People familiar with Microsoft's plans say that the company moving to streamline or remove certain Copilot integrations across in-box apps like Notepad and Paint in 2026, after pushback from users.
When I started using Linux in 2009 it had around 0.6 percent market share on desktop. Windows had 95%.
Today Windows is measured below 68%, and Linux has been measured above 4% by statcounter.com.
These things move faster the more people make the change. Linux only reached 1% in 2013, 2% in 2021, 3% in 2023, and 4% was somehow first measured already in 2024. For every single person making the switch it becomes easier for others to do the same, and companies consider Linux support to be a little bit more important. One can only wonder at which percentage of market share it will be offered as a mainstream alternative when buying a new computer, but it seems pretty clear that we’re getting there.
I guess my point is that we all won when you ditched Windows. Thanks for that.
10% market share is when I expect it to be impossible to ignore and I think we’re gonna get there fast like you alluded to.
But…mainly for games. The corporate crowd will stay on Windows because they benefit from propping up other corporations. PC/laptop manufacturers will still push Windows for the same reason
The corporate crowd will stay on Windows because they benefit from propping up other corporations.
I wouldn’t be so sure. An interesting indicator of the shift that many of you wouldn’t see is how many vendors of management and security software have put out Linux versions in the past 12 months. I’m talking about stuff like RMM (Remote Monitoring & Management), EDR / MDR (Endpoint Detection & Response / Managed Detection & Response) client side DNS filtering software, and other things.
This tooling is for managing and securing endpoints used by companies, either by internal IT or by MSPs. These vendors wouldn’t be making and releasing these tools unless they were being asked for them AND there was going to be stead long term demand.
Turns out that once a companies stuff is in the cloud its users really don’t need MS Windows anymore so as long as you can centrally manage and secure it Linux makes a perfectly fine endpoint OS.
There is one last major bit once you have RMM and EDR in place - centralized identify. Until Okta, Ping, Azure, and Google all have a pam module that allows for remote identity management without depending on LDAP, enterprise endpoints are restricted to desktop/server machines (or orgs where you can get a waiver and only have local login).
Google has a variety of IDM methods including Ubuntu Authd and Secure Cloud LDAP. There’s also 3rd party tools like JumpCloud, ScaleOrange, etc.
Okta appears to have ASA and OPA although I’m not familiar with either of them. Ping has PingID and Ping Federate, although again I haven’t used either of them.
So depending on your cloud and needs the IdM / IAM is either available NOW or it will be very soon. 😀
Ohh that’s super exciting. I haven’t realized Microsoft made one.
Okta’s offering was garbage last I attempted to poke it. And 3rd party IAM tooling can be completely hit or miss (and let’s not even start about LDAP over the web…)
I don’t understand how my coworkers are using windows. Like, they routinely have issues where it randomly reboots or gets sluggish. And it’s just flat out unfit for software development, unless you’re targeting windows specific stuff. They can’t even run our code locally.
Maybe some of the problems are janky security stuff to try to lock it down
Total market share is irrelevant. What matters more is total users.
If you make a product and there’s a million people on a platform who could buy it, the costs to port that product (and support it) need to be low for it to be worthwhile.
If the total number of people on that platform increases to 10 million, now the cost to port/support becomes more like a minuscule expense rather than a difficult decision.
When you reach 100 million there’s no excuse. There’s a lot of money to be made!
For reference, the current estimated amount of desktop Linux users globally is somewhere between 60-80 million. In English-speaking countries, the total is around 19-20 million.
It’s actually a lot more complicated than this, but you get the general idea: There’s a threshold where any given software company (including games) is throwing money away by not supporting Linux.
Also keep in mind that even if Linux had 50% market share, globally, Tim Sweeney would still not allow Epic to support it. I bet he’d rather start selling their own consoles that run Windows instead!
For reference, the current estimated amount of desktop Linux users globally is somewhere between 60-80 million. In English-speaking countries, the total is around 19-20 million.
That sounds about right when comparing Microsoft’s claim of “1 billion” Windows devices. 5% of a billion is 50 million(not a perfect comparison as 5% Linux is total including MacOS/others from statcounter but you get the idea). So 50 million to 100 million Linux users globally sounds about right.
Yes, very happy with mine. Started it up to see the preinstalled version of Linux and then restarted it to install Arch btw instead, but it’s a great wee machine, exactly what I wanted and will be replacing it with another like it when the time comes.
Some OEMs with some models here in the USA also offer it. HP and Dell offer it. I think Dell gives Fedora and Ubuntu? And it takes off ~$130 USD or so from the price, so it’s the full Windows license cost.
Personally if I have that option I’m taking it and just reinstalling whatever I want anyway, but it’s nice having that option.
Also if I’m going to spend $2k+ on a new laptop and they don’t give me a non-Windows/blank OS option then I’d go to support and request a special product link. Otherwise I’ll find another brand or buy used.
I had the opposite take as that guy. I already knew that Linux usage in desktops was growing, but I’m pleasantly surprised seeing the dramatic acceleration behind it! I’m being optimistic here, but we could reach the point that we start going up a percentage point in a matter of months in the next few years.
When I started using Linux in 2009 it had around 0.6 percent market share on desktop. Windows had 95%.
Today Windows is measured below 68%, and Linux has been measured above 4% by statcounter.com.
These things move faster the more people make the change. Linux only reached 1% in 2013, 2% in 2021, 3% in 2023, and 4% was somehow first measured already in 2024. For every single person making the switch it becomes easier for others to do the same, and companies consider Linux support to be a little bit more important. One can only wonder at which percentage of market share it will be offered as a mainstream alternative when buying a new computer, but it seems pretty clear that we’re getting there.
I guess my point is that we all won when you ditched Windows. Thanks for that.
10% market share is when I expect it to be impossible to ignore and I think we’re gonna get there fast like you alluded to.
But…mainly for games. The corporate crowd will stay on Windows because they benefit from propping up other corporations. PC/laptop manufacturers will still push Windows for the same reason
I wouldn’t be so sure. An interesting indicator of the shift that many of you wouldn’t see is how many vendors of management and security software have put out Linux versions in the past 12 months. I’m talking about stuff like RMM (Remote Monitoring & Management), EDR / MDR (Endpoint Detection & Response / Managed Detection & Response) client side DNS filtering software, and other things.
This tooling is for managing and securing endpoints used by companies, either by internal IT or by MSPs. These vendors wouldn’t be making and releasing these tools unless they were being asked for them AND there was going to be stead long term demand.
Turns out that once a companies stuff is in the cloud its users really don’t need MS Windows anymore so as long as you can centrally manage and secure it Linux makes a perfectly fine endpoint OS.
There is one last major bit once you have RMM and EDR in place - centralized identify. Until Okta, Ping, Azure, and Google all have a pam module that allows for remote identity management without depending on LDAP, enterprise endpoints are restricted to desktop/server machines (or orgs where you can get a waiver and only have local login).
Yep but…
Here’s Microsoft - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/devices/sso-linux?tabs=debian-install%2Cdebian-update%2Cdebian-uninstall
Google has a variety of IDM methods including Ubuntu Authd and Secure Cloud LDAP. There’s also 3rd party tools like JumpCloud, ScaleOrange, etc.
Okta appears to have ASA and OPA although I’m not familiar with either of them. Ping has PingID and Ping Federate, although again I haven’t used either of them.
So depending on your cloud and needs the IdM / IAM is either available NOW or it will be very soon. 😀
Ohh that’s super exciting. I haven’t realized Microsoft made one.
Okta’s offering was garbage last I attempted to poke it. And 3rd party IAM tooling can be completely hit or miss (and let’s not even start about LDAP over the web…)
I don’t understand how my coworkers are using windows. Like, they routinely have issues where it randomly reboots or gets sluggish. And it’s just flat out unfit for software development, unless you’re targeting windows specific stuff. They can’t even run our code locally.
Maybe some of the problems are janky security stuff to try to lock it down
Total market share is irrelevant. What matters more is total users.
If you make a product and there’s a million people on a platform who could buy it, the costs to port that product (and support it) need to be low for it to be worthwhile.
If the total number of people on that platform increases to 10 million, now the cost to port/support becomes more like a minuscule expense rather than a difficult decision.
When you reach 100 million there’s no excuse. There’s a lot of money to be made!
For reference, the current estimated amount of desktop Linux users globally is somewhere between 60-80 million. In English-speaking countries, the total is around 19-20 million.
It’s actually a lot more complicated than this, but you get the general idea: There’s a threshold where any given software company (including games) is throwing money away by not supporting Linux.
Also keep in mind that even if Linux had 50% market share, globally, Tim Sweeney would still not allow Epic to support it. I bet he’d rather start selling their own consoles that run Windows instead!
That sounds about right when comparing Microsoft’s claim of “1 billion” Windows devices. 5% of a billion is 50 million(not a perfect comparison as 5% Linux is total including MacOS/others from statcounter but you get the idea). So 50 million to 100 million Linux users globally sounds about right.
You can buy laptops and PCs with pre-installed Linux at Germany’s biggest computer retailer now.
Tuxedo laptops seem like they have a solid build.
Nice design and I think they are based in Germany.
They even provide their own OS which is based on Ubuntu.
Yes, very happy with mine. Started it up to see the preinstalled version of Linux and then restarted it to install Arch btw instead, but it’s a great wee machine, exactly what I wanted and will be replacing it with another like it when the time comes.
My M1 MacBook Air is still alive and kicking (although I dislike being an American brand - bought it before the whole American mess).
But if I was in the market looking for a laptop, definitely would be a Tuxedo.
Some OEMs with some models here in the USA also offer it. HP and Dell offer it. I think Dell gives Fedora and Ubuntu? And it takes off ~$130 USD or so from the price, so it’s the full Windows license cost.
Personally if I have that option I’m taking it and just reinstalling whatever I want anyway, but it’s nice having that option.
Also if I’m going to spend $2k+ on a new laptop and they don’t give me a non-Windows/blank OS option then I’d go to support and request a special product link. Otherwise I’ll find another brand or buy used.
Dell sells PCs pre-configured with linux as well.
I had no idea - that’s really cool!
Germans also seem to be privacy oriented people, I can imagine this combined with recent developments could have a real impact.
I wish you were right, but that growth does not appear fast nor steady.
0 to 1 percent: 22 years
1 to 2 percent: 8 years
2 to 3 percent: 2 years
3 to 4 percent: more unstable, but between 1 and 3 years
I would say it’s an encouraging trend.
I had the opposite take as that guy. I already knew that Linux usage in desktops was growing, but I’m pleasantly surprised seeing the dramatic acceleration behind it! I’m being optimistic here, but we could reach the point that we start going up a percentage point in a matter of months in the next few years.