Linux Usage Is on the Rise

May 11, 2020

According to NetMarketShare, Linux saw a significant bump in usage during April.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had some severe effects on the economy and consumer spending habits. Businesses have shuddered, unsure if they’d survive the months-long closure. And although it’s hard to find a silver lining in all the market data, one positive outcome is that the Linux operating system has witnessed a large surge in usage.

Before you get too excited, it’s not as though Linux all of a sudden surged past either Windows or macOS. In fact, Linux desktop usage is still in the single digits. However, in comparison, Linux actually bested both Windows and macOS for growth in April.

The numbers paint an interesting picture, one that points directly to Ubuntu. During the month of April, Ubuntu gained 1.61% (from 0.27% to 1.88%) of the market-share, while Linux as a whole gained 1.51% (from 1.36% to 2.87%). This happens to coincide with the release of Ubuntu 20.04, which has been met with rave reviews across the board.

And while Linux rose nearly 2%, Microsoft Windows dropped 2%, from 89-87%. At the same time, macOS rose 1%.

Although this does not mean Linux has taken over the market and will soon see it’s dream of World Domination finally come to fruition, any increase in market share for the open source desktop is a win.

Information gleaned from: https://netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx

Related content

  • NEWS

    In the news: Linux Usage Is on the Rise; Lenovo Is Jumping on the Linux Laptop Bandwagon; A New Linux Laptop Is in the Making; Ubuntu 20.04 Released; and Git 2.26 Released.

    more »
  • Android Continues to Grow in the Mobile Market

    ComScore reports a major gain for the mobile operating system.

    more »
  • Market Share: Advance for Mozilla, Setback for Microsoft

    Market watcher Net Applications has found in their recent statistics that Microsoft's representation in operating systems has fallen to below 90% of the market. Meanwhile, Mozilla's Firefox is rising to a more than 20% share in the browser market.

    more »
  • Linux Clients at 1-2 Percent Market Share

    Two statistics for April show that Linux clients have grown to a market share of one to two percent. Both see Linux as gradually gaining ground,
    while Microsoft still maintains its quasi monopoly.

    more »
  • Welcome

    A few years ago, the great epic battle of the IT industry was all about operating systems. MS-DOS versus OS/ 2, Windows verses Mac. Novell NetWare rode the wave of the network operating system for a while, until Microsoft punched back with Windows NT. The first couple of years I was in my editor’s chair, it seemed like every month we were writing about some hyperbolic new FUD from Microsoft as it sought to bring down Linux.

    more »
comments powered by Disqus

Issue 252/2021

Buy this issue as a PDF

Digital Issue: Price $12.99
(incl. VAT)

News

Tag Cloud

Administration Community Desktop Events Hardware Linux Linux Pro Magazine Mobile Programming Software Ubuntu Web Development Windows free software open source