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Linux Marketshare is Above 2-Percent For Third Month in a Row (omgubuntu.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the marketshare dept.

For the third month in a row the share of worldwide desktop computer users running Linux has been above two percent -- up from one percent -- according to data from web analytics company Net Market Share. From a OMGUbuntu report: We reported back in July that Linux marketshare had passed two percent for the first time, and that figure remains the highest they've ever reported for Linux, at 2.33 percent. But the share for September 2016 was almost as good at 2.23 percent. It's the third consecutive month that Linux marketshare has been above 2 percent. Those of us who use Linux as our primary desktop computing platform can take a degree of pride in these figures. They do show a clear trend towards Linux, rather than away from it. But we should also remember that statistics, numbers and reporting methods vary between analytics companies and that all figures, however positive, remain open to interpretation and debate.

12 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. OSX by phantomfive · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It wouldn't surprise me if this trend continues, as Microsoft doesn't care as much about Windows anymore, and Apple has gone kind of crazy.

    When Microsoft releases Excel for Linux, you'll know that its time has arrived.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:OSX by thegarbz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      as Microsoft doesn't care as much about Windows anymore

      Microsoft cares a lot about windows. What they don't care about is what end users think about it.

  2. More user friendly by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Compared to a few years ago, Linux and the distros are more user friendly, more hardware support (less missing drivers), lots of free software, and many "main" applications have been improved a lot (think Gimp, Libre Office, wine...) . That gives a chance to users to try Linux and see for themselves that it's fast, reliable and has a lot of good open source software. Unfortunately for many demanding games, Windows is still the only alternative.

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    Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    1. Re:More user friendly by chipschap · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The idea that Linux doesn't have enough software to be usable keeps coming up, and I don't get it.

      Yes, there are things that just won't run on Linux, and in some cases there are no alternatives (particularly the case with verticals like, I don't know, dental records software or running a television studio, and certainly many games). But if you look at a mainstream user, who does web, email, maybe touches up some photos, writes some letters, does some spreadsheets, scans some documents, plays some music, watches some videos --- you get the picture --- everything is there and then some.

      Hardware support out of the box beats Windows as far as I can see. I plug new stuff into Linux and it works. Windows, I've got to install a driver. Yes, there are a few items that won't work with Linux, or require additional software (as is the case with Windows) but they are becoming rarer, and often can be avoided.

      I won't get into "the year of Linux on the desktop" --- that's likely never, given the entrenchment of Windows --- but unusable due to lack of software? That's a generalization that's false a lot more often than true.

  3. Re:2016: Year of the Linux Desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Who cares about the desktop? Linux is already king of the tablet, the phone, the kiosk, the datacenter, the supercomputer, the embedded devices, the Internet... it just goes on and on. Windows can have the desktop... for now.

  4. Re:What is the driving forces? by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some of it is cost. Windows + Office is EXPENSIVE. Since digital computers aren't increasing in power much, and won't ever be now that Moores Law is dead, now is the time for Linux to "catch up".

  5. Re:What is the driving forces? by DeBaas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    , and no real UI improvements or new features.

    Which is exactly the point. Those 'improvements' are to many just an unnecessary complication. The UI of W2K was fine, WinXp could be set to look like it it.

    I've put some family members on Ubuntu Mate. They love, they just use the computer for internet. The UI is more familiar than Windows 10, it doesn't get slower over time and there is a lot less worry for them for malware.

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  6. Re:What is the driving forces? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Chromebooks?

    Ever single child in my daughter's school was assigned one at the beginning of the year. And we're a public school in the boonies of Pennsylvania, not some preppy private school

  7. Re:2016: Year of the Linux Desktop by Shane_Optima · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I haven't been on Slashdot in a long time, but that used to be a joke around here whenever there was an optimistic news story about Linux on the desktop. I love (prefer) Linux on the desktop. Software requirements holding me back from fully embracing it.

    If the software in question isn't terribly performance intensive, that isn't a very compelling reason any more. You've plenty of virtualization options at your disposal, some ridiculously easy to set up (Virtualbox).

    If the cumbersome-ness of the UI or of moving data between VMs has been holding you back, I humbly suggest you consider Qubes OS, which has been promoted so heavily as a security-focused distro that many people have failed to emphasize that it's also one of the best hypervisors around from a usability standpoint. Templates (your choice of Fedora or Debian) greatly streamline the updating process and it's very easy to share the clipboard (securely) or send files to another VM on the fly, but most importantly there's one single desktop (XFCE or KDE) with one taskbar, and color-coded windows can be freely mixed from multiple Linux and Windows 7 VMs (Windows 10 compatibility in the works, but in the meantime it can still be run as an HVM.)

  8. Re:2016: Year of the Linux Desktop by rhodium_mir · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If the software in question isn't terribly performance intensive, that isn't a very compelling reason any more. You've plenty of virtualization options at your disposal, some ridiculously easy to set up (Virtualbox).

    Why would I want to run Linux if I'm just going to run a Windows VM on it?

    --
    You can't spell "oneiromancy" without "roman".
  9. Re:What is the driving forces? by Mitreya · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Those 'improvements' are to many just an unnecessary complication. The UI of W2K was fine

    Actually, these improvements are not so much complications as they are an act of war against users. Every time I accidentally open the (a-parrot-exploded theme) Paint on Windows 8 I spend half a minute trying to close it.
    I miss W2K...

  10. Re:2016: Year of the Linux Desktop by Shane_Optima · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, you people modding this down... post AC to explain why. You've got me curious now.

    Do you think I'm lying? The context of this conversation is someone who already says he PREFERS Linux desktops but is stuck with Windows due to some applications he needs. I'm explaining an elegant solution for his situation, not trying to convince anyone who is convinced that Linux desktops are far inferior to Windows' current desktop.