this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Source?
https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam?platform=combined
Just normalize by language to English to avoid the huge spikes of Chinese users skewing the data and you'll see we're around 8.54% for English speakers:
Surely we don't count steam deck nor think gamers are a representative sample of computer users
Gamers are the majority of the desktop space, and only growing in percentage as nowadays the main reason someone has a PC is for gaming with phones replacing almost all other uses. Also gaming has been historically the main issue with Linux, so looking at gaming stats has always been the pessimistic way of looking at this.
Steam Deck might skew things a bit, but not by that much, as only 23% of Linux users are on SteamOS, so even subtracting all of those (which is not correct as some people might have a Deck and also play on other Linux, like myself) you still have a 6.5% pure Linux user base, which is what the message you're replying mentioned. Also I would argue people using the Steam Deck are using Linux, whether their other devices are Linux or not is irrelevant to the point that they are Linux users.
The primary source being cited by most of the articles is U.S. Gov Analytics, (or the less reliable Statcounter, which I wouldn't rely on.) U.S. Gov Analytics currently places it at around 4.7% over the last 30 days, 4.4% this calendar year, and 5.6% the last calendar year. It was about 6%-ish when most articles were written about the 6% number for the first time.
Steam, so basically just gamers and not regular desktop users, has it more around 2.3%.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias
EDIT: mobile being at 15.3% is all we need to see here
That US site’s data includes both mobile and desktop. With a bit of math, you get Linux’s desktop marketshare over 30 days as 7,1%.
Steam’s February data is heavily influenced by Chinese new year. If you only consider Linux Steam users who have set English as their Steam language, Linux’s marketshare is 8,28%.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/
Literally anywhere on Google. But it also makes sense when you think about ChromeOS & non-us aligned countries - what else are they gonna use?