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

[Lind0n]

It isn't a straw man because I responded to the point you actually made.

You said, "I would guess most Windows and MacOS users couldn't give a flying fig about operating systems..." Whether you called it a guess or not, you were still offering an explanation for the search results. My point was simply that the Google Trends data doesn't tell us why people searched. It only tells us that they searched.

I never said you claimed to know this as fact. I said you can't presume to know the reason from the data alone, and if you wanted to go beyond speculation, you'd need evidence. That's addressing your explanation directly, not replacing it with a different argument.

A straw man would have been if I had said something like, "You're claiming you know exactly why every Windows user searches," and then argued against that. I didn't do that. I challenged the inference you were making from the data.

Ok, whatever you want, you have fun. Good luck with the Linux evangelism.

[audiojunkie]

At this point, we are trying to determine actual numbers, and it is appearing that at best we can only determine trends with any level of accuracy—and that’s only with the use of data from multiple sites. Linux is trending up is for certain. Windows is trending down. That’s for certain. MacOS is still in the air.

[XorXisT]

Welp:

[Tone2 Synthesizers]

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.

^this

All these global usage statistics about operating systems don't mean much as they do not show to what platform you *SELL* software in practise.

Mac got a small market share around 15%-20%, but 45% of our sales go this platform.
Reasons: The average Mac users has a higher income so they spend more money on software. There is also less piracy.

Historically Linux users use open source software. Many of these people have the attitute that 'everything must be free'. Only few of these people will pay for software. Others, mainly living in poorer countries, even can't afford software at all. These people are using Linux because it is the only OS that still works with their ancient PC.
So you will be trying to sell a plugin for a niche software running on an niche operating system to customers that do not want are can't to spend much money for software.



In the end we commercial developers need to *SELL* our stuff to be able to suvive on an overcrowded market full of AI slop, piracy and hard competition.

[audiojunkie]

Welp:

Interesting! So Windows and Linux were both corrected. I'm glad they got things sorted. So Linux is actually at 5.59%. That's a healthy increase. We were all saying that the "Unknowns" were quite suspect. This makes sense.

[stoopicus]

What this video tells me is that StatCounter has huge error bars, and not much else

[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.

^this

All these global usage statistics about operating systems don't mean much as they do not show to what platform you *SELL* software in practise.

Mac got a small market share around 15%-20%, but 45% of our sales go this platform.
Reasons: The average Mac users has a higher income so they spend more money on software. There is also less piracy.

Historically Linux users use open source software. Many of these people have the attitute that 'everything must be free'. Only few of these people will pay for software. Others, mainly living in poorer countries, even can't afford software at all. These people are using Linux because it is the only OS that still works with their ancient PC.
So you will be trying to sell a plugin for a niche software running on an niche operating system to customers that do not want are can't to spend much money for software.



In the end we commercial developers need to *SELL* our stuff to be able to suvive on an overcrowded market full of AI slop, piracy and hard competition.

I don't disagree with you. For commercial development, sales are what matters. But I'm finding it interesting that Linux adoption is growing. And I don't think it is just poor people moving to Linux. These days, Linux works quite well, and many people are wanting to stop using Windows 11 and MacOS for many various reasons. I don't know if you keep up on the surveys that I do yearly, but the number of users using Linux grows every year here at KVRAudio. I'm aware that it isn't representative of the whole industry, and it isn't scientific, but it is useful for finding trends. And trends show that more and more people are moving to Linux--maybe not enough to change your mind in particular, but it is a trend nonetheless. And more and more developers are supporting Linux. There isn't really anything that I lack anymore. There may not be as many software options as on the other platforms, but no one buys all the software from a platform. People buy what they need. And with over 3000+ plugin choices and growing, I don't even need everything Linux provides. So, I think it is all going to come down to personal developer choice. Some developers will support Linux, and some won't. But from where I'm standing, things just keep getting better and better for Linux users.

[audiojunkie]

What this video tells me is that StatCounter has huge error bars, and not much else

It is incredibly flawed, I agree. It gets bandied about as the source of truth for many in the industry, but its very premise of counting web stats is flawed--especially when they don't even count all of the browser engines that are available. And also, as has been mentioned previously, it can be spoofed quite easily. At best, it can only be used, along with many other various stats, to show trends in the market, rather than true OS numbers.