It's not a typo. Linux's desktop share is growing, according to the US government's records.

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.

  • Sina@beehaw.org
    0·
    12 days ago

    Statcounter considers me a Win user due to the Win user agent I’m using, this is not a rare behavior in the Linux space…

      • Sina@beehaw.org
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        7 days ago

        Because Linux +firefox is like a fingerprinting wet dream, I may be the only one in my locale. (maybe not anymore, but yeah)

        Also Librewolf by default reports Win+Firefox.

        • PhilMcGraw@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          11 days ago

          The only thing I can think of is default download links based on your reported OS. What other functionality would be OS gated?

        • Cricket [he/him]@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
          0·
          12 days ago

          I thought this may be a consideration too, but I would expect it to be a minority of websites that would do this, no?

          • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
            0·
            10 days ago

            It’s definitely a minority, but easy to fix if you encounter such a site even a single time. There are also some sites which refuse to load on Firefox but work fine if you change the user-agent to Chrome.

  • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org
    0·
    12 days ago

    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.

  • neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    12 days ago

    A long time ago when Linux was around 2-3% someone said that macOS adoption by software companies happened when it got to 5% of the marketshare.

    If Linux continues down the path, we might see real support from some of the holdouts.

    Before anyone says to use an alternative, sometimes there are not workable alternatives.

    • DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      Linux has a problem with distribution of binaries, and companies for profit doesn’t want to share source … and packages with only binaries have some dependencies problem… although Flatpak and Snap improved this A LOT…. But then would have GLPv3 in many dependencies and you cannot ship it with a “for profit” product.

      This is the biggest hurdle for Linux “for profit” market for better apps. Also many Linux users are against the paid model, preferring open source. There is a cultural limitation to break the bubble

      I think SteamOS is helping a lot to break this … but still Linux desktop need to have a cultural change specially on license model or binary stability to be able to have a better app availability

      • LeFantome@programming.dev
        0·
        12 days ago

        This has been a big problem historically. Agreed.

        But you cite the solution yourself. Flatpak is all you need for effective distribution of commercial apps. GPL has nothing to do with it. There are already commercial apps in FlatHub.

        What is missing is “paid” commercial apps. We have no “take my money” App Store in Linux. I think FlatHub is working on it. Honestly, I am surprised a commercial company has not launched one yet. Well, other than Steam of course.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      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.

  • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    OK, so now it’s important to create collegial democratic project government for Linux, and freeze Linus in carbonite as a memorial. Before Linux has become too important, and before Linus lost his marbles to become a geriatric dictator.

    Actually in the age of Android I think it’s already too late, but this should be done regardless.

  • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
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    12 days ago

    A king once summoned a wise man who had done him a great service and said, “Name your reward.” The wise man replied, “Your Majesty, I ask for a simple thing. Give me one percent Linux desktop market share for the first square of the chessboard, two percent for the second square, four percent for the third square, and so on, doubling the amount for each of the 64 squares.” The king, thinking this was a modest request, said, “Surely you jest! Such a small reward for such a great service? Ask for gold, land, or jewels instead.” But the wise man insisted, and the king agreed. The king ordered his treasurer to calculate the total. Starting with 1% for the first square, 2% for the second, 4% for the third, 8% for the fourth… by the time they reached the tenth square, they needed 512% of the desktop market. The treasurer, pale with realization, informed the king that by the 64th square, they would need more market share than could possibly exist in the entire universe of computing devices. The king then understood that what seemed like a humble request was actually impossible to fulfill, and he gained a new respect for the power of exponential growth.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

    • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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      12 days ago

      It already goes over 100% market share after only 8 squares. 512% seems like a weird place to stop? How can you have more than 100% market share?

        • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          Not supposedly, but mathematically. Even if the grateful king ruled the entire planet and the great warrior willing to settle for grains the size of a single atom, the king would be unable to pay in full; the total of grains on the whole chessboard would be 2^64 grains, but there are only 2^50 atoms on Earth.

            • Tinidril@midwest.socialEnglish
              0·
              11 days ago

              Theoretically you could make a black hole with a single grain of rice. You just have to figure out how to crush it down enough.

              • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
                0·
                10 days ago

                Obviously this is just more theory, but I think I’ve heard that the minimum size for a black hole is about on the order of a big mountain’s mass; something to do with the amount you can increase density before you’re actually forced to compress electron clouds down toward the proton.

                • Tinidril@midwest.socialEnglish
                  0·
                  10 days ago

                  I think that happens in any black hole formation. At least that’s my understanding of how neutron stars are formed. The electrons get forced into the nucleus and turn the protons into neutrons. From there it’s quark gluon plasma then a black hole.

                  In any case, I have no idea how either a grain of rice or a mountain could be made to do such a thing.

              • Warehouse@lemmy.caEnglish
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                11 days ago

                It also wouldn’t last very long due to Hawking radiation, but that’s another thing.

  • Darren@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    0·
    12 days ago

    Does it count that I have four computers running Linux because I can’t help myself?

  • Mio@feddit.nu
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    12 days ago

    But it is only in the US and not globally. Anyway, competition is good.

      • kungen@feddit.nu
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        12 days ago

        wtf I love Norway now? Sweden is at like 2%.

        But Norway’s Linux spiked up to almost 30% in July 2024 as well. So I don’t really trust these sites. My guess is that it’s due to Tesla’s web browser or something? Tesla is the most popular electric car brand in Norway: 77k Model Y and 50k Model 3 are registered, and the only model with higher numbers is the Nissan Leaf with 81k, but that’ll be taken over very shortly (so far in 2025, there have been over 11k Model Y registrations, with the next runner-up being the Toyota BZ4X with 4,6k)

        • MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml
          0·
          12 days ago

          Possibly, but it does explicitly state desktop operating systems and I don’t know if Tesla’s would count towards that.

        • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
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          11 days ago

          1. There’s an uptick in ‘Unknown’ (currently at 26%).

          2. Linux adoption might have slowed down because India - US relations have improved since then, because Trump can be distracted by promising him trade deals. Of course the deal he wants (giving US agri companies access to the Indian market) will face opposition from farmers’ unions, so I’m not sure what the govt’s long-term plan is.

          One good thing is that when a govt dept switches to Linux, it sort of sticks. And govt contracts are very profitable, so we’ll likely see greater interest from both hardware and software companies.

  • SneakyWeasel@lemmy.caEnglish
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    10 days ago

    Been working with linux for the last 2 years. Had to use windows for my laptop for work but now its a full linux mint machine

  • squid64@lemmy.ca
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    11 days ago

    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.