People keep flocking to Linux, not just to escape Windows

I switched to Linux in the past month.

First, I installed GNOME based Fedora 43, that was a mistake. I got it working "somewhat" like Windows, with Dash to Panel etc. widgets, but stability was not there after all the hacks.

Then I figured I try KDE Plasma, and this is so close to Windows that I made the switch permanent. Even little things like double-clicking on top, or bottom resize handle vertically maximizes the window, like in Windows.

KDE is not just better than Windows, but it is way more configurable out of the box. I really like window rules, which allows to set window locations, always on top settings for specific Chrome PWAs or other windows. KDE Settings panel is light years ahead of Windows, it has all the settings in one place, kind of like the old Control Panel.

There is rough spots, but not that many... I did end up buying AMD GPU, as with Nvidia GPU I had bunch of bugs.

I wanted to switch to Linux for a long time now because Windows Subsystem for Linux just wasn't good enough, it was mediocre. All the development happens with tools that have bash scripts as a glue. Windows was a hindrance at this point for me.

Right now I'm trying to learn to write small native Wayland GUI apps that use minimalish amount of memory, this is a bit tricky compared to Win32, but with new toolkit libraries pretty doable.

“Microsoft president Pavan Davulur tweeted on Nov. 10 that ‘Windows is evolving into an agentic OS, connecting devices, cloud, and AI to unlock intelligent productivity and secure work anywhere”

Apple could probably run a Mac vs PC billboard on this tweet alone.

I still want to switch, have been trying for like 8 years. Not yet unfortunately.

Video editing is still pretty sub-par on Linux compared to Windows.

DaVinci Resolve technically works on Linux and it's an amazing piece of software that I'd love to use but on Linux there's no h264 support unless you pay $300. Ok no problem, I'd do that except the studio version doesn't support AAC for audio on Linux.

If you want to record from OBS, you have to re-encode the video for Resolve and then after rendering your video with Resolve you have to re-encode it again with another tool for h264 / AAC. That means you have to record + render + edit + render + render instead of just record + edit + render. A huge time sink and waste of drive space.

Kdenlive is there but its text editing capabilities are really lack luster. If you want to do things like create a text call out with a rectangle behind it and have your text styled up where different words are colored up differently or you want to underline a word or 2 you have to spend 10 minutes fighting its text UI, duplicating layers, fiddling with z-indexes and if you decide to change your text later, you have to re-do everything. That or you have to use an external tool like GIMP but that breaks you out of the flow and takes a lot more time.

On Windows, there's Camtasia. It "just works" and you can make text call outs described above in seconds.

Until I can easily create text call outs in videos on Linux (something I do a few times a week) I will use Windows 10 + WSL 2.

I don't know who said it, but it fits the current Windows vs Linux moment perfectly. "Most people don’t want control. They want optionally having control."

Windows gives you the worst of both worlds. It restricts the control over the things that matter, and dumps unnecessary knobs on everything else.

Linux flipped that. It stays out of your way, lets you change what you actually care about, and never fights you for ownership of your own computer.

Linux won/is winning because it quietly became the place where your computer feels like yours again.

> DAP gets its raw data from a Google Analytics account.

A lot of adblockers also block GA. See [0], it's basically half of adblockers (by usage).

Technically-savvy users are both more likely to use adblockers, and more likely to switch to Linux, and more likely to alter the default settings of their adblocker to make it block more stuff. Also privacy-aware users, counter-cultural users, etc.

So the data is probably underestimating the amount of Linux sessions because it can't see them.

> By DAP's count, the Linux desktop now has a 5.8% market share.

We can probably up that by another couple of percentage points at least, just from this effect.

At extremes, if we accept the argument that the vast majority of Linux users will be using an ad-blocker that they have configured to block GA, then 5.8% seems incredibly low.

[0] https://www.quantable.com/analytics/whats-blocking-google-an...

"By my count"...

Which means pretending that every single "unknown" desktop, which is a larger percentage than the Linux desktops, are Linux.

And also by considering ChromeBooks, which also have a larger percentage than Linux, are Linux.

Consumer grade windows machines have been barely useable, for a decade plus, due to pre installed crap ware. I stopped helping family members long ago. I tell them install Linux and I’ll help you. A few have and have been very happy!

What I want is some hardware that, if Linux stops working on it, it's someone's job to fix that.

Which is why I'm strongly considering a Steam Cube.

I moved over just to see what it was and one of the coolest things that instantly made me fall inlove was seeing being directed to a system file and finding out it was a text file that I could open and it had instructions explaining what the options were. It felt so inviting, like the computer was showing me how things worked and I could change it if i wanted something different.

The articles base premise is tenuous at best. It assumes that “unknown” has a best case attribution to Linux with no backing for that assertion.

Unknown could just as easily be windows, chromeOS or macOS or just automation for that matter. Why would only Linux report as unknown for only a portion of users?

Given that the Unknown line is directly mirroring the ChromeOS line, it’s much more likely that it’s misattribution from ChromeOS. (And yes ChromeOS is Linux under the hood but the distinction matters because of the implication of the article)

What is the methodology of the statistics collection? Is it just user agent strings?

I've been hearing about how Linux is going to replace Windows for at least 2 decades now. I expect it to finally happen some time after we get 'too cheap to meter' fusion power.

I have been a dual booting user since 2008. I tried to get rid of the dual boot around 2010-2012 but gaming just didn’t work well at the time.

To this day I only ever use windows for gaming. Wonder if it’s time to try gaming on Linux again.

But escaping windows is a pretty great reason.

Funny a the stats he points to show a smaller number of devices being recorded each time. So of course the percentage would go up. There are still more Windows devices in active use compared to all MacOS/iOS devices.

I have been using Linux for well over a decade now but I still dual boot because of my gaming group. If I didn't play online games there would be absolutely nothing keeping me on Windows. Fedora 43 with Plasma is the closest I have been to being completely satisfied with an OS. My next computer-related purchase for sure will be an AMD GPU, as NVidia is one of the few things that makes Linux a big operational challenge.

made a it holiday weekend project to install omarchy. It does what I need it to so far, web apps and basic dev stuff

I've been a Linux user without Windows for longer than I can remember. My biggest worry is Linux dominates the market because a FOSS OS can't dominate the market. A capitalist market won't allow it. Of course though, if say Ubuntu was heavily monetized in some way, then it simply becomes the new Windows and the FOSS community will simply present an alternative. I'm sorry you had to go on this circular journey with me.

The year of Linux on the desktop, at last.

What may make this happen is political risk. The rest of the world outside the US doesn't like the excessive dependency of Microsoft systems on servers in the US, especially when that may mean snooping or disconnection. This used to be just a theoretical objection, but under the Trump administration it's a practical one.

Oh fuck. The assholes that thought Windows was perfectly acceptable until late 2025 are flocking to Linux.

Maybe get a Macbook?

Do you even know how bad Linux is? The video drivers don't work, bluetooth doesn't work, your laptop won't wake up from sleep, it's horrible. Go the fuck away. Linux is horrible.

Windows is fucking awesome. Mac is OK. Linux sucks. Don't waste your time.

[dead]

I remember during my last (unsuccessful) startup, I was surprised at how many people actually used linux. It's not just techies, there were lots of plumbers and blue collar workers who used it, and their perception of it was similar to just using another tool (like I can build a dresser by hand, and I can plumb a house by hand, why can't I install an OS by hand?)

Of this demographic I found they were mostly conservative/right wing. It makes me wonder if there are a bunch of influencers like Luke Smith out there telling them how to use this stuff, or if they're just figuring it out on their own through forums. I think the word "flocking" is too strong, but there is definitely a large and growing non-technical userbase of people who use linux.

Why? I’ve been using Unix workstations since the motif days through gnome whatever, but and every single one has seemed clunky as heck compared to the contemporaneous windows. Win 11 file explorer is 20 years ahead of nautilus. Not to mention all of the other windows perks like HiDPI & multi-monitor scaling polish, rdp, vastly superior accessibility, … And you can run wsl2 if you need to.

Desktop Linux is still clunky and apps break so often with updates, it's not ready for non-tech savvy users.

I just don't have the time anymore to waste hours of my day to get apps working, when it just works on windows or mac.

No one at Apple or Microsoft seems to care to serve the users. We are at an interesting point in the history of computers.

This failure mode of capitalism should've been easy to anticipate: owners of capital eventually become the customers.

Capitalism is great for technology development. But stable markets don't generate the returns VCs and public company shareholders demand.

I predict a return to simple commerce: pay money for a good or service without third parties. It doesn't need to grow or generate returns.

Feels at least an order of magnitude too high!

> "Zorin OS 18 has amassed 1 million downloads in just over a month since its release." What makes it especially interesting is that over "78% of these downloads came from Windows" users.

That's not interesting, the most common os is Windows, ergo most downloads are going to come from windows.