I have a feeling there will be a critical threshold crossed that will explode Linux's popularity and install numbers and I think we're getting close to that point now.
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
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I don't think so. At this point Linux isn't really held back by software availability - 90% of things are web based now and games apparently work pretty well (certainly better than on Mac).
The main issue is hardware support and driver quality. Especially on laptops, if you install Linux you're really rolling the dice on whether or not you'll get something that works.
Someone always replies to comments like these with "it works for me!" which is not really relevant when it has to work for everyone.
For a while at work I was in the Linux slack channel even when I was using a Mac, just to follow the amusing problems people had (and they had a lot!).
Then I moved jobs and have a Linux laptop... I get to experience it first hand. Hard reboot when it runs out of RAM, or 20% or the time when you undock it. Doesn't work at 60Hz/4K on some work monitors but only if you are using HDMI. The exact same laptop model & OS works for other people. Battery life is hilarious. I don't think I've ever got over 2 hours.
I have a lot of experience with Windows and some with Linux.
The driver problems with Laptops are not only on Linux, though it is a lot more common, depending on the manufacturer Windows also has a ton of problems if you don't want to use the 8 year old pre-installed driver that was never updated.
And Linux is held back by (proprietary) software availability as well. Most of the time it would be Microsoft Office (a lot of people I know complain about alternatives like Google Docs or Libre Office not being up to par by a long shot). Another big thing is Games. Sure, most of them work quite well out of the box, but if they do not it would be beyond most of my friend groups skills to fix it. Not to mention the massive library of competitive games that some people play exclusively that just don't work at all.
even touchpad support on Linux is hit or miss, but steadily seems to improve.
Back when it was creeping up to 3% i said its probably 5% and i still hope its that because we are getting really close to global 5%. The other thing is it should probably overtake unknown because then you can really call it the third most popular option without some old windows versions getting in the way.
I think that's wishful thinking. The vast majority of people simply don't give a shit. While the enshittification of Windows continues, Linux numbers will slowly go up. But I'll be quite surprised if I see it go over some significant margin like, say, 25% during my lifetime.
Crazy to think that one of twenty people I meet outside use Linux
I doubt one in twenty people I meet outside even use a computer regularly.
You guys have met 20 people?!
Yeach i have a high suspicion a lot of those gains is not ( or not only ) beacuse linux is gaining popularity but beacuse desktop pcs are loosing one. Especialy if the methodology is based on web stats ( i myself quite often use smartphone to browse even if i actually use pc right now to do whatewer im doing right now ).
This is measuring desktop market share only. You can click to see all platforms where you can see Windows seems to be losing most of its market share to Android in the last few months.
But that's my point. Pepole abandoning pc all together are likely for lack of the better word normies that are very very unlikely to use linux. Wheras pepole who are sticking with PC for whatewer reasons are more likely to be in a group that uses linux. Its just a hypotesis tho , nothing more than a mere speculation.
No, the ones who use Linux don't go outside.
Your assumption is that 100% people you meet outside use a Desktop PC at all.
A laptop also counts.
Actually depending on the definition, everyone that uses the www uses Linux, but that doesn't help.
I know 4 irl. all are my converts
Religion of Holy Linux
I prefer "cult" 🥰
I don't write in rust
but do you write while wearing programming socks
Well what a intelligent decision it was to bombard people with ads in OSs that were paid for.
I switched the day Microsoft clickbaited me into clicking on an ad while testing the new outlook with the paid 365 subscription I had. At this point I was having a constant stream small annoyances at least every week since Windows 7.
My host is running Linux mint now and 365 was replaced by only office (since this seemed to be the most similar and compatible office package I found). Trouble free since January. Battery lasting twice as much. Zero work lost because of unexpected update reboots 👍🏼
I’m so happy, I even bought a Steam deck to support Valve/Proton
Ah youre one of the lucky ones. Battery life on linux is really hit or miss. Sometimes double, sometimes half, sometimes the same. This is because every laptop has to have its own profiles which is not easy to do because that means every laptop has to be owned by someone who can and is willing to develop patches for it.
on my (HP envy x360 ryzen 7) the battery life is largely dependent on what the cpu governer is set to.
Not surprisingly norway is the highest(i could find). Kinda dissapointing as someone who lives in sweden where its really low. Sadly i see this in everyday life as well. Everyones so tech ignorrant in everyday life and most people just find it strange if you dont use the same stuff as everyone else(tbf the culture is also like that) so everyone uses windows with all the spyware. Im not even kidding most people i know use edge and bing...
As a Norwegian, that got to be our coolest stat, however I have no idea how it can be true. Even in my engineering bubble there aren't that many people using Linux. It's all Windows and macs for home computers.
I dont live in norway so i cant say but the number of github users is also really high in norway if i remember right and most norwegians i know are pretty tech literate so i could believe this stat. But you never know how accurate the measurments are and how well your social group represents the whole country. For example hungary only has 3.4% while if i had to guess i would have said like 8~10% because i knew so many people who just used it because it was faster/worked better/was cheaper.
Aren't in Norway all these foreign cryptominers? Maybe that's the reason for the high score?
"Unknown" is my favourite OS personally
100% probably some privacy protected flavor of Linux that doesn’t show up on whatever survey they used
Or just another user agent. Those things update so frequently, it's likely just some analytics that checks user agent.
I am one of these 5% of people, and haven't regretted it since I switched when Win7's support ran out. Unfortunately, I still need to use Windows for work, but since most stuff at work is done in MS Office or browser, it's managable.
I'm honestly surprised. Germany has been the home of OpenSuse for a decade or so now, has had Christian "democrats" torpedoing any effort to get Linux into government (Munich) and yet, now it's at 5.25%? What's going on?
I think Germany also has above average market share of Firefox.
I think europe in general has above average usage of Firefox. It did not die there as much. Alghtough germany is certainly above average in that regard.
Whaaait, this isn't the full story. Microsoft build a new branch location in Munich. It's obvious that there where some deals to get away from linux. (Maybe). The official story is, that the civil servants wants MS Office back.
Actually there are new projects to get away from windows in gov at the other side of Germany: "Schleswig-Holstein"
That's low ngl, I thought Linux in Germany already reached 10% by now
15% here
India?
Yea (atleast we lead in something positive now)
Are you hopeful for the future of Linux in India? It's a large country with lots of people. I don't know if Linux is "just" a regional thing in India or if it's spreading across the entire country.
And, do you know what kind of status / reputation it has in India or the people know you? In my small circle, people only know of it through me. People outside of it either don't know of it or think it's for geeks / unusable to them.
I think most people here dont even use PCs, smartphones are used a lot more than that. And those who use PCs, a majority of them use old hardware forcing them to find alternative operating system (I have experienced this personally and has installed mint on PCs of 6-7 peoples like that). I think old hardware is what pushing them to use linux. Moreover, most geeks use either mac or linux until forced by the company to use windows. Its definitely not a regional thing, as far as reputation is concerned, for normal people its just like windows like people who want to edit files, pp presentations, excel sheets, etc all of it is same as windows due to awesome tools like libreoffice. What else people need mostly? linux GUI has evolved enough to help them for all "normal" use cases, otherwise internet is always there. I think it will continue to grow as a result of recent microsoft F ups and as people become aware.
Thank you for the insight! It makes me hopeful about linux's position in India. Hopefully an increase of prosperity, meaning better hardware, won't mean an increase of windows or mac users.
What distros are used? Is there a good Indian distro?
it makes sense since most germans care about their privacy
@cows_are_underrated India says: 'Hold my Lassi!'
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/india#monthly-202308-202408
Anyone who has a list of argument that have proven to increase the popularity of Linux usage in countries? Example like Windows products are banned in China or similar.
Steam Deck has been cited by a number of articles.