Linux Breaks 5% Desktop Share in U.S., Signaling Open-Source Surge Against Windows and macOS

a year ago by cm0002 to c/linux

Linux has surpassed 5% desktop market share in the US (5.03% in June 2025), per StatCounter, driven by privacy concerns, rising costs of Windows/macOS, and user-friendly distros like Ubuntu. Community celebrates amid gaming and enterprise boosts, though challenges like software gaps persist; analysts eye 7% by 2027.

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harbard 32 points a year ago

I’m just bitching, but I had to put windows on one of my machines for the first time in just over 10 years (since I was a kid) and I absolutely fucking hate it. slow ass, bloated, clunky ass OS. garbage software.

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PleaseLetMeOut 10 points a year ago

Just a tip: If you installed Pro or better you can use Group Policies (gpedit.msc) to strip the OS bloat down slightly more than the Home versions. Education and Enterprise also have the telemetry spyware completely removed. But they have a few extra things you'll probably never use and you'll want to disable (like their terrible Remote Desktop stuff, Work Folders, etc.)

(I dual boot for gaming. So I know the pain.)

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dil 8 points a year ago

im sure most of yall know but it was new to me that you can use some terminal commands while installing to activate pro edition and ms office pro and other stuff fairly easily https://github.com/...

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harbard 3 points a year ago

as soon as I’m done taking the cysa+ exam I’m going back to arch. I can not stand this. but thank you for the info! I’ll dig around and see what more I can do to make it a bit more bearable.

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FizzyOrange 4 points a year ago

Use the IoT LTSC version and install it using Rufus. Zero bloat, very fast, no clunk.

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klangcola 1 point a year ago

Is IOT LTCS version legally available for consumers? Or only for businesses?

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Lemminary 2 points a year ago

Linux Mint runs so fast on my laptop that was struggling to boot Windows 11. Also, no driver issues yet! Whew.

E: I spoke too soon, the wifi turns off for reasons.

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