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And still we’re at 4% market share. They don’t seem to be doing a very good job.
Obviously, it’s Microsoft what did you expect? A job well done?
Its 3.88%, not 4%.
But I think we are hitting 4% quite soon.
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/
When i first got here we hadn’t even hit 1% yet. Open source scares Microsoft because if they fuck up they are done but we have a million distributions with a million different mutations its perfect evolution we cannot get worse only better.
Oh, it can get worse. If Windows market share should really plummet, it won’t be replaced by a heterogenous distro utopia but some company like Canonical or Red Hat or a new one will get their distribution to fill the gap. And call me a cynic but I doubt this will be immune to enshittification.
But even that scenario is better than what we have with Microsoft and Apple. The FOSS world would still benefit like it does from the Steam Deck developments.
Well, no offense intended, but that is cynical. The only way for enshittification to hit Linux would be if only one group controlled it. When IBM/Red Hat discontinued CentOS, the community immediately moved to fill the gap with AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux.
That said, yes, things can always get worse. I don’t think Linux is immune to having problems, but not on the scale of what’s happening with Windows with their Copilot garbage.
My response to that is Flatpak. 16MB of software requiring 700MB to download and consuming 2.8GB of disk space. Linux absolutely can be bad, due to cultural issues.
(My example software above is Handbrake. I’m sure someone’s going to “well actually” me about this, and I don’t even care. I don’t see how it can be justified, and I’m kind of curious to see if someone can do it.)
it’s great for applications that are notorious for requiring specific versions of libraries and can cause dependency hell. moves unnecessary system dependencies into a sandbox. for me this means i don’t have to enable multilib to install Steam and pull in 32 bit libraries on my root.
while it does take a lot of disc space it doesn’t duplicate dependencies in most cases. i would say you receive some good benefits at the cost of a bit more disc space, such as increased security, easy installs, explicit app permissions. it’s great for when you have to install a proprietary tool in that you gain control of what it’s allowed to access.
But it appears like we’re in a situation where it’s not used for specific situations, but for lots of different things. Just a few Flatpak programs starts to chew through a significant amount of disk space, and some programs are only being distributed as Flatpaks.
flatpak distribution is generally done by the developer as a common packaging method. if a distribution wants a native install it’s up to package maintainers of the distribution to support the application. although the package maintainers have to make sure they’re packaging the right versions of dependencies which becomes a problem known as dependency hell.
in your example of handbrake it’s true the main application is pretty small but that’s because it relies on libraries and is a wrapper for ffmpeg. even if you install through a package manager you still need to compare the total size of dependencies.
the disc space usage becomes a problem due to installing libraries both natively and in sandbox. however if you keep a relatively small system install and install applications through flatpak the disc usage will be pretty negligible. if disc space is really a concern then using something like btrfs with compression+dedup would probably solve most problems.
We are already (mostly all of us) stuck with one company’s systemd. We’re already on some portion of what you’re describing. As long as we use FOSS I think somebody will be able to fork any software that starts turning to shit with ads, LLM everywhere, spying on your activity, etc.
Thats a very cool perspective. I hadnt considered this. Everyone seems to be hating on linux‘s fracturization but it does remind me of evolution now that you mention it.
Principally correct, but please note the difference between “open-source software” (OSS) and “free and open-source software” (FOSS). They are two related, but different philosophies, and principally, GNU/Linux belongs to the latter rather than to the former.
If FOSS ever fails, it’s going to be because of ridiculously stupid pedantry like this.
“I’d just like to interject for a moment…”
Well the principle i was talking about requires free forking which would make it foss.
Not the best job, but I guarantee it’s having an effect.
I say this as someone who finally gave Linux another chance about a month ago (due to annoyances with Microsoft) and it’s going really well!
Even a noob like me can just install KDE and learn a few “launch through steam” tricks and I’ve had very minimal issues!
I think a lot of the casuals like me still think Linux is all terminals and command lines, but it’s clear it doesn’t have to be now. And Microsoft’s campaign is what pushed me to come look again!
Market share is going to be a pretty bad metric for this kind of thing because businesses and government are going to stick with even old ass windowsnl installs long after any normal user would have at least upgraded, if not moved to Linux.
Just in my office alone there’s got to be at least 50 PCs running windows, and I bet half of the people here don’t even have a machine at home, so that’s 75 PCs or so amongst just me and my co-workers, and even if every assumed worker went Linux today we’d still be at over 50% windows market share of people who work at my office.
So like, unless multiple businesses and governments that have shown to not care already suddenly decide to were never going to see 50% adoption
Unless we stop including businesses and similar in that share stat.
You may be right, but I think, that in the long term it is possible for Linux to overcome Windows in market share. Also,Germany(the Government of Schleswig Hstein to be Accurate) recently decided on switching to Linux and other Foss Software for their offices. This means, 30.000 workers not using Microsofts bullshit.
I guess a better metric might be the Steam Hardware Survey?
And rising
You must be joking. 4% is kind of huge. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of users
And it’s been less than a year since we passed the 3% mark. Linux adoption is accelerating rapidly, and that’s only going to increase as its market share continues to grow and more vendors start supporting it.
It’s more than that, this is why such a small percent number can be so misleading. There are billions of computers active in the world, even if we limit ourselves to only desktops and laptops, nearly half a billion personal computers are made and sold each year (Lenovo alone sells over 80 million every year). Under 4% we are talking about roughly a hundred million devices running Linux desktop.
We aren’t at 4% yet. Linux is currently sitting at about 3.88%. Its not that far till 4%,but it still isn’t 4%.
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/
Be glad that it’s actually growing. It used to be so much lower.
And we’re gonna make it grow so much more.
Got any sources? I like following that but I never remember to bookmark
2025 year of the Linux desktop gooooo brrrrrr
Now we just need proper Linux phones as well.
I WANT TO INSTALL FLATPAKS ON MY ANDROID TABLET. ITS ALL I ASK.
Fair phone needs support for Graphene
Fairphone needs to take security seriously and add support for hardware security features, in order for that to happen. https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/112320854846225341
Oh hell, I thought they were good folks. Thank you for making me aware!
What they’re doing in regards to the environment and paying their workers fair wages (throughout the entire supply chain) is great - unfortunately their security practices aren’t. I think buying a Pixel second hand is the best option, it also saves you some money. You already get extended security updates by using GrapheneOS, as they provide full OS updates for the entire period in which Google supplies (firmware) security updates (which tends to be a few years more than they provide Android feature updates. e.g. the Pixel 6a gets 3 years of feature updates but 5 years of security updates. GrapheneOS provides feature updates for the full 5 years).
I would not recommend a Pixel 6 or anything newer. Samsung can’t seem to get 5g working on their own modems (chip that connects to carrier). Samsung generally uses Qualcomm modems for their expensive products. I do hear less people complain with the Pixel 8 but no one should be complaining about a modem in a phone.
I wouldn’t recommend anything older than a Pixel 6, because the 5a will reach its EOL in August, and all the older devices already reached their EOL. Regarding the modem, I don’t know what you are talking about, I never had any issues on the 6a and the 7 Pro, and never heard about such issues. But feel free to explain this to me.
I have the 6. I set my phone to prefer LTE to gain HOURS of battery life and to get a more stable connection. I always have an issue where the phone may take a minute after pressing call to actually initiate a phone call.
My next phone is probably going to be OnePlus. Either the 6T on PostMarketOS if it actually works or just the latest cheaper model (but I’ll wait till the 13, the 6 is only like 2.5 years old).
It would be a much taller order but support for PostMarketOS (a Linux distro meant for mobile) would be huge.
*Valve
True that, OP did Gabe dirty, Gabe tried selling Linux before it became mainstream
but, and correct me if I’m wrong, steam still does not support good graphics on linux. It still only runs on X11 and has no wayland support. So many linux users switch temporarily to windows for gaming only. Valve needs to make the adoption happen faster. They’re the ones still holding gamers from switching from windows, not promote linux as you say. Not to mention tons of top games that still can only run on windows without any way around it (proton compatibility does not work on all games)
Dude, shut up. SteamOS is Wayland. Only the Deck shell (and KDE desktop mode used to) uses X in XWayland mode. But all games run on Wayland. Without Steam massive push of Proton we wouldn’t have the booming Linux gaming scene that we have now. You fucking lot are insufferable, this is why nobody likes Wayland. It is super good, massively better than it was before. Can it be better? Yes, sure. But shut up and let people cook, would you? Recognize a good thing when it happens. Just because it isn’t perfect yet doesn’t mean it isn’t good.
EDIT: You can downvote all you want, that doesn’t change the fact that SteamOS is Wayland, it runs the Gamescope compositor. You asked to be corrected, here I’m correcting you.
I want to say two things, but please ignore the first one, and just reply and focus on the second.
1- you are insufferable.
2- okay my linux is debian on wayland. Can I install and run steam on it without virtual machine? The last time I checked I was told no. If yes, then I will seek the solution and do it because I wish so.
The Steam launcher client itself is still on X, it will run on Xwayland. What the store front Steam runs on is irrelevant though. The Steam helper will run the game on the best possible configuration for the machine, and gamescope can run proton compatibility on Wayland, as long as the game runs on a library that supports it. If the game doesn’t support a Wayland capable library, the game will be run through Xwayland. This is literally how the Steam Deck works. The Steam client not being Wayland is not on itself any limitation on the graphical quality of the games.
I’m putting what you said to work, and thank you for correcting me that’s very helpful. That gives linux users fewer reasons to ever need to touch the filth that is windows.
Honestly, I love windows 10 and windows 7 even more. I have had very little complaints with them and I miss 7 every day. But when support runs out for Windows 10 I’m switching. It seems every single day they come up with another stupid plan or “feature.” Whether it’s AI that’s barely helpful or forcing me to use their software and services, I’m exhausted with the obnoxiously aggressive tactics to get me to use them.
Didn’t Linus say once something like: the OS should not get in the way of the User and just launch there Programs and Manage Resources. This is my Main issue with Windows: all the popups, non scipable settings, and the New “features” are on by default
Or their current debacle where they are having constant screenshots of a person’s computer
True this was my story. I never had in my mind any idea what linux was and never had the slightest desire to change from windows. I considered myself tech savy and able to do and change anything in windows until they forced my laptop hardware to find out that this can’t be the only OS that works as a PC. With W10 end-of-life and after seeing what W11 has become, it’s inevitable that the majority of the whole world will soon shift away from them to linux flavors such as POP OS or mint.
I feel like they could even manage to be a salesperson for OpenIndiana at this point
I literally only play games on my windows PC, so far there’s been no reason for me to switch to Linux. I’ll probably only use it when I get a steam deck
Ironically I play on Linux and have felt no need to switch back to Windows. The games that refuse to have their anticheat function in Proton are games I’m not playing anyway and so far the only thing that requires significant tinkering is modding Skyrim, but that’s something I’m not planning on doing any time soon.
I’ll take the faster and more responsive OS thank you very much.
I can’t tell if you folks don’t realize this is true, not because Windows is bad, but because Windows + WSL is so good lol.
WSL is kind of a pain to use. I would prefer to use either native Linux or Virtualbox
Can you tell me how? WSL1 isn’t a true VM and breaks all the time on me and as far as I can tell WSL2 doesn’t have any proper PCIE or USB passthrough. If I could solve those problems things would be better.
WSL is slower than a snail on a hot summer day
This is just the second phase. Denial.
WSL is so garbage and an admittance from Microsoft that developers only put up with Windows due to corporate mandate. Nobody enjoys developing on Windows.
It’s insane what a little bubble some of you folks live in. Someone told me the other day that storing pii on SharePoint in the EU was illegal and nobody was doing it. Plenty of developers LOVE Windows + WSL.
