Linux on the Desktop

First, a disclaimer: I set up my computer to boot a multitude of operating systems. I often use Linux (Debian and others, but primarily Debian), but I still use Windows 11 most of the time. I have disabled updates. I do not want Windows 11 to update to 24H2.

Despite a number of false starts and predictions from Linux optimists, Linux is still not an ideal desktop operating system. It is closer than ever to being a competitive desktop to Windows and OS X, and, in fact, the desktop is more powerful desktop than Windows. In addition, it's easy to make a Linux graphical desktop rival that of OS X. The real problem for Linux is the mainstream productivity application support is still wanting. Sorry, GIMP fans, but GIMP is no Photoshop.

Nevertheless, I see now that Linux is slowly gaining market share on the Desktop. It increased 1% over the past year and now sits at 3.88% of total market share in the world. It is interesting that the Linux Desktop has 14.42% market share in India vs. 3.29% market share for OS X. That's a complete swap of statistics compared to the world market share. I think that's probably mostly due to economics in India, but if you think it's something else, please say so in a response.

Increasing 1% over a year seems like an insignificant amount, but it's enough to make me wonder why it has increased. OS X decreased from 17.79% to 14.7%, over the same period. That may account for some of the increase in Linux. Perhaps the drop in Chrome OS Desktop market share from 3.72% to 2.56% may be a larger contributor to the increase in Linux. Certainly if you are comfortable on Chrome OS, mastering the Linux Desktop should be easy as pie.

Linux is obviously not grabbing market share from Windows, at least not significantly. Will that change? Windows 10 support is ending and Windows 11 has hardware requirements that exceed what many legacy desktop computers can handle. There's a rumor that Windows 12 will have even stricter requirements, perhaps even making an AI chip necessary. Therefore, I have to wonder if the Linux Desktop will benefit from the fact that Windows 11 and Windows 12 (especially Windows 12) simply won't run on legacy machines.

PC sales have slowed significantly over the past 10 years, and I suspect Microsoft's hardware requirements are designed in part to stimulate more PC sales. But that may backfire. Lots of people don't want to invest in a new PC, especially in this faltering economy. Indeed, I know people who are still running Windows 7, partly because it runs fine on their hardware and partly because they hate what Microsoft has done to Windows since Windows 7.

Are you running a Linux Desktop OS? What do you think about the future of Linux on the desktop?