Linux Desktop Use Surged To 22% On One Workday, Cloudflare Data Shows (zdnet.com)
- Reference: 0184931586
- News link: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/26/08/11/2047228/linux-desktop-use-surged-to-22-on-one-workday-cloudflare-data-shows
- Source link: https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-desktop-use-surged-on-one-workday-cloudflare-data-shows/
> [B]elieve it or not, on Monday, July 6, when people were back after the July 4 holiday, Linux usage jumped to a high of 22%. The users of these systems are not AI agents or bots, but real people. I set Cloudflare to count humans rather than bots. If you include people and bots, Linux has a 9.7% market share. That proportion is similar to StatCounter's score. By Cloudflare's count, bots alone come to 19%.
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> These numbers tell us that workers are leading the way to the Linux desktop. [...] However, past performance doesn't explain present trends. So, why are we now seeing such a bump in Linux desktop growth? Experts believe this trend is largely AI developers and Linux users running AI Agents. For example, as David Linthicum, former managing director and chief cloud strategy officer at Deloitte Consulting and AI and cloud influencer, recently observed, while "Windows 11 can technically run local AI workloads, but as you begin using multiple tools, managing different projects, and installing various dependencies, the friction starts to build," it's a different story for Linux users.
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> Linthicum continued: "Linux delivered what I can only describe as a true 'AI desktop' experience. Setup was straightforward, mainstream AI instructions matched what you'd actually see in your environment, and GPU-accelerated apps simply worked -- consistently. I spent far less time troubleshooting and far more time actually executing on projects." As for agents, Linux Foundation CEO Jim Zemlin summed up their role succinctly: "Linux is the OS of choice for AI agents."
Desktop Linux is also gaining momentum as [4]frustration with Windows 11 and the [5]end of Windows 10 support push users to alternatives, particularly on older PCs that can't officially upgrade. At the same time, Linux has become much easier to use, install software on, and game with, lowering many of the traditional barriers to switching.
[1] https://radar.cloudflare.com/explorer?dataSet=http&groupBy=os&dt=2026-07-01_2026-07-31&loc=north-america&filters=deviceType%253DDESKTOP%252CbotClass%253DLIKELY_HUMAN&cf_history_state=%7B%22guid%22%3A%22C255D9FF78CD46CDA4F76812EA68C350%22%2C%22historyId%22%3A17%2C%22targetId%22%3A%223946A57E8E092183B520B32F26C1CD42%22%7D&timeCompare=1
[2] https://radar.cloudflare.com/explorer?dataSet=http&groupBy=os&dt=2025-07-01_2025-07-31&loc=north-america&filters=deviceType%253DDESKTOP%252CbotClass%253DLIKELY_HUMAN&cf_history_state=%7B%22guid%22%3A%22C255D9FF78CD46CDA4F76812EA68C350%22%2C%22historyId%22%3A17%2C%22targetId%22%3A%223946A57E8E092183B520B32F26C1CD42%22%7D&timeCompare=1
[3] https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-desktop-use-surged-on-one-workday-cloudflare-data-shows/
[4] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/07/13/2149251/microsoft-promises-to-fix-search-with-major-windows-11-overhaul
[5] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/06/26/0029235/microsoft-adds-another-year-to-windows-10-extended-update-program
[B]elieve it or not, on Monday, July 6, when pe... (Score:2)
Not. The bots are just getting better at looking like people.
Re: (Score:3)
Weren't we hearing the majority of all traffic is now bot traffic? If even a fraction of the bots manage to evade flagging, it could swarm the totality of human Linux users.
Re: (Score:2)
New botnet spun up July 6th.
What? (Score:3)
Sounds like they have no clue what they looking at. Not believing. That is like saying that one day all road construction vehicles were electric. I think they just looked at partial or simply wrong data. Also, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Re:What? (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, it's just that a whole bunch of people simultaneously tried desktop Linux... then, right afterward, most of them immediately gave up.
OK I must enable Cloud(whatever) to view (Score:2)
Slashdot. That sucks. Not sure how often I will visit Slashdot in the future.
Re: (Score:2)
Look at the comment counts on the posts today... neither will anyone else
That's not "Linux desktop usage" (Score:2)
That's Internet usage of machines identifying themseleves as Linux. That's all Cloudfare (and StarCounter, and NetMarketShare) can measure.
A bunch of AI agents in a Linux server (either on-prem or at the cloud) carrying out some work for someone in a company incentivized to run AI, will do tens, perhaps hundreds of calls to the web (say for research), even though the original request came from a Windows desktop where that person was running word, outlook and adobe, and reading /. on chrome.
I have no beef wi
Hold up! (Score:3)
I'm not about to believe this until netcraft confirms it.
22% doesn't pass the smell test (Score:2)
If it can jump from 6% to 22% for one day, and then presumably back down to 6% the next day, either they've got an almighty small sample size, or they're lying.
Re: (Score:2)
If the reason for the temporary 22% user share is because all the Windows users are still home with their families for holiday break and all of the Linux using DevOps people and greybeard sysadmins are in the office working... that's not exactly a good selling point.
Re: (Score:2)
You mean the Ukraine straight white Christians ... 20,000,000 of whom were killed by people like AOC, Maxine Waters, Ted Wheeler and Omar-thetentmaker. Those neonazis ?
I thought it was the year of Linux desktop (Score:2)
But I guess a day will do for now.
AI drove this? (Score:2)
> Linthicum continued: "Linux delivered what I can only describe as a true 'AI desktop' experience
Please, just kill me now.
I dearly want open computers, but not like this. Not like this.
Fuck the world, stop the world, I want to get off.
causation? (Score:2)
Every windows pc is in an office, and their users were home with their families. This means that all of the traffic was from Safari on iPhone, Chrome on android, or via one of the tvOS interfaces.
correlation? (Score:2)
> Every windows pc is in an office, and their users were home with their families.
I worked in an office for years and never had a Windows PC. Always Linux (after they took our Mac SEs away). As far as home, it's (almost) all Linux. Except for a Mac system I inherited.
Re: correlation? (Score:2)
Same here. All Linux, all the time. At home and work.
So we'll establish this as the baseline and everyone else as the outlier. ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
It's probably AI stuff