I hopped on the Linux train when Microsoft began pushing hard for AI integration and Microsoft accounts. I fucking hate AI and I don’t need some corpo cunt looking over my shoulder and taking notes while I use my computer.
I made the switch recently for probably the strangest reason.
I’ve been running win 11 for over a year using a shell tool that allowed me to move my task bar to the top of the screen and some other win 10 functionality.
However win 11 removed the ability to move the task bar and my shell program lost most of its functionality. After that I was done.
I’ve Linux off and on since 2002ish so it’s not scary to me and I’m pretty happy with Arch and KDE right now. Still the occasional crash that appears to happen sometimes when watching YouTube.
If anyone is stuck on windows and not able to switch there’s a program called wind hawk that will let you download customizations in windows 11 including moving the bar
From my reading all ways to move the task bar have been removed.
This is working currently on windows 11 23h2. There are other mods for the top too I just prefer a right side vertical.
idk how you stayed on windows so long, had I tried linux sooner I wouldve dumped it faster, no software support or piracy for said software if it does have support is rough tho like houdinifx is hard to pirate if not impossible, davinci is easy tho, adobe has no support (no idea if it works well with wine pirated)
I use arch btw
This guy uses arch btw
It wasn’t immediately clear, I think you need to change your username to IUseArchBtw so we all know off the bat.
Real men and women run Slack. Tarballs Yum!
To head off the zealots-- ./././
Gentoo with allllllllll the custom cflags while hanging a 20 lb weight off your scrotum
That’s not even close to a proper test of Linux womanhood/manhood.
I couldn’t find it is in the article, is this new purchases, or how is this measured. If a computer ships with windows and I install mint on it, how do they know where that tally goes?
The stats are from StatCounter which has this in their FAQ:
What methodology is used to calculate Statcounter Global Stats? Statcounter is a web analytics service. Our tracking code is installed on more than 1.5 million sites globally. These sites cover various activities and geographic locations. Every month, we record billions of page views to these sites. For each page view, we analyse the browser/operating system/screen resolution used and we establish if the page view is from a mobile device.
So it’s the percentage if web traffic (to sites that use this analytics service)
Ah so that should be pretty accurate then, because the amount of users spoofing their OS is likely fairly low, and I would assume would mostly be Linux users as well, meaning it wouldn’t sell the data as being higher than it is, but rather possibly lower.
Also someone who uses Linux is more likely to use adblock and telemetry blocking features. The actual count is definitely slightly higher.
My first guess is the author is aggregating the numbers from either the distros download data directly or they are getting the numbers from some place like Distro Watch. You can even get a crude sense of the increase in new users if you hang out in a distro help forum. I check the r/Fedora sub on reddit a few times a week, (I run Fedora 42 BTW), and there has been enough of an increase in new users posting “OMG, I just ditched Windows and look at my shiny new Gnome/KDE desktop!” to be annoying to some people. It can be hard to find those posts from people looking for help with a problem sometimes.
What no one can say is just how long those shiny new users will stick with Linux or run back to Windows at a later date. My gut feeling is, if half of this new 5% sticks it’s a major, major victory for all the distros.
A lot of it kicks back to companies as well. If every time someone interviews for a new job they are telling users they need to run their programs or even just the application for the interview from a Windows machine it pressures users into going back. I always see shit like that for stuff that is even just browser based. I prefer not to install zoom, teams, and such and just open in the browser, but ive run into companies saying their typing tests and other pre employment material only run on Windows. It’s usually false, as I never actually have needed it to install Windows, but it sows doubt in people who don’t want to take chances when they are already in a potentially tight spot.
Wow, that’s excluding Chrome OS, which has 2.71% on it’s own. So you could say Linux is at over 7%, but glad they split it so we know.
ChromeOS is going to the Google graveyard, to be replaced by android
(Maybe this is a good thing as Chromebooks have an expiration date averaging 3-5 years where they stop getting Chrome updates, when if it’s android can get updates to the browser for a much longer time AND have Firefox as default)
Android is also Linux though
I have an old Chromebook that I used for D&D sessions that is now collecting dust because they stopped supporting the model and use security hardware to prevent overwriting the drive that I have neither the tools or skills to circumvent.
Google can blow me where the pampers is.
Well yes, but Android now has a Debian container option. If they expose some Wayland/X interface to it for displaying stuff on Android, for a load of stuff, maybe that is good enough for a lot of stuff?
Linux as an OS is generally meant as Desktop Linux, and it most definitely is in this context that is about desktop marketshare, Desktop Linux is mostly following freedesktop guidelines, which has traditionally helped standards on Linux a lot to streamline developments. So for instance XFCE/Gnome/KDE desktop apps can be run in all the different desktop environments. For instance also standardizing things like how tray icons work. Freedesktop is part of X.Org Foundation, and Chrome OS does not use X.org or Free Desktop standards at all. The newer Wayland to replace X is also an X.org standard.
So while Chrome OS is based on the Linux kernel, it is NOT a Linux OS in the original sense, a term that became popular decades before Chrome OS or Android became a thing.
If you include Chrome OS you might as well include Android too. As it can run on for instance Raspberry Pi and other mini systems, and could be used as a desktop system.
Chrome OS is a Linux kernel based OS, and not much more than that.
It’s somewhat confusing in some situations that Linux as a desktop OS doesn’t have a unique name, but it wasn’t a problem originally, as what some prefer to call GNU/Linux was made 100% for desktop use originally.The Linux kernel is way way more widespread and successful than what we usually term Desktop Linux or GNU/Linux.
TLDR:
Linux OS, Desktop Linux, GNU/Linux are generally meant as the same thing.
Chrome OS and Android do not belong in that category. They are Linux based as in the Linux kernel only, but do not follow the standards of Desktop Linux.This isn’t entirely right because Chrome OS is using a lot more of normal desktop Linux than Android does, which basically uses none.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChromeOS
Android is this completely different thing (built round OpenBinder) that ended up using the Linux kernel for good hardware support. It’s basically got nothing to do with desktop Linux, bar needed it to actually build Android. You can argue that Google basically tried forking Linux for Binder and control.
Oh so you can install KDE/Gnome/XFCE apps on Chrome OS and they will work?
You know the “desktop” in Desktop Linux means compatibility is on the desktop apps,and that goes way beyond terminal commands right?
I’m not in the US, but here in the UK I made the switch too.
I went from Windows PC + Windows laptop ~2 years ago to now having a Linux PC (ZorinOS), Samsung tablet and a home server running Proxmox with an Ubuntu VM for Docker.
Never been happier with my setup. The grass truly is greener over here.
Every year Linux fans:
👐 It’s happening! 👐
deleted by creator
Everything is online.
Who even needs to run local apps anymore?Edit: My point is -native linux versions don’t exist in many/most cases. I was making a point that a web version of some app accessible to Linux users is better than nothing at all.
I seriously don’t want everything to be a god damn webpage.
The funny thing for me is that my job is like 80% webpages in LibreWolf on my Linux machine. But that’s because the company uses M365 and Github.
I use various different programs for different reasons just like anybody, but I bet browser + vscode + terminal covers 95% of my work day.
It’s better than an app without Linux version comrade
Just write a linux version, then. Programming isn’t hard.
What? Lmao. I was using Linux for many years - I assure you no one was writing Linux apps bro.
So I’ll gladly take a webpage as a service. Windows /Mac devs can keep doing what they were doing, I don’t care as long there is a web version.
Anyone who wants to own what they create and doesn’t want their work stolen for some startup’s plagiarism engine. Anyone who is interested in privacy. Anyone who wants a consistent user experience. Anyone who wants to be exempt from sinister targeted advertising. Anyone who is worried about censorship.
Me, who uses low end hardware and can’t spend several gigabytes for simple web apps that I can run locally for 10% of the hardware resources of the web equivalent.
But native linux versions don’t exist on most cases. I was making a point that a web version accessible to Linux user is better than nothing at all.
That’s true. Your first comment was a bit confusing, sorry.
I would say that most people who own a computer use local apps, and that the experience, and long-term costs, of using a local program is often better than doing something completely cloud-based.
They use data from webtraffic to make their charts, so talking about local apps doesn’t really have much to do with this website.
Video editors, photo editors, 3d modelers , animators, gamedevs, djs, etc.
I still use windows because of Visual Studio. I used to use Mac OSX because of XCode and I honestly don’t understand people today who still use Windows or Mac for anything other than Development.
If there was an alternative to Visual Studio for Linux I wouldn’t think twice.
If it’s for C#, I’m doing pretty well with VSCode/VSCodium on Linux.
WPF and Forms does not work but I also have a Rider license from work which I use occasionally to maintain one of our old WPF applications, which we converted to Avalonia XPF. It works great and we now also have a Mac and Linux version.
Without knowing what you are working on in Visual Studio, I would suggest checking out Jetbrains IDEs. I’ve used Rider for .NET quite successfully, and most of their other IDEs. I havent spent nearly as much time with CLion, but its supposed to be good. I haven’t used VS since like 2015, so I really don’t know how they compare these days. But I also haven’t missed it.
The only thing I really miss about visual studio is the automatic profiler. Everything else just felt archaic, bloated, slow, and unintuitive. Adding one line in cmake often does the same thing as clicking through five submenus which never once got updated since 2012.
In short, you want a .Net developement platform for Linux? And i assume something like VScode is not enough? The thing with .exe compilers in Linux ususally using Mingw/Msys2 because MS having their own proprietary compiler thing?
People who use windows or Mac for anything but development do so for the same reasons as you, they are locked into some features. For example, at home I need a local music library manager with local sync to my phone music app and smart playlists. Mac is still the only platform with this.
At work I need MS exchange integration and all the features of native office. Even the Mac version isn’t good enough for my workflow.
My only hope would be to turn to emulators or something like that, but at that point I’m not really running Linux anyway. I’m just running something else in a container inside Linux.
MPD works pretty well for the music thing, and, I don’t know if this is would be an option for you, but I programmed my own smart-paylist-generator in rust as a hobby project to get control of my 500Gb (around 10,000 100% legally acquired tracks cough, cough) library. The additional control over the algo meant I got something that works waaaay better than pretty much anything else I’ve tried (including Spotify suggestions, etc. — the only thing I still use is Bandcamp for new artist suggestions); if you have the time, I highly recommend a homemade solution like that. It is a lot of work though.
Can you send me the details on your smart playlist generator? What does it do, comb the music and create a static playlist from the library music based on defined parameters?
As far as I can tell from an initial look, MPD doesn’t have local playback and sync which are the main features I’m looking for. Does MPD have a mobile app that I can locally sync the whole library to?
Visual Studio is a relic of the past. Does anyone still use it?
This question is a comment to its answer 🤔
I switched to mint like a month before PewDiePie lol
My main issue is that I kinda need actual Excel every so often because I require things like power query. I tried installing it using Wine, but it needs to authenticate with Microsofts servers, even the older versions.
I switched over to EndeavourOS around the same time. I relegated my old windows install to a virtual image, which I boot into for specific games and Excel. 10/10 recommend.
You can spin up a virtual machine running Tiny10 and install office on that. Should work fine.
Have you tried OnlyOffice? It has better compatibility with MS formats than LibreOffice.
OnlyOffice is worse (and not because of the security breach implications), but because it misses the Ctrl+D shortcut (copies the cell above to the current cell). Which is something I use A LOT for data entry.
Wait, what security breach implications?
I’m just waiting for double digits so that the FiveM devs can’t ignore Linux gamers anymore and actually allow for GTAV online playability. I mean, you can run a server on Linux but can’t play? Dumb.
Despite not being a gamer myself, Gamers are or should be a hotly contested demographic for Linux to chase and capture. And thanks to Steam, there is a shift happening as gaming gets easier.
Agreed. Gamers are probably one of the demographics which are most likely to care about the enshittification of their operating system, while most other users who only want Microsoft Office and their Web browser could not care less. The former can be swayed to endure a small amount of temporary inconvenience to switch while the latter will not.
I ran my first distro in 2009 and had to switch back to PC when I got to college. Finally got around to switching back over earlier this year when my computer wasn’t eligible to upgrade to windows 11. It’s wild how much easier it is to get things up and running now, my 70 year old dad could probably do it and that was not the case the first time around.
I made the full work + home switch last year. I don’t know which experience is more improved over Windows: Installing the OS or Updating the OS.
Thank you Pewdiepie!!
He single-handedly changed a lot of people’s impression of Linux with a single video, and he did it gently enough to not intimidate and scare them away like many others did. I respect that.
I’m out of the loop. What did he do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVI_smLgTY0&t=7s
He made a video encouraging people to try Linux.
Recommended Linux.
be a racist piece of shit with the emotional maturity of a 12 year old with fetal alcohol syndrome?
He stopped being edgy more than five years ago after backlash from his own community. No racist joke, no rage baiting, no channel wars.
His content this days is just wholesome family interaction, art journey, or tech experimentation.
What’s up with your username homie?
too delicious for you?
Huh, TIL
I’m really glad that’s what it turned out to be.
Nice try mr. dipwepie
I appreciate your earnest answer. I hope that it’s organic and legitimate growth on his part. My fear is that he simply decided not to pursue right wing stupidity openly. I seriously want to be wrong about that, but not everyone leans into the right wing lunatic grift economy and all that.
Is he really the reason? I just started trying a bunch over the past month through vm’s to see which one I like the best because I want to take the leap soon. I am doing it mostly due to the video game performance and compatibility reaching high enough levels that I don’t think it will be a big issue anymore. I also listed out all my current Windows apps and looked up what the alternative is, and from what I see, there is nothing left that won’t run on Linux anymore. The next step is seeing how some compare to what I am used to.
I can’t be the only one who is noticing its current state and just wanting to try something different. I don’t hate windows like everyone talks about it online, but I am at the point where I am noticing they are only going to get worse with privacy and continue to make awful built in features that do more to benefit themselves over you. So the 2 lines have crossed paths, and I think it’s the perfect storm for Linux soon.
He has a large audience and used his position to publicise it.
There have been countless volunteers and enthusiasts who have worked hard to make Linux worth publicising.
Keep in mind quite a lot of online games have recently banned linux players, in case there’s an important game for you like that.
Nah, I am more of a single-player kind of person. I was barely any good in my prime 25 years ago and I have only gotten worse since so I stick to mostly RPGs or other action style games.
I think you should be good for the most part then! I know pcvr works with linux now too but it depends what distribution you use for how difficult it is to setup.
Just made the full switch meself this past week!
Welcome Mr. Krabs
I mean good for the desktop experience on Linux, its taken the movement of most desktop apps to the web to make OS choice basically immaterial. I’ll still nitpick some things in linux that are still worse than Windows (i’ve replaced my htpc with a cheapo N100 and its better in most ways, worse in a few smaller things), but the most important thing is that the things I mostly use a desktop for (namely media consumption, browsing, some game streaming, and docker containers) its more or less the same as using windows or macos.
