Linux Desktop Market Share Surpasses 10% in North America (linuxiac.com)
- Reference: 0184810032
- News link: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/26/08/02/0631208/linux-desktop-market-share-surpasses-10-in-north-america
- Source link: https://linuxiac.com/linux-desktop-market-share-surpasses-10-in-north-america/
> Linux has crossed a major milestone in North America, with the open-source operating system now accounting for 10.65% of desktop usage in the region, according to [2]Statcounter's latest figures for July 2026 . The result places Linux firmly in double-digit territory for the first time in Statcounter's North American desktop operating system statistics.
>
> For comparison, Statcounter recorded Linux [3]at 5.52% in June 2026, so the share nearly doubled in one month... However, the sharp monthly increase needs context. Statcounter's June figures included an "Unknown" category that accounted for 9.24% of North American desktop usage. Its reduction seems to have coincided with Linux's rise, possibly indicating better identification of previously unclassified traffic...
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> Statcounter is not the only major web measurement platform showing Linux with a substantial presence on North American desktops. [4]Cloudflare Radar data , filtered to desktop HTTP traffic from North America over the previous 28 days, also places Linux at a notably high level [9.4%].
StatCounter's data also shows Linux with an even larger market share of 11.87% in just the United States — and a 14.73% market share in India. Linux's market share in other world regions:
Asia
7.17%
Africa
5.71%
Europe
5.49%
South America
4.35%
China
2.12%
And here's how the Linux market share on other countries compare to India and the U.S.
India
14.73%
United States
11.87%
Germany
7.24%
UK
6.18%
Canada
3.83%
Australia
3.55%
Linux's surge could be due to its use in automation or headless browser workloads, Linuxiac points out. But another possibility is "growing frustration with Windows hardware requirements, advertising, account integration, telemetry, and forced interface changes has pushed some users to explore alternatives..."
"For now, the safest conclusion is that Linux has surpassed 10% of measured desktop web usage in North America according to Statcounter, not necessarily 10% of the region's installed desktop computer base."
[1] https://linuxiac.com/linux-desktop-market-share-surpasses-10-in-north-america/
[2] https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/north-america#monthly-202506-202607
[3] https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/north-america#monthly-202505-202606
[4] https://radar.cloudflare.com/explorer?dataSet=http&groupBy=os&dt=28d&loc=north-america&filters=deviceType%253DDESKTOP
Chromebooks really don't count (Score:1)
Chromebooks used by schools really should be counted separately.
Re: (Score:2)
> Chromebooks used by schools really should be counted separately.
I agree. They are really designed for a very specific use case and not really a mainstream computing product.
Bots (Score:2)
AI bots, clearly. This is a change in just 30 days? Someone launched a new service. It isnâ(TM)t some magic new abandonment of Windows.
Re: (Score:2)
Didn't some version lose support like 2 month ago? I think there are a lot of people who said "That's my last Windows" and even when not all install Linux one day after support end, many will eventually end up with Linux.
Re: (Score:2)
I can't see it being true myself. The other posters comment about Chromebooks makes more sense which like Android phones use the Linux kernel but aren't really what we think about as 'using linux'.
Re: (Score:2)
The methodologies of these surveys are often mysterious and when we find out how they work they are usually bad, so you shouldn't take any particular major change seriously unless you know specifically why it happened. If you read statcounter's FAQ, they basically say they publish data as they get it, and then say they make some modifications, and then say that's basically publishing data as they get it, pinky swear! So you probably shouldn't take it seriously ever.
I started using Linux at a time when it wa
Re: (Score:3)
In the TFS, there was a clear eplanation for the change in just 30 days: "Statcounter's June figures included an "Unknown" category that accounted for 9.24% of North American desktop usage. Its reduction seems to have coincided with Linux's rise, possibly indicating better identification of previously unclassified traffic..."
Re: (Score:1)
And, one has to wonder exactly what flavor of *Nix ... bet a fair percentage of that 14% is some kind of Android and some kind of Mac (which counts because it's based on FreeBSD).
The only way that *Nix is ever going to become used widespread (like Windows) is if they can make it capable of running 1,000% of Windows programs _without using an emulator like Proton or WINE_, because using those might run some stuff more-or-less, but the majority won't work quite right.
And, yeah... there's FOSS stuff that can o
Trickle theory. (Score:2)
Who Hoo. 2027 will be the year of...another desktop percentage point.
Re: (Score:2)
I foresee 2027 as the year of the Linux desktop. And I for one welcome our new systemd overlords.
All jokes aside, and while I still have 5 Windows machines, I'll never build another one. Linux (or macOS) from here on.
Re: (Score:2)
Adoption is a function of existing adoption and existing availability of resources.
Extremely good OS' and truly amazing computers have failed, not because they were too expensive or had issues, but because they were perceived to be unpopular OR simply lacked enough software that could run on them.
Extremely bad OS' and truly awful computers have succeeded for the opposite reason.
Linux has an extremely good architecture, at least for machines that are mostly operating with CPUs. When most of the work is done
Fed up with Windows needing something every start (Score:3)
Switched to Linux. Yes, after decades you lose a lot of muscle memory advantage and need to find new solutions for things that you already solved in a different environment, but once I got over that initial hurdle, I haven't looked back. Windows only exists as a VM now, for the few Windows-only things. Linux isn't perfect, far from it, but Windows has gotten tiresome and hostile.
Re: (Score:3)
> Windows has gotten tiresome and hostile
If by "has gotten" you imply "in the past thirty years". In that whole time it has been about controlling rather than empowering the customers. Things like overwriting the MBR without asking, the existence of the registry, changing the control panel, generally ruining things that work and that people are used to, fostering monopoly of other Microsoft products, *checks notes* upgrading Windows to the next version without asking for consent. Maybe these things didn't affect you, but they are all real and not
Re: Fed up with Windows needing something every st (Score:2)
What's wrong with the Registry? Its original intent was to be a database of all system settings. Linux and Unix has had the same thing from the start, except that the Unix/Linux solution is a directory containing a bunch of files (that is, /etc). They both even have system wide settings trees and individual user settings trees. (On Linux, this would be the dotfiles in your user directory. On Windows, it's just a second root tree in the Registry. HKEY_LOCAL_USER\, if I remember correctly.)
Now, I'll grant you
Re: (Score:2)
I understand the sentiment, but Linux really has improved a lot for desktop users, and Windows really has deteriorated to the point where it is a nuisance, not a tool. I have tried Linux before but only ever used it for servers. Now it's my main Desktop. Linux has accomplished a lot but it couldn't have done it without Windows dropping the ball.
Windows 11 is very different (Score:2)
Microsoft has had dog shit software in the past. But it wasn't necessarily because of evil it was incompetence. There is some problems with Microsoft Office where the format is intentionally overly complex to make it difficult to reverse engineer and other bits of nastiness like that. But for the most part when an entire operating system from Microsoft sucks like Vista or 8 it's because Microsoft screwed the pooch by accident.
Typically Microsoft intentionally bloats their operating systems so that oems
pushed some users to explore alternatives..." (Score:2)
That is putting it mildly. I was done with Windows at home 2 years before retirement, now i am done with it at work also,
Never made it to 11! Did not have hardware that was required and was not buying it. Its linux for me now.
Generational turnover effect (Score:2)
I went to school 20 years ago and everything was (then still-alive) solaris/bsd or (then new) Linux. University web infrastructure, engineering school computer lab thin clients, etc.
When I started work, it was a little different, but the same effect. Most of the legacy systems were from the early 90s and made for solaris or hpux. And by the time it was time to port to a more modern os, us new kids naturally gravitated to the path of least resistance and least licensing costs. That was either pure oss linux
Re: (Score:3)
Where are you located that you weren't drowning in Windows? I too saw very little Windows at university, but Windows was the default for work systems everywhere I went (except Sun and Apple).
As usual, those statistics are usually biased (Score:2)
They are usually based on Javascript running off of ad-servers. Since NoScript and other technologies limiting the damage caused by Javscript and advertisements are highly correlated with certain platforms, the results will be skewed severely towards platforms where those are less common.
No it didn't. (Score:1)
The data is based on Statcounter, an increasingly obsolete statistics counter. It may have 20 years ago covered a representative sample of web traffic, but it does not in the modern day, when the average user never leaves the few social media giants' websites during their daily browsing, none of which are measured by Statcounter.
Netcraft Confirms (Score:2)
The four horsemen are inbound.
Re: (Score:2)
Linux has been 'usable enough' for most people for a few years. Electron filled in the last mile problem and proton was the bridge that Wine by itself could never quite achieve. But there were still *just enough* things to make you need a CLI that made it appear the Linux is Hard (lets forget Microsoft's GUI for driver mgmt is not any easier really, but right-click-bros will say it is superior because it feels *more discoverable*, ignoring man pages etc).
Now with 2026 level LLM being able to fix almost any
Re: (Score:2)
I like the commandline. I even open my browser by typing the command in the commandline. Who needs buttons?
But I admit almost everything I do these days (when I'm not programming) is done in a browser window. The need for local software is almost gone.
Re: (Score:2)
> Or, maybe better terminology, the year Microsoft finally fscked themselves with no backwards compatibility with even (well maintained) 10 year old laptops being good enough for 99% of the web.
Microsoft needs OEMs to buy licenses, even at a deeply discounted rate this is important (and important ly , has been dependable) revenue. They only do that when they are selling PCs. Microsoft had to help those OEMs sell PCs to capture that revenue.
Microsoft knows that source is drying up. Companies will be able to move away from Windows. This is why they have been shifting their focus towards the cloud. Like IBM, they have become a services company as they became staid and unable to execute on delivering ex
Re: (Score:2)
> Now with 2026 level LLM being able to fix almost any linux problem you throw at it, I think literally this will be the year, finally, of Linux on the Desktop, or at least the year more than just neckbeards and ultranerds have it on their laptop.
While it may be the year Linux grows more than before, I think it still faces several challenges:
Just because an LLM can suggest a solution doesn't mean a non-technical user can implement it, or that the LLM doesn't break something in the process.
Until a non-neckbeard/ultranerd can walk into a store and buy a Linux machine they are never likely to even know it exists
Being better in the eyes of techies doesn't trump 'it's what everyone uses" for the average user
Usable enough translate to it's frustrating
Re:Netcraft Confirms (Score:4, Insightful)
For non-IT tek people, Linux has been "usable enough" for 20 years. Many science guys jumped directly from Unix to Linux both at-lab and at-home. If you're hacking your own code Fortran/C is Linux mothers-milk. OTOH it's the Main-Street/Wall-Street business-folks with rigid work-flows that needed the well-disciplined Microsoft "highway".
Re: (Score:2)
For most at-home end users Linux has been good enough for years. Most of these people only use two applications: a web browser (through which they also get web based email), you have a choice of many with Linux; and an office suite (word processing and spreadsheet) that Open Office does excellently. They will not need to use the command line.
Other needs: printing is easy via CUPS; system updates easy; package installation easy; Gimp OK for simple image editing; music playing - well supported; SANE does scan