You can set it to go back to 2009. Apparently it hit 3% in Q3 2023. And apparently Windows has steadily been trending downward from 95% to 73% since 2009, which is wild to me. I find it hard to believe that that isn’t due to other factors like increased smartphone use over desktops.
I understand that, but if people stop using desktops entirely (because they already have a phone in their pocket), the remaining users might be more likely to be on macOS or Linux for a specific reason.
I don’t see the methodology on that page so it’s hard to say for sure.
Don’t panic, thats just me running it on PC, laptop, worklaptop, pinenote, pinephone, steamdeck and in multiple VMs for experimentation. (and don’t forget my randomized fingerprinting setup in the browser)
Was gonna ask if this stat included the Steam Deck, as that’s also accounting for the vast majority of Linux gaming numbers. Whether it does include the Deck or not, it’s a nice rise, but all the better if it doesn’t include the Deck. I wonder if the popularity of using Linux on the Raspberry Pi is helping too.
With MS enshitifying Windows at an ever increasing pace and the hard work of open source developers, volunteers, advocates, to make Linux better and more approachable, I won’t be surprised at all to see that percentage move up.
“You mean its free and doesn’t try to sell me other products the whole time I’m using it?”
There is the psychological factor that Windows behaves more like malware with their forced full screen overlays to shove the Edge into your ass. Over and over again. Microsoft doesn’t take No for an answer like an abusive partner.
You put words to the feeling I get whenever I turn on my work PC. It has relatively little to do with my actual work. It’s the dread of the psychological abuse of everything asking me to update, upgrade, and look at how cool our AI is, try all of our other products, share your opinion, etc. etc. etc. I would be twice as productive if they let me BYOOS (bring your own OS) and if my day to day tools were Linux compatible. There are best practices for this kind of thing, but many of the most “reputable” tech companies willingly disregard them in favor of mind games and dark psychology.
And Microsoft keeps enshitifying Windows because they know they can get away with it. So many businesses are backed into a corner and have essential parts of their business that are only compatible with Microsoft’s tech. They can’t switch, they won’t even entertain the idea (much less the time/energy required to test it out). The folks at Microsoft know they’ve won. I won’t be surprised when they make Windows 12’s compatibility even more egregious than 11’s.
Not surprising considering just how much India is running on old hardware. I wouldn’t be surprised if a big chunk of laptops there don’t even support win11.
I saw lot of folks in college switch to Linux, especially Ubuntu back in the day. It was considered synonymous with coding here. There was a time I could recognize that Ubuntu’s Unity DE from anywhere before it was killed(and resurrected again recently).
Add comment