Chrome OS saw a good raise too. OS X(Mac) saw a decrease.
Thanks, Steam Deck.
Most OS statistics come from web usage which is probably pretty minimal for Steam Decks.
It’s not so much about browsing on steam decks. It’s about the technical improvements Valve has brought to Linux gaming compatibility that has now made full Linux conversion without a Windows dual-boot for gaming (and many other Windows programs) a true reality. Once people don’t have to reboot every time they want to start a game they’ll stay in Linux full time.
I think SteamOS might help a bit, but the driving factor might be that Microsoft decided to ditch much of good hardware on their upgrade path to Windows 11.
Now just release the damn thing in Australia so I can buy one from someone other than the shady fb market scalpers.
I just bought a ROG Ally.
There’s a lot of stupid stuff written/on you tube about it, but it’s great and clearly a notch up on the Steam Deck in most ways.
Were it not so extremely expensive in my currency I’d already be using one. I just spent slightly more than that for a rig that will last me close to 10years. I really want to see more competition in the handheld space, near future is looking promising, but its not there yet.
Just an FYI that at this rate it’s only going to take another 115 years before Linux has 100% market share.
You mean Linux isn’t going to have 200% market share one day? Shit, I’m starting to think my calculations may have not been totally serious.
To a point. Let’s be honest it’s going to be more like an S-curve since you can’t go past 100% market share, and some people will refuse to switch.
And people not wanting to switch is fine imo. Having competition will likely help all OS’s get better over time
The critical mass needed to tip the scales is not high. Once Linux has enough market share to matter as a customer base, game studios will switch to developing as cross-platform for it by default, so that they don’t lose launch sales. Once this happens, a lot of people won’t have any reason to stay on windows anymore as gaming was the only thing holding them back. This will then create a virtuous cycle of users migrating and games (and then apps) switching to it. Along then come hardware vendor supporty and then pre-built PCs and laptops. If the tipping point is reach, the rate of market share gain will be exponential.
The same thing happened with Internet Explorer 6
The only thing that can stop this is outside pressure from software giants like Microsoft through lobbying the Governments, buying out game studios or buying exclusivity, or strong-arming hardware vendors.
MacOS holds a nearly 30% market share and few game developers give a shit about publishing their games on Mac. Why would Linux be any different?
Apple is notorios about being anti-gaming, yet many games support it while not supporting linux. Don’t know the actual stats though.
Other than gamers, there’s a huge share of enterprise Windows users. And they’re not likely to shift OS, because of IT admin issues. Others in this thread have commented on how Apple is struggling to get devs to build native games compared to Windows.
Sure the number of home PC users might decline, one can always hope.
I can actually imagine a scenario where MS actually wants that to happen. They don’t really make money on windows sales anymore (comparatively to their other products). So this could free up quite a lot of resources and reallocate them elsewhere.
The majority of home consumers basically just use browser services anyways.
There are also Windows users who rely on niche business applications. Wine isn’t great for that sort of software yet. Another big one is the creative industry. While the VFX industry is very Linux-focused, and 3D is very viable, other parts of video production are not. And GIMP needs non-destructive editing before it can even think of competing with Photoshop or Affinity Photo. Inkscape is a viable vector image tool. The many other Adobe programs don’t have great alternatives, and if you need to collaborate, that means you all need to switch to a new program. Then there are the retraining costs to consider.
Gamers have the easiest time in switching to Linux. The amount of compromises and sacrifices you need to make in other industries are much greater right now.
However, Adobe is trying to bring some of their programs, like Photoshop, to the web. It’s unlikely we’ll see stuff like After Effects on the web, but Photoshop, Illustrator, maybe even inDesign could possibly, maybe be there in a few years. Photoshop web is already in beta (though it’s garbage). The web continues to be the great equalizer.
I think Krita is a more viable competitor to Photoshop than Gimp at this point… It’s also great for pen tablet drawing and arguably superior in that category.
But yeah, video editors are lacking. Kden live is ok (and awesome for the price)
Audio editors are behind too. Audacity is pretty good for 2 track. Bitwig is a great multitrack alternative to Ableton… But Ardour isn’t developed enough for a pro studio and I’ve never seen one that uses Linux. Part of this is poor support for vst plugins developed for Windows, mostly due to their copy protection.
Oh yeah
This is the year
That was me, I switched my desktop and laptop to ubuntu.
