What ISP do you use?
Now that there is data in terms that people can understand (capitalism), I think people will finally accept that Linux is an OS. The next thing is the false equivalence between Linux and Android.
I have Windows on dual-boot in case I need it, but I'm in Linux 99% of the time now.
Still good news for those wanting to see broader Linux adoption, but the news really is the usage was correctly recognized as Linux for the first time.
I work in the refurb department of an ewaste recycling company. Because we don't have a Windows OEM license, we officially can't install Windows on any of the PCs we sell. (I'll direct people to download the Windows install media if asked.[0]) On the systems I sell[1], Linux Mint has a nice OEM install option that after installation, there's a 'ship to customer' script[2] that starts an OOBE after the next boot, so I don't have to make up a login, and hope it doesn't get lost anywhere.
I'm not sure how many people keep the Linux install after they buy it, but it's cool to think we're helping move the needle on this! FWIW, I've had several people directed to me specifically for Linux systems, so I know it's more than 3.
Yes, I run Linux everywhere at work (it's the wild west without a Windows domain), and at home.
[0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11 (ewww)
[1] https://www.ebay.com/str/evolutionecycling
[2] https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/lates...
Personally, I typically use gray market Windows keys. I have a hard time moving machines with Linux on them.
But I think you are doing a really good thing!
Anyways, I'm saying this because we expected ~1% Linux users, but we needed something to stand out against our competitors. I just pulled our latest data, and 7.5% of our paying users are on Linux.
So as much as I want to believe that others share my taste, I'm not sure how to interpret the two statistics in this article.
Sadly, I'd lean towards this article's attribution:
"Cloudflare’s unfiltered figures may include automated requests unless human traffic is classified. This is especially relevant to Linux, widely used for servers, automation, development environments, and headless browser workloads"
I suspect many people are running AI agents on cloud servers, which are most likely running Linux, and many of those agents are browsing the web. That's more likely what is driving this adoption. That, and as the article points out, more accurate OS classification on the part of StatCounter (from unknown to "Linux"), especially if its over the span of 1 month.
Increasingly you'll see a new tool or library or language, and there'll be installation instructions for everything except windows.
Or Windows will be "supported" but when you go to run the tests they just don't work.
Development has often been more Linux friendly, but it was rarely the case that Windows got completely ignored.
Hopefully there is a middle ground, where I can explain to my crawler which results look good, which dont, what it got wrong, and it adapts. A return to crawler/surfacer agents that work to find and retrieve would be a step in the right direction.
I do think llm assisted linux has a bright future. It feels like scifi using a system with them, gluing all the power scattered in small tools.
In over 30 years of using the Internet I have seen this question form countless times, and I have posed it myself countless times.
I have never had it in mind to "show how smart I am", and cannot recall ever walking away with the impression that someone else was doing so.
The goal is to solve the other person's problem; the rationale is a genuine belief that the other person has an https://xyproblem.info/ . This belief is, often, motivated by confusion over the description of what's happened so far, or by the OP taking actions that seem inconsistent or needlessly convoluted.
The worst thing about forums in my experience, by far, is people who pose as wanting help but who really just want to rant. Specifically for Linux forums, rant about Linux because it doesn't work like Windows.
Grombobulous•1h ago
Anecdotally though, the idea of major creators like Linus Tech Tips and Marques Brownlee putting out Linux content was unheard of a few short years ago.
I have been seeing a wide trend among the Windows tech-savvy universe of frustrated users who have social media platforms suggesting strongly that people give it a try.
Plus, you’ve got Steam, which has made Linux an excellent game platform for the very large percentage of Windows desktop users who play games.
I also find that the availability of AI makes troubleshooting for newbies way easier. Dump your error message in or describe what’s not working and you’re on your way.
It is truly the year of the Linux desktop. I switched away from Windows thinking I’d still need a dual boot partition but so far I really don’t.
SoftTalker•59m ago
Grombobulous•55m ago
I’ve noticed that it’s helped me as well, because it’s able to give me diagnostic commands that I can run and report back with the results. For example, I fixed/set up a virtual machine with libvertd and I just wouldn’t have gotten that far without it, especially for when I broke the setup later.
ipdashc•31m ago
I mean, not to do the HN thing, but I feel like if anything that's a bad sign for Linux that Claude was needed? Basically any desktop distro from the last decade has a simple GUI installer, if anything it's genuinely easier than installing Windows. I'd expect a medium-technical person to be able to handle it just fine, what did Claude help them with?
I do use LLMs for random debugging questions (most recently laptop dual graphics for instance) but the base install has always worked fine for me
jcastro•27m ago
https://askubuntu.com/
There's decades of this stuff.
pletnes•18m ago
basch•
yomismoaqui•52m ago
chirau•30m ago
hatsuseno•28m ago
fakedang•12m ago
There was that odd moment where he was competing for subs with T-Series, the Bollywood music company, but when he realized he wouldn't be number 1 on YouTube forever, he just stopped giving a shit.
marcosdumay•17m ago