Desktop Linux Market Share: November 2022
Every year, we discuss the year of the Linux desktop. It can’t be helped when we see an increase in the operating system’s market share in the consumer space.
Of course, Linux dominates the entire cloud industry (Web host, cloud computing, data warehouse, etc.). Here, we focus only on the desktop Linux market share.
If you’re new to the Linux world, Linux is not an operating system; it is a kernel. But, we tend to term “Linux” as an OS to keep things simple.
You can learn what Linux is in our explainer article.
One day, we hope that Linux distributions will dominate the desktop operating market share in the future. But what do the current trends say? Is it the year of the Linux desktop yet?
The trends change every month. Last year, Linux could have a better grip over the market share compared to this year. So, it is vital to track the latest reports.
Here, we try to keep track of the latest trends in the form of monthly updated reports from different sources.
Operating System Market Share: November 2022
We update the available information every month. Note that the information available for the last month gets published next month. So, for example, when we update the report in October, it includes statistics up until September.
Among the desktop operating systems available (Windows, macOS, and Linux), Linux usually tends to occupy the third position overall.
Some of the latest stats include:
- Statcounter: Linux occupies 2.6% of the market share compared to 15.74% for macOS and 75.93% for Windows.
- W3Schools: As of October 2022, Linux has a grip on 4% of the market share, compared to 9.8% of macOS and 70.4% of Windows.
- Steam Survey: In terms of desktop gaming, Linux has a market share of 1.28% (Ubuntu, Arch, Manjaro as the top-three) when compared to 2.23% for macOS and 96.50% for Windows.
- Statista (last updated on June 2022): The Linux desktop market share was 2.42% when compared to 14.64% for macOS, and 76.33% for Windows.
- Stack Overflow Survey: Among the developers who participate in the Stack Overflow survey, 40.23% of users use the Linux-based operating system for personal use, and 39.89% of those use it for professional use.
Every source utilizes a different method of data collection. The market share constantly changes, so we decided to update this report regularly instead of making separate posts on slight changes to the market share.
Overall, it looks like Linux as a desktop operating system is popular among developers and is eventually influencing gamers and other consumers as an alternative operating system.
What do you think about the trends? Do you see Linux overtaking macOS in terms of desktop market share? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Linux usage has grown a lot in the last few years and many manufactures of hardware are nowadays putting Linux in there system requirements as well as windows and MacOSX As some example of this I can mention a USB device from Asus, any video card from Saphire and any hp printer and my new AMD 5600g cpu with built in graphics all listed as Linux compatible in the description on the komplett.se website
this wasn’t the case just a few years ago
The main reasons for people to move to Linux are many and it mostly has to do with bad decisions from Microsoft in resent years as their products get more and more bloated and full of crap like adverts and the fact that you cant even install it anymore without having the pc connected to the internet and being forced to create a Microsoft account and this has pi$$ed of a lot of people who are now looking for an alternative OS for their next pc
there is also now pc brands like Dell, Lenovo and system 76 that sells pcs with Linux pre installed and that helps a lot for new users Dell and lenevo had been supporting Linux for many years and some of their models are even certified by Linux distributions like Ubuntu witch helps a lot
There is also the fact that many games now can be played on Linux through steam so there is not much need for windows anymore unless you have some specific program but windows can be run in a virtual machine like virtual box from inside a Linux based system quite easy these days if that need should accrue
one other thin I have noticed is that ten years ago there was only a handful of people in my surroundings running Linux and it was considered nerdy and odd but nowadays a lot of people I know run Linux and that goes for both people in my neighborhood and at my work
Linux Marketshare
On stat counter there is a category of Linux witch has 2.6%, chrome os that has 2.38% and “other” that has 3,34% Both the category of Linux and Crome OS are actually versions of Linux even though they are not listed as such and how many of the “other” category are really Linux as well? Who knows
I think that Linux has more market share right now then what is reported in the statistics as ”Linux” simply because Linux based systems doesn’t always identify themselves as Linux based out of security reasons among others and how many people are running Linux in a virtual machine or behind a firewall or other device so they don’t show up in the statistics at all?
So a more accurate Linux market share should really be somewhere between 5 and 8%
Linux will newer be big when it comes to computers sold with an os pre installed because Microsoft has a monopoly on that part of the market and most Linux users are either bulding their pcs themselves or running Linux on hardware that came with windows pre installed or no OS at all
Linux is a real challenge at times because things go wrong. Example: FireFox (Snap version) on Linux 22.04 won’t work with Gnome extensions. Neither the Snap version or the apt version did so. Had to remove the Snap/apt versions (I tried both). Installed Vivaldi to directly download Firefox from the Mozilla site. That finally worked.
Tried using Audacity on Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04. No sound. After much searching and forum-scanning, I found I needed to further set alsamixer options, install pulseaudio and modify the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.config with ‘options snd-hda-intel model=generic’. What a hassle!
Using workspaces is a chore. When the computer goes to suspend, it saves all the Firefox workspaces but not Thunderbird email or any of the other programs. When ubuntu wakes up, all the firefox windows are in one workspace. They then have to be manually dispersed to different workspaces so they don’t overlay each other. Thunderbird email and programs must be manually restarted. I usually have 5 or 6 browser windows going.
So, Linux is NOT very friendly and NOT very intuitive.
So, what’s so good? Plenty once you become a bit of programmer and wire head. Lots of software choices. Many really good ones. I use Visual Studio Code, Cheese, VLC, Clementine, Joplin note system, Rust coding language, Kalarm and bash scripting. Plenty of customizations. Yet, they take a lot of digging, trying and testing. In the end it’s a really good and fun system. (Just mainly for bit-twiddlers and wire heads!)
Will Linux ever become a major player (size of MacOS or bigger?) If the quirks and oddities are overcome and the usage becomes much more intuitive, well, … they sky’s the limit. Open ‘n’ hopin’!
This statistics may not represent the reality. There are many forum polls about linux usage, the percentages are over these results.
You can add me, a former Windows 10 user of 7 years to this particular Linux market share. I switched to Mint, which I found to be quite a peaceful transition. While the games I play on Steam are mostly Source Engine titles, which run fine despite mostly painless font-related bugs, others games are obviously not so fine, like Skullgirls (which does have developer support for Linux), for instance. This I expected and understand the “antiquity” of my games (and here I mention my low-end specs). As for the AAA space, I have no relation. All in all, I’m here for the stay, Tux. You got me.
> What do you think about the trends? Do you see Linux overtake macOS in terms of desktop market share?
I prob cannot be taken as unbiased opinioner, but the last time I used Linux on Desktop was more than ten years ago. Recently I bought an ARM SBC and I can see what a huge progress Linux made over last 10 years. Even such “always behind” distros like Debian stable.
What I really admire of, is the KDE. Not only because of all visuals, but because of the integrity it gives in terms UX. And the KDE dev team is just awesome. I raised couple of bugs and contacted them on various small matters – they were always responsive and friendy.
Seeing what kind of progress SteamOS is making with Proton, chances are great Linux will overcome OS X in couple of years, by taking gamers from Windows. They will see it with their own eyes, that Linux not only can be used for gaming, but it’s also customizable in every possible way.
I also think a lot of ppl got tired from Windows 10 over last couple of years, because of its dictator-like behavior, deciding how and when exactly you will be doing your OS updates and bloating up your system with zillions of services you cannot get any kind of info. Questions like: “is this windows service doing something crucial and it should be kept up and running, even though it’s eating up 10% CPU all the time? Or is Microsoft is already mining some cryptocoins on my hardware without letting me know?” With more questions and concerns regarding privacy and security, more ppl will be naturally floating toward Linux.
Thanks for sharing your views.