All my extended family has been converted to linux because all they need is a browser, libre office and rustdesk for me to tech support them. The only issue is still printers but tbh they are equally awful on all platforms these days.
I thought Linux had decent printer support compared to windows.
It does, in my experience. At least in Linux Mint.
At home, my old Brother laser is tucked off in a far corner of the house connected to wifi, and my wired home PC as well as my wifi work laptop both see it and can print to it just fine.
At work even those big printers show up and function.
Kubuntu LTS works pretty damn near out-of-the-box as well.
Mint is based on ubuntu so that makes sense to me!
I think they are comparable in that regard honestly?
Printer manufacturers obviously try their best to make their printers work well with Windows.
Printer support on Linux is provided by CUPS, which is developed by Apple. Apple wants its Mac (and maybe also iPhone and iPad?) customers to have good printer support, so they try their best to make CUPS work well.
Printer manufacturers obviously try their best to make their printers work well with Windows.
As a guy who’s worked in IT for around 20 years: LOL.
I did not know about rustdesk. It looks to be very promising, I will give it a try!
Is Linux desktop marketshare increasing or is desktop marketshare decreasing as a whole, though?
If you’re sitting on a Windows 10 machine that can’t upgrade to Windows 11, or if you’re tired of Apple’s walled garden, now’s the time to explore PureOS, a FSF endorsed GNU/Linux distribution.
God damn it. This is how you scare people away from Linux.
Linux market share is increasing even in the charts with all OSes, desktop and mobile.
Yes
Who is using Linux, though? Like, 6% (or 11.3% as others have pointed out) means tens or hundreds of millions of people. But where are they?
How do we know these numbers indicate real people?
I’ve been advocating for Linux for decades. People who have historically just dismissed me have been trying and many have converted.
Also (credit where it’s due) behind the scenes Valve has been greasing the wheels on a transition to Linux gaming … which has quite often been the biggest fiction point in the past.
I’vs seen several content creators outside the traditional Linux bubble try Linux, notably including PewDiePie.
Copilot has shaken many small businesses out of complacency, often into modern self-hosted turn-key Linux solutions.
I have friends on Windows 10 who tell me they will not move to 11 - they’re hoping Microsoft folds, but they’re beginning to build a Linux-shaped parachute.
Who is using Linux, though?
My parents, both of whom are 70+, are using Linux laptops. I installed it for them.
I’ve been using it for over 2 decades as a main OS. I loathe using windows now. Their ads, including web results, and privacy issues. It’s just become cumbersome. You have multiple choices of desktop environments in linux. Don’t like your current DE? Switch to another gnome, kde, cinnimon, mint, etc. You need a program? Install it from the package manager. Remote mount a drive? sure, you don’t have to jump through hoops like windows.
Hi, I’m here. Been using Linux Desktop for years, not solely nor religiously, since I usually have more than one machines at a time. Work, personal, family and such.
Also, does it exactly matter? Hundred of thousands, millions probably, of devices run Windows and they’re not desktop machines. Think info screens, ATMs, Kiosk devices, Industrial Machines and the list goes on.
It doesn’t surprise me that someone (a) on lemmy and (b) in the Linux community would respond with this comment though. But the number of people on lemmy is only a few digits.
It does matter – when I think “Desktop Market Share,” I’m already excluding the type of windows devices you just mentioned.
I mean you asked. There is nothing special about me, I’m not a basement dweller, I have a job and a family, pay taxes and whatever. I’m not in the US if that matters. And I prefer to use other operating systems than windows or macos.
I know, I know. I appreciate your response. But it’s just an anecdote, not really a broad answer IMO.
I use windows and have been since I was a kid in a very computer savvy home. Build my first computer at 8 or 9 years old with surplus 80’s parts, ISO slots and all. First OS install was dos with a shell GUI and have had every major windows iteration starting g with 3.1 and up. Of the more modern ones that followed the windows 95 esthetic, I loved windows 2000 pro, hated xp, then loved 7 pro, hated 8, and accepted windows 8.1. When it came to windows 10 I was already getting frustrated with the excessive bloat and OS level Spyware. Now with eindows 11 BIOS level Spyware and so much bloat even the most modern CPUs lag, this is now a bridge too far for me. I will not be upgrading to 11 and will instead be jumping over to Linux. I played around with Linux in the 2000’s and a bit with server stuff, but never took it seriously as a desktop replacement OS until now.
So who are the ‘real’ people switching over? People like me. I don’t work in IT. 99% of my computer usage is for things I can do through a web browser, office suit, or gaming through steam, all of which is now very accessible through Linux. If this was Linux from 10 or 15 years ago, I don’t think you would have seen the shift happen, but where it is at now is more accessible for the common user than ever before.
🐧🌊
Antarctica rises!
The year of Linux is finally here. Let’s go!
I love to cheer for linux (Fedora user here 😎) but the math and logic in the blog post is off. Firstly, the linux desktop-share for US government websites is much higher, because to calculate it, you have to exclude iOS and Android. But then again, the data may be skewed and linux-users may just be much more prominent visitors of US government websites. I think this sounds credible as many linux users are technically apt and active citizens.
Nevertheless, if the trend is true it is encouraging! Cannot verify because analytics.usa.gov only provides data a calendar year into the past by default and I can’t be bothered to get an api key to see if more can be fetched.
The real desktop linux share for the last 30 days can be calculated:
windows = 33.2 macos = 11.6 linux = 6.9 linux / (windows + macos + linux) = 0.13346228So that’s 13% of desktop users being on Linux. That’s much more than I anticipated.
If the average tech nerd uses linux and uses two computers every day and the average non tech nerd has only one device and uses his computer only once a week.
Could this distort such a usage report?
I tried to find out how DAP identifies users and I think it’s based on device fingerprinting rather than IP address. So, I think, if you were to use two separate linux devices to access a .gov site using DAP it would register as two separate users. I don’t believe frequency of use matters.
Or 1 tech need has containerised 100,000 instances of Linux and is turning them on and off.
I’m already using Debian 13 on my work PC. It’s a self-issued work PC, but still.
Penguin wave
I am on linux mint on both my laptop and my desktop. I only need my phone to be degoogled and I will be all set.
Check out the supported device lists of Graphene OS, Postmarket OS and Ubuntu Touch.
As a long time Ubuntu touch supporter and tester, I unfortunately have to say that it simply isn’t ready for a lot of users at the moment :(
Even if you’re willing to put up with most of its shortcomings, VoLTE device support is extremely limited.
But don’t get me wrong, I REALLY want this stuff to be the future, I think it just needs a bit more time.
Yes. I wanted to do that, but when my last phone broke it was a damn emergency. I was distrustful of phone protection because I remember getting a phone that was armored up in a case and had a tempered glass screen but… it once (first time) fell flat from my shirt pocket onto the ground flat on its front screen and it immediately went black. I had it fixed. New screen, new protector, but the protector made it possible to plug it into charge… so I had to remove it in and out of the case to do so, but the screen was broken from the pressing (like fucking how? A new changed screen AND another tempered glass cover and it was still broken just a stronger finger press?) It just kept breaking. I then refused to use protection for years after that.
But the new one I got? I think it is protection that actually works.
I got a Samsung S23. Before I get a new phone I need to remove 2fa from a lot of shit so they dont have my new phone.
I want to ask a hell of a lot more questions about this, but later.
My advice is to always go in short steps, proving the ground and getting to know the alternatives. I’d recommend installing f-droid and having fun testing all the free apps you can, removing google stuff one by one, then, after feeling comfortable, trying a custom rom, and when you eventually need a new phone, looking for a model more friendly to degoogling.
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I wonder if it isn’t still just a piss in the wind. All Microsoft has to do is require something propretary and the US government and their customers will just roll it out. I don’t fee like we have the ability to choose with our wallets anymore. If they can’t win fairly, Microsoft will cheat and collude with other companies to make them your only option.
That is what they have always done. Embrace, extend, extinguish.
That is what they have always done. Embrace, extend, extinguish.
Jesus, way to advertise your age, dude. This hasn’t been the case for over 20 years. MS was the largest contributor to the Linux repos in around 2010 resulting in WSL. Nothing got extinguished, but we got a bunch of nice compatibility layers from it, not to mention people trying it out and then switching full-time to Linux.
MS was the largest contributor to the Linux repos in around 2010 resulting in WSL.
embrace
Buddy, it’s been 15 years…
5% is 1-20 users.
I doubt in my city that 1 in 20 people are using desktop Linux, which means there must be higher concentrations somewhere else, maybe in some corporate fleets or university labs.
So where are the big concentrations of desktop Linux in the US? I’m not hearing more stories of big migrations happening outside of ChromeOS.
Steamdeck and other linux gaming consoles maybe?
Steamdeck is great, but there are not enough of them to change statistics like this.
I think that’s part of it.
Linux usage is very non-uniform. I think the important clusters are:
- Scientific communities, especially physicists (CERN even has their own distro!).
- Financial sector
- Programmers in general
- Family members of other Linux users
- Poorer countries that can’t afford Windows licenses or newer hardware. (Linux usage in India or Turkey is waay higher than the West)
- Countries that have bad relations with America
-
People fed up with windows’ shit
-
Privacy advocates
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[Coming Soon] People who can’t upgrade to 11 due to hardware who can’t afford a new PC.
People who can’t upgrade to 11
They’ll stay in Windows 10 and ignore security risks.
Some, and some will learn a better way. And the more the poor security starts to affect people, the more will either bite the bullet and upgrade, or switch. And switching becomes more likely if they know someone else in one of the above categories, too.
-
So, if we consider a classroom, it’s roughly 1 or 2 students using linux in each class. I don’t think it’s too far off from real life experience.
While gaming is still 2.64%, meaning that the Chromebooks and discounted PCs without windows contribute massively to the stat
Is gaming stat based on steam survey? If so that shows wild variation, and also has a flawed metric collection. From a steam article they measure your game play of a title during the first 2 weeks of purchase, so if you dualboort and play more time on Windows for that period, that is the stat, negating if you then played months or years on Linux after it.
Statcounter has an other category, and when Linux drops or raises % there is a symmetrically opposite change in the Other %. To me this Other probably includes the machines you mention.
Nothing about Linux users is quiet.
I use arch btw
I have found myself deep in the Nix and nixOS ecosystem myself.
Somehow I feel like mentioning Nix and NixOS is the new ‘I use arch btw’.
(No offense, but reading the ‘I use arch btw’ and then your response right after made me realize this)
Somehow I feel like mentioning Nix and NixOS is the new ‘I use arch btw’.
“I use Nix btw”
Rolls off the tongue in the same way. And, honestly, “I use Arch btw” just isn’t the same hipster know-it-all contrarian meme that it used to be. It has a graphical installer now, and a popular retail device (the Steam Deck) comes with a user-friendly derivative of it installed out of the box.
Meanwhile, NixOS has a huge learning curve that’s off-putting to most non-technical users and even Linux hobbiests. I mean, really—having to configure everything through a functional programming language masquerading as a configuration file format? That’s just the kind of thing that would attract masochists and pedants!
I use Nix btw.
I just left nixos after about two years, and now on cachyos (arch). nixos is pretty cool in a lot of ways, but trying to stay on the bleeding edge of packages and kernels means living in nixos-unstable land, where broken builds are common. and I just got tired of it all.
My condolences
Fun fact: if you have a Steam Deck, Nix (the package manager) is pretty much the only vendor-approved way to safely install extra packages that aren’t otherwise available as a flatpak.
Trying to screw with overlayfs to make pacman usable is/was a thing, and it was a very good way to break the OS install despite it having atomic updates.
Fun fact: SteamOS comes pre-loaded with Distrobox so you can install whatever packages you want.
That’s new. Always good to see them add more ways to customize it.
I think it has been a feature since around 6 months after launch of the Steam Deck but it’s not well known and widely used feature.
Does Steam Deck not have rpm-ostree (or an arch equivalent since RPM is fedora-specific)?
Needs “pac-ostree” or something…
Also, what about distrobox?
I haven’t really tried to do anything package manager-related on my Deck, so I’m going on what I know from Bazzite, but there are several ways to install non-flatpak software on it. In fact, I even installed yay on an Arch distrobox, and I can install things from the AUR (as well as the official repositories).
Does Steam Deck not have rpm-ostree (or an arch equivalent since RPM is fedora-specific)?
Steam Deck has a custom solution involving an A/B partition scheme of immutable btrfs filesystems and overlayfs for layering changes on top of that.
Also, what about distrobox?
If there’s a way to install containerization software with Flatpak, maybe. Docker isn’t available out of the box, though.
I haven’t really tried to do anything package manager-related on my Deck, so I’m going on what I know from Bazzite, but there are several ways to install non-flatpak software on it. In fact, I even installed yay on an Arch distrobox, and I can install things from the AUR (as well as the official repositories).
You can use pacman, but it’s volatile and requires making intentional changes to restore its functionality.
The first option is to disable the read-only flag on the root filesystem, then set pacman back up so it can pull packages. Whenever the root filesystem image is updated, you’ll lose the changes, though.
The second option is to add an overlayfs to persist the changes in a different partition or inside a disk image on the writable storage. There was a tool called “rwfus” that did this, and it worked well enough if you were careful. If you ended up upgrading a package that came installed on the base image, though, it would end up breaking the install when the next update came around.
With all the caveats, when Valve made
/nixavailable as a persistent overlay a couple of years ago, I just bit the bullet and learned how to use Nix to install packages withnix-env -i.Huh, interesting. Thanks for the info
Distrobox works really well in Bazzite, in fact I’m currently typing this comment in LibreWolf in a Fedora toolbox because I was getting a weird lag with the flatpak version. You wouldn’t even know if you didn’t set it up yourself, since it’s just an icon on my launcher like any other program. No noticeable overhead whatsoever either.
SteamOS also ships distrobox OOTB now, so you can use this anywhere.
NixOS isn’t great for non-programmers, I bet, but for programmers it’s amazing.
I’m just now starting my degree is software engineering. I’m 31. I’d gotten comfortable enough with Linux that I wanted to try NixOS to avoid having my system get borked again (in my case, KDE Plasma started having shell crashes at log in).
If I was only using NixOS to run a basic computer set up? Sure, no problem. If I want to rice and customize it? No, I wasn’t ready.
But but Phoronix just told me yesterday that Linux users went dramatically down on Steam from 3% to 2.99%! Almost like this weekly/monthly claim of Linux users “crossing” another imaginary threshold line hold as much value as this comment /s
To be fair, we have to be that way to push back against the field of inveitability that omnipresent corporate marketing creates in our minds.
The extroverted nerdiness is an effective tool to communally deprogram our rheified way of looking at computers so we can envision a different future.
At work, the windows outage spooked management hard. They noticed that our small amout of Linux servers didn’t go down. So now they are OK with us using Linux more. After many decades of Windows.
What Windows outage?
Maybe the CrowdStrike outage last year
That is was a Crowdstike issue not a Windows issue. They have borked Linux updates as well. Microsoft has had their far share of bad updates but none of them were outage level assuming companies properly tested updates.
A lot of these large companies are terrible at multiple levels. It is great to pay premium dollar for junk.
That is was a Crowdstike issue not a Windows issue.
From my understanding, it’s true that CrowdStrike wrote the faulty code and submitted it to Microsoft. Microsoft shares blame in that they didn’t properly vet and test the kernel-level patch CrowdStrike had submitted.
Microsoft doesn’t vet the code. All code is required to be signed but that is it.
Yep, my org had a Falcon sensor outage take out tens of thousands of Linux servers. Fuck Crowdstrike. Also, fuck Windows and fuck Microsoft.
I just wish it could have been longer, and affected my company (it didn’t). A day or two off would have gone down a treat
Yep
Not certain what others experienced, but in my company, a bad Windows Update knocked out most of our computers for a full day. It was so bad, you can see it in like monthly financial reports when it happened.
It was one of the motivators for why my job dropped Microsoft.
