As the article points out, we’re not sure about the validity of these numbers.
Anecdotally though, the idea of major creators like Linus Tech Tips and Marques Brownlee putting out Linux content was unheard of a few short years ago.
I have been seeing a wide trend among the Windows tech-savvy universe of frustrated users who have social media platforms suggesting strongly that people give it a try.
Plus, you’ve got Steam, which has made Linux an excellent game platform for the very large percentage of Windows desktop users who play games.
I also find that the availability of AI makes troubleshooting for newbies way easier. Dump your error message in or describe what’s not working and you’re on your way.
It is truly the year of the Linux desktop. I switched away from Windows thinking I’d still need a dual boot partition but so far I really don’t.
Their source is StatCounter. I would trust the trends but not their absolute values. This month, Steam reported an increase to 4.01% while Cloudflare's human activity reports ~6%.
I am very happy to hear this. Usually, when I tell people that my main operating system is Linux, they don't even process it and assume it's either Windows or Mac. Sometimes, they get confused and claim that no one uses Linux.
Now that there is data in terms that people can understand (capitalism), I think people will finally accept that Linux is an OS. The next thing is the false equivalence between Linux and Android.
> However, the sharp monthly increase needs context. Statcounter’s June figures included an “Unknown” category that accounted for 9.24% of North American desktop usage. Its reduction seems to have coincided with Linux’s rise, possibly indicating better identification of previously unclassified traffic.
Still good news for those wanting to see broader Linux adoption, but the news really is the usage was correctly recognized as Linux for the first time.
I work in the refurb department of an ewaste recycling company. Because we don't have a Windows OEM license, we officially can't install Windows on any of the PCs we sell. (I'll direct people to download the Windows install media if asked.[0]) On the systems I sell[1], Linux Mint has a nice OEM install option that after installation, there's a 'ship to customer' script[2] that starts an OOBE after the next boot, so I don't have to make up a login, and hope it doesn't get lost anywhere.
I'm not sure how many people keep the Linux install after they buy it, but it's cool to think we're helping move the needle on this! FWIW, I've had several people directed to me specifically for Linux systems, so I know it's more than 3.
Yes, I run Linux everywhere at work (it's the wild west without a Windows domain), and at home.
We developed Linux with 1st class support for our desktop app. It was extremely painful due to missing some Webview functionality that is available for both MacOS and Windows, so we're maintaining an entire 2nd branch of UI code to run CEF instead. One of our developers is 24/7 on Linux and basically just fixes Linux bugs, and even they need a couple VMs to try out random (especially old) distros and DEs to make sure it all works.
Anyways, I'm saying this because we expected ~1% Linux users, but we needed something to stand out against our competitors. I just pulled our latest data, and 7.5% of our paying users are on Linux.
I've been using Linux on/off since the late 90s. And now, both my mini-PC and my laptop are running Fedora, and I swear by them.
So as much as I want to believe that others share my taste, I'm not sure how to interpret the two statistics in this article.
Sadly, I'd lean towards this article's attribution:
"Cloudflare’s unfiltered figures may include automated requests unless human traffic is classified. This is especially relevant to Linux, widely used for servers, automation, development environments, and headless browser workloads"
I suspect many people are running AI agents on cloud servers, which are most likely running Linux, and many of those agents are browsing the web. That's more likely what is driving this adoption. That, and as the article points out, more accurate OS classification on the part of StatCounter (from unknown to "Linux"), especially if its over the span of 1 month.
Great move by Microsoft to spur Linux adoption by making Windows 11 installable only on the “latest and greatest” hardware. I have a T460p which is still perfectly fine for most office use and gaming and has 32 GB of RAM, a TPM 2.0 and a quad core CPU but because that CPU is not on Microsoft’s list I can only install Windows 11 through some shady hacks.
I guess especially now as new hardware skyrockets in price people think twice before buying a new rig just so they can update Windows, Linux starts to look really good for these folks.
I don't know what their methodology is but it's hard to take their findings seriously when it shows windows dropping over five percentage points between may and June, or when Linux almost doubled during the same time period, or when it shows an "OS X" spike in October 2025, or when it has OS X and macOS on the same graph…
For sure Linux ecosystem will dominate over Windows if things remain as now. The question is when: in 5 or 15 years. There are so many reasons:
- high hardware prices push people to keep their 5-10 y-o PC that crawl under updated Windows versions
- stupid Windows practices, like ads and updates, that make people feel, well, stupid
- improvement of Linux distro support, mainly due to instant help by LLMs
- a series of other goodies, like games on Steam, practically non-existent malware, strong security, lack of privacy invasion and the most important: legally FREE.
At about 30-35% market share there will be a tipping that will accelerate the adoption through support by big corps, mild monetization and by being just a "sexy compute".
20 comments of 79
[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 11.7 ms ] threadAnecdotally though, the idea of major creators like Linus Tech Tips and Marques Brownlee putting out Linux content was unheard of a few short years ago.
I have been seeing a wide trend among the Windows tech-savvy universe of frustrated users who have social media platforms suggesting strongly that people give it a try.
Plus, you’ve got Steam, which has made Linux an excellent game platform for the very large percentage of Windows desktop users who play games.
I also find that the availability of AI makes troubleshooting for newbies way easier. Dump your error message in or describe what’s not working and you’re on your way.
It is truly the year of the Linux desktop. I switched away from Windows thinking I’d still need a dual boot partition but so far I really don’t.
Now that there is data in terms that people can understand (capitalism), I think people will finally accept that Linux is an OS. The next thing is the false equivalence between Linux and Android.
Still good news for those wanting to see broader Linux adoption, but the news really is the usage was correctly recognized as Linux for the first time.
I work in the refurb department of an ewaste recycling company. Because we don't have a Windows OEM license, we officially can't install Windows on any of the PCs we sell. (I'll direct people to download the Windows install media if asked.[0]) On the systems I sell[1], Linux Mint has a nice OEM install option that after installation, there's a 'ship to customer' script[2] that starts an OOBE after the next boot, so I don't have to make up a login, and hope it doesn't get lost anywhere.
I'm not sure how many people keep the Linux install after they buy it, but it's cool to think we're helping move the needle on this! FWIW, I've had several people directed to me specifically for Linux systems, so I know it's more than 3.
Yes, I run Linux everywhere at work (it's the wild west without a Windows domain), and at home.
[0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11 (ewww)
[1] https://www.ebay.com/str/evolutionecycling
[2] https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/lates...
Anyways, I'm saying this because we expected ~1% Linux users, but we needed something to stand out against our competitors. I just pulled our latest data, and 7.5% of our paying users are on Linux.
So as much as I want to believe that others share my taste, I'm not sure how to interpret the two statistics in this article.
Sadly, I'd lean towards this article's attribution:
"Cloudflare’s unfiltered figures may include automated requests unless human traffic is classified. This is especially relevant to Linux, widely used for servers, automation, development environments, and headless browser workloads"
I suspect many people are running AI agents on cloud servers, which are most likely running Linux, and many of those agents are browsing the web. That's more likely what is driving this adoption. That, and as the article points out, more accurate OS classification on the part of StatCounter (from unknown to "Linux"), especially if its over the span of 1 month.
Increasingly you'll see a new tool or library or language, and there'll be installation instructions for everything except windows.
Or Windows will be "supported" but when you go to run the tests they just don't work.
Development has often been more Linux friendly, but it was rarely the case that Windows got completely ignored.
Realistically, windows probably doesnt even break 1% these days.
I guess especially now as new hardware skyrockets in price people think twice before buying a new rig just so they can update Windows, Linux starts to look really good for these folks.
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/north-ame...
I don't know what their methodology is but it's hard to take their findings seriously when it shows windows dropping over five percentage points between may and June, or when Linux almost doubled during the same time period, or when it shows an "OS X" spike in October 2025, or when it has OS X and macOS on the same graph…
- high hardware prices push people to keep their 5-10 y-o PC that crawl under updated Windows versions
- stupid Windows practices, like ads and updates, that make people feel, well, stupid
- improvement of Linux distro support, mainly due to instant help by LLMs
- a series of other goodies, like games on Steam, practically non-existent malware, strong security, lack of privacy invasion and the most important: legally FREE.
At about 30-35% market share there will be a tipping that will accelerate the adoption through support by big corps, mild monetization and by being just a "sexy compute".
all the other windows apps - will be either through a wine layer or migrated to web.
For older hardware that won't run Windows 11, I'm a huge fan of Linux Mint, especially for people migrating from Windows.