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Scoffs derisively at the new popular thing and switches to BSD…
I’m doing my part! Switched to Linux earlier this year because Microsoft started showing ads in the start menu. I tried Nobara but ran into some glitches that I didn’t want to troubleshoot so I switched to Bazzite. So far so good.
As pointed out on hackernews, this is likely attributed to (a) decrease in desktop usage by non-linux-users, and (b) the gaming hardware industry embracing linux (steam deck etc.)
The journey of Linux has been one of slow but steady progress, accelerating in recent years. It took eight years to go from 1% to 2% (by April 2021), then just 2.2 years to reach 3% (June 2023), and a mere 0.7 years to hit 4% (February 2024). Now, here we are, at over 5% in the USA! This exponential growth suggests that we’re on a promising upward trend.
The article was written this month, so it’s conveniently ignoring the fact that the rise from 4% to 5% took 18 months. That’s actually a huge slowdown in uptake, not an acceleration.
But I’m glad it’s at 5%, even if it’s only in the US. Now let’s get there globally, and keep it going…
Mind you, the usage on the desktop, as the article says, is probably actually a significant bit higher than 5%, thanks to Unknown, and if you include ChromeOS, which personally it should be IMO.
I put Ubuntu on my year old Windows laptop and to my surprise, everything is just better. I mean better than Windows AND better than Linux ever was before when I used it previously. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing some major manufacturers shipping PCs with Ubuntu pre-loaded in the coming years.
I’ve been using Linux since 2006, and been gaming on it exclusively since maybe 2018? Seen reports it’s even kicking Win 11’s ass now performance-wise. Yall are just mean.
I will mainly switch to Linux whenever I feel ready for the headache of setting it up for the first time too. Already got another M.2 SSD to run it alongside my existing Win 10 for anything that doesn’t run on Linux.
If it was simple and easy to install and play games on Linux as is on Windows, I would have switched over a decade ago.
It doesn’t say how they got this number in the piece (unless I missed it), but it’s likely more than 5% if they are, say, counting the OS by user agent strings hitting a particular tracker. Linux distros use different browsers and they don’t report the OS in an accurate way all the time.
For a long time my UAS just said “Firefox, the version #, NT-based” or something like that, but now it reports Linux properly… I haven’t been paranoid enough to use a agent switcher lately.
Why does that website have the same layout as one of those AI-generated blogs that clogs up search results on DDG? It isn’t AI, but the design is almost identical.
Iine go up diamond hands
I just transitioned to Linux. Fully removed windows.
I’m doing my part!
I consider myself a trans ally, but I’m struggling to keep up with the latest pronouns. Congrats!
I identify as Linux and my pronouns are root/0.
Somebody has a root complex, jeez.
It’s not perfect but there are different values
The funny thing is there are lots of things that are designed better on Linux vs Windows/macos too.
My memory is fading on some of them since I primarily use Windows for work and a steam deck for gaming now, but keyboard shortcuts was definitely one of them. Easier to get shit done automation-wise from simple scripts. CMD is so basic and PowerShell feels like my fingers are exhausted from doing a simple thing, and like you always need to write a paragraph to get a simple thing done.
Afaik from my limited interaction with bash: At least you have proper datatypes.
Isnt bash essentially treating everything like a string and it’s up to you to resolve that?Pretty much, though I use a lot of jq these days and many tools support json output and input. I’d love to see that paradigm expanded for more Unix tools. Maybe a new kind of pipe symbol for shells that implies strict json objects.
Not sure if you know of it, but I found this a while back and it helped me a lot: https://github.com/kellyjonbrazil/jc
Oh, that is interesting.
Nushell?
Yeah, command lines just feel native on Linux, where in Windows it feels like it’s running off behind the scenes to fetch a grown up.
Proton is a big deal for the change. Think back 5 years ago and switching to Linux was much less approachable because you needed to be an enthusiast to get your games running. Nowadays, you just click download on the Linux Steam client and >90% of the time, it’ll just work.
I have been on Linux for over 15 years and even I don’t want to go back to the old days of manually installing Wine and having to create different prefixes to get different games to launch without sound. or some missing textures.
not manually, yeah, but bottles and such are still really useful. it shows how much good GUI tools help with usability for everyone
Not just UI, but simplicity of operation. The closer to “it just works” a system/program is, the more palatable it is to adopt.
I ended up wading into the world of WINE prefixes when I tried to mod some older games. I got it working in the end, but it sure made me grateful for how easy I have it with Proton
Hear, hear!
There is nothing wrong, and in fact there is something good, with FOSS being polished and user friendly out of the box.
Historically that has not been a priority, because FOSS has been by the computer nerds, for the computer nerds. But if that priority shifts to being a bit more “by the computer nerds, for the normies” then that is a good thing as long as the developers don’t prevent the power users from accessing any part of the system they want. Fortunately that completely against the point of the FOSS world.
I first learned Unix in the 90s, I use my Linux desktop more than my phone, I’m an engineer on embedded systems digging through C and C++ code all day, I have terminals open all day, and… I have Linux Mint Cinnamon installed on all my machines and love it. Change My Mind, lol.
I, on the contrary, prefer it when everyone uses mainstream Wine with winetricks and prefixes so if something doesn’t work, you can at least fix it using someone’s advice posted on winehq. With Proton it seems that everyone expects stuff to either just work or doesn’t bother. The Proton advice is usually as valuable as Windows problems advice.
What are you on about? ProtonDB is full of such advice
Like I said, similar quality to googling for Windows problems. Reports on WineHQ are sorted by Wine version, OS version, usually involve specific actions taken.
That’s exactly how protondb works. And you also get hardware and distro information.
You can search and filter reports by all of the aforementioned criteria for any game that’s listed.
OK, it just has utterly degenerate webpage design. I thought those were voluntary additions by users telling what they use, not common format. Inconvenient.
It’s okay, we don’t actually care that you were wrong about something.
Proton is just Wine under the hood. I even use winetricks with it ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Yes, I do that too, except different things work and don’t. And making tweaks for Proton in Steam seems more bother.
100% this. I’ve been on Linux for 27 years now (ffs I’m getting old), and until proton, I just wrote off gaming as a hit or miss experience, usually not worth the trouble. Now I’ll buy Windows only games without even checking compatibility in most cases. Unless it’s a full price AAA game, I’ll risk the off chance that it doesn’t work.
Clair Obscur worked out of the box and it took a while for me to realize that I didn’t even check before buying.
Honestly, 5 years ago Proton was already in pretty good shape. 2018 is when I switched to Linux, and already had very little trouble gaming.
Yes but nobody knew about it. SteamOs brought that to the surface.
Gaming on Mac was also more or less the same when it came to running windows games, had to use wine
And I’m sorry y’all I know wine is awesome but using it manually is a pain in the ass and I hated it and I consider myself more of an enthusiast
Crossover isn’t cheap, but it can save so much time compared to WINE that I think it does pay for itself.
I haven’t used Mac in years, I wonder if Wine is now a much better experience as well compared to what it used to be.
It is. But in some cases there’ll be a game or something that has requirements that are hard to wrestle with. For me it was a video game that needed specific libraries to run (possibly directX or whatever is current these days). After hours of attempts I downloaded Crossover and it worked instantly.
Desktop applications like the Office suites typically ran well for me in WINE. although my experience with those is dated by now.
I’m speaking from a macOS perspective but I’ve used WINE on Linux too.
I think it’s less Proton, more Vulkan/DXVK. Proton is just wrapping these amazing things. Before DXVK, games in Linux used to suck big time.
If we can get close to that kind of support for productivity software, I think Linux usage would explode. One of the problems with business adoption is that specialized software almost always skips Linux. The Affinity suite, for example. I’m hoping we see some snowballing now that Linux is growing so quickly, but getting Wine/Proton working with more non-game software would also be an enormous win.
now is a good time to switch. Im so glad im off windows and their bullshit. a lot of games just work, including many online games, which is super cool. often there’s no difference between launching a game on Linux vs windows.
Absolutely. Linux in general has become very approachable. I recently came back to Linux after 15 years away and I have been very impressed with how well everything just works. I’ve only experienced very minor issues with peripherals that were solved with a simple Google search or update.
inb4 Linux users sweepingly get declared as criminals for some flimsy reason. There was some news of Facebook filtering out Linux content because it seemed harmful to them.
You wouldn’t download an operating system, would you?
All my operating systems are hand written in assembly
Temple OS?
“They glow in the dark, but you can hit them with your car”
Pretty funny that the slang term “glowies” for feds was started by Terry Davis.
rip terry <3
Of course not! I will only get organic / grass fed computers with a OS preinstalled by the vendor. They only do this to protect the users and not for the fuckton of money MS shoves into their throats.
Reminds me of the thing in Spain where the cops just immediately suspect anyone of drug trafficking for using pixel devices because thats what grapheneos runs on.
I’m less worried about any specific targeting of Linux than I am about some random tech bro whispering in Trump’s ear and suddenly he bans Open Source or something similarly unenforceable and insane.
Banning open source would basically destroy the entire Internet in the United States. No tech bro is going to want that.
Business tech Bros would absolutely love to force all open source closed, all long as it’s now their property.
The software tech bro thing started with a letter from Bill Gates to the hobbyists that despite learning to program on freely available software, and copying a freely available language with his new version of Basic, everyone needs to stop sharing and pay to use software. They all have wet dreams of pulling out the ladder and owning everything. I wouldn’t put it past them to try to nullify copyleft or something like that.
I know that and you know that, but have you seen the sort of thing Trump and those who have his ear think is a good idea?
I don’t think they’d just ban using all open source software, it’d be something ridiculous like asserting that all FOSS licenses are null and void and those projects are now the intellectual property of the US. Likely propped up by the classic “security” justification.
Gulf of Open Source
With the current political climate, my bf worries about exactly this. (Linux users being viewed as criminals, I mean.)
The irony of Facebook running entirely on Linux is not lost on me.
My understanding of that was Facebook just gave up on human moderation and let an AI do whatever it wanted. Still unacceptable but totally foreseeable.
Thank you Pewdiepie!!
He single-handedly changed a lot of people’s impression of Linux with a single video, and he did it gently enough to not intimidate and scare them away like many others did. I respect that.
Is he really the reason? I just started trying a bunch over the past month through vm’s to see which one I like the best because I want to take the leap soon. I am doing it mostly due to the video game performance and compatibility reaching high enough levels that I don’t think it will be a big issue anymore. I also listed out all my current Windows apps and looked up what the alternative is, and from what I see, there is nothing left that won’t run on Linux anymore. The next step is seeing how some compare to what I am used to.
I can’t be the only one who is noticing its current state and just wanting to try something different. I don’t hate windows like everyone talks about it online, but I am at the point where I am noticing they are only going to get worse with privacy and continue to make awful built in features that do more to benefit themselves over you. So the 2 lines have crossed paths, and I think it’s the perfect storm for Linux soon.
He has a large audience and used his position to publicise it.
There have been countless volunteers and enthusiasts who have worked hard to make Linux worth publicising.
Keep in mind quite a lot of online games have recently banned linux players, in case there’s an important game for you like that.
Nah, I am more of a single-player kind of person. I was barely any good in my prime 25 years ago and I have only gotten worse since so I stick to mostly RPGs or other action style games.
I think you should be good for the most part then! I know pcvr works with linux now too but it depends what distribution you use for how difficult it is to setup.
I’m out of the loop. What did he do?
Recommended Linux.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVI_smLgTY0&t=7s
He made a video encouraging people to try Linux.
be a racist piece of shit with the emotional maturity of a 12 year old with fetal alcohol syndrome?
Oh wait, sorry, thats just what he is normally.
He stopped being edgy more than five years ago after backlash from his own community. No racist joke, no rage baiting, no channel wars.
His content this days is just wholesome family interaction, art journey, or tech experimentation.
I appreciate your earnest answer. I hope that it’s organic and legitimate growth on his part. My fear is that he simply decided not to pursue right wing stupidity openly. I seriously want to be wrong about that, but not everyone leans into the right wing lunatic grift economy and all that.
Nice try mr. dipwepie
What’s up with your username homie?
Damn tasty username right there
too delicious for you?
Huh, TIL
I’m really glad that’s what it turned out to be.
