Linux Hits All-Time High of 3% of Desktop PC Share After 30 Years

I just finished a new build today. I’ve been daily driving macOS since about 2006 but tomorrow morning my main dev rig is a fresh Debian 12 workstation running KDE :)

c0l0• 3 years ago

Congrats! I am certain you will enjoy it! :) It's a GREAT time to choose KDE Plasma 5 on Debian 12 - the desktop is at its peak in terms of polish after many years of incremental refinements, and the non-free-firmware-choice Debian made for the 12/"bookworm"-release rendered it much easier to use for most people.

GenericDev• 3 years ago

All hail Steam Deck!

Theofrastus• 3 years ago

My thought as well. I'd suspect Valve's work with SteamOS and Proton has a noticable effect on Linux adoption rates

netule• 3 years ago

The only reason I still have a Windows partition at all is for games that I can’t run on Linux yet like Valorant. Nearly everything else runs perfectly on Ubuntu thanks to Proton.

This, and the occasional firmware flash utility that only has a Windows or MacOS build.

badrabbit3• 3 years ago

I am all for a great linux desktop experience but I don't think getting very popular can happen without making a lot of changes that erode the very reason we migrated to a Linux desktop.

I speculate that many of the most controversial changes in GNU/Linux were rooted in chasing after this goal.

NovaDudely2• 3 years ago

I think it was the developer of Krita who said, it cannot just be open source/Libre - the software has to actually be good. There is a lot of truth to that. FLOSS stuff is good at bringing in the folks that see the point of view of Richard Stallman but that will only go so far... well like 1% of user share far.

I feel there is a moderate middle path when it is possible to get Linux desktop to a state that many can use it but without compromising on the flexibility it can provide. Distro's like Linux Mint are so close nowadays, in a way it is very boring. But boring is what you want. It doesn't just tumble over for like... reasons, but it also it really easy to use if very predictable.

badrabbit3• 3 years ago

Listening to existing instead of potential users (market share chasing), not screwing over users and unix design philosophy are what are important to me. What you said can be acheived while sticking to those. If I want windows or macos I can use those.

kodah3• 3 years ago

I've been using systemd for a while, which I'm surmising is what you're referring to when you say controversial, and it's frankly not a diminished experience for someone that wants a consistently working desktop. The amount of things I used to have to hack into my OS were substantial, these days they're nearly nil and applications have common interfaces to plug into.

I'm not sure what, if anything, I materially gave up other than that all of those components have a contracted API now so all future components will need to adhere to that API.

badrabbit3• 3 years ago

Systemd is a big one, a diminished experience is not the issue, deviance from core unix principles and chasing market share instead of pleasing existing users was the big problem i observed.

For example, OpenRC had comparable boot times as did systemd and it was modern and stuck to the "do one thing" principle. Systemd was chosen because lennart and corporate/rhel people who have influence and a financial interest in expanding market share pushed it. Just like how things are done at apple and microsoft.

hgh• 3 years ago

Timely but I dare ask: I need to rework my thinkpad, still in good shape but with an older ubuntu distro. Reasonably fluent linux user but not expert, primarily dev workflows - what's the recommendation?

hiyer• 3 years ago

You can continue to use Ubuntu (upgrade to 23.04) unless you have an aversion to snaps, in which case you can go with Linux Mint - https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_victoria_mate_whatsnew.php

preisschild• 3 years ago

I can recommend Fedora Workstation for development

kiwijamo• 3 years ago

Debian works brilliantly on two ThinkPads. My old X1 Carbon and my current X390.

lawn• 3 years ago

I've never liked Ubuntu or Debian. Arch Linux is a great alternative. I use Void Linux mostly out of habit.

monero-xmr4• 3 years ago

System76 and PopOS. It just works (hardware and peripherals), is based on Ubuntu, and is a solid build.

izoow• 3 years ago

I love my Kubuntu 22.04. Hands down the best Linux desktop experience I've ever had.

jeswin• 3 years ago

My preferences over the years:

- Before 30: many distros

- Before 35: Mostly ubuntu, latest version (install after a couple of months of general availability)

- After 35: ubuntu LTS versions (install after a couple of months of general availability). Since 16.04 I've been on LTS only; should have done that earlier.

russnes• 3 years ago

unless you really need a very new version of a piece of software, the safest bet will always be the latest LTS version of Ubuntu. You could perhaps just upgrade your laptop OS with the software package GUI?

Fun fact: You don't really need to install any of the "flavors" of Ubuntu to get the various desktop environments (KDE, GNOME, Cinnamon, etc.), you can just install them as a package! (`apt install kde-full`). You can switch between them when logging in.

atemerev• 3 years ago

Fedora. Ubuntu is becoming worse as of lately.

vander_elst• 3 years ago

Why isn't Chrome OS counted as Linux? It runs on a Linux kernel.

NovaDudely2• 3 years ago

It is more the spirit of it and how it is used by the users rather than the technicality of it. I mean Android has a Linux kernel but it is not used in the same way as a desktop computer.

charcircuit• 3 years ago

Android isn't there because it's a mobile operating system which is why it isn't there. Chrome OS is a desktop operating system built on top of Linux.

The idea that some of the Linux community has that anything that makes Linux actually user friendly or gives it wider appeal and gets popular no longer counts as "Linux" is a self defeating mindset.

glimshe• 3 years ago

Chrome OS "is" Linux, but it's like the Borg assimilating the good guys... It's a giant spyware machine reusing open source and doesn't feel "free as in Freedom" irrespective of the license details.

pjmlp5• 3 years ago

Because the userspace is a browser, and only selected models expose a GNU/Linux experience, running on their own sandbox, WSL style.

stodor89• 3 years ago

Rejoice, brothers, for the year of the Linux desktop is upon us!

jtriangle4• 3 years ago

Huzzah!

whobre• 3 years ago

Again.

monero-xmr4• 3 years ago

I switched to Linux for work because docker for macOS always uses 100% of every core given to it. I wonder how much electricity is wasted on macOS docker for every dev using it.

kylehotchkiss• 3 years ago

I haven't had that experience myself, I can run Docker for Mac on my M2 Air without issues. Is your actual workload using 100% of the virtualized CPU?

monero-xmr4• 3 years ago

Somehow it’s always at 100%, battery draining, laptop hot as hell. Quitting docker always solves it. It isn’t the workload. All devs have same issue. Maybe something with Postgres / redis containers (?)

happymellon2• 3 years ago

Ive not always had 100% CPU issues, but with multiple companies and various applications, Docker on Mac will use a lot of resources and cause fans to spin up which would never do so under any circumstance. It could be the terrible AV/"security software" conflicting with a VM, but the results are always the same.

If we are just going to be using VS Code or IntelliJ and run Linux, what are we even using MacOS for? The terrible UI?

avan1• 3 years ago

may we consider the other 3% (3.23) as linux as well ? if so linux total market share is about 10% (including chromeos since you can install linux apps on them as well)

ykonstant• 3 years ago

Linux distros never cease to amaze me; the fact that communities come together and coordinate to tame the eldritch horrors of package dependencies, kernel versions, system layers etc is nothing short of a marvel.

From the bonkers stability and reliability guarantees of Debian to the tightrope-walking offerings of Arch, we are truly spoiled for choices.

lyu072824• 3 years ago

I've been using Linux for over two decades, it has gotten so much easier over the years. I think the biggest consistent issues I still have is wayland/nvidia/amd, capture cards, modern suspend (modern standby/S0ix) and non-existent professional 2d/video/audio authoring (no real photoshop/illustrator/premiere/avid etc. replacement).

But there is so much else that just works nowadays that was a nightmare 20 years ago, the blutooth stack has gotten way better, audio is crazy good at this point (pipewire), gaming is incredible (all thanks to valve/proton), blender of course and moving so much stuff to the modern web (as well as electron) has opened up so much for linux by accident (like video conferencing, finally a decent office suite with google docs, figma, etc.). Of course the development/sysops story has always been better than anywhere else since everything is Linux on the server already anyway so its always been very friction less.

mdhb• 3 years ago

I can realistically see that changing in the next few years with the arrival of WASM/WASI as it effectively provides a new set of compile targets for many of those apps to run in new contexts.

Photoshop is already moving to become a web based application as a result of it for example.

lyu072824• 3 years ago

Yes absolutely that's going to be great for Linux, like adobe et al is never going to support Linux of course, but once they target wasm on the web we get it. Now we just have to figure out a way to trick Nvidia and AMD to give us proper Linux drivers.

jtriangle4• 3 years ago

For photoshop/illustrator, windows vm's work just fine. I will say though, I snagged affinity's photo/designer bundle last black friday and have been very, very impressed at how performant they are.

Shame they don't have native linux support really.

lyu072824• 3 years ago

How do you get 3d acceleration to work in Photoshop in a windows vm? Using the latest virtualbox with opengl enabled and the creative cloud, Photoshop doesn't work properly at all. The only way I can think of is using GPU passthrough but that's still very iffy

NorwegianDude• 3 years ago

Davinci resolve is in my opinion better than premiere, so that's a very good option.

oneshtein• 3 years ago

Android/Linux and ChromeOS/Linux pave the way for the GNU/Linux to desktop. It's much easier to find a linux-compatible hardware today.

pjmlp5• 3 years ago

Not really, as OEMs hardly push their Linux kernel forks upstream, and both of them use their own driver model anyway.

cykros• 3 years ago

Just to pour some water on this otherwise joyful news, the ratio of desktop computers to average people is in decline as mobile devices and smart tv's render them redundant for the casual users for whom even Windows was always too complicated.

Linux users are just less prone to jumping ship, because on average, we actually USE our devices more, as something other than a simple appliance.

I expect this percentage to grow, but not because the world has suddenly decided to adopt Linux; rather, because it has largely decided to ditch desktops.

Linux Hits All-Time High of 3% of Desktop PC Share After 30 Years

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