After 30 Years, Linux Finally Hits 3% Market Share
Linux has a long history that dates back more than 30 years. However, it has never been as popular among regular computer users as other operating systems such as Microsft’s Windows or Apple’s macOS.
Of course, for many years, Linux has emerged as a dominant force in the realm of server operating systems. Due to its exceptional performance, stability, reliability, and security, it has been widely adopted in server/cloud/IoT environments.
However, these days, Linux is no longer limited to these environments alone; it is rapidly gaining momentum as an operating system of choice for many desktop users, especially developers.
And the most recent figures confirm this, giving all advocates of Linux and open source in general reason to rejoice.
UPDATE:
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Linux hit over 3% desktop user share according to Statcounter
Do my eyes deceive me? Apparently not. According to Statcounter, the Linux share on the desktop has actually now passed 3% for the first time.
WebProNews:
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Linux Desktop Market Share Crosses 3% for the First Time
Linux hit a major milestone, with its desktop market share crossing the 3% mark for the first time in its history.
Linux already runs the majority of web servers in the world, as well as the majority of smartphones, thanks to Android being Linux-based. Despite being the world’s most used operating system, Linux has never made much headway on the desktop.
According to Statcounter, Linux has finally crossed 3% in the desktop market in June 2023, coming in at 3.07%.
Linux may be benefiting from a number of factors...
Ars Technica:
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Linux could be 3% of global desktops. What happened to Windows?
According to one measurement by one firm, Linux reached 3.07 percent market share of global desktop operating systems in June 2023. It's a notable first for the more than 30-year-old operating system, though other numbers in Statcounter's chart open it up to many more interpretations. It's either the year of the Linux desktop or a notable asterisk—your call.
As Statcounter explains, its numbers come from tracking code installed on more than 1.5 million websites across the globe, capturing roughly 5 billion page views per month. Statcounter says it does not collate, weigh, or otherwise adjust its data aside from correcting for bots and Google Chrome's prerendering. Laptops are included in "desktop" because there is no easy way to separate them. And they're subject to revision for up to 45 days after publication.
FOSS Force:
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Wowie Zowie! Linux Use Hits 3%! The Year of the Linux Desktop Is at Hand!
Only 32 years after Linus Torvalds sent his famous email announcing Linux to the world, Linux use has risen above 3%, all the way to 3.08% Now, ain’t that some phenomenal growth? At this rate we should hit the 10% mark sometime around 2091, just in time for the Linux Centennial Celebration.
I’m kidding, of course, about the 10% by 2091 thing. For one thing, we probably won’t even be using operating systems then. For another, we will probably have been evicted from the planet long before then. A planet-wide eviction, I understand, is performed by shutting down the life support system, just so you know. You won’t be able to breath. It’ll be like drowning in air instead of water.
But I digress. This article is about the rising use of Linux, not the coming apocalypse.
SJVN:
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Linux has over 3% of the desktop market? It's more complicated than that
Every few years, people get excited that maybe this will be the year of the Linux desktop. Now, I can argue, and I have, that happened long ago. But when you're talking about the traditional PC running a desktop Linux system such as Linux Mint, MX Linux, or Ubuntu, the numbers remain minute. In StatCounter's latest desktop market share numbers, Linux has made it up to 3.08%.
TweakTown:
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Linux hits highest market share in decades, with 3% of desktops running the OS
Linux has never been as popular as Microsoft Windows or Apple's macOS; that has been true for decades. But according to StatCounter's latest data, the open-source operating system hit a 3% market share in the desktop PC space in June 2023 - pointing to a growing audience enjoying Linux's lightweight, bloatware-free, and customization-friendly approach.
Techradar:
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Linux is cool now - but why?
It’s official: Linux distros now run on 3% of global desktops - a figure that even rises to 7%, if we’re counting devices running Chrome OS.
The news comes courtesy of new Statcounterdata, deriving its findings from tracking code embedded in browsers. Curiously, “desktops” also includes laptops, as it’s difficult to separate them given the nature of the telemetry.
The past year has seen Windows drop from 76.33% of overall market share to 68.23%, while MacOS has seen a sharp rise from 14.64% to 21.32 percent, leaving Linux, ChromeOS, and the nebulous “unknown” category to make up the remaining 10.5%.
The Register:
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Linux has nearly half of the desktop OS Linux market
Linux is now a little more than three 3 per cent of the desktop OS market, excluding the just over four per cent that is ChromeOS. Which is also Linux, but the wrong kind of Linux.
Web server statistics aggregator Statcounter announced last week that as of June 2023, Linux accounts for 3 per cent of desktop operating system use. However, this is still surpassed by ChromeOS, which means that desktop Linux has less than half of the desktop Linux market. If you feel that this is a bit weird, we agree with you.
Hackaday:
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Ask Hackaday: What’s Linux Anyway?
Any time we mention Linux, it is a fair bet we will get a few comments from people unhappy that we didn’t refer to it as GNU/Linux or with some other appellation. To be fair, they aren’t wrong. Linux is a kernel. Much of what we think of as a Linux desktop OS is really from other sources, including, but not limited to, GNU. We thought about this after reading a report from [The Register] that Linux has nearly half of the desktop OS Linux market. Wait, what?
If you are like us, you probably think that’s a typo. It isn’t. But the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. You know that half of the world’s desktops don’t run Linux. But maybe they mean Unix? Nope. So how can Linux have almost half of the Linux market? That’s like saying nearly half of Hackaday readers read Hackaday, right?
Here’s the thing. The data came from statistics aggregator Statcounter. They report that desktop Linux use is about 3% of all desktop operating systems, which sounds about right. But an additional 4% are using ChromeOS, and ChromeOS is using Linux — in fact, based on Gentoo Linux and, before that, Ubuntu.
FOSS FORCE:
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The Paradox of Being (or Not Being) a Linux Operating System
It’s a debate that’s been going on since Android came onto the scene: Does simple use of the Linux kernel qualify an operating system to be a bona fide Linux operating system?
Several weeks back I came across some stats on operating system usage that showed Linux use at 3.08%, which is actually a pretty large number for Linux historically, so I wrote an article about it on July 13. After it was published, I did my usual shtick and posted a link to it on my favorite social platform, which is Mastodon.