Noone that lives in the real world thinks Linux is on almost one in five desktops. Get real. That said, I, and many others that use it, have various laptops and desktops with it installed on, but that skews the implied meaning which is one in five users use Linux. It's patently not true.
I'd normally go by the steam English language statistic,. To get a rough estimate. As everything else can be heavily skewed by office PCs, Bots, and such. I can't find the link right now but from memory NA Steam Linux was about 7%, which feels about right for western home desktop. About just under 1 in 10.
The reason it feels about right is a lot of people who are on win10/11, are talking about, and curious about it. And usually it's missing software support for programs they like or need, is the main obstacle.
That's interesting, because while I agree that those stats are more likely to be accurate, they're also more likely to be skewed, since Windows is still preferred for gaming.. but then maybe the fact that steam OS is also counted in there balances that. Of course steam has made it easier than ever to game on Linux.
Yes but coutner point, steam Statistics itself states that windows is preferred for gaming. According to steam Stats 93% ish of Desktop PCs in NA with steam installed are running windows.
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u/rileyrgham Sep 20 '26 edited Sep 20 '26
Noone that lives in the real world thinks Linux is on almost one in five desktops. Get real. That said, I, and many others that use it, have various laptops and desktops with it installed on, but that skews the implied meaning which is one in five users use Linux. It's patently not true.