Statcounter, a website that tracks the market share of web browsers, operating systems, and search engines, is reporting that Linux on the desktop has over 4% market share for the very first time (Statcounter records ChromeOS as a separate operating system despite being based on Linux). Statcounter doesn’t provide any explanation about why the market share has increased but we can speculate what’s going on.
Linux’s march to its 4.03% market share has been a steady process ever since the final months of 2020 when Linux held just 1.53% of desktop market share. One of the biggest contributors to the growth of Linux is likely the stringent hardware requirements of Windows 11.
Right so I haven’t switched just yet, I’m waiting on Win10 EOL because there is still stuff I use that is windows only (Adobe suite [ I fucking hate gimp ] and some games)
However, I did look into distro stability, and what apps are avalabile. Everything else I use IS either Linux native or runs great on Linux.
Inevitably, when I switch, I will miss Photoshop and not having to tinker with making games work
You should look into Krita. Not a replacement for Photoshop but I find it more intuitive than GIMP, at least.
There’s this: https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP
Far from the first attempt at making GIMP behave like Photoshop and most likely not the last either.
Affinity Photo is also really really good. I’d imagine it’s high profile and will have good support in wine.
Affinity absolutely does not work on linux easily, or well. Some people have gotten a barely-functioning app working in bottles, and reportedly some have gotten it “mostly” working through wine, but it is through a convoluted process that will be beyond many newer linux users and prone to errors. (And you have to dig through 100 pages of the affinity forum to try to figure it out.)
It doesn’t support hardware acceleration and seems to tend to be glitchy and crash often.
Which… is still a vastly better state than the last time I checked, at least, ha. But that’s been progress over the course of 4 years.
I think this page is the best bet for even trying: https://codeberg.org/Wanesty/affinity-wine-docs
It’s legitimately the only thing I miss from windows. I might try again with this installer when I have the energy… sigh hahah
People often forget that they also often have to tinker with making games work in Windows, because they are more familiar with the OS and get it done faster. Also I think you’d be surprised how many games just run without any tinkering at all nowadays. But then there are some that don’t run at all, mostly due to invasive rootkit ‘anti-cheats’. That’s no real loss for me, I wouldn’t install something like that on a Windows machine either.
I think the largest extent I went with messing around was using a Locale Emulator for a Japanese game, never had to do more than run the exe.
On Linux it’s a bit of a “will it run under proton?” type game, but I’m not really thaaaaaaat bothered by it. Also fuck invasive anticheats, only shit games use it anyway.
Also the steam deck helped massively with game compatibility. The only game I had to tinker with (and didn’t get to work) so far is a closed alpha. I still run a dual boot setup, but only use the Windows partition for work (office suite needed). Fmstrat/Winapps (found on GitHub) is a good enough way to use Office for smaller tasks so I don’t always have to boot up the Windows partition.
Most games so far I haven’t had to tinker with. I just switched a few months ago and it’s been smooth sailing. That said, I can’t speak to using any photo editing software.
I’m keeping windows on my computer now for a piece of software for programming my non-custom keyboard and other miscellaneous windows only things like updating Xbox controller firmware. But it has been a blast and being able to make the PC work for me instead of the other way around has been an extremely positive experience.
