up so fast, one has to suspect a new commercial product that reports as Linux. Also, web browser's in cars or some new phone browser.
- silverquiet 3y ago
  I was wondering this as well. I guess it's really a game system, but it is running Linux (a Debian derivative, right?) on PC hardware. Of course one of the problems of Linux is that there's really no singular OS - I'd be curious to see the top 5/10 distros.
  - nerdix 3y ago
    It's an Arch derivative now.
- ThrowawayR2 3y ago
  In the sense that it runs Linux as its primary operating system, yes. In the sense that it's a "victory" over Windows, no, since it's entire purpose is to emulate Windows APIs well enough to run Windows software.
  - pvorb 3y ago
    That's basically the same strategy Windows is using to keep you there with WSL.
    - jrepinc 3y ago
      Yet it is not completely the same. Windows has monopoly so by them doing this they just take away another reason to actually switch to GNU/Linux and support it. By Valve doing it on GNU/Linux which has minority, they are just giving an excuse to developers of games to not properly support GNU/Linux. Just look at what happened with OS/2 which had better Windows emulation than Windows itself was. Sure it was not the only things that killed OS/2 (mismanagement at IBM was big part of it too), but it helped all the software vendors ignoring it. I am afraid this is also what is happening with Proton and GNU/Linux. So yeah short term it might be a good thing for the OS, but in long term strategic game, I am afraid it is not so.
colesantiago 3y ago
Hmmm. 4% is still single digits and very close to zero on the desktop if we round it down. Still a long way to go.
- arp242 3y ago
  Please transfer me 9% of your savings then. That's still a single digit and very close to zero if we round it down.
  - hbien 3y ago
    Unfortunately for both of us, 9% of zero is zero :(
- smackeyacky 3y ago
  With the popularity of WSL2 amongst developers, the actual number of people using Linux as a daily development environment would push the statistic much higher than what is being recorded. I mean, it's a running joke about the year of linux on the desktop, but it's been quite a while since that meant anything at all. Most casual users of computing devices have long switched to phones.
  - blooalien 3y ago
    > "Most casual users of computing devices have long switched to phones." ... which almost exclusively tend to be some bastardized Unix or Linux variant. "Year of the Linux pocket device"? ;)
justapassenger 3y ago
[dead]
alexfoo 3y ago
Finally Year of the Linux Desktop?
ryan-c 3y ago
I don't understand why people give any credence to this data. May 2023, for example, screams unfiltered bots: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/android/mobile-tablet/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/android/m...
- dns_snek 3y ago
  They collect data using tracking scripts too, which most tech savvy users block, i.e. majority of those using Linux. Their Firefox market share figures are refuted by Cloudflare Radar (which doesn't rely on tracking scripts), for example.
  - ryan-c 3y ago
    All the data is based on page views, and they seem to support non-javascript, which means they don't even have the possibility of detecting a lot of bots.
CharlesW 3y ago
FWIW, this is from StatCounter, so it's just one data point from sites that use their free counter (less than 1% of websites). StatCounter provides the most optimistic estimate available. Another data point is from Steam, which says 1.76%. https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey?platform=combined https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey?platform=combined
- pdpi 3y ago
  The Steam Hardware Survey is a survey on the population of a gaming storefront. Despite Valve’s own efforts, Linux is still very much a second-class citizen in the gaming world. StatCounter might not be the most accurate predictor ever but, as a web analytics tool, is going to be more representative of the population at large that gaming microcosm.
  - CharlesW 3y ago
    > …Linux is still very much a second-class citizen in the gaming world. I understand, just citing it to put a pin in the lower end of the range. I'd bet on ~3% actual.
  - jrepinc 3y ago
    Steam survey might also additionaly be skewed away from GNU/Linux. In all those years I have never gottent the survey popup on any of my GNU/Linux machines (except Steam Deck), but have gotten it many time on Windows when still using it, and on the Windows machine at work which I have to use to test stuff it was also shown regularly. Not one single time on GNU/Linux machines. Is this widespread? If it is then I guess there should be even more of uss according to Steam survey.
jsnell 3y ago
Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38853877 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38853877 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39252801 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39252801
anonzzzies 3y ago
Linux mainly since the end 90s. Most of it with i3. There is simply nothing more productive for me. It feels handicapped using anything else; it feels actually clunky when I see other people using something else.
mid-kid 3y ago
I wonder to what extent this is due to the general decline of the desktop market share.

74 points by throwaway1194 3y ago

I can't imagine running another OS other than Linux on my personal machine. You get a sense of control and privacy you won't get from the main other OSes.

simonblack 3y ago
Linux 23 years and counting. UNIX for the 10 years before that. I looked at Windows around 1993. Couldn't believe how primitive it was for a GUI.
SinePost 3y ago
I can. Any of the free BSDs (of which FreeBSD is one of them).
nerdix 3y ago
I find using anything other than a tiling window manager to be extremely painful. I keep a Windows 11 partition on my primary for games. Otherwise I would be full-time Linux on my personal machines.
- aloisdg 3y ago
  I used to dual boot too but I started playing more and more on Linux and I didn't touch my Windows for two years.
  - blooalien 3y ago
    > "I used to dual boot too but I started playing more and more on Linux and I didn't touch my Windows for two years." Pretty much exactly how I ended up on Linux full-time myself. Eventually the only thing left on my Windows partition was EverQuest, and then suddenly one day WINE started supporting that pretty much flawlessly and that was the end of my dual-boot. Then along comes Humble Bundle and GOG and Steam all with a wide variety of Linux-native games, and later on well-emulated Windows games too, and I just never felt the need (or even want) to dual-boot ever again.
- hackeraccount 3y ago
  I step onto the Windows GUI occasionally for work and I always walk away missing Sway. There's those snap windows but despite that the whole UI just seems so busy and crowded. This could just be because at some point everything I did was either in a terminal or browser (when did that happen?) and Windows always seems to be sitting around waiting for you to open some windowed app.

throwaway1194 3y ago

+1% on Linux marketshare worldwide in less than 8 months. https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide

nurtbo 3y ago
1 percentage point but >30% increase!
justapassenger 3y ago
It’s all just a bogus data. Over 10% drop in windows market share in few months, that recovered after few more months? How can anyone believe data like this?
- pvorb 3y ago
  Yeah, it's more likely they had a broken version of their tracking scripts on some OS/browser versions.
  - justapassenger 3y ago
    [dead]

cranberryturkey 3y ago

[flagged]

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

thsksbd 3y ago

"There's dozens of us!" I kid. I've been using Debian as my main OS since about 2012. Once Steve Jobs signed Flash's death warrant, Linux as a desktop became feasible. Its bitter sweet though. Linux is feasible because everything is on the web, which is worse than what we had before.

zvmaz 3y ago
> Its bitter sweet though. Linux is feasible because everything is on the web, which is worse than what we had before. What do you mean?
- oleganza 3y ago
  Late 90s argument against linux sounded like “we need to run Office”. Today i don’t need spreadsheets that are not shared in real time with my colleagues. So you use web version of excel/googlesheets and it doesn’t matter what OS is running your webkit-based browser. Also all the “free software” is in someone else’s server.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 3y ago
  In the past there was a binary running on your machine working with data stored locally. You had defacto control of your data. You also had defacto control of the program running since you could look at the assembly, maybe even patch it. Now the software, all runs on the cloud on other people’s computers and your data is stored in their systems and you may or may not be able to get it out easily.
- thsksbd 3y ago
  The whole point of GNU is having control over the binaries run on your local machine. Today our situation is far worse than that, our data is held and processed by third parties. The advantage of the latter is so great that Big Tech no longer cares of you run some weirdo OS. They own you anyway.
  - hammyhavoc 3y ago
    I self-host almost my entire stack and infra.

nurtbo 3y ago

Does a steam deck count as a Linux desktop?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
londons_explore 3y ago
Indeed - when stats jump up so fast, one has to suspect a new commercial product that reports as Linux. Also, web browser's in cars or some new phone browser.
silverquiet 3y ago
I was wondering this as well. I guess it's really a game system, but it is running Linux (a Debian derivative, right?) on PC hardware. Of course one of the problems of Linux is that there's really no singular OS - I'd be curious to see the top 5/10 distros.
- nerdix 3y ago
  It's an Arch derivative now.
ThrowawayR2 3y ago
In the sense that it runs Linux as its primary operating system, yes. In the sense that it's a "victory" over Windows, no, since it's entire purpose is to emulate Windows APIs well enough to run Windows software.
- pvorb 3y ago
  That's basically the same strategy Windows is using to keep you there with WSL.
  - jrepinc 3y ago
    Yet it is not completely the same. Windows has monopoly so by them doing this they just take away another reason to actually switch to GNU/Linux and support it. By Valve doing it on GNU/Linux which has minority, they are just giving an excuse to developers of games to not properly support GNU/Linux. Just look at what happened with OS/2 which had better Windows emulation than Windows itself was. Sure it was not the only things that killed OS/2 (mismanagement at IBM was big part of it too), but it helped all the software vendors ignoring it. I am afraid this is also what is happening with Proton and GNU/Linux. So yeah short term it might be a good thing for the OS, but in long term strategic game, I am afraid it is not so.

colesantiago 3y ago

Hmmm. 4% is still single digits and very close to zero on the desktop if we round it down. Still a long way to go.

arp242 3y ago
Please transfer me 9% of your savings then. That's still a single digit and very close to zero if we round it down.
- hbien 3y ago
  Unfortunately for both of us, 9% of zero is zero :(
smackeyacky 3y ago
With the popularity of WSL2 amongst developers, the actual number of people using Linux as a daily development environment would push the statistic much higher than what is being recorded. I mean, it's a running joke about the year of linux on the desktop, but it's been quite a while since that meant anything at all. Most casual users of computing devices have long switched to phones.
- blooalien 3y ago
  > "Most casual users of computing devices have long switched to phones." ... which almost exclusively tend to be some bastardized Unix or Linux variant. "Year of the Linux pocket device"? ;)

justapassenger 3y ago

[dead]

alexfoo 3y ago

Finally Year of the Linux Desktop?

ryan-c 3y ago

I don't understand why people give any credence to this data. May 2023, for example, screams unfiltered bots: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/android/mobile-tablet/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/android/m...

dns_snek 3y ago
They collect data using tracking scripts too, which most tech savvy users block, i.e. majority of those using Linux. Their Firefox market share figures are refuted by Cloudflare Radar (which doesn't rely on tracking scripts), for example.
- ryan-c 3y ago
  All the data is based on page views, and they seem to support non-javascript, which means they don't even have the possibility of detecting a lot of bots.

CharlesW 3y ago

FWIW, this is from StatCounter, so it's just one data point from sites that use their free counter (less than 1% of websites). StatCounter provides the most optimistic estimate available. Another data point is from Steam, which says 1.76%. https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey?platform=combined https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey?platform=combined

pdpi 3y ago
The Steam Hardware Survey is a survey on the population of a gaming storefront. Despite Valve’s own efforts, Linux is still very much a second-class citizen in the gaming world. StatCounter might not be the most accurate predictor ever but, as a web analytics tool, is going to be more representative of the population at large that gaming microcosm.
- CharlesW 3y ago
  > …Linux is still very much a second-class citizen in the gaming world. I understand, just citing it to put a pin in the lower end of the range. I'd bet on ~3% actual.
- jrepinc 3y ago
  Steam survey might also additionaly be skewed away from GNU/Linux. In all those years I have never gottent the survey popup on any of my GNU/Linux machines (except Steam Deck), but have gotten it many time on Windows when still using it, and on the Windows machine at work which I have to use to test stuff it was also shown regularly. Not one single time on GNU/Linux machines. Is this widespread? If it is then I guess there should be even more of uss according to Steam survey.

jsnell 3y ago

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38853877 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38853877 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39252801 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39252801

anonzzzies 3y ago

Linux mainly since the end 90s. Most of it with i3. There is simply nothing more productive for me. It feels handicapped using anything else; it feels actually clunky when I see other people using something else.

mid-kid 3y ago

I wonder to what extent this is due to the general decline of the desktop market share.