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I've been daily driving Linux for over a
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decade now. And like many of you, I've
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been looking forward to the day when
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desktop Linux rises from obscurity and I
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feel like there's been a significant
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rise in Linux usage as of late. Not just
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amongst organizations in the EU, which
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obviously have an incentive to remove
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their dependence on closed source
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software that's made by US-based private
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companies, but there's also been a rise
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in Linux usage amongst everyday
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consumers. However, I don't think that
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this is the year of the Linux desktop
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that we've really been looking forward
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to. So, this is the recent survey from
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Stack Counter for desktop operating
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system usage in the United States, and
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Linux usage is at an all-time high of
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5.03%,
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almost 40% more than last year's survey.
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Here's the same stat from Canada,
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showing a jump from 1.9% to almost 2.9%,
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another 50% jump. And Japan also had a
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noticeable jump in Linux use from 1.17
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to 1.89%.
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Now, like I said, I believe that one of
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the main causes of this are
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organizations transitioning to a Linux-
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based workflow, especially in Europe.
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Many of the government departments over
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there are specifically switching for the
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purpose of digital sovereignty, which
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I'll discuss more in a bit. But the end
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of Windows 10 support is probably the
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real spearhead of this transition in
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corporate and government sectors.
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Anytime an organization is handling data
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and digital infrastructure, there's
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liability and even national security
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issues if they were to use outdated
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operating systems or an operating system
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in an unauthorized way. Windows 11
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requires your system to support TPM 2.0,
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which is only officially supported on
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eighth gen and newer Intel CPUs and
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second gen or newer Ryzen CPUs from AMD.
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These chips came out in 2017 and 2018,
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respectively, and are still more than
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capable of handling an office workload
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and even some light gaming. I mean,
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definitely no new AAA titles unless you
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want to play them as a slideshow. But
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the integrated graphics of the i5 and i7
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or upper mid-range Ryzen are probably
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comparable to mid-range Nvidia cards
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that came out 2 or 3 years prior to
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these chips. Just because these chips
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are a few years old doesn't mean they
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have poor performance. You probably
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wouldn't even notice a difference in
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most corporate workloads between i7
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processors from even 10 years ago and
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today. But obviously Microsoft doesn't
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want to let you continue using this
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older but still more than capable
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hardware. I mean these are multi-core
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hyperthreaded processors that support up
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to 64 GB of DDR4 RAM. Comment below if
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your PC has less RAM than that.
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Computers from 8 plus years ago are
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fully capable of running modern
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operating systems except for that TPM
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2.0 requirement. That's really the only
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thing that stops any PC that's currently
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running Windows 10 from upgrading to
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Windows 11. And it's still technically
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possible to install Windows 11 on
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unsupported hardware and more or less
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run it fine. There's just not going to
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be any warranty for that setup, which
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doesn't matter if you're a home user.
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But seeing as TPM is a security module,
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using an outdated one is going to make
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insurers nervous and it's going to make
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the premiums for the insuranceances that
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these organizations have to buy to go
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up. Even though using TPM 2.0 instead of
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TPM 1.2 wouldn't realistically make any
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difference in the data breaches that we
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actually hear about. Now, because Stack
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Counter calculates this market share by
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tracking page views across millions of
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different websites, we should look at
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statistics that are more isolated to
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consumer devices to get a better idea of
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what's going on in that market. So, this
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is the Steam hardware and software
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survey for June of 2025. A good source
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in my opinion because people probably
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aren't playing games on companyissued
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computers. And according to these stats,
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2.57%
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of people are playing games on some kind
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of Linux distro. They break it down into
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some individual dros, at least for those
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that uh have a big enough market share.
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And of course, the biggest distro in
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this list is Arch, by the way. Steam
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actually had a record high of 2.69%
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Linux users back in May. Uh, so this is
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about a 25% increase over last year's
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metrics. And I think a big contributor
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to this jump in Linux users, especially
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for Arch Linux, if I'm not mistaken, are
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handheld gaming consoles like the Steam
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Deck, which I believe runs Arch Linux or
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either a modified version of Arch Linux,
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uh, or Lenovo's Legion Go, which I have
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no idea what that runs, or all the other
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kinds of derivatives. I mean, there's
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many different kinds of handheld Linux
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gaming consoles at this point. Um, and
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because they have Linux pre-installed on
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them, and the reason for that is it
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turns out you get better performance and
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better battery life in a lot of games
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compared to running them on the same
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exact hardware, but with Windows 11
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installed. And the manufacturers of
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these handhelds probably also save about
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$20 or so per device by not having to
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purchase Windows licenses from
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Microsoft. So, it's a win-win for
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everyone. Now, quick warning about the
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source of this next statistic. It is
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from an adult website, but given the
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nature of it, I think it could be a good
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source for more consumer hardware stats.
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Pornhub released their yearendin review
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about what and how people are gooning
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to, and Linux use is apparently up by
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41%.
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So, there's a lot of penguins out there
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with some very sticky flippers. Now, if
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I had to make an educated guess about
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these devices, about the reason why
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there's a 41% increase in Linux users, I
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would probably look at smart TVs. I
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didn't see any specific stats about
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them, but I know that they're usually
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fingerprinted as either Linux devices or
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Android devices by the various websites
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you can go to on them and either Mac OS
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or iOS for Apple TV. both of which saw a
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decline over the last year if we look at
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these stats. So just like the handheld
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console manufacturers, a lot of TV
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manufacturers are choosing to use Linux
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or Android for both better performance
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and lower cost of production due to not
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needing to purchase software licensing
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from Apple, which I don't even think
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they offer to anyone as an option to be
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built into a television. Now, obviously,
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we would need some more information
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about the user agents that Pornhub is
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collecting here to try and filter out
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actual desktops and mobile devices from
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smart TVs. And Steam Decks might also be
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contributing to this stat because I'm
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pretty sure the target audience, the
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target consumers of those kinds of
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devices are young males. And if there's
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no parental supervision, then a lot of
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them are probably going to end up on
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sites like this and contributing to the
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statistics. Um, now the unfortunate
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conclusion that I'm drawing from these
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stats besides questioning the
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cleanliness of any used Steam Deck is
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that despite more and more people
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actually using Linux, most of them still
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don't understand the importance of free
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software. They still don't understand
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the foundation behind it. Some of the
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government organizations in Europe do
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kind of get it. I mean, they've
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mentioned digital sovereignty as the
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reason for the switch, which is really
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what consumers need to want as well in
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order for Linux as we know it to thrive
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in the tyranny of big tech to end. The
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whole point of this free software
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evangelism I do is to make people wake
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up to the fact that you can use
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technology in the ways that you want to
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without having arbitrary limitations
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placed on you by corporations. I don't
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necessarily care that much on a personal
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level if people use Linux, Libre Office,
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Libre Wolf ad blockers, if they have
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self-hosted media libraries or use any
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of the software that I promote on this
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channel. The reason that I talk about
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these products is because they give us
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more freedom as consumers than the
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mainstream options. And honestly, the
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freedom issue goes a lot further than
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computers. Most people don't actually
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own any media anymore. They consume
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everything from Spotify, YouTube,
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Netflix, or some other online service
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that they pay a monthly subscription to,
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which in the long run probably exceeds
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the cost of buying the CDs or Blu-rays
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for whatever media they're consuming, or
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at least the good stuff that they're
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going to watch or listen to more than
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once, and then one day you find out that
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your favorite show is no longer on
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Netflix, your favorite song is no longer
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in Spotify, or your favorite game that
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you actually purchased and downloaded.
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onto your computer from Steam or Sony's
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PlayStation Store is no longer available
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in your library. Even car manufacturers
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are putting basic features like heated
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seats behind a subscriptionbased payw
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wall despite the hardware being right
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there in your car. It's already built
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in, but the button to turn it on doesn't
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work unless you pay a monthly fee. All
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of this tyranny is only made possible by
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locking down the software to prevent the
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end user from having any control over it
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and the consumers continuing to consume
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these kinds of products despite the
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abuse it brings upon them. And
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unfortunately, putting opensource
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projects into the hands of unconscious
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consumers isn't going to fix the problem
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because open- source projects can be
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infiltrated and subverted as well.
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Microsoft is particularly skilled at
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this kind of subversion and you best
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believe that they are fighting very hard
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against desktop Linux and Linux gaming
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consoles. So while the year of the Linux
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desktop may come as the result of market
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forces and performance benefits, the
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only way this golden era of computing
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will really stay around is if we
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understand and stick to the principles
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that brought it about in the first
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place.
