Microsoft is already responding to the potential shift. The upcoming ROG Xbox Ally X handheld from Microsoft and ASUS will reportedly ship with a gaming-optimized version of Windows 11 with a dedicated Xbox UI and interface that aims to streamline the experience while boosting in-game performance and overall handheld efficiency.

Given how much Microsoft wants to shove AI tools every where in Windows, I don't think this optimisation will make much of a difference.

Switched to linux (popos - so far so good) this month because fuck microsoft. yeah, some things aren't perfect or require extra steps (modding, usually) but fuck microsoft. Fuck their AI shit, fuck their "recall" spyware, fuck their CEO that babbles about AI while laying off thousands of workers.

It was written in the scrolls. The day prophezised for hundreds of years: the year of the linux desktop.

Won't miss those years tweaking Windows to uninstall or disable bloatware and malware. I don't mind if more or less people migrate to Linux, I'm just grateful to those who are making and improving such amazingly good distros. 💪💛

If all you do is game, outside of a few key games (Destiny 2, uhh,couple others) the experience on Linux is better for many folks.

How do you know if someone owns a Steam Deck? Don't worry, they'll tell you.

So anyway, a couple years ago I bought a Steam Deck. And since I bought it, virtually all of my gaming is on the Deck. Prior to that, virtually all of my game time was on a Windows PC. So, for me personally, there's been a big shift towards Linux for gaming.

The other big change that's coming for a lot of people I know: end of Windows 10 support. Honestly, the majority of people I know who still have a traditional Windows PC are using machines that can't be upgraded to Windows 11. These computers are perfectly functional and do everything the users need them to do, and they have no inclination to go out and buy a new computer just because. Especially in this economy. Additionally, there are quite a few people with computers that are capable of running Windows 11, but they have no desire to upgrade to a worse experience and an experience that is randomly different in a myriad different ways for no good reason. Both groups are ripe for the picking in terms of a switch to Linux. No, the year of the Linux desktop is not here, but the conditions for such a change are building. And this Steam data may present a picture of the larger trend. Who knows?

I've been running Bazzite OS on my living room big screen gaming PC since May. It's a really slick fedora-based distro that installs out of the box with Steam, proton, and graphics drivers ready-to-launch for gaming. It was really easy to use, and my games worked perfectly.

My high school age son got a new AMD proc/mb for his birthday, and I was surprised when he said he wanted to try dual booting Bazzite and Windows when we set it up. 2 weeks later, and he decided to kill the Windows boot and just use Bazzite full time. He has no linux experience and just figures it out.

Windows 11 is shit and Linux alternatives are prettier, easier to use, don't shove AI down your throat, and don't steal your data for profit. The time has come.

Valve put together a good product this time compared to the first steam machines push. Most games work without fuss and it's priced well. They didn't start the handheld PC market but they sort of Apple'ed it by taking something other companies had been doing and streamlined it enough to get mainstream copycats, Lenovo/Asus/etc. Plus SteamOS/bug picture looks a lot better today than 10 years ago. So proven market/platform that can again try to undercut Windows machines in price because Linux is free and leverages the work of open source developers

Glad to be part of a trend, for a change!

I've been using Arch for a little over a year, and it's been fun. I've learned so much more about computers and Linux itself. I highly recommend trying out Linux and you can do it here: https://distrosea.com/ - It's a website where you can try out different Linux distros in your web browser.

Microsoft Recall and Steam Deck and Proton are why.

Common Windows L

Lemmy Linux copium is one of the strongest in the world.

I tried setting up Windows 10 in a virtual machine recently and damn, what a miserable experience that was. "Please wait. We're getting things ready . . . please wait . . . We're getting things ready. Hey, you want Cortana? Tough shiat, we're installing it anyway. Do you need an Office App? Well we're going to install Live365, whether you like it or not. Also, we really want your email address. You don't have a choice. Just give us your damn email address. And your phone number, too."

Installing Linux: 15 minutes later: "You're done. Enjoy."

It's not so much about users switching, it's more about the ones that will stick with it. And that we can't know for a few years yet.

I put KDE plasma on my elderly Mom's surface laptop. She uses it mostly for organising photos, and she's loving it. She complained that windows always "messes with her settings". If she gets it, you can too.

As people already stated in the comments, this may not be a permanent change for some (they find out something like destiny 2 refuses to work on Linux without bans, some other tools needed for certain use cases are not there yet or windows only), but I think is super important people understand there are alternatives, and not only windows or Mac. Hopefully gives more people awareness that something else is out there. And would be really cool if we had more of the user base that is on the verge to throwing away the machine because of windows 11 restrictions and instead, gives machines a second chance.

I've been running Linux on my desktop for more than 30 years, so I've switched for a while. And while I'd certainly like to see it become more commonplace, I'm not sure a few decimal points are really going to change anything. It's nice that it's making progress, of course, but all in all, it's rather insignificant.
While it's under 10, or more likely 15%, nobody will care about it.

Yeah, by a whole permille I bet.