Although nowadays Linux as far as usage is concerned of this between operating systems desktop, it doesn't really have much of a presence. And it is that in the main metrics (in particular, StatCounter and Net Applications), Linux has only a 2% market share or less.
In Net Applications, it was at the end of June 2016 that Linux broke the 2% mark y at the end of September 2017, while on the widely consulted NetMarketShare of Net Applications, it had a market share of almost 5% for Linux.
Well, unfortunately this sudden leap from Linux was a mistake. Since an official from the analyst firm acknowledged that there was a problem with Linux market share. This problem was identified and corrected the following month.
As of the end of December 2018, Linux registered a score of 2.78% on the net application meters and only 1.69% on the StatCounter.
But Linux actually has more than 3% market share, if we take into account the Chrome operating system.
Remember that Chrome OS is an operating system designed by Google, based on the Linux kernel and uses the Google Chrome web browser as the main user interface.
As a result, Chrome OS mainly supports web applications. But Google's operating system is now running Linux applications.
Since it is technically very close to a regular Linux distribution, it can be considered as part of this family and re-evaluate Linux's share of the desktop operating system market.
Slow but sure
That being said, in Net Applications, Chrome OS's 0.32% market share led Linux to 3.1% at the end of December 2018, while in StatCounter, the good performance of Google's operating system (1.56%) propels Linux to a market share of 3.25%.
To obtain information, StatCounter measures the use of the different platforms by counting the number of page views per month (in total, approximately 15 billion pages) with each OS, in a network of more than 2 million websites.
Their numbers give an idea of the most used platforms, but not necessarily the platforms with the majority of users, since visits may not be unique.
Linux is used a lot more in the developer community. Linux ranks third, just behind macOS with about 8% more market share.
And Chrome OS, which is almost non-existent (0.32%), not long ago from Linux, as you can see in the following graph:
As for the Net Applications, measures market shares based on data collected from approximately 160 million unique visitors per month by monitoring nearly 40,000 sites. Therefore, it gives a more reliable measure of the platforms with the most users.
In StatCounter, we can notice that for 7.85% of the page views, the visitor's operating system was not identified.
One might think that much of this percentage can be attributed to Linux. Remember, Linux is more popular with technical users.
And many of them resort to tools and techniques (use of ad blockers, for example) to avoid being identified by trackers or other analysis tools.
Will this year be a good year for Linux?
Finally, as has been raised many times, Why is Linux not a success on the desktop? Since year after year many of you will hear This year is the good one! When in reality it is not.
And it's not for being pessimistic or anything, simply Linux by having a large branch of distributions (each with its own characteristics and focused on one area) it is very difficult for him. Mainly for one thing and that is that it does not have a standard distribution on the desktop (although the Kernel, itself is the standard)
Besides what is Windows, for its part, is a system that initially has agreements or contracts with different manufacturers which put the system by default and with it is the predominant system (this is actually the main factor).
As for Mac, there is not much to talk about since its devices have always come with its system and due to the popularity it has gained during the last decades, it therefore has a greater presence than Linux.
The only reason why the Lignux desktop is not growing is because it is not pre-installed in the general public offering.
And when it came - let's recall the Eee's brief success with Xandros - MS spent a fortune on it disappearing, replacing it with a very slow version compared to their MS WOS.
Only Linux with Android and ChromeOS has resisted - this almost only in the USA - which are not lignux, because they come pre-installed.
And even so, when I bought an HP chromebook for € 200 in MediaMarkt, which is still like the first day, for my nephews who didn't even know how to write at the time, an anti-salesperson approached me to tell me that "that" was not a computer, like me I knew, I ignored him, but he discouraged the majority, which was his - illegal and unpunished - function.
This is how MS spends them.
Despite all this, business use is growing and word of mouth from technology users to low-tech users is making it grow, simply by revitalizing equipment that was going to be slow, or by having learned from its speed and simplicity of use, easier to use than current MS equipment, for a day of use.
I notice the data of Apple's quota curious, Do not they put the accesses with iPhone there ?. I hardly know a couple of people who have a Mac in particular, compared to many who use Linux. It will be a question of the area where I am, because that 3% of Linux also seems little to me. In short, we will trust in the good work of these people.