This Monday I woke up to some news that really surprised me: reports say that Linux, the penguin operating system, has reached 10 percent of users in the United States according to StatCounter. That’s quite something.
But Goguma, that’s not that much, it’s still just a handful of nerds
Yes and no. What matters is the trend. Just recently, back in May, we were sitting around 3 or 4 percent, which means it has grown an absolute ton. And this growth also affects the global share, which has reached 7.51%. Not bad at all.
Okay Goguma, so there are just more nerds than before
It’s not that there are more nerds than there used to be, it’s that Linux is becoming easier to use. On top of that, Windows 10 is no longer an option nowadays because it no longer has official support, and people aren’t willing to buy a new computer. Even less so with the current price of components, especially RAM and storage. You can easily spend 1000 euros just trying to add a bit of power to your tower, without doing anything crazy.
Better software and AI might be behind this
As a Linux user myself, I keep seeing more and more software making its way to Linux, whether open source or not. For example, even Todoist, which is proprietary and paid, has a Linux version that works just as well as on Windows. And if you want to use pretty much anything, there’s a good chance a free alternative exists to get the job done. And if this keeps up, more will follow.
I’ve also read about another possible cause behind this growth: AI. I see two reasons here. First, if you run into a problem now, you can ask AI how to solve it. It’s not a perfect solution, but for simple things it can help out a beginner.
The second reason, one that hadn’t crossed my mind before, is that Linux generally performs better than Windows, so if you’re running AI locally, it’s more efficient and lets you run more prompts. I haven’t personally experienced this second one since the AI I use is cloud-based, but it makes complete sense to me.
Is that it, Goguma? So AI actually brought something good after all
Besides AI, there’s another possible factor. It’s possible that there are simply fewer computers out there, and many people who used to have Windows now simply don’t have a computer at all. So the percentage of Linux users goes up even though the absolute total number stays the same. This affects younger generations more, since they only use smartphones.
So then it has no real merit, they might be winning without doing anything
Look, I think it could have an effect, but it can’t explain such a fast rate of growth on its own.
The last factor is privacy, and the fact that Windows has become much more complicated and worse. To me, it’s unacceptable that they cram ads into the Start menu, for example. And not being able to have a local account without sharing everything with Microsoft is another red flag.
Anyway, I think that, as is almost always the case, it’s a combination of all these factors plus a few more that surely slipped my mind.
What do you all think? Are you considering switching to Linux? Have you seen more people around you migrating to the penguin? I’ll be reading you in the comments.
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