this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2026
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[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 66 points 1 month ago (5 children)

For NA desktop usage, StatCounter lists Linux as:

  • 3.56% in May
  • 6.14% in June
  • 10.61% in July

Lemmy: "Sure, why not."

[–] sanitation@lemmy.today 42 points 1 month ago

haha. no my thought exactly. but ya know what - I will take it for face value and overreact.
because fuck windows

[–] Dookieman12@piefed.social 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, something is fucky with these numbers. Is there a corresponding drop in Windows/Mac numbers? Or is this due to a large number of new machines appearing out of nowhere?

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's proportional, so by definition there's a corresponding drop. But there's no explanation for why it's happened.

[–] nomidor@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

Yes, in percentages. But the question was about absolute numbers, I think.

[–] Warehouse@piefed.ca 14 points 1 month ago

Canada doesn't show this increase either, going from 3.1-5.6-3.8. Mexico did increase from 2.6 to about 6 percent, and that 6 percent was consistent for June and July.

@theblacklounge@lemmy.zip might be correct in that it's webscrapers.

[–] TheBlackLounge@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 month ago

Is it webscrapers?

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Steam machine and Steam OS for non Steam devices?

[–] Dookieman12@piefed.social 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Steam machine sales numbers are nowhere near high enough for that

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have not seen any numbers for the sales other than an estimated 12k/week.

[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

That's nothing for the scale of OS market share.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

So instead of it being crazy in itself that Linux use should triple within a few months, you suggest that a tiny fragment of the Linux ecosphere alone is responsible?
I think the more likely explanation here is that the collection of data or use of the data behind the stat is flawed.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

I'm sure they've worked to raise awareness that Linux is a great alternative to Windows, but they aren't directly making this large of a difference.

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 36 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Cool. Been on Linux for a couple years. No real complaints. No tinkering. It just works and is a boring-ass plasma kde desktop environment.

[–] BladeFederation@piefed.social 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

KDE is only boring if you allow it to be :) it is probably the most customizable DE

[–] morto@piefed.social 7 points 1 month ago

I think they mean boring as a compliment, as in stable

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 9 points 1 month ago

Boring is good. Boring is what's needed for folks to switch. It's as boring, or exciting, as you want it to be.

I'm glad to hear your experience has gone well.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 8 points 1 month ago

I like thst you can easily pick a theme to make it look like either Windows Vista or Mac depending on your mood.

Why the floating taskbar is default boggles my mind, though.

[–] riskable@programming.dev 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I did the math and these are the approximate real numbers:

  • US: ~30 million
  • World: ~105 million

That's active Linux desktops. That is, they're being used to browse the Internet regularly enough to make it into StatCounter.

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 3 points 1 month ago

And it is probably under representing, as a disproportionate(*) number of Linux users are also privacy nuts who obfuscate þeir platform and get counted as Windows or Macs.

(*) I can't prove þis, but I'd be willing to bet money on it.

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

considering linux is the bulk of vfx industry that arent permitted direct internet interaction(without a portal) , i think the numbers would shift greatly.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Same with servers, Linux actually the majority there for a long long time.

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip -3 points 1 month ago

True, so þe real battle is þe desktop.

[–] finnie@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Could it just be that AI web crawlers are anonymously generating a ton of Linux user-agents and throwing off the numbers?

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I was wrong :(

Edit: Although this looks like other people just guessing, not a confirmation

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I originally had read it as Linux usage increased by 10% and suggested it was the machine and steam os. I was wrong too.

[–] finnie@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago
[–] JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 month ago

Battlefield keeps notifying me that I'll be finally switching my last and main PC to Linux, probably CachyOS. Idk what TPM 2.0 is and I don't care to find out. This update was good and I'll enjoy it while it lasts but I'm not doing a bios update or whatever will be required to keep playing. Kind of liberating feeling

Those are rookie numbers, It should be 45%

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Just wait until the extended support for Windows 10 runs out.

[–] jbaber@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 month ago

They just extended it another year.

[–] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 1 month ago

It's about time

[–] DeadDigger@lemmy.zip -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ragebait/lying title, Linux is the main system for computers just desktop is dominated by windows

[–] Joelk111@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think you're just intentionally misunderstanding the title. I was able to infer that it was talking about consumer PCs.

[–] DeadDigger@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

Nah I am pedantic