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  • Fedditor385@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    8 minutes ago

    If it was simple and easy to install and play games on Linux as is on Windows, I would have switched over a decade ago.

  • Sar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    6 hours ago

    The journey of Linux has been one of slow but steady progress, accelerating in recent years. It took eight years to go from 1% to 2% (by April 2021), then just 2.2 years to reach 3% (June 2023), and a mere 0.7 years to hit 4% (February 2024). Now, here we are, at over 5% in the USA! This exponential growth suggests that we’re on a promising upward trend.

    The article was written this month, so it’s conveniently ignoring the fact that the rise from 4% to 5% took 18 months. That’s actually a huge slowdown in uptake, not an acceleration.

    But I’m glad it’s at 5%, even if it’s only in the US. Now let’s get there globally, and keep it going…

    Mind you, the usage on the desktop, as the article says, is probably actually a significant bit higher than 5%, thanks to Unknown, and if you include ChromeOS, which personally it should be IMO.

  • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    23·
    18 hours ago

    I’m doing my part! Switched to Linux earlier this year because Microsoft started showing ads in the start menu. I tried Nobara but ran into some glitches that I didn’t want to troubleshoot so I switched to Bazzite. So far so good.

  • Mark@lemmy.caEnglish
    12·
    17 hours ago

    I put Ubuntu on my year old Windows laptop and to my surprise, everything is just better. I mean better than Windows AND better than Linux ever was before when I used it previously. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing some major manufacturers shipping PCs with Ubuntu pre-loaded in the coming years.

  • kadaverin0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    271·
    20 hours ago

    I hopped on the Linux train when Microsoft began pushing hard for AI integration and Microsoft accounts. I fucking hate AI and I don’t need some corpo cunt looking over my shoulder and taking notes while I use my computer.

    • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      19 hours ago

      Welcome! Because we Linux aficionados are incorrigibly nosy and passionate, which distro did you pick and how are you liking it so far?

      • kadaverin0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        7·
        16 hours ago

        I went with Mint because my technical knowledge of Linux is very basic at the moment. I imagine I’ll jump to a more hands-on distro as my familiarity with it increases. EndeavorOS looks interesting.

        • Sar@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          6 hours ago

          EndeavourOS is fantastic. It’s my default distro because I love Arch, but CBA installing it manually these days. I’ve done my time with the Arch installer over the years 😂

          And the community is great btw.

    • bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      17 hours ago

      Same. It should be illegal for them to be forcing this shit on us. At least I only have to endure it on my work pc. No windows on personal devices

  • RedPandaRaider@feddit.orgEnglish
    9·
    17 hours ago

    I will mainly switch to Linux whenever I feel ready for the headache of setting it up for the first time too. Already got another M.2 SSD to run it alongside my existing Win 10 for anything that doesn’t run on Linux.

  • jsomae@lemmy.mlEnglish
    12·
    18 hours ago

    As pointed out on hackernews, this is likely attributed to (a) decrease in desktop usage by non-linux-users, and (b) the gaming hardware industry embracing linux (steam deck etc.)

    • Auth@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      14 hours ago

      That HN thread was such a shitshow lol. Also I dont think there is anything credible to suggest this increase from 4.6% to 5% is due to ‘non linux users’ or steamdeck. Steamdeck has contributed sure but desktop linux is growing but every single metric (steam hardware survey, PH Desktop user survey, US Gov traffic, tech youtuber trends, etc).

      useless antidote: My friend who is a non techie gamer and she plays a lot of anti cheat type multiplayer games ASKED me to help her switch to linux mint and even when I said thats a bad idea she shouldnt switch she still wanted to. She ended up loving it even though there was a few pain points (fucken nvidia dual screen config on x11) and i think a few of her other friends have even switched after hearing her say it works well.

  • nexguy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    19 hours ago

    I think the fastest way for Linux to spread is for there to be a cheap gross dirty disgusting commercial version pushed at bestbuy/walmart…etc where people can become familiar enough with it to switch to other distros and out still feel familiar.

    • Bluewing@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      15 minutes ago

      I remember when Walmart sold boxed releases of RedHat and Mandrake. My first installs were fueled by $20 boxed releases at Walmart. I was so bummed when they stopped. But I could send away for Ubuntu releases on a CD for free.

    • enthusiasm_headquarters@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      17 hours ago

      I think the fastest way for linux to spread are a) a state-sponsored (totally open source) product that sees a free and open OS as part of a commitment to a free and open society. or 2) one of these fuckhead billionaires drops $200M or so into a trust, rather like the Poetry Foundation, which has the singular commitment to create an OS for people and to support it indefinitely.

      I don’t think the answer to any of society’s ills is to get Wallmart involved. ed: walmart however its spelled WGAS.

    • bloooooort@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      7·
      19 hours ago

      Im a long time Mac user but recently got a steamdeck. Desktop mode uses a version of kde and I really like it, if I had to switch from Mac I would definitely go with linux instead of windows. I think the steam deck will introduce a lot of people to linux.

    • compcube@lemy.lolEnglish
      3·
      19 hours ago

      Do you think ChromeOS could fit that role? At least it shows that an alternative to Windows exists.

  • tehn00bi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    1 day ago

    I made the switch recently for probably the strangest reason.

    I’ve been running win 11 for over a year using a shell tool that allowed me to move my task bar to the top of the screen and some other win 10 functionality.

    However win 11 removed the ability to move the task bar and my shell program lost most of its functionality. After that I was done.

    I’ve Linux off and on since 2002ish so it’s not scary to me and I’m pretty happy with Arch and KDE right now. Still the occasional crash that appears to happen sometimes when watching YouTube.

  • enthusiasm_headquarters@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    17 hours ago

    It doesn’t say how they got this number in the piece (unless I missed it), but it’s likely more than 5% if they are, say, counting the OS by user agent strings hitting a particular tracker. Linux distros use different browsers and they don’t report the OS in an accurate way all the time.

    For a long time my UAS just said “Firefox, the version #, NT-based” or something like that, but now it reports Linux properly… I haven’t been paranoid enough to use a agent switcher lately.

  • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
    31·
    1 day ago

    Wow, that’s excluding Chrome OS, which has 2.71% on it’s own. So you could say Linux is at over 7%, but glad they split it so we know.

    • Wispy2891@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      1 day ago

      ChromeOS is going to the Google graveyard, to be replaced by android

      (Maybe this is a good thing as Chromebooks have an expiration date averaging 3-5 years where they stop getting Chrome updates, when if it’s android can get updates to the browser for a much longer time AND have Firefox as default)

      • kadaverin0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        20 hours ago

        I have an old Chromebook that I used for D&D sessions that is now collecting dust because they stopped supporting the model and use security hardware to prevent overwriting the drive that I have neither the tools or skills to circumvent.

        Google can blow me where the pampers is.

      • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        Well yes, but Android now has a Debian container option. If they expose some Wayland/X interface to it for displaying stuff on Android, for a load of stuff, maybe that is good enough for a lot of stuff?

    • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      Linux as an OS is generally meant as Desktop Linux, and it most definitely is in this context that is about desktop marketshare, Desktop Linux is mostly following freedesktop guidelines, which has traditionally helped standards on Linux a lot to streamline developments. So for instance XFCE/Gnome/KDE desktop apps can be run in all the different desktop environments. For instance also standardizing things like how tray icons work. Freedesktop is part of X.Org Foundation, and Chrome OS does not use X.org or Free Desktop standards at all. The newer Wayland to replace X is also an X.org standard.

      So while Chrome OS is based on the Linux kernel, it is NOT a Linux OS in the original sense, a term that became popular decades before Chrome OS or Android became a thing.

      If you include Chrome OS you might as well include Android too. As it can run on for instance Raspberry Pi and other mini systems, and could be used as a desktop system.

      Chrome OS is a Linux kernel based OS, and not much more than that.
      It’s somewhat confusing in some situations that Linux as a desktop OS doesn’t have a unique name, but it wasn’t a problem originally, as what some prefer to call GNU/Linux was made 100% for desktop use originally.

      The Linux kernel is way way more widespread and successful than what we usually term Desktop Linux or GNU/Linux.

      TLDR:
      Linux OS, Desktop Linux, GNU/Linux are generally meant as the same thing.
      Chrome OS and Android do not belong in that category. They are Linux based as in the Linux kernel only, but do not follow the standards of Desktop Linux.