We’ve all had to adapt to different ways of working of late, and according to stat trackers NetMarketShare that includes making more use of Linux!
The firm report that usage of Linux is up to 2.87% of all desktop operating systems tracked in April 2020, a figure north of the 1.36% it counted for March of this year.
And driving the spike?
Ubuntu.
Ubuntu usage up by nearly 7x
Breaking down NetMarketShare’s figures in to Linux versions reveals that Ubuntu usage alone leapt from 0.27% of all desktop OSes tracked in March to 1.89% in April.
That’s an almost 7x increase for one distro in one month.
Naturally plenty of (very sensible) reasons have been put forward to explain the influx of Linux users, with the “people not being at work which forces them to use Windows software” excuse sounding the most plausible.
Of course, as seen a few years back, it possible that this spike is simply an error. Heck trying to discern a precise figure on the number of desktop computers out there running some flavour of Linux is …Well, how long is a piece of string?
We have a hunch that Linux is more popular than is widely assumed, something these stats bear out
Different stat tracking companies use different methods of tracking. Some track Android as part of Linux; some combine ChromeOS with Linux; some track individual distros (where possible).
So while Tux advocates can (and should) take some heart from this figure it, like all stats of this nature, is somewhat open to interpretation.
But as we know from companies like Wikimedia, who used to track and publish OS stats on Wikipedia traffic, Linux-based desktop operating systems are more popular among the general public than is generally stated.
By what degree? Well, that will depend on who you ask.
But if enterprise and business use cases do dilute Linux’s share normally, and adoption of free systems on personal and home devices is more common than assumed, well …I wouldn’t be too surprised by that — and neither should you.
After all, we’re running it huh? 😉
h/t Tom