Linux Surpasses 4 Percent Usage Share on the Desktop for the First Time

Is the year of the Linux desktop finally upon us? Linux desktop usage has grown dramatically in the past year, hitting 4.03 percent worldwide as of this month.

That’s according to Statcounter, anyway, which shows that Linux usage now stands at 4.03 percent, compared to 72.13 percent for Windows, 15.46 percent for macOS, and 2.26 percent for Chrome OS. Granted, Linux usage still trails that of “other,” which now accounts for 6.11 percent of usage.

But still. One year ago, Linux usage on the desktop was just 2.94 percent. And while it is much easier to grow when you’re small, Linux usage has been stalled in the very small single digits for literally forever. And so this sudden one-year growth of 137 percent is both interesting and notable. As Linuxiac points out, it took Linux over 30 years to exceed 3 percent usage share on the desktop, a milestone it achieved in June 2023.

While it’s not clear what’s responsible for this sudden surge in interest after so many decades of disinterest, we can safely assume that Linux desktop usage is limited mostly to developers, enthusiasts, and to some degree gamers, and not to mainstream business users or consumers. But with Microsoft increasingly enshittifying Windows, there’s a new incentive for more people to shop around, and thus an opportunity for macOS, Chrome OS, and, yes, Linux.