I don't think Linux is going to explode in market share any time soon. It might go up a little.
this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
74 points (97.4% liked)
Linux
5631 readers
315 users here now
A community for everything relating to the linux operating system
Also check out [email protected]
Original icon base courtesy of [email protected] and The GIMP
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I really hope it does tho. I just want more market share to have more software support.
The irony with Microsoft business decision here seems limitless. 10-14-25 is the date Windows 10 will no longer be officially supported. This just so happens to also be the date for International E-Waste day as well as KDE's birthday. To me this is hillarious and makes me wonder why the hell Microsoft didn't do even a tiny bit of looking into what else takes place on 10-14. Hopefully this will help 2025 actually be the year of the Linux desktop we've been waiting for!
this is the same company that chose build 2600 for winxp, remember.. odds are, someone at microsoft knew of kde's "birthday" when 10's eol date was finalized. i dunno exactly when that decision was made, the first itu 'e-waste day' could have come after that.
You guys actually make conspiracy theorists sound sane. Is Linux even at a 10% market share yet? You really think all the businesses and personal users on Windows are going to en mass switch to an operating system they don't understand that requires them to constantly configure and adjust things to get stuff working, requires them to get comfortable with using terminal to accomplish stuff when they have only ever used GUI applications their entire lives, AND it doesn't run half the programs they rely on and are used to, to do what they need?
Well, this was the case maybe 5 years ago, if not 10+ years back. Linux Mint, Ubuntu, PopOS, Fedora, and ElementaryOS can all be run via a GUI. Additionally, you're comment about programs is baseless. If you switch from Windows to Mac guess what will have to happen, you'll have to start using similar but not the same programs. However, using a VM or Wine isn't hard whatsoever thanks to YT walkthroughs. It's 10 to 20 minutes of guided clicking and then you're running Windows programs on Linux.
96% of the top 1,000,000 servers online and 100% of super computers run Linux. But people are creatures of habit and when compounded with a statement like this riddled with half truths, it only makes most folks more hesitant to switch. 4.1% of PCs run a common Linux distro, 1.9% run ChromeOS, and 6.4% run an "unknown" OS, which is widely believed to be Linux as well. So 12.4% of PC's run some form of Linux and with the SteamOS release around the corner, this will breach 15% for sure. But okay, we're a bunch of loons who like owning the equipment we bought and enjoy the financial + security + privacy perks of open sourced software. If nothing else, I hope you feel better. Take care!
Between cloud apps and RemoteApp technology, there is a pretty decent chance for Linux desktops with Windows servers becoming the norm, again, for smaller size businesses. Organizations I work with still use thin clients, which - what's the difference? And based on end user reactions to the UI when upgrading to Windows 11 - all change is hard. They'd get used to it fast. Especially if it acts mostly like Windows 10.
Please provide a link to the flavor that mostly acts like Windows 10. I'm legitimately asking because any I'm used to are not plug and play in the slightest. In my experience I spend so much time hunting down how to do the simplest stuff in Windows on Linux and it's usually a huge chore to accomplish when I do find out how it needs to be done. Like, can I open a text editor with ease? Sure. But I didn't think the standard of a good OS in 2025 was the same standard as a good OS in 1985. I do a lot more then edit code on my PC. I want to see the Linux flavor that out of the box has at least as much of the functionality I come to expect from Windows without having to spend days configuring. I want the Linux flavor that doesn't require me to run half my shit through Wine because no one's made a Linux alternative.
As someone suggest Zorin, they have worked hard to be a transition system, but if you want true GUI and no command line tinkering try OpenSUSE--everything can be tweaked and configured via the various Yast2 GUI modules.
What are you doing with your machine that would be confusing for your standard end user? KDE out of the box is good enough for my daily driving. PopOS, Bazzite, and Mint work great. GUI options for most normal computing things you'd do these days. The amount of customization allowed on an end user's machine is often minimal anyway. Plus, you sorta imply that the end user would be doing all this, instead of an IT admin preconfiguring a machine with Ansible or a custom install script. I think you may be over estimating what your typical business user does. It's mostly "Here's my chat, here's my browser, here's my 1-5 LOB apps, here's my printer. Can I change my background to my kids? Great."
Yeah I use a proprietary software for some work and windows loves to fuck my eyes out breaking things for no reason. Beside excel and Photoshop which will be replaced by ai shortly anyway what other software won't run on Linux. You sad bro couldn't get your fortnight to work?
with as cheap as commoditized hardware has become, im surprised there isnt anyone offering mint on a desktop/laptop thereby saving the microsoft tax.
There are. Several, in fact.
- Framework will sell you a laptop with no OS, but each laptop is certified 100% compatible with Linux
- For years, Dell has sold laptops with Linux pre-installed.
- StarLabs sells desktops and a couple different types of laptops with Linux installed.
- Lenovo (it may look like Windows only, but go into build one, and one of the OS choices is Ubuntu)
- system76
- HP Dev One (Hewlett-Packard)
- Purism
- and
- more
Hell, you can buy a laptop with Linux pre-installed from Amazon!
That's mostly focusing on just laptops; there's a dozen other companies selling desktop and mini-PCs with Linux, and some hardware manufacturers (Raspberry, ODroid?) don't even have Windows as an option.
There is a wide variety of laptops, desktops, mini-PCs, and SBCs to buy with Linux pre-installed. I'm more surprised that there's someone who thinks there isn't, than by how many options there are.
awesome!
been in the business for twenty-five years, and counting. saving the small builder's "microsoft tax" still doesn't let them compete on price with the basic mass-market systems from the major oems like dell and hp--companies that buy their shit by the 10s of millions per year. they also pay much less for a windows license, and in the end essentially gets paid to put it on from the preload deals and commissions they get.
This came and went as a trend. Linux as a default for those who didn't want to pay for OEM Windows was frequent in smaller PC shops, especially back when you had to manually punch in a key. My memory of it is it went away once a) the modern activation scheme rolled out, and b) people stopped buying shop-made PCs in favor of prebuilts or custom builds.
And let me be clear, the idea was you got the PC with Linux to check that everything worked and you'd then proceed to install Windows on your own, either from a legit CD you owned or by pirating a key. Which I guess is in itself a measure of how much people around these parts overrepresent how much the average normie cares about "official support".
A few laptop houses do still ship Linux as an option, but that's more of a statement and meant to be used. And less frequent, too.
This came and went as a trend.
how along ago was that? before 11? before 8? shits come a long way even in just the last 5 years. linux on the desktop is out-of-the-box at least as capable as windows 7, and mint has a lovely curated app store for easy app installs.
I think you can get pre-configured systems. I believe the distro website actually links to some.
I also think at least in the past OEM’s were under contracts that stipulated Windows only.
Lol. I used XP for years after it's EoL, did the same with 8 and will do so with 10. Stay mad.
yea the IoT version will still be supported until at least 2032, and they will probably keep extending it with ESU at some point too