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You know, I do wonder how many of these statistics are influenced by Linux users tendancy to use adblockers and block tracking. Linux could be more popular than it looks.
Also, they should tell us how much of that increase is due to the Steam Deck. :P
Unfortunately, due to the constant willful or untested shenanigans of various website I have set up all my system's Firefox profiles to spoof by default its user agent (and other JavaScript properties) as Windows 11, x86_64, Firefox LTS (even if I use latest, Aurora or beta). Some blantant recent example: YouTube uses lower quality options on browsers running on Arm-based systems — misreporting as an x86 CPU appears to be a widespread browser fix
Doing so has helped me and many friends/family I switched to a flavor of Linux (mostly Mint, but sometimes LMDE or Ubuntu or specific requirements/demands) avoid numerous dumb problems.
Even on mobile sometimes UX breaking issues creep up.
How many Steam deck users are looking up porn?
At least one!
I hope you dock it first or you’re going to end up with a sprained wrist and a sticky deck.
Is it comfortable to use with a single hand? Asking for a friend.
Nah, it's pretty heavy
They meant the steam deck
New-to-me technology never feels broken in and truly "mine" until that first wack
I missed the "PornHub" in the corner at first. Maybe I won't share this with colleagues...
I hate when people say “oh we had 100% growth!” Ignoring the fact they went from 4 to 8 clients. Meanwhile the one that only shows 0.5% growth considers 8 people a rounding error.
There’s liars, damn liars and statisticians.
Okay, so here's some more easily interpreted numbers. In addition to having the largest change in traffic share relative to its previous share, Linux actually had the largest change in actual traffic share. It was just BARELY above Mac OS. If more significant digits were allowed here, Linux rose 0.0085 while Mac OS rose 0.0082.
| OS | 2023 Share | 2022 Share | Share Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | 0.632 | 0.647 | -0.015 |
| Mac OS | 0.292 | 0.284 | 0.008 |
| Linux | 0.036 | 0.027 | 0.009 |
| Chrome Book | 0.029 | 0.026 | 0.003 |
| Other | 0.011 | Unknown* | 0.005* |
2022 percentages computed as:
share_2022 = share_2023 / ( 1 + relative_percent_change )
and percent change computed as:
absolute_percent_change = share_2023 - share_2022
* The relative percent change for "other" is not reported in the graphic. There is a remainder of 0.005 in the Share Change which is, presumably, attributable to change in the "other" category.
I just found last year's results. It looks like my math bears out, though it appears that they rounded differently.
Notably, last year's changes were very different.
| OS | 2022 Share | 2021 Share | Share Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | 0.647 | 0.646 | 0.001 |
| Mac OS | 0.284 | 0.273 | 0.011 |
| Linux | 0.028 | 0.028 | 0.000** |
| Chrome Book | 0.025 | 0.025 | 0.000** |
| Other | 0.011 | Unknown*** | 0.015*** |
** Linux and Chrome Book's absolute change was less than 0.0005.
*** As with 2023, the percentage change for "other" is not reported in the graphic. There is a remainder of 0.012 in the Share Change which is, presumably, attributable to change in the "other" category. This seems large, though, given that the total traffic share for "other" is only 0.016. That would imply a change from 0.001 to 0.012. Looking at the 2021 numbers this doesn't appear to be correct.
Is it that Linux is getting popular, or that most people don't buy new computers anymore now that their phone does everything they used it for, so it's only the enthusiasts still buying?
That's an interesting thought. I've wondered this about Chrome's market share in browsers too. How much of it is just that so much traffic is now from phones where, even if you have another browser installed, apps open links in embedded Chrome web views.
Do we really want to be bigger anyway? I kind of like where Linux as a desktop isn't really big enough for all the scammers and malware makers to care.
(And I know it's huge for servers and malware also targets that, but they are usually maintained by professionals, not your parents that would probably run every shell script they are offered as help)
If Linux would become the biggest desktop os you are going to find so much more bad advice whenever searching for help online. I wonder if the nice people we have now are really ready for when the terrible people invade the community.
Do we really want to be bigger anyway?
YES. It needs more market share to influence companies financially to make products for it.
It's truly starting to make inroads recently, but it still has a ways to go.
I kind of like where Linux as a desktop isn’t really big enough for all the scammers and malware makers to care.
It's also not big enough for gaming companies to truly care, unfortunately.
Perhaps a little lesd nice for those of us already using linux, but definitely better for the majority of people for getting less scammed by big corps. But one plus for us would be better support for apps and games that are still mostly or exclusively on other OSes.
Year of the Steamdeck. Praise Gaben!
Linux is cumming my friends. 🥳
Unless the number of GNU/Linux maintainers also matches the growing userbase, we're heading towards a world of pain.
Devs overrun by unhelpful bug reports, scammers and malware abound, forums stretched beyond capacity by the exact same queries.
If PC Linux can be monetized, it will be.
I'm actually looking into buying a new laptop and seriously considering choosing some Linux distro as my new OS (I've always used Windows before, and Mac once for work)
How do y'all recommend which laptop I should choose?
Whatever you do, pick one that ships with Linux or is at least explicitly marked as compatible.
You do not want the headache of having a laptop with this one component that genuinely doesn't work properly. Most will work, but for example fingerprint scanners are a very touchy subject. My freakin battery is not properly recognized by anything that isn't Windows. It's stupid, some just don't care about existing, well defined, open standards.
Personally I'd go with a Framework laptop. Otherwise Tuxedo or System76 might have something you like.
I just preordered a Framework 16 inch because their concept is amazing and early reviews are pretty good. It's a laptop where every part is replaceable and upgradable. You can replace/upgrade the motherboard/CPU, RAM, NVMe storage, keyboard, display, etc. all yourself, and they sell the parts separately. Even the ports on the sides are swappable - you can choose to make them all USB-C ports, or make any of them USB-A, 3.5mm audio, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, DisplayPort, HDMI, MicroSD reader, etc.
They have a 13 inch version that's already shipping today... The 16 inch is a preorder to ship Q2 2024. Their newer ones use an AMD CPU and AMD graphics which should work better on Linux than Nvidia graphics.
More expensive than a regular laptop company though... They don't have the scale that Dell, Lenovo, etc have so parts are more expensive for them (plus large R&D costs).
There are dozens of us!
The three linux users finally found a friend to masturbate with. Leading to a 33% increase in linux user visit.
If you combined the ages of my children it still wouldn't be enough time to the first time I heard this.
6.5% of all desktop users is insane
What's other? Freebsd?
What about the streaming share? Like, who is watching the most?
Other: TempleOS
Heresy. It was gods will to not include networking capabilities.
