Linux has nearly half of the desktop OS Linux market
- Reference: 1689676026
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/07/18/linux_desktop_debate/
- Source link:
Web server statistics aggregator Statcounter announced last week that as of June 2023, Linux [1]accounts for 3 per cent of desktop operating system use. However, this is still surpassed by ChromeOS, which means that desktop Linux has less than half of the desktop Linux market. If you feel that this is a bit weird, we agree with you.
Apparently, desktop Linux use measures 3.08 per cent, lagging about a quarter behind the usage of ChromeOS at 4.15 per cent. The problem with this is that ChromeOS is also a Linux distribution. It's a strange distro, non-standard in several ways, but current versions are [2]built on the basis of Gentoo Linux , switching from an Ubuntu basis some years earlier.
[3]
We feel that a more accurate reckoning would be that Linux has now reached 7.23 per cent of Statcounter's usage figures, with ChromeOS at just over half: 57.4 per cent of the total. That seems like a more positive interpretation, one that Linux fans would be keen to make, but apparently not. By example, Linux advocacy site Linuxiac doesn't even [4]mention ChromeOS in its write-up.
[5]
[6]
(As an aside, we suspect that quite a lot of the 3.23 per cent of OSes grouped under "Unknown" are probably also Linux users, just extra-paranoid ones who are obscuring their user-agent or something.)
Why shouldn't ChromeOS count? It's a Linux kernel and a Linux userland on top of the standard glibc C library. You can open a shell. If you want, you can [7]run a Debian container and once you're in there install and run any Debian app; The Reg FOSS desk's experimental ChromeOS Flex machine runs Firefox and DOSemu.
[8]
If someone said "Android is not a Linux," that is defensible. You can't easily download it for free, and you can't run it on your own generic off-the-shelf computer. There have been a few experimental Android-based desktop OSes, but so far they've all flopped. On its native platform of smartphones and tablets, you can't run ordinary Linux apps on Android. It's a different sort of beast, even though technically it is a Linux inasmuch as it has a Linux kernel. But that's about it. It even has a weird, non-standard, non-GPL libc , "Bionic". By default and unless cracked, aside from the kernel, it has nothing else Linux-like about it. No shell, no desktop, no X11 or Wayland, nothing.
But that's not the case for ChromeOS. Underneath its unique GUI layer – which, unlike the one in macOS, is [9]open source – it's a relatively standard Linux which can run standard Linux apps, out of the box, on both x86 and Arm. As such, it's the most successful desktop Linux there is.
It's not a typical Linux, because typical Linuxes are tools for nerdy hacker types, and that kind of OS will never, ever go mainstream unless someone forces people to use it. (As the [10]government of the People's Republic of China is currently doing , but that is irrelevant to this. No Google inside the Great Firewall means no ChromeOS.)
[11]
ChromeOS is a desktop Linux with the Linuxiness stripped out. No choice about partitioning. No weird dual-boot mechanisms. No choice of desktops or package managers. No package manager!
But in every way that matters, it is mainstream, it is commercially successful, it's a polished end-user desktop OS, and it's a Linux.
So naturally the Forces of FOSS hate it. Of course they do. And how do they express that contempt? By saying it's not a True Linux.
Unix is like a religion: somehow, it encourages schisms and splinter sects, all of whom deny that the others are legitimate. It's almost a defining characteristic.
Ignoring all the commercial Unixes as [12]they are effectively all dead now , and just looking at the FOSS ones, there are about a dozen rival sects: NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, DragonflyBSD, Minix, HURD and L4 and its [13]various splinter groups , Plan 9 ( [14]9front , HarveyOS, Jeanne etc.), Inferno, [15]xv6 , [16]v7/86 , and of course, Linux and its thousand distributions.
[17]AlmaLinux project climbs down from being a one-to-one RHEL clone
[18]Three signs that Wayland is becoming the favored way to get a GUI on Linux
[19]SUSE announces its own RHEL-compatible distro... again
[20]Oracle pours fuel all over Red Hat source code drama
Precisely two (2) Linux-based OSes have enjoyed large-scale commercial success as user-facing GUI systems for non-technical users. One has [21]billions of users , the other a [22]significant fraction of a billion . Both are from Google, and both share a defining attribute: the FOSS world rejects them.
ChromeOS comes in two flavors: there's ordinary ChromeOS, which you can only get by buying hardware built to run it (just like Apple's macOS), and there's [23]ChromeOS Flex . Flex [24]used to be called Neverware Cloudready . Neverware grew from [25]Hexxeh's remixed and rebuilt ChromiumOS for ordinary PCs. Hexxeh made ChromeOS Flow, and that is the direct grandparent of ChromeOS Flex: both are ChromeOS for generic PC hardware. That is the significant angle. It shows that ChromeOS is just another Linux distro.
ChromeOS Flex is not like Android. It is a Linux in every way that matters. It's both small-f free and it's [26]open source ; there have been multiple remixes and rebuilds. It runs on generic kit with ordinary BIOS or UEFI, including with Secure Boot. It has a desktop, albeit its own unique one. You can pop a shell and install and run any arbitrary Linux app.
It looks like a Linux, it acts like a Linux, and it runs like a Linux. It is based on a generic Linux kernel, and it does Linuxy stuff with Linuxy binaries like any other desktop Linux.
It doesn't have systemd, but thank the great god Torvalds and his apostle St Cox that is not yet a requirement for a Linux distro. It has upstart , which was one of the most widespread init systems.
It is 100 percent on-brand for the Linux world that when one specific form of Linux-based OS goes mainstream, and is used by [27]approximately half the human race, the True Believers of the Linux world disown it. Android is not a Linux. OK, they kind of have a point.
But ChromeOS, and especially ChromeOS Flex? Of course, all the advocates decry it as not being a True Linux, but then again, this just quickly descends into a [28]"no true Scotsman" argument. As it is, the Fedora lot think Ubuntu is junk, and the Debianisti think everything else is junk, and the Arch folk think they are the true cutting edge, [29]Slackware enthusiasts consider everyone else newbies, while the NixOS folk think all the rest are still in the stone age somewhere… ®
Get our [30]Tech Resources
[1] https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/14/chromeos_opinion_column/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZLa3JgpfULNKpTJt036BegAAAwE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://linuxiac.com/linux-hits-3-percent-market-share/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZLa3JgpfULNKpTJt036BegAAAwE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZLa3JgpfULNKpTJt036BegAAAwE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2018/04/27/linux_vms_on_chrome_os/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZLa3JgpfULNKpTJt036BegAAAwE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/lkgr/ash/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/03/china_openkylin/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZLa3JgpfULNKpTJt036BegAAAwE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/17/unix_is_dead/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/24/neptune_os_sel4_windows/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/02/plan_9_fork_9front/
[15] https://github.com/mit-pdos/xv6-public
[16] https://www.nordier.com/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/17/almalinux_project_switches_focus/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/13/wayland_is_coming/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/12/suse_announces_rhel_fork/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/10/oracle_ibm_rhel_code/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2012/06/11/android_activation_nears_one_million_daily/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/05/chromebook_shipments_canalys_figures/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/16/google_chrome_os/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/16/google_chrome_os/
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2010/11/08/google_chrome_os_is_not_android/
[26] https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/
[27] https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-android-users-are-there
[28] https://www.scribbr.com/fallacies/no-true-scotsman-fallacy/
[29] http://www.slackware.com/changelog/current.php?cpu=x86_64
[30] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: ChromOS
Huh?
Were you trying to say:
Lots of stuff in that article, thanks. By the way, there is also [1]Chromebrew as an alternate package manager if you don't like apt.
But note it pulls in Ruby and git before doing anything else, so be sure you have the space required.
[1] https://chromebrew.github.io/
If ChromeOS is Linux...
...why have I never been able to get it running in a Qemu/KVM virtual machine? To install ChromeOS Flex, you had to tell it what the hardware was, and only some specific machines would be accepted.
Or has that changed?
If it's open source, I suppose I could build a version from scratch.
Re: If ChromeOS is Linux...
You had problems getting it to install? It's fussy about hardware? Now that's real , old style Linux right there. I suddenly feel nostalgic about my early days with Linux.
Re: If ChromeOS is Linux...
It's only real Linux if you have to install from floppies
Re: If ChromeOS is Linux...
It's only real Linux if your monitor chuffs and shakes when you run xstart.
Re: If ChromeOS is Linux...
it's only real Linux if you know that the correct command was " startx ". And if the second thing you launched was xeyes (the first was startx remember ?). The third being glxgears of course.
@Zolko - Re: If ChromeOS is Linux...
Man, those were the days!
Re: @Zolko - If ChromeOS is Linux...
And you spent days getting the modeline correct and have the monitor make a worrying bang every tie you got it wrong
ChromeOS is a fake linux
As it is designed to slurp, slurp and slurp again everything that the user is doing. That is 100% against the ethics of the Linux world.
Chromebooks are the Netbooks of the 2020's. Designed to be used a bit and thrown away which is not what we should be doing.
Re: ChromeOS is a fake linux
"The Linux world"? What even is that? Who decides? I thought the whole point of Free Software was that you get to use it however you like; even ways other people don't like.
Re: ChromeOS is a fake linux
The Linux World TM is defined by The Front of Linux Power Users! Not by those scummy splitters, the Linuxean Power Users' Front, or by he fucking Power Users of Linux's Front!
Re: ChromeOS is a fake linux
The slurping is done by the default browser. Go to the store and install Firefox or, for the proper Linuxy feel, use apt to install another browser.
Re: ChromeOS is a fake linux
What a grand and intoxicating innocence, to think that one could defang a Google OS by merely not using their browser!
ChromeOS rocks
"... slurp, slurp and slurp..." I agree, but to be fair, just like Windows, Apple etc. Google do put their significant improvements back, they have to.
My experience: I have managed computer systems for over 40 years, Chromebooks have been my go-to device for 10 years now, I have used many dozens in the workplace too, they are not throwaway, they have negligible administrative maintenance. I still love them.
Re: ChromeOS is a fake linux
"Chromebooks are the Netbooks of the 2020's. Designed to be used a bit and thrown away"
I have a netbook from the Windows 7 era I've not thrown it away because I wanted it to use, and still do use it, when the need is for something physically compact. It still works because, of course, I'm running Linux on it.
Linux on the desktop is an oxymoron
Because clearly to be a true linux, there should be no GUI beyond ncurses. There cannot be a "desktop"; it should all be command-line driven, for that is The One True Way.
Yet again, Mint
ChromeOS is a desktop Linux with the Linuxiness stripped out. No choice about partitioning. No weird dual-boot mechanisms. No choice of desktops or package managers. No package manager!
Mint: I buy a new laptop. Spend 15 minutes installing Mint, all defaults, disable Caps-Lock, I'm done.
Been doing this for ten or twelve years with no issues, no real change. It just works.
My wife's Apple on the other hand constatly does inexplicable things. On the odd occasion when I am forced to boot into Windows (yes Adobe, I'm talking to you.) it's dear god, what a mess.
All of which is to say, why do Linux writers take such pride in the Grey-beard scenario? It benefits no-one, and surely does not benefit Linux.
Re: Yet again, Mint
> why do Linux writers take such pride in the Grey-beard scenario
Ah, isn't that paragraph you quoted - and other chunks of the article - Liam sarcastically ripping on that same "if it isn't hard it isn't Linux, what do those youngsters know!" attitude?
Sarcasm? In The Register? Shocked, I tell you.
If its running Linux it is Linux
If it is running the Linux kernel it is Linux, simple as that really and that's how the stats should be shown, it can be broken down further from there if wanted, e.g. smartphones, Chromebooks, tablets, Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, etc.
So many people nowadays do all of their home computing from a smartphone, they are no longer wanting to pay for a laptop or desktop as well. So the way we think about categorising devices is less relevant.
But then, who put these stats out there? Do they receive any pressure to downplay the fact that Linux is the most popular of all?
Installfest
I've installed Linux Mint on the computers of several family members and acquaintances, a few total computer noobs among them. They never complain about it, it just works in a similar fashion like Windows.
They can browse the internet, read email, read and edit Office documents and watch YouTube and Netflix. That's sufficient for most people. Tech savvy teens will probably figure out how to install games like TuxCart with just a few clicks.
I hardly ever update their software, once a year at most. It doesn't matter since its much more secure in any case.
I hereby propose that everyone install Linux Mint on their family members' computer and see if they complain.
Re: Installfest
Ditto that. Just treated myself to a brand new laptop. It came with Windows 10 but I didn't even let it go through the initial install/setup, just plugged in a stick with Mint on it, booted into the BIOS and installed Mint straight away... begone Windows! A few days later (due to my purchase) Amazon sent me a code for £10 discount for Microsoft 365 family. LOL. I have zero use or interest in anything Microsoft nowadays. I can do everything I need using Mint.
Maybe people wouldn't get their boxers in such a twist if they understood that Android uses the Linux kernel but not the GNU operating system, therefore it is Android/Linux, and not GNU/Linux.
I don't know if ChromeOS uses the GNU stuff, it seems that it does. Either way, it uses Linux.
Hmmm Guaranteed Click Bait article
Title says it all.
Do the BSD folks include MacOS/iOS? It's a lot closer to a traditional BSD than Chrome OS is to linux.
Do the BSD folks include MacOS/iOS? It's a lot closer to a traditional BSD than Chrome OS is to linux.
Depends which level you're talking about. The kernel never was BSD, the user space was but has mutated. Trying to be an admin running a macOS system in a mostly Unix network triggers murderous rage(*).
(*) Well, it does for me.
It's all unix.
I'd just like to interject for a moment
What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux,” and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use.
Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
Re: I'd just like to interject for a moment
And the last time I looked the typical GNU/Linux system had more lines of code from FreeBSD than from GNU. But whatever.
[I had real problems deciding whether I wanted the troll, fire or nuclear explosion icon for this. Readers should imagine all three apply. Yes, I'm a bit bored.]
Re: I'd just like to interject for a moment
Your fourth alternative: note the first post, the handle, and admire the pastiche.
Re: I'd just like to interject for a moment
I did. It was very nicely done (although maybe a tad too reasonable for rms). I thought I'd add to the fun. (Cats, pigeons, etc …)
I think the almost instant downvote I got rather shows Liam's point. (As do the OP's upvotes.)
Re: I'd just like to interject for a moment
It's not the real GNU operating system unless it runs on the GNU Hurd.
User agents
I've been using a Windows user-agent string for almost a decade, despite the fact I can't even dual-boot Windows.
A lot of sites absolutely lose their shit when they see a non-Windows/non-Apple UA, including my credit union and a couple of my credit cards. I MUST USE AN APPROVED BROWSER even if I'm already using Firefox/Chrome. I've even seen them assume I'm using a mobile browser.
At least I closed my account at the bank (Chase) that was setting .ru and .cn cookies.
I even have to keep updating the version number, as they also tell me to fuck right off if I'm not using the browser release that came out that morning.
Most annoying.
Re: User agents
A lot of sites absolutely lose their shit when they see a non-Windows/non-Apple UA
Would I be right in thinking you're talking about US institutions? They've always seemed to me to be so far behind the curve that they're still in Flatland. About a decade or two ago I had a Bank of America investment account. They gave me online access to my (not insignificant) portfolio, protected by what they considered to be the highest password security. My password had to have all of a lower case letter, an upper case letter and a digit. It couldn't contain control characters or punctuation marks. It could be a whole six (count them) characters long.
Re: User agents
"A lot of sites absolutely lose their shit when they see a non-Windows/non-Apple UA"
Or just complain about the browser and it's not only banks.
Nit pick(s)
I would say the core BSDs (Free/Net/Open) aren't rival sects, they're more different emphases. Free concentrates on running efficiently on mainstream hardware with lots of packages, Open focuses on security, Net wants to run on everything including toasters, bionic artificial limbs and engine management systems. Dragonfly is/was schismatic from Free.
minix & xv6 were pedagogic (as was/is Xinu which didn't get mentioned), so a different game.
Differently different, HURD and L4 are about microkernels, which arguably Are Not Unix Anyway.
Plan9 and Inferno are by definition Not Unix, being intended as research into what comes after Unix.
x7/86 seems to be an exercise in pure nostalgia.
So the only real division is between those Unices with Bell Labs ancestral DNA, and Unix-alikes. Even then, there's been so much cross fertilization that the distinction is very blurred.
On my SOHO network all the servers are FreeBSD (as is the OPNsense firewall/router) , the desktops are 1 each FreeBSD, macOS(*) & Linux, the laptops are 1 FreeBSD, 2 Linux & 1 ChromeOS, and the phones and tablets are all various Androids. No burning at the stake in this house.
(*) Or however it's capiTALisED this month.
The first real use I got out of my i7 pixel slate came after I installed ArchLinux on it.
Chromeos is complete trash.
A MILLION different Linuxes,...
and the Linuxi still can't understand why Windows is on more PCs than ever. I've tried a whole variety of Unix/Linux types/versions over the years and they are just as difficult to use/admin/maintain as any Windows system, and are still a minority system (on PCs) after all these decades. I'm no lover of Microsoft or Google but they work and for the vast percentage of people are good enough. I'm happy that there are Linux based systems for those who don't want to use Windows and one day I may be one of them, but currently I can't think of a single reason for me to switch. I'm sure that some of you are now starting to tell me how wrong/deluded I am and that I should switch to
Re: A MILLION different Linuxes,...
Gee whizz, when you pay OEMs to NOT install your competitors OS, I wonder what the net effect is
Linux has nearly half of the desktop OS Linux market
Since Chrome OS is basically a heavily modded Gentoo Linux, I'm fine with that operating system (along with Chromium OS and CloudReady OS) being counted as Linux.
However, the finished product Android as seen on phones and tablets is more of a de facto proprietary operating system so I would not count it as a standard Linux operating system although it is a Linux kernel-derived operating system.
I’d imagine that
I’d imagine that if M$ were smacked-down properly for their anti-competitive behaviours at the beginning, we would be be using Linux in schools, businesses, etc
Instead we get Wannacry and other such nonsense SMH
Just check and my current Linux Mint Firefox browser reports as being
"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/113.0"
Which is the user agent I set to avoid badly written websites moaning about me visiting using a computer that wasn't Windows or MacOS. So my browser stats wouldn't be counted in their stats.
ChromOS
I'm surprised that a Wenux fan boi would only mention the ChromOS termina VM with the Debian LZD container and leave out Chromebrew.