Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share In USA

[Nod]

Especially for casual users. I think that might be where the biggest influx comes from.

Because professionals might require specific programs to work on Linux for which there is no alternative on Linux, while casual users can usually find a decent replacement.

I've been cruising on Linux Mint Cinnamon for months now and don't miss Windows at all.

I've been using Mint on my private PC to play POE/POE2. Works really well. Will probably cut over more permanent in the near future.

For work it would be tough. I connect to many customer VPNs and the compatibility with Linux would have to be tested.

 

[konfab]

Make it more noob friendly.
Remove the need to type long command line inputs. That puts many people off I'm sure.
Make it as simple to use as Windows.

It's simple - Make it simple to use.
Make it run games easily.
Make Wine really simple to use.
Get the big software developers to make their software available on Linux.

Windows is not simple to use. Not since Windows XP in any case.

If I had to get a complete newb to setup a brand new PC, I would have an easier time explaining a Linux install than a Windows one.

 

[Crowley]

Windows is not simple to use. Not since Windows XP in any case.

If I had to get a complete newb to setup a brand new PC, I would have an easier time explaining a Linux install than a Windows one.

Clicking Yes/Next/I agree a few times is not that hard TBH.

 

[FiestaST]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1983134483969913154

Nearly 90% of Windows Games now run on Linux, latest data shows — as Windows 10 dies, gaming on Linux is more viable than ever

The number continues to grow, but growth seems to be slowing.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Nod]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1983134483969913154

Nearly 90% of Windows Games now run on Linux, latest data shows — as Windows 10 dies, gaming on Linux is more viable than ever

The number continues to grow, but growth seems to be slowing.

www.tomshardware.com

Only Anti-Cheat programs will prevent games to run on Linux.

 

[Johnatan56]

yawn , they been banging on about linux taking over the desktop for over 20 years.Linux has its place but will never be main stream on the desktop.

Use case for Linux ....
- Server environment
- HomeLabs
- People with old pcs that have limited compute resource
- NGOs and companies that cant afford newer pcs and high license costs.

Disagree, the question is when, not if, as it's a case of Linux catching up and these types of things are exponential.
Most will just have Windows come pre-installed, are used to it, so why change? If Linux gains enough market share over time, it will just snowball as it's free.

The estimates I have seen is around 250 million Win 10 pc's / laptops don't qualify for Win 11 upgrade

I am a Linux user for 10 years
Can't wait for the abundance of top end hardware hitting the 2nd hand market
Gonna be Christmas for Linux users ;-)

I'm expecting people will just stay on Windows 10 without security updates.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1983134483969913154

Nearly 90% of Windows Games now run on Linux, latest data shows — as Windows 10 dies, gaming on Linux is more viable than ever

The number continues to grow, but growth seems to be slowing.

www.tomshardware.com

As others have said, it doesn't really matter if it supports 99% as long as it doesn't support whatever the current mainstream ones are, and anti-cheat is stopping that for now.

 

[Gozzy]

I started making the switch from Windows to Linux today.

So far this is my journey.

1) Installing LinuxMint on most of my PCs to replace Windows.
2) Got a couple 1TB Drives to mimic my OneDrive storage and then replacing it with Syncthing, so far the testing is going well as it syncs between multiple PCs and Phones.
3) MS Office 365 and replacing it with LibreOffice, tested it for a month and so far so good no issue yet and it is surprisingly close to Office.
4) If all goes well I am cancelling MS subscriptions towards End of November.

Freedom!

 

[Scary_Turtle]

I started making the switch from Windows to Linux today.

So far this is my journey.

1) Installing LinuxMint on most of my PCs to replace Windows.
2) Got a couple 1TB Drives to mimic my OneDrive storage and then replacing it with Syncthing, so far the testing is going well as it syncs between multiple PCs and Phones.
3) MS Office 365 and replacing it with LibreOffice, tested it for a month and so far so good no issue yet and it is surprisingly close to Office.
4) If all goes well I am cancelling MS subscriptions towards End of November.

Freedom!

I agree with everything but Libre office is kak.

I would rather have a vm with office than use Libre.

 

[Herr der Verboten]

I started making the switch from Windows to Linux today.

So far this is my journey.

1) Installing LinuxMint on most of my PCs to replace Windows.
2) Got a couple 1TB Drives to mimic my OneDrive storage and then replacing it with Syncthing, so far the testing is going well as it syncs between multiple PCs and Phones.
3) MS Office 365 and replacing it with LibreOffice, tested it for a month and so far so good no issue yet and it is surprisingly close to Office.
4) If all goes well I am cancelling MS subscriptions towards End of November.

Freedom!

Should have gone the freebsd route.

 

[SauRoNZA]

I agree with everything but Libre office is kak.

I would rather have a vm with office than use Libre.

Just use them online. It’s not like we aren’t perpetually connected to the internet.

 

[Nod]

Source: https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/for-the-first-time-ever-linux-gaming-crosses-3-on-steam

Linux gamers on Steam have crossed the 3% mark for the first time, according to the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for October 2025. Windows remains the most used operating system with 94.84% of Steam users, but Linux has climbed to 3.05%, and macOS reached 2.11%, as reported by Gaming On Linux. This rise for Linux comes as more people try out the platform, especially with Windows 10 support coming to an end, and on the other hand, the Steam Deck continues to sell millions.

SteamOS Holo leads the Linux distribution on Steam with a 27.18% share, thanks to the strong sales of the Steam Deck, which remains among the top gaming handhelds today, despite its relative age.

 

[Smiggles]

I agree with everything but Libre office is kak.

I would rather have a vm with office than use Libre.

Just enable the ribbon interface. https://itsfoss.com/libreoffice-ribbon-interface/

 

[Johnatan56]

I agree with everything but Libre office is kak.

I would rather have a vm with office than use Libre.

LibreOffice is good, I'm guessing you haven't used it in a few years.
---
Good self-hosted alternative if you want something like office online is NextCloud's office.

Nextcloud Office - Self-hosted online office suite

Nextcloud Office is a powerful online office platform with full collaborative editing tools, supporting all major document file formats.

nextcloud.com

Repo for NextCloud server here:

GitHub - nextcloud/server: ☁️ Nextcloud server, a safe home for all your data

☁️ Nextcloud server, a safe home for all your data - nextcloud/server

github.com

You can self-host all of it.

You can think of it as basically OneDrive/Google Drive with self-hosting. Quite a lot of expansion stuff: https://apps.nextcloud.com/
Collabora Online -> Libre Office with online collaboration functions. Run that with tailscale, super easy set-up peer to peer VPN, even got some older non-technical 65+ to use it without real issues outside of how to log in with Google lol.

Source: https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/for-the-first-time-ever-linux-gaming-crosses-3-on-steam

Linux gamers on Steam have crossed the 3% mark for the first time, according to the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for October 2025. Windows remains the most used operating system with 94.84% of Steam users, but Linux has climbed to 3.05%, and macOS reached 2.11%, as reported by Gaming On Linux. This rise for Linux comes as more people try out the platform, especially with Windows 10 support coming to an end, and on the other hand, the Steam Deck continues to sell millions.

SteamOS Holo leads the Linux distribution on Steam with a 27.18% share, thanks to the strong sales of the Steam Deck, which remains among the top gaming handhelds today, despite its relative age.

Crazy that there's now 4-5 million monthly active Linux devices on steam, that's near triple in two years, though only a doubling on desktop if near 30% are handheld.

 

[Johnatan56]

Source: https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/for-the-first-time-ever-linux-gaming-crosses-3-on-steam

Just going to link to:

Linux gamers on Steam finally cross over the 3% mark

It finally happened. Linux gamers on Steam as of the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for October 2025 have crossed over the elusive 3% mark.

www.gamingonlinux.com

As that's posted a little earlier and has graphs of trends on it that are interesting.

Bazzite is at 4.24% of the market, it's ahead of Ubuntu LTS and Core, and also Mint. Interesting how Mint's share has dropped, think it's just market getting bigger and new entrants being recommended Bazzite as an easy gaming one.

 

[Scary_Turtle]

LibreOffice is good, I'm guessing you haven't used it in a few years.
---
Good self-hosted alternative if you want something like office online is NextCloud's office.

Nextcloud Office - Self-hosted online office suite

Nextcloud Office is a powerful online office platform with full collaborative editing tools, supporting all major document file formats.

nextcloud.com

Repo for NextCloud server here:

GitHub - nextcloud/server: ☁️ Nextcloud server, a safe home for all your data

☁️ Nextcloud server, a safe home for all your data - nextcloud/server

github.com

You can self-host all of it.

You can think of it as basically OneDrive/Google Drive with self-hosting. Quite a lot of expansion stuff: https://apps.nextcloud.com/
Collabora Online -> Libre Office with online collaboration functions. Run that with tailscale, super easy set-up peer to peer VPN, even got some older non-technical 65+ to use it without real issues outside of how to log in with Google lol.

Crazy that there's now 4-5 million monthly active Linux devices on steam, that's near triple in two years, though only a doubling on desktop if near 30% are handheld.

Used Ubuntu as may main from 2018 - 2024 and now using Mint, Libre is the only thing making me hold onto anything microsoft at this point.

The online stuff is ok but formatting between, office online and the app is different and when you work with other people on the same report that has to be standard or the end result is headings on a page with a blank page or something like that.

I use a VM with office as stuff just works. Still need macros, excel is just better than calc and if I send an excel report to client with certain formatting it says the same with colour's etc, open a calc doc in excel and all the colour's are gone.

Apple has iwork which is as good/better than office but has other issues.

Libre is still like using office from the 90s.