You know, I do wonder how many of these statistics are influenced by Linux users tendancy to use adblockers and block tracking. Linux could be more popular than it looks.
Also, they should tell us how much of that increase is due to the Steam Deck. :P
Unfortunately, due to the constant willful or untested shenanigans of various website I have set up all my system’s Firefox profiles to spoof by default its user agent (and other JavaScript properties) as Windows 11, x86_64, Firefox LTS (even if I use latest, Aurora or beta). Some blantant recent example: YouTube uses lower quality options on browsers running on Arm-based systems — misreporting as an x86 CPU appears to be a widespread browser fix
Doing so has helped me and many friends/family I switched to a flavor of Linux (mostly Mint, but sometimes LMDE or Ubuntu or specific requirements/demands) avoid numerous dumb problems.
Even on mobile sometimes UX breaking issues creep up.
I missed the “PornHub” in the corner at first. Maybe I won’t share this with colleagues…
A reasonable concern but also a shame, because data is data and PornHub has a massive userbase. I trust Backblaze stats for hard drives because they just have a shit-ton of real-world metrics. I’m inclined to trust PornHub stats for the same reason.
How many Steam deck users are looking up porn?
Do we really want to be bigger anyway? I kind of like where Linux as a desktop isn’t really big enough for all the scammers and malware makers to care.
(And I know it’s huge for servers and malware also targets that, but they are usually maintained by professionals, not your parents that would probably run every shell script they are offered as help)
If Linux would become the biggest desktop os you are going to find so much more bad advice whenever searching for help online. I wonder if the nice people we have now are really ready for when the terrible people invade the community.
Do we really want to be bigger anyway?
YES. It needs more market share to influence companies financially to make products for it.
It’s truly starting to make inroads recently, but it still has a ways to go.
I kind of like where Linux as a desktop isn’t really big enough for all the scammers and malware makers to care.
It’s also not big enough for gaming companies to truly care, unfortunately.
Thankfully valve does, linux gaming’s gotten to a really great state in the last few years.
Is it that Linux is getting popular, or that most people don’t buy new computers anymore now that their phone does everything they used it for, so it’s only the enthusiasts still buying?
That’s an interesting thought. I’ve wondered this about Chrome’s market share in browsers too. How much of it is just that so much traffic is now from phones where, even if you have another browser installed, apps open links in embedded Chrome web views.
