The use of Linux as a desktop operating system has reached a new record, according to new data from Statcounter.
The open source operating system has appeared for the first time on just over 4% of desktop computers worldwide, up from just under 3% a year ago. It may not seem like much, but for a niche operating system like Linux it is a big step.
So what is driving this? If we look at the Statcounter data a little closer, one of the reasons for the overall increase is a big jump in Linux usage in India: from 8% in February last year to 15% last month.
Usage in the United States has also grown, although much less spectacularly, from 2.5% a year ago to 3.85% last month.
Linux is free to install and can be a good way to reuse old hardware, and modern distributions are easier to work with than before, which may be fueling demand.
Measuring the market share of operating systems is usually a complicated task and there are other sources that do not show the same progress. Gaming platform Steam reports, for example, that only 1.6% of the devices its customers use run Linux.
Data from the US government's Digital Analysis Program shows that the Linux operating system is found on about 2.2% of devices that access its official websites.
But since more than half of the devices visiting these sites are mobile (57%), the actual proportion of Linux PCs will be much higher – and probably more in line with the Statcounter data.
The Linux Foundation's own research shows that the operating system is in good health. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of companies surveyed said they use it.
However, Linux is popular for everything from web servers to cloud computing; The desktop is one of its most specific uses.
Developers are one of the main groups still using desktop Linux: Stack Overflow's 2023 developer survey found that 27% of developers used Ubuntu for personal and professional use, 16% said they used the Windows subsystem for Linux and 8% said they used Debian. .
There was a time when open source enthusiasts believed that desktop Linux could be a rival to Windows. However, a hugely fragmented market (there are many different versions of Linux) plus the steep learning curve required for the average user who wanted to install it, meant that the challenge went away.
That didn't stop the screams of'this is the year of the Linux desktop“That lasted for a few years.
Linux is growing, but Windows can relax
As such, Microsoft can probably relax a bit: even if Linux's current pace of growth were to maintain, it will still take decades to overtake Windows' market share.
In any case, the PC is now only part of the overall computing market, which also includes smartphones, tablets and wearable devices.
In the broader computing ecosystem, open source is doing well. Android, based on the Linux kernel, remains the most popular operating system in the world.
