cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/38030158
Ethan Sholly, the driving force behind selfh.st, one of the most recognized communities uniting self-hosting enthusiasts, has published the latest results of his annual survey on the community’s preferences, collecting 4,081 responses from self-hosting practitioners worldwide.
No surprise there: Linux is overwhelmingly dominant, chosen by more than four out of five self-hosters (81%). In other words, for self-hosters operating at bare-metal, virtualised, or container-based infrastructure, Linux remains the backbone.
In fact, this result aligns closely with broader trends: according to Wikipedia, Linux holds a 63% share of global server infrastructure. Aside from the hobby aspect, most respondents said privacy was their main reason for self-hosting, which, as you know, remains one of Linux’s strongest selling points. Now, back to the numbers.
I’m actually surprised 19% of homelabbers chose windows, lol.
It seems Windows was a bit less than 15% and 61% of those were on Windows Desktop. So I guess those people just used some Windows PC and put it in a closet.
I too starred with Windows, then Virtualbox on Windows, then Unraid, and only while being on Unraid did I start to learn Docker and only then - Linux.
The question is kind of flawed, though. They list Linux, a kernel, in a list of OSes.
Either just list kernels, Linux, BSD, Windows NT, etc; or just list OSes, Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Trunas, Windows Server 2025, Windows XP, MacOS, etc.Mixing the two together just creates weird results. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
