this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
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[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 16 hours ago

"surge"

my god we're talking about reaching a whopping 5% marketshare, can we please fucking stop it with the soyfacing until it's at least 10%?

going :OOO over 5% feels so incredibly sad, it's like bragging about your wealth because you found a coin under your sofa

Businesses still use it. The EU gov is switching to Linux, or maybe just once country, but you get the point...

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 6 days ago (5 children)

Can we also have an open source surge against Android, with valid providers in all countries?

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 6 points 6 days ago

We totally can, but not yet. Postmarket is trying hard AF.

The whole Voice/SMS/VoLTE/DataLTE side of things is proprietary, so they're reverse engineering it, but it's painfully slow. Probably once they crack it open, the industry will try to protect it behind encryption and DRM.

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

No, because the "surge" in market share is almost certainly driven not by the average user's love of open source software, but by the average user simply letting their laptop die as they switch to phones and tablets as their sole computing devices. Windows users aren't becoming Linux users. They are becoming Android users.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 5 points 6 days ago

I personally like Android

What we need is better AOSP

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

I think android would be a better base to build on. don't look at their messy kernel, but the userspace. rip out the brainded, user-hostile limitations that google added in recent years, or reimplement them better, and it's pretty good.

sure continue pmos development, and plasma mobile and other components, but don't just ditch out a system that has worked well for so many time and been developed by lots of people by a company who has poured in lots of money

[–] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The year of the Linux desktop isn't as interesting anymore. It all sort of works good enough for most people not to need to care now.

What we need is the year of the Linux phone. And it think that we will have to still wait a long time for it. And no, Google/Linux does not count.

The interesting part wasn't gatekeeping with technical difficulty, but MS loss of marketshare and loss to large corps.

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Here is as close as I could find to the source data. Unfortunately, everything is listed in terms of "market share" which is great for "back slaps for the boys", but less great for generating hypotheses for actual causes. What I would like is the raw numbers - what were the total devices for each OS?

My bets for what are driving this change, from least to most likely:

  • Least likely: the average user, who is a lazy dumbass and knows nothing about OS's, has educated themselves on open source operating systems and has decided to throw off the shackles of their corporate, closed-source overlords, and installed a complicated operating system they've never used before onto their home desktop/laptop (which they never use) using a flash drive (which is hidden in the junk drawer where they haven't seen it for 7 years).
  • Some small tech-based businesses switched from windows to unix-based systems for their desktops. Mostly, this means now everyone is using MacBooks, but they gave in to a few developers who wanted linux-based machines.
  • Existing Linux users are finding the platform more stable for a daily driver, and are letting their windows machines go dark as the need to use them diminishes.
  • Steam deck (caveat - does this count as a desktop OS? I kinda doubt it.)
  • This has nothing to do with Linux. Windows users aren't switching to open source operating systems. They are switching to mobile devices. The average user is simply leaving their windows home laptop in the closet somewhere, and without even noticing, has transitioned to using phones and tablets as their sole devices for day to day computing. Windows isn't really losing market share to Linux - it is losing market share to Android and iOS. Usage of windows machines drops off because windows is an operating system for average users, who don't care about computers that much. Linux users, on the other hand, are much more likely to be "computer people" who like to do things like develop software - a task which can only really be accomplished in a desktop environment. So the total number of Linux desktops stays stable, while the number of windows machines drops off -> "increased" Linux market share.
[–] panicnow@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Here is a different (in my opinion probably better) source: https://analytics.usa.gov/

It also shows Linux above 5%. I agree that most people are switching to phone and/or tablet, but: the total devices are increasing AND the total number of phone/tablet devices are increasing AND the linux share is increasing

I would expect that as the denominator (all devices which includes an ever increasing number of phone/tablet) increases that Windows, mac and linux would decrease. I am surprised (and happy) that Linux is increasing!

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Hmmm.... Interesting! Maybe I'm mistaken

[–] panicnow@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Regardless of right and wrong you made interesting content for Lemmy!

[–] ClassyHatter@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That site shows OS usage on all platforms, mobile and TV included. If you select "current calendar year" as the time frame (to smooth out short term changes), the total desktop OS (Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS) usage is about 50%, Linux usage is about 6%. 6% out of 50% is 12%. So, according to that site, Linux usage is about 12% if you consider only desktop OSes.

[–] panicnow@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

That is my naive reading of the data also. And it makes me very happy.

[–] BigTrout75@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Okay Linux users, no snark about this distro is better than that one. We're all just one happy family.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It really could be more if the linux user community could agree on things and stop gatekeeping - which seems to be the only thing most online active linux users can agree on "ermagerd eternal september" 🙄

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

Anti Commercial-AI license

You know they steal books by the library right? How is this line supposed to do anything? It reminds me of the Facebook copy and paste spam like "Don't make my photos publicly available" after the person already uploaded a million photos on their page

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 2 points 6 days ago

Not really the same, as Facebook ToS means they own everything you upload. Not the case here.

[–] null@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 days ago

It's a little badge they like to wear.

Used to be a lot longer and more annoying.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 6 days ago

You know they steal books by the library right?

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You know they steal books by the library right?

Who steals books from the library? The Creative Commons Org? I tried looking it up online and can't really find what you are referring to.

Do you mean that they literally take books from the library and never return them, or do they copy library books an slap a new license on them? Are the books that they do that to in the public domain?

[–] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

who

People who make AI models

steal

they steal data for AI

by the library

"by the ___" is an expression for quantities

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 1 points 5 days ago

Ah, I see what you are saying. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

I guess I'm confused what that licence has to do with AI though.

I know onlinepersona put AI on the end of that link, but from what I can tell it's just a normal copy left license.

I guess some conceivably could put such a licence on an AI generated thing, but I'm not sure they would be able to enforce it unless the model wasn't trained on stolen data.

They might be able to copyright the prompt though.

Idk, we will probably have to rely on the courts to determine something like that, which means we will get the worst possible outcome.

[–] guywithoutaname@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

I think a big part of this is PC builders choosing an OS. There is so much content on YouTube about switching to Linux, and people have experience with the Steam Deck as well, which also factors in.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 points 6 days ago

That's me now! Yayyy!

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Yup! Just installed it on my laptop after several tries running into bugs during install. My desktop is next, but I'm not ready for the headaches of figuring out a dual-boot yet. I'm mentally preparing for it, though, so fingers crossed.

So I might as well ask beforehand: Does anyone have a preferred tutorial for it? I prefer a recommendation to going in blind.

[–] dajoho@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago

Hello. Not really a tutorial but a bit of advice: get a new internal SSD from Amazon and install it on that, leaving your Windows drive alone. It is a lot less of a headache if Linux is on a dedicated drive.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I don't think it needs a tutorial, it's automatic. but some advice:

  • don't delete any partitions, shrink them if you need space. who knows if windows needs it to boot
  • either have 2 ESP partitions (requires motherboard support), or use a different disk for linux. if windows and linux share an ESP, windows updates can somehow fuck up the linux boot chain, which is wonderful because everything is placed in per-OS directories. you don't have to order from amazon
  • disable fast startup in windows (control panel, energy settings, what does the power button do menu), because it's hibernation every time
  • disable hibernation, or handle with care. you shouldn't boot linux while windows is hibernated: changes the ESP and windows filesystems might haven't been written completely, also windows will do unpredictable things if these get changed while it's hibernated. linux kernel updates and efibootmgr changes could also make windows to drop its hibernated state and not load it
  • if you use multiple disks, consider creating a linux filesystem there. ext4, btrfs, whatever, former is fine if you don't know the difference. ntfs filesystems can be accessed well (except symbolic links?), but it's slow, cpu-heavy because of an implementation detail that makes it maintainable
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