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.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
I’m a new Linux user since the start of the year. Windows has become so stressful to use for a pc I just want to game on. Before I was stuck using windows, but proton has changed the game so much I don’t feel like I’m missing anything now using Linux.
ChatGPT has also helped a lot by giving me all the technical support for Linux I could ever need. It’s taught me a ton while also helping me with all my problems.
I had never considered this as a valid purpose for ChatGPT. Well done you for being resourceful!
You can ask chatgpt pretty much anything and it answers you.
Not always truthfully, but it does answer. It is quite confidently incorrect sometimes.
Imagine chatGPT beliving trolls in its training data and suggesting users to sudo rm -rf /*
It's works better as a conversation then just answering questions. The prompts you give it can also drastically alter it's accuracy.
I use it at work frequently instead of the docs nowadays.
ChatGPT has probably trained on the bulk of the Internet's Linux support threads and manages for various commands now that I think about it.
I've basically stopped using google for tech support, a computer is now teaching me how to use a computer.
ChatGPT helping you migrate to Linux is peak irony considering Microsoft owns 49% of OpenAI
Tbf they make a huge chunk of their money from azure services now.
And while windows drives certain services they are super invested in Linux.
Do you feel performance is good while using Linux to game? How is it compared to windows?
I would love to switch, the only two things keeping me away is potential performance decrease and the fact that my GoXLR doesn't work with Linux and it was way too expensive for that.
I haven't personally benchmarked but so far everything I've tried in Steam has worked and performed at a level where I don't even think about it. If you're chasing the top possible FPS then it's not a good option, but performance is way better than I ever expected and definitely good enough for me.
This is a good summary. It really depends on the game. There even are a few examples where a Windows native game runs faster on Linux with Proton.
Thanks for the answer. I might give it another shot. My favorite game (Hunt: Showdown) even got a natively running version earlier this year.
You can try dual booting and see if you can get it to work. If it doesn't than you can just ditch Linux and otherwise you can ditch Windows.
This is the place to check how well your games run on Linux: https://www.protondb.com/, it shows at least 10k games running well, including recent triple As.
I’m using a 4070 (which has very new and slow release Linux drivers) and I don’t see any worse performance. But I barely used my 4070 with windows before switching over to Linux. However I seem to get similar results to other people on windows with the same hardware.
Linux needs better multi-monitor support. It's better than it's ever been, but it's still janky and giving black screens on tertiary screens at times.
EDIT: It's funny how the comments are all over the place. "works for me", "it's broken on KDE but works on XFCE", "it's broken on XFCE but works on KDE", etc. I think that's a good sign there are problems with multi-monitor support.
Plasma has really good multi monitor support since 5.27. Use latest versions and be happy 🙂
Indeed. I use Xfce and have to switch to Cinnamon to get a very good multi-monitor support.
Its more of a Desktop thing rather than Linux. If you use the right Desktop like Plasma then you have no issues at all.
I really don't see any problems with Multi monitor, I actually have more issues with Windows 11 right now in terms of multiple Displays
While this is probably still true, I doubt it's a big factor when talking about mass adoption.
There are literally dozens of us!
I wonder if Steam Deck is helping with that number (but I don’t know if that many of them were sold to make that much impact).
I tried to look it up and they may haveeither sold about 3 million already or are projected to have sold around that many by the end of the year.
That’s huge number for sure! I think what Steam is doing to make playing games on Linux easier is a big factor too.
I finally changed to Linux this year for good at least on my personal devices. I stayed on Windows just because of MS Office because I was doing work on my personal PCs at times. I needed Excel because I can't stand LibreOffice Calc and only just recently learned about OnlyOffice. With having my work provide a PC though during COVID to all employees, I don't need Excel on my personal PC anymore so I made the switch to Linux Mint. Tried a few different distros but just like the simplicity of Mint and Cinnamon is much better than Gnome for me.
Next year it might go up to 10%? Privacy is a serious concern these days.
Yeah, next year is definitely gonna be it!
lol
On a serious note, I've started to believe it might actually happen one day, in large thanks to Valve and Steam Deck.
And usability, windows gets more and more complicated IMO, and not in the "fun" way Linux can be completed.
I'm loving the comments on the article.
Things that should have disappeared 30 years ago are still problems in the operating system. Not least of which is the handling of locales. I cannot transfer Excel files from my Windows machine to my Linux machine because my Windows machine uses points to denote decimals (as in most companies and homes in South Africa) while Linux does a hard-enforce of the documented standard in South Africa which is a comma for decimal. This breaks my files and I am unable to perform calculations on Excel files due to this. Ridiculous, relevant and sad.
I was previously unaware of the kernel doing such things.
People are indifferent, unknowing, fearful, or just plain lazy to learn new apps. Got to get Office, QuickBooks, Quicken, Adobe, and other major apps to run on Linux.
Most of these are fringe cases nowadays, and often used in environments where the user has no control over the OS anyways. I don't really use Office at home (for the three times per year, LibreOffice is good enough and that's what most Windows users I know run at home anyways).
Also it's not as easy as to just "get Office, QuickBooks, Quicken, Adobe, and other major apps to run on Linux". The wine project is doing miraculous work already IMHO…
While I agree with you on the advantages (performance, stability, reliability, security, customization, privacy, lightweight nature, no corporate bloatware, etc) of Linux, its rate of adoption is considerably weak and consistently weak because of various reasons and causes that your article does not mention.
"Your article doesn't mention the real reasons, which conveniently enough I won't list either."
according to StatCounter's data
Our tracking code is installed on more than 1.5 million sites globally.
Such statistics are always to be taken with a grain of salt.
There are more than 1.5 billion websites worldwide. Statcounter therefore covers only a small fraction of them. So chances are good that you as a Linux user do not use any of these 1.5 million websites that Statcounter uses to create their statistics.
Furthermore, I suspect that many Linux users use tools like uBlock Origin or Pi-Hole, so that the things that are used to track users are blocked.
Apart from that, I have several Linux installations with which I never access a website. Sometimes they have no direct connection to the Internet. Thus, they are also not recorded.
But now to the most important. 3 percent of what? Percentage numbers don't tell anything if you don't know the number of users behind them. Let's assume that there were 2.8 percent Linux users in May. In June, only 2.6 percent. Nevertheless, it is possible that there were more actual users in June if the total number of all users increased accordingly.
Yeah man that's how statistics work. It's not a census. The people behind statscounter make calculations and approximations based on the data they get from they trackers. I think they know that there are people with tracking-blockers. And not only on windows.
They don't just present simple numbers they get. They polish them and that's literally their job.
Nah, its just that services like Disney fixed its analytics and Linux users don't need to camoflage as Windows user to use Disneyplus /s
You jest but as you know this really is something Linux users have had to do with many things, like games. Game works with wine/proton but only has windows support? You're a windows gamer now. If you use linux and FF, some sites break unless you spoof as windows and edge. We have been doing this to ourselves, hopefully it gets better.
great now Linux is mainstream enought i have fo over to free bsd to keep my hipster status
Is that including Steamdeck in that 3%, or users becoming aware of Linux based on Steamdeck? 3 percent may not seem like much but it moves the 2 percent from 1 in 50 people to close to 1 in 30 people. So more chance of bumping into a fellow user. I met up with an old work colleague just before the pandemic, we got to chatting about computers he mentioned he had dumped W10 for Mint around the same time I'd dropped W10 for OpenSUSE. Seems the Windows 10 was a tipping point for more savvy computer users who understood there could be other Operating Systems out there besides Windows or MacOS.
Ayo
I joined the community before the 1% mark. It has been such a nice journey.
Where is StatCounter getting this data from?
