It's been moving fast. It barely moved like a decade ago
I'm surprised Bazzite isn't higher on the list, here, it really seems like the OS I hear about whenever Linux gaming comes up.
I switched to Bazzite based on a recommendation and it's been a fantastic OS for me (gaming and light development/home labbing) and I no longer have any desire to distro hop.
Took a bit to figure out the immutable stuff for some very niche things I needed done, but other than that ezpz
Without having tried it, I think Bazzite fits a certain user group very well, but is less suited for other users. Which is fine.
I don't really see how it's particularly good for homelabbing, but use whatever works for you.
I think it was more of a fad for a short while, but there are a lot of other much more entrenched and mainstream distros
Also Mint gets a ton of traction here too.
Bazzite has been one in a LONG line of Trendy Distros Of The Month. People have been trying to make CachyOS happen, Zorin has made a couple appearances, ElementaryOS and Pop!_OS traded blows for awhile, Nobara was in there, a long while ago there was Peppermint, I'm forgetting a lot of them.
Feels like youre really diminishing Bazzite's popularity here. Ive seen it regularly talked about here and in a lot of YouTube videos for around a year now. Its also currently used by 5.5% of the Steam Linux player base (you can see by filtering the results by Linux only), making it one of the most popular distros for gaming right now. Also, CachyOS is just ahead of it at 6.74%. Definitely not flavor of the month numbers imo
I'm on Bazzite because I use my PC at the TV with a controller these days. It's simple to use for that. That's pretty much it.
This graphic is just a bit misleading, and the more detailed results show the opposite story. Bazzite is as 5.53% of Linux users, up 1.29% from last month and one of the most used single distros, behind SteamOS, Arch, Mint, and CachyOS.
That list is just weird and only shows a few specific distros. If you go to the Linux only results you get way more info. It shows Bazzite as used by 5.53% of respondents, +1.29% from last month.
Love to see it
3.2% is like 5 million active users if Steam overall has 156 million active users, but they're likely higher than that
It's time to make Microsoft hurt. Let's go!
Thanks for the users, Microsoft!
Gaben embracing Arch has been great for Arch in general. I can't even remember the last time my Arch install crashed.
Now that you've mentioned... Knocks on wood
Someone needs to show this to the higher ups of Ubisoft
awesome!
I'm curious as to how much profit is lost by M$ or Apple for each basis point of the market that switches to Linux.
These are private computers for gaming with Steam installed. This will literally be less than pocket change to them. They likely lose more from pirated Windows and secondhand purchasers of Apple products.
The amount of money tech giants lose will not be affected for a long time. The main achievement for Linux right now would be to get a foothold, to make it known to the public, to normalise its use. The big change will come when organisations start moving to Linux (which you would think would be a priority considering the fact that it is free and more secure).
which you would think would be a priority considering the fact that it is free and more secure
And regularly used across their back end already.
Probably needs more corporate spyware which Linux users aren't likely to tolerate.
Till that number starts hitting like 15% because these are just private users. These big companies aren't even going to be able to notice the shift.
November 2025
Other gang assemble!
My niche distribution is cooler than your niche distribution.
Was thinking of trying Cachy cause of Lemmy talking about it, glad you see it higher than what I previously used (Manjaro).
Cachyos has slowly become my go to. It's basically just arch but with a good basic install along with a kernel and distro specific packages that are more optimised.
Microsoft turning Windows into Internet Explorer
Love to see it!
This site won't update till tomorrow, but Steam's English Linux numbers are >2x the overall numbers (China apparently hates Linux). Going to be something like 7% for English-speaking Linux use. :)
Edit: 7.09% :)
I find it weird that China hates Linux
Harder to centralize control over the user. That's the big reason, I'd imagine.
All the penguins were nabbed.
3% is insane.
I am not a "year of linux" huffer. The majority of the population doesn't even know what a filesystem is, much less (for example) how to get to the BIOS setting they need to even install linux.
But 3% is absolutely a threshold for "viral social spread" amongst those that can.
I think it really depends on your definition of what counts as year of Linux. Will Linux usage ever beat Windows or Mac? Of course not. But it can definitely get popular enough that companies have to think really hard about whether they need to support Linux or not. And meanwhile, Linux isn't going to get popular overnight (or in a year, for that matter). So do you consider the year of the Linux to be the end of growth? Middle of growth? Or beginning of growth?
For me, I think year of the Linux desktop already passed in 2021, with the launch of the steam deck (where I'm defining year of Linux to be the point where Linux usage picks up and will hopefully end at a point where companies have to take Linux seriously)
I consider the "year of linux" when OEMs ship it in laptops and desktops, in volume.
In other words, it's when I see several linux laptops in Best Buy.
Sadly, we might 'miss' that window. It seems like regular folks are moving to tablets, phones, and Android PCs for home use. Business will be stuck on Windows forever. So it appears the future we're barreling to is iOS/Android for the masses, laptops (mostly) as pure workplace machines, and then the PC gaming sector essentially depreciating Windows and migrating to (in delicious irony) Windows APIs on linux.
It's like damn look how good the general Linux desktop got with barely any general consumer adoption for about 30 years. Imagine what it could get around ~10%. 20 years ago Mac's were only around 5%. I love gaming on Linux but my main thought is how this is the trojan horse that brings users and some funding and developer attention to open source applications. Kdenlive needs love. Ardour needs love. Darktable. Get them all the Blender treatment someday

Linux use on steam has also passed mac use. The three most popular mac versions are still used by more than the 3 most popular linux versions, but the total for macs is under 3%.
And for me personally, I didn't even have to give anything of value up to make the switch. I kept my old windows machine in a running condition as a backup, but I think I'm about ready to start retiring that machine entirely, at least as a windows machine.
Linux mint 21: loses a little
Linux mint 22: wins a little
my brother in christ. they just updated their pc

mint at 0.30%
Man I wonder when Valve manages to ship a 64-Bit Steam Client.
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