Turns out if you keep pushing stuff on people, you might open their eyes to the fact that they are not free to choose how they do their computing.
Stallman was right. Choose Free software.
jajuuka 75 days ago [-]
This is a bit misleading. They have have achieved 1 million downloads of their new version that just released. The downloads coming from Windows machines is not definitive as many Linux users mask their user agent.
Not to mention I'm very skeptical that 780K Windows users just happened to discover a more obscure Linux distro suddenly and switched to it in October while Windows 10 is still supported. This is basically an ad for the OS.
Jubijub 74 days ago [-]
+1, I wonder how many will stick to it. The decision tree is pretty simple :
- are all the devices / soft they use compatible with Linux ?
- do they know enough about Linux to solve their problems ?
If no to either, they will pay for Win11
asacrowflies 74 days ago [-]
I switched my gaming pc to Linux and my only remaining issue that seems over my head is getting proper fancy audio effects or equalizer settings for my headset. Music and games are night and day from windows to linux.
netsharc 74 days ago [-]
> do they know enough about Linux to solve their problems ?
But now we have LLMs, which I'm assuming should be very good at troubleshooting computer issues...
BrouteMinou 74 days ago [-]
Most people don't want to troubleshoot computer issues. Most people don't care about what "OS" is installed.
Linux on the desktop is a nerd wet dream, and you should be aware of that.
snvzz 74 days ago [-]
Agree. This is a publicity stunt for an irrelevant distro practically nobody even heard about before this.
fuzzfactor 74 days ago [-]
I agree the number of long-term users will not match the download figures.
OTOH, this is an obscure distro so the surprising numbers may be a sign that many more PC owners are trying out a more mainstream distro than Zorin on their old Windows 10 machine.
While the old PC is not actually that old, and in perfect working condition, Linux may have never had as much opportunity for uptake in that regard.
snvzz 73 days ago [-]
I do not even trust the download figures.
franga2000 73 days ago [-]
I wouldn't call Zorin that obscure. It's been around for a while and they have always targeted specifically people migrating from Windows. It makes sense they would see a lot of traffic now.
doodlebugging 75 days ago [-]
I hit the wall over the last month. The last version of Firefox that works on my Win7 workstation where I do almost everything is too old for some banking websites to work so I have been using a Win10 tablet for a couple of sites. That is the straw that shifted the pile from Windows to Linux for me. I have had to sort through family member's issues when they upgraded, intentionally or otherwise, to Win11 and from that I know that I have reached the end of the trail that began with PC-DOS 3.0 a long time ago.
Desafinado 74 days ago [-]
Save 2000 dollars (two computers) by using free, lightning fast software that will keep my hardware alive for another decade. Or buy new hardware that Microsoft is going to brick in three years, and will have poor performance the whole time. Tough decision.
Microsoft is tech support for non tech-savvy users at this point.
devwastaken 74 days ago [-]
Fedora 41 KDE had a neat bug on intel graphics where a kernel update caused black screen on boot. no fix, just a “downgrade or update to beta”. those are the issues that truly make linux desktop a non starter for most people.
i use it because i know how to fix it, but linux desktop needs a proper recovery system for normal users to handle that kind of problem.
c0balt 74 days ago [-]
> i use it because i know how to fix it, but linux desktop needs a proper recovery system for normal users to handle that kind of problem.
We kinda already have that for most immutable distros. Fedora silverblue can "downgrade" to an older Fedora version by booting into an older version. This is not foolproof (you can mess up the btrfs volumes) but it will cover most cases of update induced errors and broken versions.
The only other non-immutable distro with a recovery partition is PopOS, though immutable distros seem like the better option here.
bfrog 74 days ago [-]
Well intel did layoff 45k people or so recently.. surely no coincidence
dustbunny 75 days ago [-]
Maybe the way to really hit windows is to put pressure on the gaming companies to support steam os
ebbi 74 days ago [-]
If Windows was my main OS, I'd probably be the same and use Omarchy or something. Thankfully I saw the light and have been using Mac personally for the last 15 years, used Mac at my last workplace for 8 years, but unfortunately my current workplace is Windows only. Makes me lose the will to live - it's so bad!
ottah 74 days ago [-]
Saying this as a long time lover of Linux, that's not impressive. Put another way,
0.056 percent of the user based attempted switching to Linux. Whether users stick with it, we'll see.
7e 74 days ago [-]
My gods, out of 1.4 billion Windows users, one out of every 1,800 downloaded this Linux distribution? Yawn.
But it's an interpretation of what's happening with ZorinOS - isn't that original content?
ChrisArchitect 75 days ago [-]
Same originally submitted title as OP. Same source. Same discussion.
squigz 75 days ago [-]
More like [related]
sfpotter 75 days ago [-]
Not really a dupe. That's an article written by Zorin which reads like an ad/press release. This is reporting on that.
phendrenad2 74 days ago [-]
Interesting take. To me it seems like a big leap. Take it from a serial Linux dabbler, about once a year I download 10-20 of the top Linux distros and try them all. I download them on my main machine, which is Windows, and copy them all to USB sticks and try them one by one. If someone is only looking at metrics, 20 people just switched to Linux!
bdavbdav 74 days ago [-]
If you’re keen on dabbling, focusing on one and making it your own is a great way to go. You might find that the distro was standing in your way when you start from something more bare metal.
phendrenad2 73 days ago [-]
The problem is once you go off the distro's beaten path you quickly find yourself forking things like package managers to add features you want. I guess I could pick one and become a contributor... but I really don't have time so... dabbler I remain.
fuzzfactor 74 days ago [-]
I do everything on bare metal, but if a distro doesn't work very well "live" by booting to its USB stick, I'm not very likely to install it as an actual inhabitant of a particular PC, whether desktop or laptop.
Rendered at 09:46:23 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Stallman was right. Choose Free software.
Not to mention I'm very skeptical that 780K Windows users just happened to discover a more obscure Linux distro suddenly and switched to it in October while Windows 10 is still supported. This is basically an ad for the OS.
If no to either, they will pay for Win11
But now we have LLMs, which I'm assuming should be very good at troubleshooting computer issues...
Linux on the desktop is a nerd wet dream, and you should be aware of that.
OTOH, this is an obscure distro so the surprising numbers may be a sign that many more PC owners are trying out a more mainstream distro than Zorin on their old Windows 10 machine.
While the old PC is not actually that old, and in perfect working condition, Linux may have never had as much opportunity for uptake in that regard.
Microsoft is tech support for non tech-savvy users at this point.
i use it because i know how to fix it, but linux desktop needs a proper recovery system for normal users to handle that kind of problem.
We kinda already have that for most immutable distros. Fedora silverblue can "downgrade" to an older Fedora version by booting into an older version. This is not foolproof (you can mess up the btrfs volumes) but it will cover most cases of update induced errors and broken versions.
The only other non-immutable distro with a recovery partition is PopOS, though immutable distros seem like the better option here.