this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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I'm not sure how accurate StatCounter is, given that most Linux users use adblockers. However, according to it, Linux has almost a 14% desktop share in India.

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[–] whitecapstromgard@sh.itjust.works 39 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Is that why India has the best programmers?

[–] WuTang@lemmy.ninja 19 points 2 years ago (1 children)

nope. that's why India has a lot of sweatshops and our assholes of western managers exploit them.

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[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 31 points 2 years ago (5 children)

It's a little puzzling to me that Linux isn't popular in low-income countries. Why wouldn't it be the OS of choice there? Do we need to become linux missionaries? I imagine it would be easier to convince people who can't buy an iPhone to use FLOSS than those who can drive to an Apple Store and waddle over to get yet another one.

[–] drathvedro@lemm.ee 30 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Probably because it has to compete with piracy there, not with Microsoft and Adobe and such.

[–] halva@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 2 years ago

ironically enough i think microsoft (at least until very recently) has had a very lenient stance on piracy exactly because of this

piracy is the key to the consumer market in developing countries, consumer market is the key to enterprise (where the actual money lies)

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 6 points 2 years ago

I remember switching to linux because windows was shit and because I was afraid of getting caught using pirated warez. Is there no fear of that there?

[–] victron@programming.dev 21 points 2 years ago

Puzzling? Windows comes preinstalled or can be pirated. Also, it's popular, Linux isn't. No puzzle on sight.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 years ago

Same as any other country, people use what’s preinstalled

However following that trend Chrome OS and Android have really boosted Linux’s numbers

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 4 points 2 years ago

Two reasons, low income means no culture of paying for software, and easily corrupted government and administrations which companies like Microsoft have no problem taking advantage of to push their products to city halls, schools, hospitals, universities etc.

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[–] Timely_Jellyfish_2077@programming.dev 25 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Also have no idea why Windows share dropped so low in April 2023. Perhaps some Windows update caused them to be recognized as unknown device

[–] chevy9294@monero.town 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I read somewhere that was caused by linux-based botnet ddos or something like that. So windows share didnt drop but linux share significantly increased.

[–] taaz@biglemmowski.win 9 points 2 years ago

Maybe something with the hwid activation?

[–] andruid@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I do remember reading India declaring a switch for government computers a while back. So maybe that?

[–] odium@programming.dev 5 points 2 years ago

That would be a permanent increase /decrease.

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I find the concept of 'market share' applied to FOSS projects quite confusing.

[–] Timely_Jellyfish_2077@programming.dev 17 points 2 years ago (5 children)

What's confusing to you? If Linux has higher desktop use, wouldn't it bring more and better quality apps and games.

[–] xvlc@feddit.de 5 points 2 years ago

I would assume that “market share” is related to the relative number of units sold/number of active subscriptions/fraction of total sales in terms in revenue, or some similar metric. I run a variety of different distributions on servers (bare metal, VMs and containers) and desktop computers. Do they all count equally? Without giving it more thought, I wouldn’t even know how to determine the market share of Ubuntu in my own home in a sensible way.

With Windows, I can just count the number of active licenses. Oh wait, its zero.

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[–] mojo@lemm.ee 12 points 2 years ago

Say the line bart!

This will be the year of the Linux desktop

[–] A10@kerala.party 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I am contributing to this number by installing Ubuntu Linux on my relatives old laptops.

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[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 11 points 2 years ago

A lot of people are comparing windows to linux, but windows worldwide has only about 70% market share.

There are way less mac os and chrome os users than worldwide

[–] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I'm not sure adblockers change the OS they report. Other tools I know for a fact do it.

Edit: However, as @aebletrae@hexbear.net mentions, adblockers don't have to change what OS is reported to change the overall statistics. They explain how in a comment below.

[–] aebletrae@hexbear.net 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think the assumption is not that adblockers alter the user agent info, but that they also block other resources, so StatCounter won't see those users at all, leading to under-reporting.

[–] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Ah. This makes sense! Thanks!

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[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 years ago

Content management doesn't affect usage numbers. I think it has to more with user agent switching

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago

You can identify OS without an adblocker it's usually in the user agent

[–] okamiueru@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

And 12% in Norway

[–] nephs@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Citation needed for "most Linux users use adblockers"

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago

I feel like if you're techie enough to use Linux, then you'll figure out that ublock origin is a thing

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