this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
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Thats fuckin amazing.
I can still remember when we celebrated linux being at 0.8% and it was not long ago.
I think Linux reached 0.8% in 2018 iirc.
It's definitely accelerated a bit in the last two years.
Alas, all it takes is for Microsoft to tone down the insanity before it will plateau again. So best hope for now is too increase it as much as possible by welcoming refugees before Windows 12 comes out. Maybe gain another percent or two.
The rise of Linux in this is absolutely driven by SteamOS and the Steam Deck, let's be honest here. This narrative of people escaping Windows because of W11 changes that pretty much only get reported here is... a bit of wishful thinking.
Does it matter where it comes from though? Do you think regular folks are like: "i'm gonna play on my WINDOWS MACHINE"? They just use whatever came pre-installed.
Well, yeah, exactly. All the people showing up as Linux because they are just using the consolified Steam interface on their Decks aren't exactly renouncing Windows and vowing to install Arch on their desktops forevermore, they're just using the custom interface that came in the box.
Again, only one data point but you basically just described me exactly
Sure, but you're an outlier. All of us in this conversation are massive outliers. I mean, we're on Fedi alternatives to Reddit, for one. We're talking in a Linux Gaming subreddit of a niche derivative of Reddit.
It's not like we don't have numbers. We're the 0.8% of the market that has a Steam Deck, and from that you're part of the 0.4% of it that also migrated another computer for one reason or another. And that's out of Steam, which has about as many users, give or take, as the Nintendo Switch, not orders of magnitude more. We're a fraction of a fraction of a fraction.