Linux Desktop Market share reaches 3.08%

2023 year of Linux desktop!!1
- Idc if we are not on reddit anymore, this joke doesn't get old
  Like the year of the linux desktop
  
  TBF, that joke predates me using Linux as my main which I just realized has been 18 years now.
  
  That joke is not of Reddit origin, mostly news sites clickbaited with that headline
- https://youtu.be/N4FlL1FCbvA Time for your annual viewing of year of linux desktop promo video!!
- nah dude, that was like 5 years a go

I technically started with Steam Deck and finally took the plunge of partitioning my daily driver to install Linux Mint back a few weeks ago.
No regrets....
I'm a developer (web app predominantly ) and find I can use it for about 80% - 85% of my daily workflow. Things I miss and can't substitute are mainly around image editing / vector editing where GIMP and InkScape are just not there for the way I work.
Loving my time with it and would highly recommend anyone on the fence take the dive and give Mint a go. It's incredibly familiar the moment you boot it :)
- I've been on Linux for a while and at this point must people use their computers as glorified thin clients for Chrome.
  This has made Linux way more viable as a day to day OS. Valve is working very hard to make games viable and is seeing some success.
  The major blind spots remain industry specific software outside of software dev. Things like Adobe suite and Microsoft office for example. They often have a Linux equivalent but it rarely fits well into industry standard work flows.
  
  Microsoft office
  I'm rather impressed with the MS Office compatibility and comparability of FreeOffice - https://www.freeoffice.com/ The free version trails the paid by one release... seems like a fair compromise. It's not pure FOSS, so purists might not like it, but it really gets the job done, especially with rountripping documents. There are always corner cases where things go boink, but hell... things even go off the deep end between versions of MSO.
  
  Many of today's applications are now just web apps. The proportion of actual native applications that users run has been shrinking for a while, and so the differenced in native application support become less important.
  
  This hits the nail on the head.... I can get by with GIMP or InkScape or Photopea but they don't quite cut it when I have job going out worth a few grand I want all the tools, checks peace of mind of the locally installed app. I also find GIMP convoluted to achieve basic tasks. Even things like resizing images to canvas etc. Feels clunky by comparison to say Affinity Photo.
  Either way, I can never get 100% away from the big boys as ultimately I have to test natively in Windows and Mac OS so it's not the end of the World having to boot into Windows or Mac OS occassionally to undertake the tasks required :)
  
  Things like Adobe suite and Microsoft office for example. They often have a Linux equivalent but it rarely fits well into industry standard work flows.
  I've been contemplating forking NextCloud to create a faster, less buggy alternative focusing mostly on the core functionality of office software and storage rather than an ever increasing amount of new modules, but not only would I need a team of developers, I'd also need to monetize it straight out of the gate, because I can't pay a bunch of developers out of my own pocket. With NextCloud being AGPL, the fork would also be AGPL, of course. And I hate PHP, so this would involve a full backend rewrite to Rust or Go, which also renders the whole thing a pipe dream.
- Welcome to Linux! I've been using it since 1996 and doing design using FOSS tools for years. (At first, I needed to a separate computer for Adobe products for years, but switched full time to Linux a long time ago.)
  A couple of quick suggestions of other apps to try:
  Krita, for image editing & painting https://krita.org/
  Penpot, for UI layouts (including website design), prototyping, and flow; a great replacement for Figma and Miro. https://penpot.app/
  There's a big list of FOSS design & photography software @ https://pixls.us/software/
  And a huge list of alternatives @ https://codeberg.org/RayJW/awesome-foss#user-content-creativity (linked to creativity, but there's tons more on that page)
  
  +1 for Krita. I've been using Linux since 2015, and to this day haven't completely got my head around GIMP. I know Krita is designed for a different purpose, but it's a lot easier to use for quick touch-ups, which is all I want.
- Have you tried Krita for image editing? I prefer it to gimp
  
  I haven't tried that, will definitely give it a look.... Thanks for the suggestion ! Much appreciated;)
- While I've used Linux on and off for years, the steam Deck was really the thing that convinced me that I can actually drop Windows. My laptop has been ruining mint for a few months, and it's working for me. My desktop is going to be fully switched soon
- Have you tried photopea.com?
- Have you tried https://www.photopea.com/ ?
  
  Hi there, yea I have tried it and kudos to the developer it's an awesome piece of kit.
  Unfortunately, for me at least it's just not the same as running native Affinity Suite (which is my go to). We occassionally produce print work for clients as well as developing UX templates and I can't seem to replicate my workflow in Photopea or any of the other available apps. I wish Affinity would produce a Linux version but when asked, they said the uptake just wasn't there to make it worth their while :(
  I'm really pleased I have managed to move the bulk of my work over to Mint and ultimately, I will always be left having to test applications natively in Windows and Mac OS so it's not the end of the World I suppose as I can't ever fully get away from them.
- What do you use for office?
  
  Not OP but, I use libre office on the Linux machines at work.
  Although I heard about OnlyOffice on Lemmy a few days ago... It looks interesting. I want to try it out!
  
  I'm currently using Libre Office and It honestly covers the full gamut for me. I haven't once felt "man, where's that option".
  It's really solid and come a long way since I first used it !

And we're all on Lemmy!
- my exact same thought, lol. nice

Wow, that's amazing! I assume this doesn't really count Steam Deck because usually these stats are from website hits and whatnot.
I remember when we were floundering around 0.50-0.75% or so and 1% seemed unlikely. And now we're where macOS was some time ago. That's pretty awesome!
- If this is from website hits, then people like me are going to be unintentionally skewing things in Windows's favor, as my browser always fingerprints as running on Windows.
  
  Yup, and I'm guessing part of what's causing the shift is people no longer needing to do that. Netflix has worked on Linux for years, and very few sites actually care about OS anymore, though many do care about browser (e.g. I often get stupid warnings on Firefox despite sites working fine).

That's nice. Hopefully it getting more notorious means that HW companies will support it better. But, at the same time, if this is just from the Steam Deck, then, kinda fugged
- I dunno, I see the steam deck as a huge win for Linux. It shows people how simple Linux gaming can be.
  
  The Steam Deck has shown the impact of a successful Linux-based product launch.
  I wish Steam OS would finally launch and help take Linux up to the next 1%.
  
  It is a win, but it's more of a Steam Deck win than a plain Linux one.
  
  All thanks to Valve. They did really great job for gaming on Linux.
- From a financial perspective, a 3% market share is so insignificant that companies might not even be aware of what the hell Linux is
  
  Baby steps. Considering that Linux isn't installed by default on PCs you buy from BestBuy/Walmart, 3% is a good number.
  
  yeah, but if it keeps growing...
- I just hope Thinkpad become cheaper and It got betrer support than ever 😂
  
  I don't know. I myself am planning to get a new laptop next year and I'm in a dilemma between an expensive macbook pro or an expensive thinkpad x1 yoga. Similarly priced.

I wonder what the big drop in Windows and big rise in Unknown for awhile was
- That can sometimes be ad/tracker blockers, where maybe they know they got a hit but not from where

This is satisfying great news!

does this count things such as steamOS & ChromeOS?
- Counts ChromeOS as a different OS.

When Linux gaming reaches 100 percent parity with windows, I'll probably switch. Until then I can't really justify it for my home PC. Give it 5 years or so, I've heard good things about... proton, i think it was called?
- That is quite the criteria. Windows doesn't have 100% parity with Windows. ;)
- As amazing as proton is, Linux will never have 100% parity with Windows because developers and studios can block it. Honestly most games that don't run right now are intentionally blocked or restricted. If you are interested on what its like though I would strongly encourage throwing Linux on a spare drive or partition and installing steam.
- I switched recently to Linux and haven't had issues with the vast majority of my games. Though, I don't play many competitive multi-player games. Those seem to be where the issues remain.
- TBH, in older versions of Windows, it wasn't easy either, and required installing the GUI tools from NVIDIA or ATI. And even then it wasn't intuitive.
  As SteamOS and clones evolve and improve, the UX will hopefully follow and become easier to configure and manage.
  
  Windows treat the user with respect for their time and don’t tell you to stare at a man page for 10 minutes
  When I run across Error 0x0000011b or whatever, and there's no official documentation on it, it doesn't feel much like respect for my time at all. I'd sooner stare at a man page for 10 minutes than dig through every Microsoft support forum post and try every weird arcane fix.