
Linux Market Share on Desktop - macco
https://www.netmarketshare.com/report.aspx?qprid=11&qpaf=&qpcustom=Linux&qpcustomb=0
======
bhouston
We switched from Windows to Ubuntu for nearly all desktops here earlier this
year. The pain wasn't that great even for those that haven't used Linux before
as the main development machine. Ubuntu is great (except for installing NVIDIA
drivers [1]) and it leads to better and more robust development experiences
for the cloud when using lxc rather than VirtualBox for encapsulated
environments.

(Of course many of us still dual boot into Windows often for testing and for
using special purpose applications.)

[1]
[https://www.google.ca/search?q=nvidia+ubuntu+black+screen](https://www.google.ca/search?q=nvidia+ubuntu+black+screen)

~~~
dx034
May I ask what GUI you use? I really like using linux via terminal and prefer
it over Windows in many cases. I try making it my main OS every 1-2 years, but
always switch back to Windows. The GUIs that I tried just don't feel right.
Last time I gave it 3 weeks of 8 hours/day, and I still couldn't use it as
productively as Windows or MacOS (even though I'm not experienced in using the
latter). The fonts and symbols alone make it harder for me to work with it.

Didn't you experience any problems with that? Now I'm back again running
Windows and terminal sessions to linux machines (for testing/deployment). I
wonder if it's just me who can't work with it, but I have the feeling that
developing a functional and yet simple GUI is perhaps as hard as the kernel
itself. And most linux machines are servers, so there's little incentive,
while Microsoft and Apple have spent billions on developing this over the
years.

~~~
boozelclark
You could give elementary OS
([https://elementary.io/](https://elementary.io/)) a try. Got a nice looking
GUI but i'm not too sure how mature it is.

~~~
tehwalrus
Sadly they focussed on the beautiful GUI above upgradability of the debs. It
lags behind actual Ubuntu by at least one Long Term Release (possibly 2 by now
if they still haven't upgraded from 2012) and I've found it a pain to work
with beyond the initial "wow this is pretty for Linux".

(I actually ended up using XFCE and then AwesomeWM, so maybe I'm not the
market for Elementary!)

EDIT: just checked and their newest release, Loki, is based on Ubuntu's 2016
LTS. I'll be taking another look at it this evening!

------
ohstopitu
I've always said this but Linux (Ubuntu on the desktop) needed a few
applications to ensure that almost all devs didn't need anything else. In my
opinion...those tools (which didn't exist) were:

1\. GUI git client (a few exist, but nothing close to Tower or Sourcetree)

2\. A nice UI/UX designer (Figma is awesome but you need the desktop client to
upload .sketch files that require external fonts - which is almost always the
case for most kits - and that desktop client is only available on Windows &
MacOS)

3\. Creator Applications (Tools that you don't really need, until you do -
especially if you are a lone/indie dev).

Initially I would have added MS Office to the top of the list, but Libreoffice
has gotten a lot better (and people use/are not surprised by Google Docs now)

But that said, as someone who's used Ubuntu almost exclusively for development
for the last 5 years, it's been getting better and better.

~~~
babuskov
I have been using Linux on desktop since 2002.

1\. git-gui and gitk do the job just fine. I never felt a need for anything
else. I have no idea what Tower or Sourcetree does, but doing stuff with git
is less than 1% of my development time, so really fail to see what I could be
missing?

2\. I developed some cross-platform gui programs using wxWidgets and
wxFormBuilder was fine. Not Delphi level of WYSIWYG but did the job quickly.

3\. What's that, care to give an example?

The reason I switched to Mac after 12 years on Linux was because I got tired
of having to fiddle with the system. It's nice when you have a lot of time or
while you are learning a new OS, but these days I just want things to work out
of the box.

I was seriously considering Windows at one point, but then I got a Mac Mini to
develop some iOS stuff. Initially, I set it up as dual boot, but I spent more
and more time in OSX and finally just stayed there all the time. Installed
software I was missing and done.

I wish Linux all the best luck and I'm still using it on servers, but I'm not
sure it can reach that level of Things Just Working(tm). Windows has a huge
number of payed developers to make it happen. Mac has locked themselves down
to just a couple of types of hardware and manage to do the same with less
people. It seems to me that Linux tries to cover the widest possible hardware
range with comparatively smaller team - and many developers don't care about
UX that much. I know, because I developed some open source programs, and I'm
guilty of that as well.

~~~
sqeaky
I think the "Just working" argument is too subjective.

Ubuntu just works, unless you have some specific hardware that is too obscure
or new. Then one day someone starts expecting you use files from some obscure
source and you need an application that isn't on Linux.

Windows just works, until you need to re-install because of virus and need to
track down drivers. Then you realize the version of office was some weird OEM
license and need to figure something else out.

I am sure Mac OS X has problems too but I haven't used it much.

All these things are so advanced that they just work... until they don't for
you.

~~~
lelandbatey
Mac OS X just works until one day the UI locks up and App store updates hang,
and the computer becomes an unusable brick because nothing can be read from
the disk after the non-replaceable SSD because it died (happened to me two
weeks ago).

Everything just works until the awful built in media management applications
corrupts your media collection/destroys their metadata.

Everything just works till their terrible disk format results in an
undetectable error that slowly corrupts your files until even most of your
backups have been quietly corrupted.

Everything just works till the UI for resolution becomes permanently scrambled
and doesn't allow you to switch away from Fischer Price mode on the retina
MacBook you use for development.

Using Apple computers has thoroughly disabused me of the notion that there is
anything in the world that "just works" for anything but the most hilariously
trivial use cases. It's a flawed platform just like all the others.

~~~
hellofunk
I've been using Macs for years, and these are some pretty amazing problems
you've had, I can't imagine ever experiencing them. You've had some bad luck,
friend. Sorry to hear it.

In all my years using Macs, I've never had any of these, and I push my
machines quite hard. They've always kept up like a pro, always reliable.

------
rkeene2
The title is slightly misleading -- Linux is WAY above 2% of computing
marketshare, it's really only on the desktop that it lags behind. Linux is
running on more computers than almost any other OS. The only competition for
most popular it has is VxWorks and QNX.

EDIT: The title was updated to be more accurate, it didn't mention desktops
initially.

~~~
X86BSD
I'm not sure where you get your numbers from but I would disagree. I'll bet
there is more BSD running embedded than Linux. And either of us will be hard
put to actually show solid numbers. Everyone can point to their favorite
vendors using X.

~~~
rkeene2
I didn't cite any numbers. However, I do think Linux, VxWorks, and QNX are all
significantly more popular than BSD.

As phkahler mentioned there are billions of Android devices running Linux, and
that's just to start. Chromebooks are also very popular (outselling MacBooks
in recent quarters). Linux is very popular on millions upon millions of
servers. Many home routers and/or access points are running Linux (although
VxWorks is also popular here). Many other embedded devices in millions of
homes are running Linux -- every Roku, Chromecast, Kindle, Nest thermostat,
and many more things all add up. I've even put Linux on the firmware of
network interface cards (NICs) before. If we are willing to count uClinux,
I've put into planes as well. Even not counting uClinux, I've still put it
into planes as part of a air-to-ground communication system.

I'm not convinced BSD has nearly the installation count and your argument has
not convinced me that it has.

~~~
X86BSD
The exact same vague use cases for BSD can be listed as well. But it's all
guesses. No one knows for sure who is using what in pure numbers.

------
awinter-py
For me the adoption story is 100% about wifi drivers. There's pent-up demand
for linux laptops but if you installed linux on your laptop 3 years ago, odds
are the wifi didn't work. If broadcom decided today to follow intel/atheros
and support linux, a huge class of devices would become linux-friendly
overnight.

I've bought and returned 5 different laptops this year and driver support has
been the story every time. (even for hypothetically linux-based hardware like
chromebooks -- the post-broadwell chromebooks have iffy linux support -- for
new chromebooks, it's the graphics drivers that are most likely to give you
trouble).

Interface-wise, the feature stability of standard linux desktops (I use xfce)
is probably a secret _advantage_ over apple/msft/chrome. Every new version of
windows/osx gets slower, more complicated, less keyboard-friendly and more
notification-focused.

A 2005-era windows user would probably be more comfortable on my mint xfce
desktop than on a commercial alternative.

~~~
pja
It may be that the lack of broadcom Linux drivers is starting to have some
effect, at least at the high end? The new Dell 13" XPS comes with an atheros
supported wifi device - I guess Dell got tired of having to create an entirely
seperate SKU just for the developer editions.

~~~
awinter-py
I have an XPS 13 from this summer. lspci says:

3a:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4350 802.11ac Wireless
Network Adapter (rev 08)

The driver works mostly but once in a while I have to `sudo service network-
manager restart`, rmmod/modprobe mwifiex_pcie, or worst-case reboot the
system. Obviously this happens at the worst possible times -- meetings and in
the middle of important work.

Their 'developer edition' uses intel wifi, I think, but is intermittently sold
out and weirdly more expensive. You can buy an intel card and add it.

~~~
pja
New XPS 13" comes with a Killer 1535 Wifi chipset, which is Atheros based I
believe. Specs at
[http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-13-9360-laptop/pd?ref=PD_OC](http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-13-9360-laptop/pd?ref=PD_OC)

I think you bought the previous model. It’s possible that the UK gets slightly
different specs of course, but seems unlikely?

------
angrygoat
I wonder how many desktop Linux boxes are hidden behind corporate firewalls
and thus hidden from these stats. My observation when I worked in oil & gas
(at a company focussed on the exploration / geophysics side) was that they
were almost exclusively Linux on the desktop, those machines being used for
scientific visualisation and data analysis.

~~~
IMTDb
On the other hand, an individual that knows about linux, decides to download a
distro, install it, and get to the internet probably is way more tech-savy
than your average user. He is thus more likely to spend more time on the web
and his browser / OS / hardware will be more "visible" in those charts.

~~~
pritambaral
Only a foolish "statistician" would count _all visits_ towards population
representation instead of _unique visits_

------
yann63
Maybe windows users are abandonning their PC faster than Linux users? They are
switching to tablets and smartphones. So in percentage, the increase of Linux
market share for desktop could just be a decrease of windows (and Mac OS X).

------
iUsedToCode
I've been using Linux since high school (late 20 here) and i cannot imagine
going back to windows. I'm always surprised when a fellow programmer says they
use windows at home.

I couldn't live without command prompt. I love updating everything with one
move. Now you can even use Steam on linux. Some apps are lacking, but most
people don't edit videos or play with Photoshop. Especially now, since most of
the desktop usage is internet and web browser, i see no reason to stick with
Windows.

But mostly, i just like being in control. Using some perl i can automate
almost any menial task.

------
jeena
I was using Windows 2002, Linux from 2003-2006, OS X 2006-2013 and back to
Linux since then.

It really depends on what you're doing. I'm doing some desktop app
deverlopement and a little webdevelopement in my free time, with git, Emacs,
QtCreator, Thunderbird, Firefox, Gimp on Arch. I also record podcasts and
master them with Ardour [1] on my Linux machine. I seldom play some game from
Steam. I use Skype to call my parents. I also use it to manage my photos with
Darktable [2] and RAWTherapee [3]. I listen to my music collection with Gnome
Music and synchronize it between my computers with Syncthing.

In my case I basically don't need to use anything which doesn't work on Linux,
I bought a computer which was made for Linux [4], so I didn't have any driver
problems. I don't do much with graphics.

For me the values with which Linux comes are important, especialle freedom. I
am aware that there might be more convinient applications out there but
because they don't respect my freedom I don't have the desire to use them. I
like that arrangement and it seems to improve a lot with time.

[1] [http://ardour.org/](http://ardour.org/) [2]
[http://www.darktable.org/](http://www.darktable.org/) [3]
[http://www.rawtherapee.com/](http://www.rawtherapee.com/) [4]
[http://www.tuxedocomputers.com/Linux-Hardware/Linux-
Notebook...](http://www.tuxedocomputers.com/Linux-Hardware/Linux-
Notebooks/10-14-Zoll/TUXEDO-InfinityBook-13-v3-13-Zoll-matt-Full-HD-IPS-
Aluminiumgehaeuse-Intel-Core-i7-Energiespar-CPU-zwei-HDD/SSD-bis-16GB-RAM-
bis-15h-Akku-Slim-Book.geek)

[update] I forgot to write that at work, I work within the automobile industry
and we do infotainment systems based on Linux (with yocto), in our company
basically everyone uses Linux on the Desktop and we have gotten so far that a
big portion of our customers moves over from Windows to Linux while they work
together with us because they see how much easier and faster developement is
when you develop for Linux and at the same time run Linux on your dev-machine.
[[http://www.pelagicore.com/](http://www.pelagicore.com/)]

------
ungzd
Maybe user-agent values from Android somehow leaked into the data (i.e.
"desktop mode" in browsers)? It includes "Linux" in Chrome
[https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/user-
agent](https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/user-agent) and builtin
browser.

~~~
ac29
Yes, but it also includes "Android" in the string. Still, I question their
methodology -- a ~50% increase in market share in 1 year is hard to believe.

edit: Maybe ChromeOS is driving this?

------
seren
Isn't netmarketshare looking at browser user agent ? So if you are using Linux
in a VM this is counted as a desktop Linux user ? (which in a way might be
true but still...)

~~~
imglorp
There's some others in the opposite direction: using linux desktop but running
windows in a vm, spoofing user agent to look like windows, or running ie in
wine, pipelight/silverlight etc.

------
boozelclark
Is this not the rise of ChromeOS?
([http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/19/11711714/chromebooks-
outso...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/19/11711714/chromebooks-outsold-macs-
us-idc-figures))

~~~
Pigo
My Pixel 2 is the reason I got into Linux. Once I figured out how to run
Ubuntu in Crouton, it's the only thing I want to use anymore.

~~~
boozelclark
I used a linux desktop but needed something a mobile without a hefty price
tag. Got a HP Chromebook 13 and with crouton and it's brilliant. Beautiful
hardware at a reasonable price. I just wish there was a crouton app launcher
but its good enough anyway

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
Make some shell aliases to launch the programs in their own xiwi window.

------
fermigier
Cool, been waiting for this moment for the last, what, 15 years...

The curve
([https://www.netmarketshare.com/report.aspx?qprid=11&qpaf=&qp...](https://www.netmarketshare.com/report.aspx?qprid=11&qpaf=&qpcustom=Linux&qpcustomb=0&qpsp=59&qpnp=12&qptimeframe=Q))
unfortunately lacks some "hockey stick" characteristics. But if we wait, I
don't know, 63 years, this will be the "year of the Linux desktop" at last !

(Of course, It's been "the year of the Linux smartphone" for a few years
already, and "the year of the Linux supercomputer" for maybe 10 years).

------
votr
I've been using Ubuntu on my desktop for three years now. I love developing on
it, but the consumer aspect has minor annoyances.

\- If I have a PDF with advanced features, then I need to use Windows.

\- Chrome, VS Code, and a few select applications flash repeatedly once up to
a certain window size. Found out the problem has something to do with AMD
graphics chips.

\- I think Libre Office is horrible.

\- Linux is still a second-class citizen for certain major apps such as Skype.
I wouldn't mind ditching Skype altogether but some clients demand it.

I've never used a Mac, but I can't help but think it's the best of both
worlds...but Apple keeps making decisions which I feel sidelines developers.

------
singularity2001
And 95% marketshare for servers?

~~~
kalleboo
Less than that - there are more Windows server out there than you'd expect
[https://news.netcraft.com/archives/2016/09/19/september-2016...](https://news.netcraft.com/archives/2016/09/19/september-2016-web-
server-survey.html)

~~~
marcosdumay
That is, Linux is on 90% (ok, 89.8%) of them unless you count the parked
domains that MS was paying companies to park on Windows.

~~~
kalleboo
Are you sure half those nginx machines aren't running OpenBSD?

------
desireco42
This is interesting for me as I am just in process to try how it would be to
jump to linux. I did it several times before, didn't work. I run it in
parallels on imac. I use i3wm and I am happy with that.

Issue in the past was that it would take too long time to get it to work and
configure properly and you constantly have to fiddle with it.

This time, I managed to install good fonts, and as I am using barebones
windows manager, there is very little that can be off. Yet, I had Firefox,
which for a change was not super slow, get stuck twice, so I had to logout. I
think that is the issue when Firefox can get so confused to be stuck.

I wish I had more space on my desk, so I can have a dedicated machine and work
on it.

Oh yes, I like playing games, while not all are ported to linux, sufficient
number is. So, that part is fine.

------
ris
Quick reminder that Linux users are _far_ more likely to be running Ad
Blockers or NoScript or other blockers that prevent many analytics systems
working properly (often just as a side effect, not intentionally).

------
4monthsnot3
4 months not 3

~~~
pathsjs
Did you really create an account just to say this?

~~~
4monthsnot3
I did when I saw that the headline was 1/3 too low.

------
laacz
One thing you can try is Windows Subsystem for Linux (Ubuntu on Windows). It
works unexpectedly well, even with apps X server.

For the sake of this comment I tried "sudo apt-get install gnome && DISPLAY=:0
gnome". It took 2 gigs and a while. Shame that doesn't work just like that.

------
ryan-c
[https://www.netmarketshare.com/faq.aspx#Methodology](https://www.netmarketshare.com/faq.aspx#Methodology)

There's nothing here to indicate that they make any effort to exclude
bots/crawlers/scrapers/etc.

------
executesorder66
I wonder what happened in June.

~~~
DiThi
Windows 10 Anniversary Update?

~~~
theandrewbailey
That was in August.

------
HugoDaniel
Can Android be considered Linux ? :)

~~~
digi_owl
This is looking at browser useragent strings, and as such Android shows up
under mobile, not desktop. Now ChromeOS on the other hand may be a interesting
question.

------
FT_intern
How does this compare to the rise of number of programmers?

------
XaYdEk
That's nice but ...

Will this year be the year of the Linux Desktop ? Nop ...

How about next year ? Nop ...

When will the Year of the Linux Desktop occur ? At our current trajectory I
estimate that will occur somewhere around the time* of:

a) The Apocalypse b) The Heat Death of the Universe

*whichever comes first

~~~
XaYdEk
Ok, don't get me wrong, I love Linux and I'm not trying to be an ass.

I'm a Linux guy (Debian/Gentoo mostly), but you will never get average users
to switch to Linux, the same way you will never get me to use anything after
Windows7 for personal use, I have a rage fit with all the icons and no proper
command line and they will have a rage fit (or at least have a feeling of
angst) if they have to type 3 lines of commands in the terminal to fix or
setup something.

Where I see Linux as powerful, they see it as difficult. Where I see Windows
and Apple as limited and inflexible, they see it as simple. So it seems people
will go for easy 98% of the times.

~~~
berntb
>> you will never get average users to switch to Linux

Last I looked, Linux (in Android) was leading BSD-alike (iOS) -- and those are
probably the two most popular platforms around... :-)

 _Especially_ for average users that are cost conscious.

(At a minimum, place one and three of installed world wide base?)

~~~
XaYdEk
Desktop. Talking desktop.

You will never get them to do it by themselves, you have to set it up for
them. There is a resistence to switching to Linux, because of the image they
have in their mind about it.

Mint and Ubuntu are very user friendly and yes once I dropped them (Ubuntu &
Lubuntu) on my familly computers the resistance vanished in a matter of
minutes after using them. Biggest problem was "Why is the X on the left top of
the window ?"

So I'm saying: without some incentives or guidance, adoption of Linux desktop
by average users will remain low because of perceived difficulty, existing
familiarity with Windows and Mac OSes and general mental inertia.

