Windows Drops Under 60% in Global Desktop OS Share for the First Time in Years

[planetearth]

It’s all little by little, of course, but I think we are rapidly approaching a tipping point. Lennox is now getting to be easy enough that non-technical users are able to start using it. And Linux has been as good as windows and macOS in the other ways (ie desktop GUI, usage, etc), so it makes it a very nice alternative. I remember when it was a nightmare to get Linux to work. I also remember when it was a nightmare to get Linux audio to work. Now both work nicely and quite easily. Each of these milestones brings more opportunities for adoption by non-technical users. This is probably why we are seeing a trend where Linux adoption is growing and windows adoption, and Mac adoption is dropping.

I hope these two posts about "Lennox" aren't a result of you trying to post something here from your Linux PC (or Android phone).

Steve

[audiojunkie]

It’s all little by little, of course, but I think we are rapidly approaching a tipping point. Lennox is now getting to be easy enough that non-technical users are able to start using it. And Linux has been as good as windows and macOS in the other ways (ie desktop GUI, usage, etc), so it makes it a very nice alternative. I remember when it was a nightmare to get Linux to work. I also remember when it was a nightmare to get Linux audio to work. Now both work nicely and quite easily. Each of these milestones brings more opportunities for adoption by non-technical users. This is probably why we are seeing a trend where Linux adoption is growing and windows adoption, and Mac adoption is dropping.

I hope these two posts about "Lennox" aren't a result of you trying to post something here from your Linux PC (or Android phone).

Steve

Haha!! I used my phone’s voice to text to transcribe my message, rather than typing it all out by hunting and pecking with my fingers on my phone. For some reason, even though I have never used the word “Lennox”, every time I say the word “Linux”, my phone thinks I’m talking about the Eurythmics. I went back through and cleaned up and changed what I thought was all of the mistakes. Apparently I missed a few.

[planetearth]

It’s all little by little, of course, but I think we are rapidly approaching a tipping point. Lennox is now getting to be easy enough that non-technical users are able to start using it. And Linux has been as good as windows and macOS in the other ways (ie desktop GUI, usage, etc), so it makes it a very nice alternative. I remember when it was a nightmare to get Linux to work. I also remember when it was a nightmare to get Linux audio to work. Now both work nicely and quite easily. Each of these milestones brings more opportunities for adoption by non-technical users. This is probably why we are seeing a trend where Linux adoption is growing and windows adoption, and Mac adoption is dropping.

I hope these two posts about "Lennox" aren't a result of you trying to post something here from your Linux PC (or Android phone).

Steve

Haha!! I used my phone’s voice to text to transcribe my message, rather than typing it all out by hunting and pecking with my fingers on my phone. For some reason, even though I have never used the word “Lennox”, every time I say the word “Linux”, my phone thinks I’m talking about the Eurythmics. I went back through and cleaned up and changed what I thought was all of the mistakes. Apparently I missed a few.

No worries. My phone seems to think I'm saying "ducking" a lot more than I actually am, so I know how you feel.

Steve

[stoopicus]

Through using your numbers only (which we know is just US numbers):

Android and iOS clearly aren't desktop operating systems, so removing those we get the following percentages:

Windows 67%
Mac 24%
Linux 7%
ChromeOS 2%

I'm not counting depreciated OSes or iOS or Android. I'm only counting current OSes:

Windows 11:
MacOS:
Linux + ChromeOS:
Everything else (Old Windows, OSX, iOS, Android, anything else: DOS, Atari, Amiga, etc):

I think you are taking away the wrong message due to OSX being in there. The actual issue is probably much more that the page reporting such a high relative percentage of OSX should not be trusted, not that we should ignore a large chunk of Mac users. Even users still on Intel macs have been running MacOS for years. The OSX number ismuch more likely a methodological error and not a significant chunk of the mac market.

[audiojunkie]

But to say that it is an obvious error is it admit that the numbers can’t be trusted in general—which is what I too am asserting. There is no reliable way to obtain actual percentages, other than to show generalized trends.

Also, I wasn’t aware that some Intel Macs run MacOS. As long as they are running on an officially currently supported OS (MacOS), then they shouldn’t be ruled out. Only systems using OSX should be ruled out.

[FigBug]

macOS 27 Golden Gate to be released September 2026 will be the first macOS to drop support for Intel macs. I'm seeing around 15% of mac users still on Intel. I'm not sure how much longer Xcode will compile for Intel. I'd like to support Intel for at least a few more years.

That said, in the end market share is kind of irrelevant, the only thing that matters is sales per platform. If a bunch of businesses and governments switch Windows -> Linux, that probably doesn't help us. Those people were never plugin customers. If it's home users switching, then that could help.

[audiojunkie]

macOS 27 Golden Gate to be released September 2026 will be the first macOS to drop support for Intel macs. I'm seeing around 15% of mac users still on Intel. I'm not sure how much longer Xcode will compile for Intel. I'd like to support Intel for at least a few more years.

That said, in the end market share is kind of irrelevant, the only thing that matters is sales per platform. If a bunch of businesses and governments switch Windows -> Linux, that probably doesn't help us. Those people were never plugin customers. If it's home users switching, then that could help.

Your numbers that you are seeing are coming from your Socalabs site, or another site?

[FigBug]

Your numbers that you are seeing are coming from your Socalabs site, or another site?

That was from reFX Nexus.

[audiojunkie]

Your numbers that you are seeing are coming from your Socalabs site, or another site?

That was from reFX Nexus.

Well, it may be a few years, but the only trend that matters to me is that Windows and MacOS adoption numbers are dropping, and that Linux adoption numbers are growing. As long as that trend continues, more and more plugins will be made for Linux. And as long as more and more plugins are being made for Linux, more and more people will use Linux for Music Production. And as more and more people use Linux for music production, developers will have more and more sales, which will bring more and more Linux plugins—eventually ending the “chicken and egg” situation Linux users find themselves in.

[Lind0n]

I found another useful tool for determining trends. Google Trends allows a person to see how much people search for one particular topic versus other related topics.

https://trends.google.com/explore?q=Lin ... =Worldwide

In this case, one can see that while it maps somewhat closely, there are more people interested in Linux than in Windows and MacOS.

No it doesnt. It shows us that of the people who are interested in searching about operating systems there are more people interested in Linux than in Windows and MacOS, which is no big surprise, I would guess(<-see that word there) most Windows and MacOS users couldn't give flying fig about operating systems, beyond having one and wanting it to work in a way that they then do not have to think about never mind type into a Google search...

[audiojunkie]

I found another useful tool for determining trends. Google Trends allows a person to see how much people search for one particular topic versus other related topics.

https://trends.google.com/explore?q=Lin ... =Worldwide

In this case, one can see that while it maps somewhat closely, there are more people interested in Linux than in Windows and MacOS.

No it doesnt. It shows us that of the people who are interested in searching about operating systems there are more people interested in Linux than in Windows and MacOS, which is no big surprise, I would guess(<-see that word there) most Windows and MacOS users couldn't give flying fig about operating systems, beyond having one and wanting it to work in a way that they then do not have to think about never mind type into a Google search...

If you really wanna get down to it, it shows the number of searches by operating system. Nothing more. You can’t presume to know the reason for the searches any more than anybody else. And if you think you can, I invite you to provide your evidence.

[stoopicus]

Your numbers that you are seeing are coming from your Socalabs site, or another site?

That was from reFX Nexus.

Well, it may be a few years, but the only trend that matters to me is that Windows and MacOS adoption numbers are dropping, and that Linux adoption numbers are growing.

You need to also factor in the contraction of the PC market. Remember that 100% of MacOS adoption is on macs (no I do not count hackintoshes, despite having done it).

Apple's new Mac sales rose almost 10% YoY per IDC in Q2 while everyone else shrank, and the overall market was down 5%.

So I wouldn't say Mac market share is shrinking at all.

ref:
https://www.idc.com/resource-center/pre ... 6-pc-top5/

[stoopicus]

Also, remember that sites counting browser user agent strings are not great either; it's really easy to spoof user agent. Like someone with an agenda and a script kiddie level knowledge of bash could easily appear to be tens of thousands of users overnight.

Code: Select all

curl -A "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/117.0" https://example.com

boom, my mac now looks like it's running linux to sites.

[Lind0n]

I found another useful tool for determining trends. Google Trends allows a person to see how much people search for one particular topic versus other related topics.

https://trends.google.com/explore?q=Lin ... =Worldwide

In this case, one can see that while it maps somewhat closely, there are more people interested in Linux than in Windows and MacOS.

No it doesnt. It shows us that of the people who are interested in searching about operating systems there are more people interested in Linux than in Windows and MacOS, which is no big surprise, I would guess(<-see that word there) most Windows and MacOS users couldn't give flying fig about operating systems, beyond having one and wanting it to work in a way that they then do not have to think about never mind type into a Google search...

If you really wanna get down to it, it shows the number of searches by operating system. Nothing more. You can’t presume to know the reason for the searches any more than anybody else. And if you think you can, I invite you to provide your evidence.

..which is why I used the word "guess" and even pointed at it explicitly.....so this is a straw man.