Linux It has reached a new milestone in the desktop market by exceeding 10% usage share in North America for the first time, according to data published by the analytics platform. StatcounterThis is a very significant growth for an operating system that for decades has occupied a minority position in personal computers, but which in recent years has been gaining ground thanks to the maturity of modern distributions, the rise of open source software and the growing interest in alternatives to Windows.
Although the percentage corresponds only to the North American market and does not reflect the global situationThe figure confirms a trend that has been consolidating for several years. Linux has steadily increased its presence on the desktop, driven by factors such as the popularity of Steam Deck, improvements to Proton for gaming, the evolution of Wayland, and the development of increasingly polished desktop environments.
Linux surpasses 10% of the desktop market in North America
According to Statcounter data compiled by various specialized media outlets, Linux now accounts for more than 10% of desktop computers connected to the internet in North America. Although Windows continues to lead by a wide margin, this advance places Linux in its best historical position in this region and confirms a growth that seemed difficult to imagine just a few years ago.
The increase in market share is due to several factors. On the one hand, current distributions offer a much more accessible experience for the average user than they did a decade ago. Projects like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, openSUSE, and Zorin OS have greatly simplified installation, hardware recognition, and system maintenance. At the same time, the availability of applications via Flatpak and other universal formats has reduced many of the traditional barriers of the Linux ecosystem.
Gaming also has its place.
Another key element has been the growth of gaming on Linux. The arrival of Steam Deck and Valve's continued development of Proton have allowed thousands of Windows games to run with increasingly better performance, eliminating one of the main obstacles to the operating system's adoption among home users. Added to this are the advancements in graphics drivers from AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA, which have significantly improved compatibility and performance in recent years.
The growing interest in privacy, control over the system, and independence from commercial platforms has also played a role. More and more users are looking for alternatives that don't rely on mandatory accounts, cloud services, or built-in artificial intelligence features—aspects that have drawn criticism for other operating systems.
Despite this significant achievement, it's important to put the figure into context. The data refers exclusively to the North American market and is derived from web browsing statistics, so it doesn't accurately represent the total number of computers running Linux. Even so, it's a very positive sign for the ecosystem and demonstrates that the Linux desktop continues its steady growth, establishing itself as an increasingly relevant alternative for both home users and professionals.
7.51% globally
That 10% from North America makes for better headlines, because it already represents more than 1 in 10 teams. But if we look at it globally, it always depends the same sourceWe see that Linux has moved to 7.51% of desktop computers.
This is particularly striking, especially when we look back a bit and see that the percentage didn't even reach 4% in May (3.81% to be exact). It rose to 5.59% in June and is now at the aforementioned 7.51%. The biggest "loser" seems to have been Windows, which has dropped from 76.38% in May to 71.11% this July.
To confirm this as a trend, we'll have to wait several months and see if the figures remain similar. It's unlikely Windows will lose its dominance, but it was also hard to imagine Linux reaching 7% desktop usage.