this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
1013 points (95.5% liked)

Technology

80634 readers
6542 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

According to Statcounter, Windows 11 held a 55.18% market share in October 2025. That share dropped to 53.7% in November and dropped again in December. Now, Windows 11 holds a 50.73% market share.

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide

Many are rollback to Windows 10, but Linux is increasing as well.

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Pollo_Jack@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago (11 children)

Just switched to Linux. Convinced sis in law to try linux as she was having driver issues. Wife is about to try it on our laptop. Linux has reached a point of, it just works. It can play windows games better than windows, so no reason not to.

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (6 children)

How hard is it for laymen people to install and use it? Are there step by step instruction available?

[–] Pollo_Jack@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Ironically, I think it is harder for tech savy people. I have three hard drives and Mint struggled to put ext4 on my m.2, solution was use bftrs as a file system. Other than that googling and copy pasting the solution into terminal.

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Are there step by step instruction available?

You may very well need specific instructions to convince your motherboard to boot to the Linux live USB media.

(Edit: As suggested below: You may need to find and toggle "secure boot" to "off" in BIOS. The point of "secure boot" is to prevent exactly the kind of change you are about to make. You can turn it back on later, if you have a use for it.)

Although, if you replace the Windows harddrive with a blank harddrive, many motherboards will then do the right thing and boot to the Linux live USB key.

(Warning: Get your files off the Windows drive first. The windows drive is probably encrypted, and so won't be useful for recovering files later.)

Getting booted into the Linux live media is by far the hardest part.

Once you're booted into the Linux Mint Live USB key, make sure Linux Mint detected and is able to get on the Internet. You'll need your wifi password.

Once you're happy with that, click "Install Linux Mint" and just follow the prompts. The hardest question for me was remembering what my time zone is.

Linux Mint will tell you when to reboot, and will even remind you to remove the Live Media USB key.

Reboot and enjoy Linux.

[–] themaninblack@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yep most BIOSes will have a toggle for Secure Boot. Make off.

[–] ClassyHatter@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago

This is the official Linux Mint installation guide: https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/

[–] CaptKoala@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

I've had a techy mate have issues installing mint, but I had no issues and have dailied it as an OS only reverting to windows in extreme cases.

If you're not dual booting it's simple as. My friend has had issues dual booting on the same drive, whereas I went one drive per OS and butter smooth. Nice to be able to recover one drive from another without external tools.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
[–] ErmahgherdDavid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Make Microslop and Aividia the new Ubisoft

[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I miss the Nvidia that just made video game hardware :(

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Been using Linux for a while. The only thing I miss is League of Legends, but other than that we're chilling.

[–] Breezy@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 day ago

I view that as a pro. Switching to Linux made it easy to quit that addiction lol.

[–] Dezorian@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You can install League of Legends on Linux using Wine and Lutris: link

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Thanks for that! I wonder if that still works because ever since they implemented the kernel-level anti-cheat, I've heard it's become virtually impossible to install it on Linux.

[–] mapu@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Unless they've completely changed the way Vanguard anti-cheat works, it's impossible to play even if you do manage to install it

[–] Dezorian@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 7 hours ago

Didn't know this. Hate that anti-cheat breaks games. It should break cheating, not the game 😉

[–] Lorka@feddit.dk 9 points 1 day ago

With Window 11, Microsoft AND America being horribly at the same time, whole countries are looking to replace their OS.

[–] GodofLies@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Swapped to Linux Mint over the weekend. No major issues. Steam works, LLMs work, web browser stuff all transferred over...it wasn't perfect but pretty easy to figure it out with a few online searches. The best part - it actually runs better. No more f*cked up bluetooth and audio as well.

A lot of customization can be done on it, but I think for most people, Linux is fine for the vast majority of users already out of the box. Some criticism is that I think the UX can be improved and a more layman-friendly streamlined partition mounting + file security management.

[–] flying_sheep@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (8 children)

Same for my partner's old gaming PC: she used Windows 10 until recently, and Bluetooth as well as the steam overlay didn't work properly.

Now on Bazzite they do.

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Did my part. I've made it known amongst friends, family and colleagues that

  • support for 10 is ending
  • some machines won't support Win 11 for no apparent technical reason (just to make them obsolete and boost sales of new tech)
  • I'm willing to set up and support Linux systems for anyone willing to make the switch, thus possibly even prolonging the life of perfectly adequate hardware. (Only constraint: I declined switching people with strong software constraints that will not work or not work well on Linux and make them unhappy in the long run).

There were plenty of requests, including a small business, some absolute power users and even somebody on the other side of the globe. Everyone got a transition period, and since that is done, all machines have been chugging along without much issue. Support requests are near zero (and I do keep asking).

This may be my little bubble, anecdotal evidence and all that jazz. But from where I'm standing, this train has left the station, and it ain't comin' back.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Galolinn@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Switched to Linux recently, so good to see that I do my part on this statistic. It ain't much, but it's honest work.

[–] Boolean@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Come on gang! Lets keep chugging - we can do this!

[–] jpablo68@infosec.pub 25 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I won't update my perfectly usable computer just because microslop refuses to support it.

[–] yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 days ago

Please be careful when using Windows 10, because any security vulnerabilities envolving Windows itself will not be fixed, and your computer will be more vulnerable to attacks. I'm not saying this to scare you off, but to advise you to take extra precaution and to remind you that most computer security experts do not recommend using and connecting to the Internet systems that will get no further security updates. I'm no expert myself, but I'm pretty sure that things like making sure you web browser is always updated, being careful with the programs you choose to download, and using updated antivirus software are the most common tips for this kind of situation. You might want to do more your research on this topic yourself if you haven't yet. Stay safe!

[–] coredev@programming.dev 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

The thing is, (as you already know but this is for people that have not yet taking the plunge), Linux today is so unbelievable good. It's both snappy and good looking. A 5 year old computer feels like new. There might be a little tinkering, but you know that might be a quite fun experience and your computer feels like new again.

I run Debian for my tv PC, steam link with bt controller - shit just works and it's so fast.

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 days ago

I've been dailying linux since 2010 and it's gotten way easier. stuff that didn't work just does now. remember printer and wi-fi driver hell? now it works worse on windows if anything. games and some proprietary software are the only anchors, and that's kinda going away slowly

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

I still can't convince my dad to just switch, but at this point running Windows is in nearly every single way worse than just running a popular Linux distro.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's finally the year of Desktop Linux, about fifteen (or more) years after people thought it would happen. I'm happy for all the nerds who are finally vindicated. (I like Linux, but I'm an Apple guy.)

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] uienia@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Switched to CachyOS in December, so I guess I'm part of that statistic.

I was also part of the December Steam Hardware Survey statistic, but that was before I switched. So the December survey has an artificially inflated Windows statistic by at least 1 user.

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I am done with Windows at home. I spent a whole weekend convincing my computer that it was allowed to install windows 11, going into my BIOS and changing settings, having to make a live USB drive with some windows setup tool, navigating numerous outright wrong guides on Windows' on website, and at the end of it, I was greeted with the worst OS I have ever used in my life. I had thought complaints about Win11 were exaggerated like complaints about Vista back in the day- Vista was bad, but usable. Windows 11 is legitimately awful. Everything runs like shit on it. That day I resolved to switch to Linux for everything I could and started dual booting. Was the Linux install process difficult and complicated? Yes, but compared to what I had to do to get my computer to run Win11 it was a piece of cake.

What's worse? Thanks to advancements in Wine and Proton, Windows software runs better on Linux now than it did on Windows 11. I have games that ran fine on Windows 10 that run like shit on Win11, and run fine on Linux. Sure, I am a technical person and I am very comfortable with the command line, but legitimately nothing I've had to do with Linux has been as frustrating as what I have to do to try to get Windows 11 to do anything right. I thought I'd be dual booting into Windows at least some to run some programs but I legitimately haven't found anything that doesn't run fine on Linux. Plus Linux doesn't spy on my and sell my data, and Linux isn't owned by a pedophile who hung out with the Epstein gang.

[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've been dual-booting for years. Made a big push to get the software I typically use on Windows to run on Ubuntu. Haven't touched Windows in about a month and it's wonderful. Haven't got gaming nailed down yet, going to try Bazzite on my desktop. Some of my more graphics-intensive games don't run well on Ubuntu. Pretty sure my desktop is compatible with Windows 11, I'll upgrade at some point but I still plan to only use it when it's necessary. Unfortunately it is necessary for me sometimes. I'll probably start making preparations soon switch to Win 11 and be prepared for that to fuck my Ubuntu partition, so that's probably when I'll install Bazzite as well. My old Lenovo tank is already Linux-only.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 157 points 3 days ago (27 children)

I imagine this is why MS is finally backtracking a bit on the aggressive pushing of AI in every app. They're doing Clippy all over again, but OS-wide this time.

Just impressive how hard they managed to screw the pooch here. Have they forgotten that every other Windows release is universally hated? They had a good thing going until they discontinued Windows 10 before Windows 12 was out. Now they'll probably need to rush out another version, because the name Windows 11 is forever tainted.

[–] kboos1@lemmy.world 137 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (23 children)

The thing that's driving me away from windows is how pushy it's gotten. Forced updates, ads, AI, OneDrive, and subscriptions. I just want to be able to turn on MY computer and do what I want or need without having my guard up that I can't trust my home PC with my privacy.

Windows 11 is ok, but is frustrating to use and I can't trust it not to screw with settings and there seems to be something annoying added instead of something useful with every update. I also hate the Settings menu, it's like an unhelpful layer between you and Control Panel the eventually will take you to the same place but took 5 more clicks and searching through drop downs for a link to what you needed.

load more comments (23 replies)
load more comments (26 replies)
[–] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 72 points 3 days ago (1 children)

People upgrading to Windows 11 be like:

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Decq@lemmy.world 109 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Why write this article in January when it's main source shows an increase of 12% again in that month?? If anything this article should be about how statscounter is a very unreliable metric. Honest journalism really is dead huh.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 83 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Clickbait bullshit.

The source shows that Windows 11 usage has been steadily climbing for a long time, including in January - the latest data available - but presumably that didn't fit their narrative so they ignored all the data except the data single point that they liked which corresponds to the month where every business shuts down for a week.

Statcounter shows that not only is Windows use increasing, but also that Windows 11's share is too.

I don't expect anyone here to be happy about these things - I certainly can't say I am - but pretending the Windows is in the middle of an epic downfall when it actually appears to be doing fine won't help anyone except Microsoft.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›