Apparently desktop Linux marketshare has finally hit that elusive 2% mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_VFKqw1q2Q

View video on youtube.com

Windows cannot win in the long run.


Last edited by Nyamiou on 1 Jul 2016 at 10:39 pm UTC

Android is linux in the same way than gnu/linux is linux, that's an objective fact.
But linux (gnu/linux) in the last years has become a lot better, when steam came out it was an unstable mess compared to now, things like plasma 5 are helping linux a lot

Gaming wise Linux already is probably ahead of OS X, especially for high end gaming. Apple's hardware simply can't cope with the times, and their software is even worse (OpenGL is in bit rot state there, no Vulkan support coming and so on). Expect OS X gaming usage to plummet going forward.

With metal lacking many features and gl stuck on 4.1 I can see than in the future people like feral and aspyr will have a bad time trying to support mac os when it comes to AAA games. Because this bad decisions from apple, they will be happy than they started working on the linux market years ago, as a way to save their business on the long term.


Last edited by edo on 1 Jul 2016 at 11:43 pm UTC

Differentiating Android from what we call "Linux" meaning desktop OSes is "splitting hairs", yet "it's Windows, not PC!" is constantly argued here and everywhere without any kind of similar reprimand? That's odd, since the case against Android is stronger.

Oh boy! 2%! We're really reaching for the skies now!


But seriously, this is really great news in that the growth happened rapidly within the last ~3 years. I hope it continues.

Yup switched grandpas 2 PCs to linux. No more Windows 10 problems anymore.

Differentiating Android from what we call "Linux" meaning desktop OSes is "splitting hairs", yet "it's Windows, not PC!" is constantly argued here and everywhere without any kind of similar reprimand? That's odd, since the case against Android is stronger.

That is a totally different kind of argument, the name Android is already associated to a different platform that doesn't make things confusing.

[quote=liamdawe][quote=t3g]

This does not include Android, even though it is Linux,

Here is a good read from the father himself: [https://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html](https://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html)

Again, splitting hairs, it's a minor point.

Woah! Minor point? It's the whole reason for the confusion throughout this thread. Android is a different operating system to GNU/Linux because of included user-space components, even though they both share the same kernel. If people got the terminology correct, we wouldn't have this problem (and we would also be showing respect to a larger number of developers whom we should be thankful to).

We just have different opinions and I think it's a bit of a silly argument to have.

Silly to you maybe, but to other people (who made significant contributions to your OS), you are being disrespectful. What I find silly is the fact that there is even an argument about this. I understand that we're all big on proprietary games here, but that doesn't mean all of us don't care about free software where we can.

I don't agree with the rule that it's not Linux unless it specifically works on the desktop with .debs and so on.

Again with the terminology. If you said "the Linux kernel works with more than just desktops with .debs and so on", you would be absolutely correct. If you said "I don't agree with the rule that it's not GNU/Linux unless it specifically works on the desktop", you would still be correct since there are still various GNU devices outside of desktops, but I suspect you were mainly referring to Android which wouldn't count in that case.

See how the correct terminology - "Linux kernel", "Android", "GNU/Linux", etc and not "Linux" (without something to define the context) massively helps avoid such arguments and misunderstandings? It's a trivial matter to get right, and doing so is better for everyone.

Alright fine, let's leave the argument there.

If I had worded that one tiny bit in the article differently we wouldn't be having this repeating argument :p

Everyone is now focusing on that minor point rather than the article itself.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 2 Jul 2016 at 8:05 am UTC

Alright fine, let's leave the argument there.

If I had worded that one tiny bit in the article differently we wouldn't be having this repeating argument :p

Everyone is now focusing on that minor point rather than the article itself.

Okay, deal. :)

I actually meant to mention how exciting I think it is to hit 2% desktop usage across 40k measured websites. This is awesome!

It's Android/Linux. End of discussion.

.

View video on youtube.com

A milestone is a milestone. :D

(P.S. I chose this version of the Hallelujah Chorus because, like Linux, it arises from the people, transformative and miraculous.)


Last edited by Nanobang on 2 Jul 2016 at 3:00 pm UTC

I thought we'd be still closer to 1% than 2%. That's great news! Let's just grow exponentially from there? :D

These informal surveys are encouraging, but until we have a big commercial interest pushing Linux and ensuring it gets counted, we'll never have an accurate tally of Linux desktop usage. I have a feeling that it's a lot higher than many people suspect and certainly higher than Microsoft and Apple want to admit.


Last edited by Mountain Man on 3 Jul 2016 at 1:39 pm UTC

Wow, I didn't expect that considering that we were well below 2% in the last months. But many people are considering to switch to Linux at the moment, now that Microsoft is increasing pressure with Windows 10 updates. Computer magazines also had specials about switching to Linux.

If this is responsible for the rise, it is likely that some of these people will reboot to Windows again. But some will stay on Linux, so it's good.

Also the W3Schools statistics pages show Linux at the highest share ever:

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

Yep, there's a "general" computing mag in Australia, which is also the biggest one, which regularly runs Linux articles and ships with a Linux distro on the DVD (APC Mag).

W3Schools is a very specific site, mostly visited by developers. So its stats aren't really useful for any global estimations.

Well that is awesome news. I think we can partially thank Microsoft for that increase, because of all the Win10 naughtiness. Just converted my Mom, and I'm looking forward to convert more apprentices. ;)

so happly more AAA games will be coming out for linux. İ just wonder what happens if Rocket League get out for linux .

1. Hot damn. We finally broke the 2% barrier.

{the following are included because of talk elsewhere in the comments to this article}

2. Insisting on people using "Linux" just for the kernel and "GNU/Linux" for an OS built on the Linux kernel is at best disingenuous when we consider the fact that GNU is not the exclusive free toolchain to be had and there are non-mobile distros in the wild built without GNU which we should absolutely not call "GNU/Linux" but are indeed Linux based.

3. Stallman can... No I won't be rude here... I'll just say it this way, it is not freedom to let someone dictate to you what shape freedom takes. The FSF and R. Stallman have a long history of doing just this and are in some ways nearly as bad as Gates, Jobs and their respective companies.

4. Arguing about this kind of stuff is one of the significant things that drives otherwise interested people away from even trying the output of the FOSS community.

2. Insisting on people using "Linux" just for the kernel and "GNU/Linux" for an OS built on the Linux kernel is at best disingenuous when we consider the fact that GNU is not the exclusive free toolchain to be had and there are non-mobile distros in the wild built without GNU which we should absolutely not call "GNU/Linux" but are indeed Linux based.

You think wireless access points and the like running busybox and uClibc (or other non-GNU user-space) combined with the Linux kernel are contributing to the 2% desktop usage figure? Really? We're not talking about those systems, and you can refer to them as embedded Linux systems (so the context "Linux" is being used in is still clear).

3. Stallman can... No I won't be rude here... I'll just say it this way, it is not freedom to let someone dictate to you what shape freedom takes.

Richard Stallman created the term "free software". You can talk about other kinds of freedoms however you wish, but the term "free software" means exactly what he defined it to mean.

The FSF and R. Stallman have a long history of doing just this and are in some ways nearly as bad as Gates, Jobs and their respective companies.

Citation required (I guess you must use one of the BSDs then).

4. Arguing about this kind of stuff is one of the significant things that drives otherwise interested people away from even trying the output of the FOSS community.

And yet, here you are. Why? Because like most political issues, it's important. Do you think political arguments keep people from voting?

This does not include Android, even though it is Linux,

Android is not Linux. Linux programs don't work on Android and Android apps don't work on Linux.
Android uses a heavily modified version of the Linux kernel. That's it.

I don't agree, because you can easily install a Linux distribution in a chroot and it will run your usual Linux applications then.

Wait a minute now. We're talking about desktop Linux. Shouldn't this discussion be about ChromeOS rather than Android? And isn't ChromeOS a desktop Linux distribution? You can actually chroot a Linux distro very easily within it. Last I checked, Chromebook sales had even surpassed Mac laptops.

Isn't it kind of snooty for Linux users to only count a Linux victory if it's their standard of what they consider a "pure" Linux distribution? If you're not counting anything that runs the Linux kernel, then shouldn't you get all Stallman-like and call it GNU/Linux?