Linux Grabs More Than 2% of Desktop Market Share (w3counter.com)

LichtSpektren writes: W3Counter's stats for June 2016 are in, and Linux desktop accounts for 2.48% of all web visits from tracked websites... (Android is counted separately from "Linux desktop.")
Meanwhile, NetMarketShare shows Linux with a 2.02% share of the desktop market. And StatCounter shows a more detailed breakdown of the top 7 operating systems, with Windows 7 at 42.02%, Windows 10 at 21.88%, OSX at 9.94%, Windows 8.1 at 8.66%, Windows XP at 6.5%, and another 4.06% for "Unknown" (which is roughly tied with "Other") -- beating Windows 8.0 at 3.52%. In May they also reported another thought-provoking statistic: that Firefox's browser usage had surpassed that of IE and Edge combined for the first time.

Comments

Go Donald!

[ColdWetDog]

So now I'm all confused. Is this due to Trump's influence, Brexit or Global Warming?

Re:Linux Users use Adblockers

[93 Escort Wagon]

That's true, but similar story: a higher percentage of Linux users are probably using tools like umatrix which spoof the user agent string to fight "browser fingerprint" style tracking.

I used to think that was true and possibly actually significant; but, over the past two years, as I've seen more "desktop Linux" use among our grad students, I've also started seeing a lot of pretty clueless Linux users.

I realize that (and this next statement) are purely anecdotal; but most of the people I know who are knowledgable Linux users don't use Linux as their desktop OS.

Re:Linux was at 2% in 2004, and 1% in 2009!

[AthanasiusKircher]

What makes this even less impressive is that Linux was at 2% back in 2004, as reported by /. way back then. Although I do suppose that is better than 2009, when /. reported that Linux reached 1% "for the first time".

To be fair, the first story from 2004 you posted doesn't claim 2% active market share -- in fact the summary states they are waiting for those numbers -- but rather that 2% of NEW PCs were using Linux when they reached the user's desk. That's a rather different stat, and even if true, one would expect that stat to be greater than actual active market share if the market share is growing. That stat also wouldn't take into account how many people LATER installed a different OS on a machine that originally was purchased with Linux (or, conversely, how many people installed Linux on a machine purchased with a different OS).

And the second story you linked to is actually trying to measure active market share (like the present story), which was apparently at 1% in 2009 and now appears at 2%.

There's probably a margin of error in any of these measurements, but I don't think this constitutes the oscillation you think it does, because these measurements were taken in very different ways.

Re: Windows 10

[Opportunist]

1) The whole Systemd thing is something that only, and I mean ONLY, affects hard core Linux geeks. The average Linux user, let alone someone coming anew to the system, won't even notice that "force" at all.

2) I agree, but so is the Windows 10 surface. Bluntly, given the choice between Win10 and Gnome... Before I answer, is shooting myself in the head an option?

3) Not really, the support for graphics cards is actually quite good. What stymies gaming is the lack of support for gaming hardware. Flight sticks? Steering wheels? Hell, even support for fancy mice sucks (ever tried using a high rez mouse? I dare you, it might work. Sometimes). You are right that some distros do a tapdance around proprietary drivers that borders on religious extremism, but there are quite a few that don't give a shit about petty crap like that. The problem is rather the support from gaming hardware manufacturers.

4) Nope. LibreOffice is actually easier to use and more approachable, mostly because they don't feel that urge to reinvent the user interface with every single incarnation. No need to relearn everything time and again.

5) The security is still superior to the situation on Windows. While MS itself is getting pretty good at finding and rooting out security concerns, there is lots of software that you "have to" use that is omnipresent on every system that is a security nightmare (Adobe, I'm looking your way!). This doesn't apply to Linux due to the way these programs are treated in the OS. I have to give you, though, that there are alternatives that lock down the OS so far that it's virtually impossible to get anything bad in. But also anything the OS maker doesn't want you to.

6) That's different to MS, Apple, Android... in what way exactly? Unless you're paying for premium support, you're usually left to fend for yourself, too. And that premium support is available for various Linux distributions, too.

7) Quite the opposite. You can, today, have full support for any kind of ancient hardware that you could think of. Yes, you can actually install a current distribution on hardware from 10+ years ago and it will run. I wouldn't recommend trying that with a current Windows version. Likewise, you can run pretty much all ancient software on a current distribution. Again, I have a lot of Windows software here that keeps me from shifting versions due to incompatibility.

8) Wow, getting ad hominem already? Isn't that usually left to later in the discussion? Anyway. Again, no. There are indeed different packages dealing with the same problem, though. It's called competition. I know, an alien concept to someone who has been indoctrinated by MS, but look it up if you find the time. It's considered a good thing. At least if you're into capitalism.

9) Yes, Windows has a lot of tools that are actually pretty good at FUBARing a slightly misconfigured system without even bothering to ask you. Especially if you dare to install something next to Windows. That God complex ("Thou shalt not have any OS besides me!") really pisses me off.

10) Windows was pretty good at fragmenting, too. How many Windows XP versions did exist? 20? More? And that were all from the same company, and $deity help you if you picked the wrong one, because you made your choice, for good or ill. Worse than a marriage, actually. With Linux, you can at least try out a few before you settle down without spending a dime. And if you don't know which one to get, there is PLENTY of webpages dedicated to nothing but helping you finding the right one for your particular needs.

11) That is just a blatant outright lie. No idea why you thought you could possibly get away with it on /., or maybe you thought nobody would read that far, but no later than here it's obvious you're trolling. Actually, if I only had read your whole drivel to the end before starting to reply... but I'm so not going to delete this now.