Posted on 12/16/2025 8:34:13 AM PST by fireman15
By my count, Linux has over 11% of the desktop market. Here's how I got that number - and why people are making the leap.
The Linux desktop has continued its slow growth. Linux has been making gains in no small part because of Microsoft Windows' blunders. Users and governments have been losing trust in Windows and Microsoft.
My colleague Jack Wallen and I have been telling you for a while now that you should switch from Windows to the Linux desktop. Sounds like some of you have been listening.
The proof of the pudding comes from various sources. First, with Windows 10 nearing the end of its supported life, we told you to consider switching from Windows to Linux Mint or another Windows-like Linux distribution. What do we find now?
Zorin OS, an excellent Linux desktop, reports that its latest release, "Zorin OS 18 has amassed 1 million downloads in just over a month since its release." What makes it especially interesting is that over "78% of these downloads came from Windows" users.
Now, that's got my attention... 780,000 Windows users don't download a 3.5 Gigabyte Linux desktop distribution if they're not giving it serious consideration. Linux desktop fans download different distros all the time. For them, it's a hobby.
For Windows users? You have to think they are considering making the Linux switch.
(Excerpt) Read more at zdnet.com ...
My main PC is Mint, and my laptop, I use Fedora KDE for my server.
I remember my last Dos (6.22) and every other week, I would install Windows 3.0 (and later 3.11).. would play with it for a week, then uninstall and reinstall DOS back again (HATED windows).
I always went back to DOS.
Eventually, was forced into Win95 (and up).
Finally started messing with GNU/Linux (RedHat) around 2000 (it wasn’t so friendly back then).
I guess by 2008, I was pretty solid with Linux, but Mint lost my respect when they dropped KDE.
Yes, I used OpenMediaVault to replace my NAS about a year ago and love it. I have an inexpensive AMD Ryzen based mini-PC running OpenMediaVault from a USB stick, hooked to a RAID enclosure with two 22TB 3.5” hard drives enclosed. The mini-PC is actually overkill.
SteamDeck is why. The other distros still aren’t consumer friendly.
Microsoft Recall on Copilot+ PC: testing the security and privacy implications:
They silently opted everyone in and took screen shots every couple seconds to feed to its AI, all tied to your Microsoft login account, unless you did the bizarre workaround to keep a private, local account, which ties it to your computer and not technically “you.”
Of course, logging into any Microsoft site now tied it to you being on that computer, which again means “you,” even if you still had forced a local Windows login account (like old Windows 7).
Enjoy.
“demanding every keystroke and mouse move be recorded by it and forever tied to you”
“do you have a source for that?”
it’s more or less true, esp. for Windows 11, if one delves deeply into the guts of W10 & W11, which is necessary to kill the many methods these OS use to phone home ...
in some cases, it’s necessary to use special, somewhat esoteric 3rd party tools to elevate privilege to SYSTEM level (not just Administration) level to disable those phone home methods. ... it essentially takes a large amount of time and deep knowledge of W10 and W11 to do all of that, abilities for beyond the average consumer who have no idea of the width and breadth of the automatic pipe from their PC to redmond ...
That is the reason imho. The “OS” is, increasingly, the web browser. You can run MS Office applications in a browser (as web apps). New standards like Web Assembly and WebGPU make browsers even more capable.
99% of users just use the web for browsing, social media, streaming, and office apps - all of which don’t need Windows.
I did want to mention that I purchased a Beelink SER5 mini-PC a few months ago and I had to send it back because it had a capable processor hobbled because the firmware on it was meant to handle lesser processors as well. I thought that they would have an upgraded firmware available, but they did not. Their customer service was difficult to get information out of, and I was extremely dissatisfied with everything about the situation. I was shocked that a company with many highly rated products could be such a nightmare to try and work with. But I wish you well with your new device; it certainly looks very impressive.
Bkmk
However, I'm building a newer system that will have Linux Mint as it's main O/S, and I hope to be able to run W10 in a virtual environment. We'll see.
You were likely using some type of automated installation routine where you had to copy Windows from about a dozen floppies on to your hard drive. Windows 3.0 and 3.11 ran on top of DOS.
I still have a couple PCs I put together that didn't even have hard drives, just two floppy drives, one of them with a floppy with DOS and one with Word Perfect, Lotus 123 or whatever you were using. Nothing technically had to be “installed” at all. This system could be used with just one floppy but you had to keep swapping the disks in and out depending on what you were doing. But it was not a bad system and worked fine either way.
Although one of my work study jobs a long, long time ago was working as a computer lab assistant before Windows came out. The PCs were not even networked, so I had to reinstall the menu system and all of the software each quarter. So, I feel your pain.
But I had worked with graphics-based OS's previously and appreciated Windows when it came out. But it was a different way of doing things and not a major improvement over the menu systems that I helped setup which uses DOS. I was surprised at how quickly it caught on.
It’s amusing how threatened Microsoft boosters are when anyone discusses the very real problems with the OS.
I used it at work because, no choice, and have used it at home, because of my personal budget. Both laptops have been under $300 each (2013, 2025).
MS put together a hit with its Surface line of hardware, which was a smart integration move. The company’s at least put a toe in with ARM, which could work out very well.
Yeah, I think it was 11 3.5s
I would suggest looking into Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2021 LTSC. It is based on Windows 10 version 21H2 with all the crapware removed. The last version of Windows 10 was 22H2 which was not really an improvement. Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2021 LTSC will be getting security updates until 2035. I purchased my licenses for this through https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/buy-windows-10-iot-enterprise-ltsc-cd-key-microsoft-global. There are cheaper providers, but they are all slightly shady but gamers-outlet has worked well for me. If you do a search you can always find a 10% off code to use at check-out to save a couple of bucks. Make sure that you get the IOT version or the license will expire in a couple of years.
Oh man.. my first was a TRaSh 80, and I had to save whatever I was doing onto a cassette tape, and then load it from the cassette the next time (which could take up to an hour) lol.
And the modem was a 300baud cradle.. :P
I didn’t have a hard drive until my 3rd computer (which was a 285, with a MASSIVE 12 megabyte HD).
**286**
“My son set up a duel boot from my Windows 10 to Mint.”
I hope Mint wins the duel. 🤣
I am guessing that you scoured through the big pages of Computer Shopper Magazine as I did in the early days of PCs looking for bargains on PC parts and memory
.
Lol.. I LIVED off that thick magazine ;^)
I'm in the process of moving my big workstation to Linux Mint. If love that distro for many things, but especially for it's out-of-the-box "hot corners" feature, which makes switching between windows and between virtual desktops a snap.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.