5 factors steadily fueling Linux's desktop rise

ZDNet ^ | May 13, 2025 | Steven Vaughan-Nichols

[ProgressingAmerica]

Numbers don't lie

Recently, however, I was looking for web search engine popularity numbers. The usual sites people use for these numbers, such as Statcounter, as Ed Bott recently pointed out, have real problems. So, I went to the most reliable source I know of, the US federal government's Digital Analytics Program (DAP).

This site gives a running count of US government website visits and an analysis. On average, there are 1.6 billion sessions in the last 30 days, with millions of users daily. In short, DAP gives a detailed view of what people use without massaging the data.

According to the source data, in 2025, Linux users made up 5.4% of visitors. That proportion is way above any other legitimate numbers I've ever seen.

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1. Windows isn't Microsoft's priority

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2. Linux gaming is viable now

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3. Linux is not hard to use

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4. Installing Linux desktop software is easy

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5. Linux is much safer than Windows

[dayglored]

> I have one machine with my original first ever Linux install that I still use now and then. Mint 18.3 I loaded about nine years ago now, I have updates turned off and have never updated it once since it was loaded. Runs as good as it did new... :)

I once had a car like that....

[dayglored]

> ...Danie_2023's point was the lack of "forcing" an update--especially on the vendor's timetable.

Yes, agreed.

[Openurmind]

“Root access is turned off by default. The OS itself is inherently safer.”

A very important difference for sure. And if you run as an isolated guest you are even safer yet.

[Danie_2023]

“”Yes. I think, though, that Danie_2023’s point was the lack of “forcing” an update—especially on the vendor’s timetable.””

Exactly. It’s a matter of choice... which the left (Microsoft/Gates) is not in favor of giving folks. I liken it to the Cass Sunstein “nudge” factor on steroids. And I’m still ticked off at the Win 10 forced update that caused my Calibre app to stop working.

[Bob434]

Factor #1 and most important, powerdrunk ms going all nazi on their customers all in the name of “safety for the customer”

[Bob434]

Yup- dreading that happening

[Jamestown1630]

I think he’s alluding to eluding perception of deception...

[dayglored]

> “Root access is turned off by default. The OS itself is inherently safer.”

You'll be interested to know that Windows 11 is bringing that feature in the next/latest release.

Users, including the initial/setup user, will be non-administrative by default. Of course they can run administrative commands if need be, but like "sudo" in Linux, it requires authentication.

Incidentally, Windows 11 is also introducing a version of "sudo", although of course its operation is radically different from Linux sudo. But the same general idea, just adapted to the Windows paradigm.

[Openurmind]

“I once had a car like that....”

I use it airgapped. And of course it is now end of life for normal Mint updates. But it will probably keep going from now on. But following the history if I put it back online the only thing I would really need to be worried about would be the “CUPS” vulnerability that I can uninstall and reinstall to be back up to speed. There really wasn’t much critical other than that one. Almost all the rest as you know required physical access and credentials to introduce or they were server issues.

[ShadowAce]

Root access is turned off by default. The OS itself is inherently safer.

I have set up our newest Red Hat environment such that I can give you the root password and physical access, and you still could not get root access. I can even give you sudo access, and you'd only be limited to those commands I would give you access to.

I, though, would still have full root access.

[dayglored]

> I use it airgapped.

I assumed so. :-)

[Openurmind]

“I think he’s alluding to eluding perception of deception...”

Oh you mean like being intelligent enough to make your machine anonymous because you can with Linux?

YOU BET. Why would anyone even think about offering personal info if you don’t have to! :)

I even set my time zone off from my real zone...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I have used Linux in the past, and have it on the laptop I have connected to our TV.

Just started playing with it on a Windows 11 Hyper-V virtual machine. That way I can have both worlds without dual-booting.

I learned that there are two types of virtual machines, #1 and #2. #1 runs directly on the hardware, #2 runs a software emulator, which is much slower.

Hyper-V is type #1, and Linux runs just as fast there as when I dual-boot.

Hyper-V comes with three Ubuntu virtual machines; 20, 21 and 22, and they just work. Haven’t figured out how to get Linux Mint working yet. Mint is my preference.

Now that I have Ubuntu in a VM I can play with it more.

[Jamestown1630]

I think it’s more complicated, and is often used to misdirect for fraudulent purposes:

https://cheq.ai/blog/user-agent-spoofing/

[Openurmind]

“Haven’t figured out how to get Linux Mint working yet. Mint is my preference.”

Well that is odd. Because as you know under the hood it is Ubuntu. Mint must have changed a configuration that goofs this up for you.

[Openurmind]

If someone is going to be evil they can do it with ANY OS. This has nothing to do with Linux or Linux users. In fact since the majority of systems are MS then the most number of evil actors come from MS.

[Openurmind]

I’m not going to mention it here but I think I know how you are doing that.

[ProgressingAmerica]

"If more users move to Linux, the hackers will follow."

In the Linux world the hackers are often times the developers working to protect the system.

(thought I would add another thought angle to this concept. It's accurate though.)

[Jamestown1630]

Of course.

I use Linux myself, for its relative safety (in addition to despising MS.)

I was just saying that user agent spoofing appears to be different from the usual safeguards of personal privacy that we use, and allows different types of deception and fraud.

[Paal Gulli]

...As of March 2025, Android, which uses the Linux kernel, is the world's most popular operating system with 46% of the global market, followed by Windows with 25%, iOS with 18%, macOS with 6%, and other operating systems with 5% .[1] This is for all device types excluding embedded devices....

70+ percent of all OSes sold are descendants of UNIX, including iOS, macOS, Android and Linux. Yet the Micro$oft pimps would have you believe Linux is a "niche" operating system.

M$ Windows has always been and will only ever be a product created to generate revenue for the company.

Linus Torvalds created Linux to bring to the world an open-source UNIX clone that could be distributed at no charge and modified in any way the end user sees fit.

Anything with "Smart" in the name -- watches, TVs, vacuum cleaners, thermostats, smoke alarms -- plus your GPS, your coffee maker, your microwave oven, your alarm clock, the LED read-outs in the dash of your car, the "glass cockpit" in airplanes, traffic lights, the cash register at Piggly Wiggly, the user interface on the gas pumps, networking routers & switches, 90% of "the Cloud" and 96% of the top one million web servers ... plus pretty much everything you own or use with a digital interface is running an operating system or firmware that owes its existence to Linus Torvalds' creation.