• SavvyWolf@pawb.social
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    1 year ago

    You know, I do wonder how many of these statistics are influenced by Linux users tendancy to use adblockers and block tracking. Linux could be more popular than it looks.

    Also, they should tell us how much of that increase is due to the Steam Deck. :P

  • ramble81@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I hate when people say “oh we had 100% growth!” Ignoring the fact they went from 4 to 8 clients. Meanwhile the one that only shows 0.5% growth considers 8 people a rounding error.

    There’s liars, damn liars and statisticians.

    • vortic@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Okay, so here’s some more easily interpreted numbers. In addition to having the largest change in traffic share relative to its previous share, Linux actually had the largest change in actual traffic share. It was just BARELY above Mac OS. If more significant digits were allowed here, Linux rose 0.0085 while Mac OS rose 0.0082.

      OS 2023 Share 2022 Share Share Change
      Windows 0.632 0.647 -0.015
      Mac OS 0.292 0.284 0.008
      Linux 0.036 0.027 0.009
      Chrome Book 0.029 0.026 0.003
      Other 0.011 Unknown* 0.005*

      2022 percentages computed as:

      share_2022 = share_2023 / ( 1 + relative_percent_change )
      

      and percent change computed as:

      absolute_percent_change = share_2023 - share_2022
      

      * The relative percent change for “other” is not reported in the graphic. There is a remainder of 0.005 in the Share Change which is, presumably, attributable to change in the “other” category.

      Last year’s results

      I just found last year’s results. It looks like my math bears out, though it appears that they rounded differently.

      Notably, last year’s changes were very different.

      OS 2022 Share 2021 Share Share Change
      Windows 0.647 0.646 0.001
      Mac OS 0.284 0.273 0.011
      Linux 0.028 0.028 0.000**
      Chrome Book 0.025 0.025 0.000**
      Other 0.011 Unknown*** 0.015***

      ** Linux and Chrome Book’s absolute change was less than 0.0005.

      *** As with 2023, the percentage change for “other” is not reported in the graphic. There is a remainder of 0.012 in the Share Change which is, presumably, attributable to change in the “other” category. This seems large, though, given that the total traffic share for “other” is only 0.016. That would imply a change from 0.001 to 0.012. Looking at the 2021 numbers this doesn’t appear to be correct.

    • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      I hate when people respond to a post with a little anecdote that is completely irrelevant to the original post.

      • ramble81@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I’ll feed the troll… it’s very relevant with the bottom part of the graphic. It’s touting that it’s got the biggest increase of traffic change at ~32%, however overall it still only has a 3.2% share. That ties in exactly what what I’m stating and the xkcd that was posted too. There was nothing anecdotal or that was irrelevant in my post.

        • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          Ignoring the fact they went from 4 to 8 clients.

          You think the 3.2% is on the order of single digits of machines? You think 3.2% market share is 8 people?

          Obviously you don’t. It’s 10s of thousands of machines and you exaggerated the actual situation so far it no longer made any sense.

  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Is it that Linux is getting popular, or that most people don’t buy new computers anymore now that their phone does everything they used it for, so it’s only the enthusiasts still buying?

    • themoken@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      That’s an interesting thought. I’ve wondered this about Chrome’s market share in browsers too. How much of it is just that so much traffic is now from phones where, even if you have another browser installed, apps open links in embedded Chrome web views.

  • Camelbeard@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Do we really want to be bigger anyway? I kind of like where Linux as a desktop isn’t really big enough for all the scammers and malware makers to care.

    (And I know it’s huge for servers and malware also targets that, but they are usually maintained by professionals, not your parents that would probably run every shell script they are offered as help)

    If Linux would become the biggest desktop os you are going to find so much more bad advice whenever searching for help online. I wonder if the nice people we have now are really ready for when the terrible people invade the community.

    • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Do we really want to be bigger anyway?

      YES. It needs more market share to influence companies financially to make products for it.

      It’s truly starting to make inroads recently, but it still has a ways to go.

      I kind of like where Linux as a desktop isn’t really big enough for all the scammers and malware makers to care.

      It’s also not big enough for gaming companies to truly care, unfortunately.

      • Darorad@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        Thankfully valve does, linux gaming’s gotten to a really great state in the last few years.

    • Murdoc@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Perhaps a little lesd nice for those of us already using linux, but definitely better for the majority of people for getting less scammed by big corps. But one plus for us would be better support for apps and games that are still mostly or exclusively on other OSes.

    • Howdy@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      So many distros, getting bigger overall with maybe one popular linux distro doesnt have the issue when there are so alternatives.

    • cannache@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      Yeah kind of partially agree but not entirely sure what to say man. I’ve had my windows machine and my Linux box hacked in the past, didn’t do much besides ruin my ability to do my homework and general productivity, so I can’t say much.

      I would prefer there to be more actual meaningful stuff out there for there to be hacked and or made different but a lot of the time almost all complex systems compound into or towards static failure, just look at the USA with being a military hegemony like Sparta or China slowly running out of people to sell junk to, the big oil companies slowly trying to micromanage the shift to renewables, people that believe in conformity, confucianism and “the myth of stability” ironically usually slow down all of societies progress rather than supporting an actual stable diffusion of change

  • SanndyTheManndy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Unless the number of GNU/Linux maintainers also matches the growing userbase, we’re heading towards a world of pain.

    Devs overrun by unhelpful bug reports, scammers and malware abound, forums stretched beyond capacity by the exact same queries.

    If PC Linux can be monetized, it will be.