Linux market share approaching 4.5% for first time, could hit 5% by 1Q25

Global analytics company StatCounter shows that the Linux market share of desktop operating systems has hit an all-time high of 4.44%, up from 3.12% a year ago, and it was just 2.76% in July 2022. While this might look like a small amount, this is a massive jump in terms of real numbers, especially as most Linux distributions are essentially free and have no marketing teams behind them.

The Linux operating system first breached the 4% mark in February 2024 but slumped back down to less than 3.9% in April and May. It recovered to 4.05% in June before hitting its record high of 4.44% this July. But if we look at Linux’s previous numbers, the operating system is on track to hit a 5% market share by February 2025, if the trend continues.

Many consumers may not have seriously considered using Linux as their daily driver operating system. However, this OS is widely used in many corporate IT systems because of its flexibility, openness, and affordability, with a wide range of general-purpose and specialized distros available for free. Aside from that, Microsoft is making it harder to install Windows 11 with a local account and you can no longer bypass the Windows 11 TPM 2.0 requirement,  thus potentially turning off users who are considering upgrading from Windows 10 but do not have compatible hardware.

Since macOS is a rather expensive alternative to Windows, especially as you need the corresponding hardware to use it, many are discovering the joy of using Linux. This is especially true as Linux has been around for several decades already, and that it has received continuous improvements from a dedicated and passionate fan base. In fact, the operating system recently received a one-line kernel patch that sped up boot time by 0.035 seconds. Because of this, you can find several free but user-friendly distros.

Steam’s investment in the Linux operating system for the Steam Deck handheld is also driving the growth of this operating system in the gaming space. In fact, the Steam Survey report for June 2024 showed that Linux finally broke above the 2% market share. This is significant as Steam Survey is more likely to focus on consumer (gaming) PCs, as you’re unlikely to put Steam in a corporate PC.

With some users unhappy with how Microsoft is slowly turning Windows from an operating system into a software-as-a-service product and can’t stomach Apple’s walled garden approach, more and more are turning to Linux to serve as their primary operating system. As we get more apps working with it, we might someday see the operating system capture a significant chunk of the market and have widespread consumer use.