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Clickbaity title on the original article, but I think this is the most important point to consider from it:
After getting to 1% in approximately 2011, it took about a decade to double that to 2%. The jump from 2% to 3% took just over two years, and 3% to 4% took less than a year.
Get the picture? The Linux desktop is growing, and it’s growing fast.
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About to be 6.0000001% when my Kubuntu download finishes. I’m finally taking the dive boys, linux on main here we go.
Congrats and welcome. You are a good man.
Cool, welcome! I assume you’re aware that it won’t be all sunshine and rainbows from day 1, but give it time and leverage the community to solve any issues you run into. Effective bug reports and knowledge sharing make the experience better for everyone.
To me it’s worth having control over my hardware, and an OS that’s designed to work for me and not some corpo against me.
I think kubuntu was the very first distro I ever installed in a VM when trying out Linux 10 years ago. I’ve since moved on (an aging Arch install right now, which will eventually be replaced by a NixOS install whenever I get around to it), but just wanted to say that a whole new world lies at your footsteps, my friend. Enjoy it. It’s like discovering the wonder of computing for the first time.
Congratulations, and welcome to the Linux world. You won’t regret it. But also don’t get scared if something doesn’t work right away!
FWIW, Fedora with KDE is fantastic - been using that as my distro of choice (for systems I want a UI on at least) for a few years now and I love it.
welcome!
i use ubuntu and its a good choice, but id recommend installing gnome-software and its flatpak plugin and using that instead of the slower snaps. its perfect otherwise, enjoy!
KDE has its own Discover thing for downloading Flatpaks FWIW.
You still need the underlying package manager installed (it’ll prompt you to do so), and on Plasma 5.0 you also need a special integration plugin for each package manager (merged into Discover since I think Plasma 6.0).
Discover is a joy to use.
Nice! That’s what I use. Don’t see alot of others talk about Kubuntu. I enjoy the heck out of it. It doesn’t play games all that well, but that could also be user error as well. Still, so far it’s my favorite distro. Good luck on your journey!
After getting to 1% in approximately 2011, it took about a decade to double that to 2%. The jump from 2% to 3% took just over two years, and 3% to 4% took less than a year.
Could be exponential growth.
That’s what I was wondering too. Doubling time halved already.
Exponential doesn’t mean fast.
Exponential growth!
It makes perfect sense, the resistance of having Windows legacy software etc becomes smaller the more of that goes out of use, the resistance of everyone only knowing Windows becomes smaller with nobody even knowing Windows, and the resistance of corporate interests becomes smaller because it’s all in the Web, and the Web has been corrupted and Chrome works on Linux.
So. Listen to me carefully. If Linux domination happens without FreeBSD and Haiku normalization, then things are bad.
KDE Plasma is genuinely good
Kubuntu is a drop-in replacement for Windows 10
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KDE Plasma is so good, I love it. But I think that Cinnamon (the default environment for Linux Mint) is also super user-friendly.
There’s no good excuse not to use Linux in 2025 if you’re a home user. Except maybe if you rely on some software such as SharePoint, the Adobe or the Serif Affinity suites.
Linux Mint Cinnamon was my first stepping stone off of Win10. It’s been wonderful.
The key point is that Europe’s governments are ditching MS one by one. One of the state governments of India, that of Kerala, is also fostering a local chapter for open source and Linux.
That’s a thing, but the biggest thing is that PCs as a class have been falling in numbers. As media consumption devices, they’re outmoded. Phones, tablets, and cheap smart TVs have taken their place.
A typical family of 4 might have 1 laptop for when one is actually needed, whereas a few years ago every member of a suburban household would have their own computer.
So a larger part of the market is enthusiasts and techies, who are more likely to be using Linux, and gamers, who are using devices like the Steam Deck and Legion Go that run on SteamOS.
SteamOS, Bazzite, and the Plasma DE I think are what’s driving Linux to be more popular. They are all very streamlined experiences.
SteamOS and Bazzite are certainly contributing among gamers, but there also seem to be a lot of casual users moving to Mint and pop!_os. I’ve seen quite a few people using them to extend the life of older hardware.
I’ve got Mint XFCE on two old laptops
I tested Gnome and KDE Plasma5 in the last year. KDE Plasma is in my opinion the first DE which is comparable with Win/MacOS. It looks modern, is pretty much feature complete and as an average user its nice to have useful apps preinstalled (calculator, libreoffice, firefox and so on), but no bloatware.
Its just a bit more customizable than windows, which is perfect and also not fiddly and a pain. It certainly has a handful of quirks, like Windows does, but you get used to them.
If I have to set up elderly relatives with a computer, I’d strongly consider a KDE Plasma Desktop
I never got gnome, it’s like macOS, but I never enjoyed using it even after being a Mac user.
Plasma and cinnamon are my top desktop recommendations.
Well as someone who’s been using gnome since about 3.10 I might be able to explain my view:
Before that I’ve used plasma and Unity and a whole lot of Mate but then I started using Gnome for a pretty and smooth experience right out of the Box.
Now I’ve simply been using it for so long that it’s muscle memory all the way.
I don’t agree with everything the gnome devs decide and I definitely am annoyed that I have to use extension for small things that should just be a toogle in the settings but I’ve realized some time ago that if I did switch to plasma I would use all the customizability to make it work like Gnome … so I stay on Gnome.Short question because thats what made me swap to KDE: How do you quickly open an app, without navigating through the categories with your mouse?
Now make me look stupid :D
It depends on the version of gnome/distro but typically the windows key opens a spotlight-esque search box that also has recent and commonly used apps which you can click without typing. I think some distros may change that shortcut key
I never use the “App Menu” on my laptop I don’t even have any favorites.
I hit the super button (windows key) to open the app overview and type the first few letters and hit enter.
So e.g.
SUPER fi EnterFirefox opens with just 4 key strokes in 1 second
Imo everything you just said about KDE is even more true of Gnome
Gnome really tends to drag their feet when it comes to new features/wayland protocols to implement. I’m pretty sure they didn’t even have adaptive sync for the longest time, when even smaller wlroots projects already supported it. I don’t hate gnome though, i actually kinda dig their design, but unfortunately i can’t stand using floating window managers anymore, i only use tiling.
Yeah, I’ve heard this before. I don’t believe though, that I’ve yet been a user of those still-unsupported features though, so I haven’t noticed anything affecting me yet.
Fair enough. If it does everything you need then it’s good lol
What’s great is neither of you are wrong from your own perspectives - and both of you are free to share your message and preferences.
Apparently not without ire, unfortunately. Somehow got downvoted for what I wrote…
People HATE Gnome and I don’t get it. I’ve heard the arguments but in all practicality I have tried KDE too and then minutes into trying the complicated customization features I just wanna go back to gnome. Give me a somewhat new version of gnome and 30 minutes and I’ll have it configured how I want and it looks and runs nice. I recently spent 30 minutes trying to understand customization of the bottom bar in KDE and gave up
I upvoted you. <3 My experience was very similar but with the two swapped: After I used Linux Mint (with Cinnamon) I tried Debian, it came with Gnome.
I struggeled to find the apps (I dont know what they are called on a new OS) but I didnt find out how to search for them. Win+Type didnt search, I didnt see an obvious Spotlight feature like on apple.
Then I wanted to change some settings and couldnt change them (I dont remember what). I felt like customisation wise I’m using macOS, and thats a bad thing. So like you I reinstalled Debian with KDE after less than 1h in gnome.
Thats why we need different DEs, maybe they and their variations are more important than the huge selection of distros.
I think you are right. Choice is good. My dislike of KDE is partially because I liken it more to windows. I have thought windows has an atrocious UI for a long time so by default Mac seems better to me, even despite it lacking a lot of customization.
Gnome definitely has a search function which normally I think is defaulted to the windows key, so that’s interesting you couldn’t find anything. I actually always turn off a couple UI things which let me navigate to apps that are shown by default because to me it’s clutter. Just because I like the cleanness of the UI, I use uLauncher for finding apps. It’s similar to spotlight or Alfred.
The preinstalled apps are not a feature of KDE (or Gnome, XFCE, etc.). Actually they all are structured in a very modular way where you can use or omit individual components. Firefox and LibreOffice are completely independent of it even; they merely add compatibility layers to make the integration more seamless.
What you experienced was something to attribute to the distribution you chose. They are the ones to decide which components to bundle and preinstall. That is also the reason why so many distributions exist in the first place, because different teams/devs have different visions about what the desktop should look and feel like after install.
So the preinstallation of all the KDE apps is a choice of the distro?
On both Linux Mint and Debian+Plasma I got some apps preinstalled. That I can uninstall and that they arent developed by the same people doesnt play a role. For the user they come with the OS, like Win10 preinstalls the calculator and Candy Crush
So the preinstallation of all the KDE apps is a choice of the distro?
Correct.
For the user they come with the OS
That’s my point, though. Plasma isn’t an OS. You can can have a OS that ships Plasma with Calligra instead of LibreOffice and Falkon instead of Firefox. Or neither, and instead they give you a greeter with the choice to pick your browser. Or the OS is minimal and doesn’t bundle any of them. In Arch for example you normally don’t even get Konsole or Dolphin unless you install them (or you pick the nuclear option and install _all _ KDE packages which also includes a ton of stuff you likely never need).
It looks modern, is pretty much feature complete and as an average user its nice to have useful apps preinstalled (calculator, libreoffice, firefox and so on), but no bloatware.
I can’t believe I have been running python3 for simple calculations lately instead of running KCalc, lol.
I think generally macos users would feel more at home in gnome where as windows users more in kde.
Very true in my limited experience
I am very familiar/comfortable with Windows and very confused by MacOS. Yet I much prefer Gnome over Plasma.
Not to say you are wrong or anything, maybe I’m just an outlier.
That said, I’ve been using Cosmic DE for about the past month and it’s pretty great. I think I might stick with it. Gotta love all the options we have!
As more people learn bazzite just works, it’s going to grow. If I hadn’t rescued my son’s windows license he would have switched.
You should rescue your son now and switch him to Linux
Tried to persuade him. He’s an adult son, so I wouldn’t force it on him.
Grandma’s using it just fine though.
As a daily Linux user, this makes me VERY VERY happy!!
I went to CachyOS on my desktop full time this year. Already had Bazzite on a laptop.
There’s been a few hiccups here and there, but nothing insurmountable with a little patience and practice and reading.
And best part, those skills translate to most linux distros!
Jumped to Bazzite never looked back. Let’s goooo
Fuck man I saw a post in the past week that it was 5%. At this rate we’ll be leaving M$ in the du$t.
The 5% story was published yesterday. This new article from today says that they trust the government site figures more than StatCounter which was cited on yesterday’s story.
I thought the 5% story was for USA users
I’m not sure about the 5% story, but this 6% one is specifically about US government sites. Sorry I didn’t mention that in the post.
Hahaha so many articles on different percentages
I know! This article kind of addresses that with this line: “although we can’t be certain of the exact numbers, Linux is clearly growing”.
Interestingly enough, reading through again, the 6% figure is from US government sites, but the growth numbers in the line I quoted in the post is actually global. Here’s the graph they’re referring to:
I hadn’t noticed that dip in 2025 until I looked at this graph more closely!
Unfortunately the media failed to load
You mean the attachment in my comment above? It’s a webp file copied from the article, the table of year-by-year Linux desktop market share (global).
That’s good, I don’t care much about the OS people use but yeah as long as they use something that they like and that doesn’t exploit them that’s great.
I use Guix System as my distro and it’s great, just goes to show the power of free software, you won’t get something like that anywhere else.
Wow it was 5% yesterday
I read a similarly sensationalist headline with 4% two months ago and 5% yesterday. What’s up with the headline makers?
Linux is gaining market share quickly as the Windows 10 EOL rapidly approaches. There is still a massive amount of perfectly great hardware out there that isn’t officially supported by Windows 11, and only 3 months until Windows 10 reaches EOL.
According to more realistic data, e.g. https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/#monthly-202406-202506 the market share has been around 4% for the last year, even slightly declining in the meantime.
But that doesn’t make for nice, sensationalist headline stoked by wishful thinking.
Sorry to say, Linux isn’t going mainstream anytime soon and by and large the end of Win10 just means that the comparatively small group of users still running 5+ years old hardware will just buy a new PC or keep using their outdated OS.
In fact, if you combine the market share of outdated Windows versions (XP-8.1) you get a market share very close to the market share of Linux.
As much as we all would love it if the Linux market share goes to 50% in fall, it’s not going to happen.
The main issues with Linux adoption (it’s not preinstalled and most people have no idea which OS they are using and really can’t be bothered to reinstall) are just as present as they ware for the last 30 years.
Bursting the Linux hype bubble on Lemmy, that’s courage!
All it takes is momentum. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem, and I think it’s gaining momentum because of Valve. Gaming was always the one thing stopping people from checking out Linux.
Now, however, more and more people are trying it out. More tech YouTubers are trying Linux, which means more exposure. Distros are becoming more refined. KDE is much better than it used to be because of Valve. All in all, there’s true momentum building.
In due time, Linux will be preinstalled on computers and laptops, and because of this, more people will contribute to Linux. People are fed up with the bloat and heavy AI push of Windows 11.
This. Personally, I’m scrambling to get all my shit sorted out on my desktop before switching over
Same here!
Agreed. I think we’re still going to see a LOT of growth in Linux market share by the end of this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s 7%-8% by then.
at this point linux will have more than 100% market share by next week!!!
They used a different data source for this one and mentioned why they preferred this one over the one from the day before.
So what you’re saying is that if we just keep switching to different data sources, we could get above 50% in less than two months!
And even at 50%, Nvidia still won’t release Linux drivers.
Invest now!
Hang on though, if it’s web stats, how many of those impressions are ai bots scraping training data claiming to be Firefox users?
Don’t those likely read as Linux from how they fingerprint on TCP connections?
The last thing a scraper wants is to stand out. Most scrapers out there masquerade as Windows+Chrome on PC. It’s not hard to spoof a user agent and any scrapers that identify uniquely get blocked real fast.
Most technology adoption follows an S curve, it can often take a long time to start to get going. Linux has gradually and steadily been improving especially for games and other desktop uses while at the same time Microsoft has been making Windows worse. I feel more that this is Microsoft’s fault, they have abandoned the development of desktop Windows and the advancement of support for modern processor designs and gaming hardware. This has for the first time has let Linux catch up and in many cases exceed Windows capabilities on especially gaming which has always been a stubborn issue. Its still a problem especially in hardware support for VR and other peripherals but its the sort of thing that might sort itself out once the user base grows and companies start producing software for Linux instead.
It might not be enough, but the switching off Windows 10 is causing a change which Microsoft might really regret in a few years.
Microsoft has been making Windows worse. I feel more that this is Microsoft’s fault, they have abandoned the development of desktop Windows and the advancement of support for modern processor designs and gaming hardware.
Moores law is dead since a long time except for graphic cards and GPUs. This means you can’t keep adding things to desktop software in the style of “What IBM giveth, Microsoft takes away”.
Existing development paradigms don’t add significant qualities to many-processor hardware.
Which also explains part of the AI craze. It is investment money searching for a sensible use.
I’ll hang on to 10 as long as they’ll let me, but I am never going to 11. Then it’ll be a distro for dis bro.
Sorry.
Just curious and not judging your decision in anyway, but… “What are you waiting for?”
For me, VR support. Rocking win10 IOT LTSC on my main PC until compatibility improves, but already switched to Mint on my work laptop (and likely the main PC before/during 2032)
Awesome! Mint is great, it’s my number one recommendation.
I’ve never tried vr before and I’d really like to at some point.
OpenXR/SteamVR is an amazing system, and it’s easy to buy a second hand headset and just replace the face gasket (The Valve index has them attached with a few magnets). Especially with games like VRchat, Half Life ALYX, and modded support in games like Minecraft, PCVR is pretty good right now for newbies!
The desktop has been Microsoft’s to lose for 30 years…
