First, I installed GNOME based Fedora 43, that was a mistake. I got it working "somewhat" like Windows, with Dash to Panel etc. widgets, but stability was not there after all the hacks.

Then I figured I try KDE Plasma, and this is so close to Windows that I made the switch permanent. Even little things like double-clicking on top, or bottom resize handle vertically maximizes the window, like in Windows.

KDE is not just better than Windows, but it is way more configurable out of the box. I really like window rules, which allows to set window locations, always on top settings for specific Chrome PWAs or other windows. KDE Settings panel is light years ahead of Windows, it has all the settings in one place, kind of like the old Control Panel.

There is rough spots, but not that many... I did end up buying AMD GPU, as with Nvidia GPU I had bunch of bugs.

I wanted to switch to Linux for a long time now because Windows Subsystem for Linux just wasn't good enough, it was mediocre. All the development happens with tools that have bash scripts as a glue. Windows was a hindrance at this point for me.

Right now I'm trying to learn to write small native Wayland GUI apps that use minimalish amount of memory, this is a bit tricky compared to Win32, but with new toolkit libraries pretty doable.

Apple could probably run a Mac vs PC billboard on this tweet alone.

Video editing is still pretty sub-par on Linux compared to Windows.

DaVinci Resolve technically works on Linux and it's an amazing piece of software that I'd love to use but on Linux there's no h264 support unless you pay $300. Ok no problem, I'd do that except the studio version doesn't support AAC for audio on Linux.

If you want to record from OBS, you have to re-encode the video for Resolve and then after rendering your video with Resolve you have to re-encode it again with another tool for h264 / AAC. That means you have to record + render + edit + render + render instead of just record + edit + render. A huge time sink and waste of drive space.

Kdenlive is there but its text editing capabilities are really lack luster. If you want to do things like create a text call out with a rectangle behind it and have your text styled up where different words are colored up differently or you want to underline a word or 2 you have to spend 10 minutes fighting its text UI, duplicating layers, fiddling with z-indexes and if you decide to change your text later, you have to re-do everything. That or you have to use an external tool like GIMP but that breaks you out of the flow and takes a lot more time.

On Windows, there's Camtasia. It "just works" and you can make text call outs described above in seconds.

Until I can easily create text call outs in videos on Linux (something I do a few times a week) I will use Windows 10 + WSL 2.

Windows gives you the worst of both worlds. It restricts the control over the things that matter, and dumps unnecessary knobs on everything else.

Linux flipped that. It stays out of your way, lets you change what you actually care about, and never fights you for ownership of your own computer.

Linux won/is winning because it quietly became the place where your computer feels like yours again.

Which means pretending that every single "unknown" desktop, which is a larger percentage than the Linux desktops, are Linux.

And also by considering ChromeBooks, which also have a larger percentage than Linux, are Linux.

A lot of adblockers also block GA. See [0], it's basically half of adblockers (by usage).

Technically-savvy users are both more likely to use adblockers, and more likely to switch to Linux, and more likely to alter the default settings of their adblocker to make it block more stuff. Also privacy-aware users, counter-cultural users, etc.

So the data is probably underestimating the amount of Linux sessions because it can't see them.

> By DAP's count, the Linux desktop now has a 5.8% market share.

We can probably up that by another couple of percentage points at least, just from this effect.

At extremes, if we accept the argument that the vast majority of Linux users will be using an ad-blocker that they have configured to block GA, then 5.8% seems incredibly low.

[0] https://www.quantable.com/analytics/whats-blocking-google-an...

Which is why I'm strongly considering a Steam Cube.

Unknown could just as easily be windows, chromeOS or macOS or just automation for that matter. Why would only Linux report as unknown for only a portion of users?

Given that the Unknown line is directly mirroring the ChromeOS line, it’s much more likely that it’s misattribution from ChromeOS. (And yes ChromeOS is Linux under the hood but the distinction matters because of the implication of the article)

What is the methodology of the statistics collection? Is it just user agent strings?

I am willing to pay for software, but please don't force me into a subscription model or you'll lose me as a customer.

The switch went smooth as butter for me, my system seems to run more stable and fast now, although it definitely helps that I was using WSL for years.

To this day I only ever use windows for gaming. Wonder if it’s time to try gaming on Linux again.

What may make this happen is political risk. The rest of the world outside the US doesn't like the excessive dependency of Microsoft systems on servers in the US, especially when that may mean snooping or disconnection. This used to be just a theoretical objection, but under the Trump administration it's a practical one.

Last time I tried Linux on desktop was Ubuntu 16 and it was all kinds of clunky, modifying text configs to make wifi work, random update services taking 100% CPU until I sudo-crippled them, etc.

On mint although everything... Just works. Including Steam and Spotify. It feels like a snappier, non-annoying version of Windows :)

This failure mode of capitalism should've been easy to anticipate: owners of capital eventually become the customers.

Capitalism is great for technology development. But stable markets don't generate the returns VCs and public company shareholders demand.

I predict a return to simple commerce: pay money for a good or service without third parties. It doesn't need to grow or generate returns.

Of this demographic I found they were mostly conservative/right wing. It makes me wonder if there are a bunch of influencers like Luke Smith out there telling them how to use this stuff, or if they're just figuring it out on their own through forums. I think the word "flocking" is too strong, but there is definitely a large and growing non-technical userbase of people who use linux.

Maybe get a Macbook?

Do you even know how bad Linux is? The video drivers don't work, bluetooth doesn't work, your laptop won't wake up from sleep, it's horrible. Go the fuck away. Linux is horrible.

Windows is fucking awesome. Mac is OK. Linux sucks. Don't waste your time.

I just don't have the time anymore to waste hours of my day to get apps working, when it just works on windows or mac.

That's not interesting, the most common os is Windows, ergo most downloads are going to come from windows.