this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] Secret300@lemmy.world 122 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don't care about linux taking over the world or anything but I just want the market share high enough so companies will port their shit over

[–] Kaped@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 year ago (6 children)

From what I read its ~ 5% for this to happen and companies taking Linux seriously.

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[–] rosa666parks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 51 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I switched to Linux a week ago, I’m part of that statistic

[–] windlas@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Welcome! One of us, one of us, one of us!

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[–] DestroyMegacorps@lemmy.ml 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

seeing linux go more popular due to windows going crap puts a smile on my face most of the games i have on my windows machine can run on linux without any issues expect for roblox

[–] Gush@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Yeah those idiots intentionally excluded the linux community

[–] DestroyMegacorps@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (5 children)

true... roblox said they have plans to try to bring back compatibility with wine but it seems they are not making a version of byfron conpatible with linux

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[–] 1984@lemmy.today 40 points 1 year ago

I got my kid over to Pop OS yesterday. It was so amusing because he has been running Windows all this time and when I use his computer, I get frustrated since it's so slow and laggy and freezes up etc.

He always tells me "stop being so fast, you have to wait for the computer!".

We installed PopOS and he was literally amazed how fast it was. He saw that I could open programs and interact with them with no lag and no issues whatsoever. His comment was "I didn't know it could be like this".

Exactly.

[–] HidingCat@kbin.social 31 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Nearly 30 years after I first heard "Linux will take over Windows"! Think that was in 1994 or 1995.

[–] Kaped@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Seems to be truly be gaining momentum and solidifying its status though. Linux 30 years, 20 years, 10 years, even 5 years ago is not even comparable its current state.

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[–] cake@lemmings.world 31 points 1 year ago

Penguins together strong

[–] 1stTime4MeInMCU@mander.xyz 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wonder how much Steam deck is carrying the team

[–] maddruid@beehaw.org 25 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Even for those not on Steam Deck, they're able to play more games on other distros because of all the work they did to get games working on Steam Deck, so you could technically say close to 100% IMHO.

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[–] CoupleOfConcerns@lemmy.nz 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Speaking for myself, but I suspect this applies to a lot of people, the factors that are enabling me to run Linux as my personal computer are:

  1. The browser experience is now on par with other operating systems. For many people, almost everything they do on their computer is through the browser so this is important.
  2. Games now work. Every game I've wanted to play has worked on Linux.
  3. If I want to do word processing or spreadsheeting and I absolutely need the formatting to be correct or want to use the more advanced aspects of Excel, I now have a work device to do those things. This wasn't the case a few years ago, when most people worked on a company desktop machine at work.

Putting that together and subtracting all the annoyances of Windows - nagging notifications, updates that take forever, Windows trying to make my default browser Edge, the greater threat of viruses - why wouldn't I be on Linux? Why wouldn't a lot of people be on Linux?

[–] beta_tester@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

As a latex user, reading "... and I absolutely need the formatting to be correct ..." and using word is a joke

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[–] starman@programming.dev 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Ah, Unknown, my favorite OS

[–] zikk_transport2@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Btw I use unknown OS!

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[–] andrr_464@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I don't even understand why people use Chrome OS other than schools forcing it on you

[–] PoopBuffet69@lemmy.sdf.org 23 points 1 year ago (4 children)

My mother is technologically impaired. Her last (Windows Vista) laptop was a nightmare from the day she got it. She absolutely loves her Chromebook. All she uses it for is online shopping/banking/emails, so it is perfect for her.

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[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

My dad uses it a lot. He has access to Google Drive, his blog, and email, and that's all he really needs. It "Just Works" and gets out of his way. He used to be a huge Microsoft fanboy and adamant that he needed Office, but now he just uses his Chromebook and is happy.

Sure, he could be using some Linux flavor, but what would he gain? He doesn't need anything outside of the browser, so ChromeOS is perfect for him.

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[–] alteropen@noc.social 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

@andrr_464 @Kaped my grandma literally just needs to do some online banking, aka all she needs is a reliable browser. chromeOS is that. it launches chrome without any bloat. it runs on a dead cheap laptop £150 done.

no Hassel no complications works out the box no long term slow down from something like windows it just works.

obviously much of this applies for Linux to and once chromeOS reaches end of life on her laptop I will be putting Linux on there but till then it works

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[–] okamiueru@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Oh wow. I checked the stats for Norway, which is at 12%. https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/norway Sweden and Denmark at <2%, Finland 4%, Iceland 3%. That is a surprising W for Norway.

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[–] DanTilDawn@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

The relevance of this extends even beyond the specific circumstances. This is the metric that should be keeping corporate social media up at night. Viable open-source competition offering equivalent services appearing and gaining an established user base is the beginning of the end of a constant-growth business model.

[–] EliteCow@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Does the SteamDeck contribute to the Linux number?

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[–] crow@beehaw.org 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think we’re at a unique point where windows has pissed off people to no end by continuing to ruin their operating system, and Linux has reached a very mature point. Everyone I know that uses windows hates it now, more than ever, and are finally at the tipping point.

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[–] Lexam@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Bought a cheap laptop with chrome os. Wouldn't let me install Linux. I returned the laptop.

[–] SimplePhysics@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

That’s preposterous. Even the new ARM Macs let you install Linux (although they don’t supply any drivers, leave the devs to reverse engineer everything, which means the only currently supported Linux distro is Asahi Linux (Arch). But thats still better than locking the BIOS/whatever bootloader Chromebooks use.)

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[–] TheMadnessKing@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (16 children)

Tbh, Linux atm needs a good way to restore incase something goes wrong. The rule to use a USB stick and then chroot and fix is not the best idea.

A week ago I ran into issue where my Storage ran full (I was downloading+ manjaro was updating in BG) and then apparently the system didn't boot up coz of this. It took me sometime to realise this issue and fix it.

You can't expect an avg user to be able to perform so much.

Another incident, My friend somehow ended up in a state with no kernel installed and thus couldn't boot up.

[–] worsedoughnut@lemdro.id 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pretty sure this is exactly what the "immutable OS" is for, like what's found in Fedora Silverblue (and less notably in the SteamDeck).

It essentially lets you break whatever you want in userland, but it mounts the root filesystem in read-only, and literally re-images the entire machine each update w/ the added bonus of halting and rolling back the update if any errors are detected during the update. All of which occurs "magically" behind the scenes upon shutdown, so it requires essentially little to no user interaction to manage core updates.

Also all graphical software is limited to flatpaks, so you really take out a lot of the user confusion about installing on Linux and dealing with system-specific weirdness.

[–] TheMadnessKing@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Woah. Didn't knew about this. Looks very promising.

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[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A lot of distros already implement different methods to avoid this. There are already comments about a couple of methods, timeshift is another one, it's pushed heavily by Linux Mint, for example.

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[–] ninetynine@lemmy.film 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I run Windows on the main family computer for simplicity and Linux on my personal (slightly older) laptop. I'm trying to teach my kids about it in hopes that they will have the same level of curiosity that I did back in the early 2000s. Plus I'd love to not run Windows at all.

[–] Kaped@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

Id install Mint/Ubuntu on that family computer. Kids wont see much difference and everything works out of the box nowadays in Linux.

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[–] SoftScotch@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder why Windows share dips while "unknown" surges. It seems to reverse afterwards.

[–] OverfedRaccoon@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I read in another post a while ago that there was some issue with a Windows update that caused it not to register as Windows. It was then corrected in a subsequent update. So the Unknown bump is just Windows.

Edit for reference: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/#monthly-202301-202307

[–] PurpleGreen@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How do they gather their stats?

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[–] Brisolo32@lemmy.eco.br 10 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Wtf, wasn't it like 2% a few weeks ago? That grew fast

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[–] Aman9das@rammy.site 9 points 1 year ago

Good good, we should be proud

[–] Potato_in_my_anus@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Been using Linux since the first Ubuntu release in 2004. Every year I keep reading about "this is the year Linux will take the world"

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