this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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Linux

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 7 points 1 day ago

As fun as that would be, the more plausible explanation is that statcounter is bobbins. Windows has not lost a quarter of it's users in a year, and certainly not to Apple...

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I like to bash on Windows but MacOS jumping overnight from 5% to 20% is a bit unbelievable

Ok that the MacBook neo sold many units, but I don't think it's this many.

Those stats are aggregated from web visits so IMHO it's ai scrapers faking a MacOS user agent to scrape with less suspicion

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago

It's the inverse of the OSX curve. Probably an OS update that renamed it.

I agree, many websites discriminate against linux and most likely give a blind pass to MacOS wouldn't be surprised if scrapers figured this out, and about the MacBook neo first it was made with the lower end of the binned ipad chips, the supply was already low to begin with, MacBook user share is highly inflated in people's perseception compared to reality, Macbooks virtuay don't exist outside of the imperial core

Probably a combination of user agent spoofing and aggregating mobile browser activity incorrectly

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

Wait, MacOS and osx on separate lines means that in 2026 almost 20% of global user agents are with a MacOS version released before 2016??

The "os x" line is to be interpreted as "badly coded scraping bots with outdated user agent", right?

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 96 points 3 days ago (5 children)

60% is suspiciously low. Most companies use Windows, what is your source?

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 75 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Last time this was posted it came down to many bots run on Linux. Thus if near 60% of all internet traffic is bots. These numbers show nearly nothing of value when it comes to figure out what humans are using anymore.

[–] morto@piefed.social 32 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The truth is that the data isn't transparent enough, and we have no idea about the causes. Everything is mere speculation

[–] some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I wish more people would say things like this

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[–] anothermember@feddit.uk 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

This chart is for desktops, I imagine most bots aren't running on desktops, right? So if it's counting bots the methodology is wrong.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 34 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They use desktop user agents if they don’t identify themselves with a known bot tag

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[–] Kyrias@lemmy.ca 26 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Last time this, or something like this, was posted it was because fewer and fewer people are using PCs at home. They just have a smartphone or tablet and that's it.

In that case they're not using windows they're using MacOS or Android.

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[–] richardisaguy@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I made it up

[–] Carl@anarchist.nexus 9 points 2 days ago

It’s because of the recent explosion in bot traffic. Bots are largely run on Linux, using basic desktop user agents. So when studies like this look at desktop traffic, they see a disproportionately high number of Linux desktop users. But in reality, the vast majority of those “users” are actually just bad bots and scrapers who aren’t properly flagging themselves as bots (because they know sites will block them for scraping content).

[–] bytepursuits@programming.dev 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

this is from statcounter.
I mean - I like the numbers, but I doubt their validity:
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/#monthly-200901-202608

[–] db_null@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] eatCasserole@lemmy.world 66 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Why is iOS listed under "desktop operating systems"?

[–] Ironfist79@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Yeah, nobody is running a router as their desktop.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I assume they are including tablets as desktops

[–] DastardlyJames@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Possibly, but it doesn’t make sense that Android isn’t there.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago

Good point.

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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 days ago (3 children)

The fucking file system doesn't even work on windows.

Is delayed enough that is goddamn aggravating. All that fucking stupid onedrive shit, I'm guessing.

[–] HereIAm@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I accidentally opened Edge on my work computer and it simply won't let you close it until you've gone through their inital "welcome" setup. The X on the window doesn't work, same with the X in the taskbar pop up and right-click close, not even alt-f4 worked. Only thing that actually closed it was going through the task manager.

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

The task manager is the most useful app on windows. I often had it open at all times back when I still used it.

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[–] spitfire@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And OS X has changed its name to macOS:)

[–] craftrabbit@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Yes, in 2020, as part of a way to market a regular annual OS update. The distinction between OSX and MacOS makes zero sense here.

[–] spitfire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I know it makes zero sense - that’s what I’m trying to point out. It’s been called Mac OS X, OS X, and macOS in the past 15 years or so ;)

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What I would really like is if they'd given OS X a colour close to Mac OS, instead of close to Linux.

[–] spitfire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

They should just merge them. They don’t show up Debian and Arch or different kernel versions separately. Windows 7/8/10/11 is also not separate. It just makes the bottom of the chart too crowded, while macOS could be closer to the middle

[–] craftrabbit@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago

Oh nevermind it's 2016 actually

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 25 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Newsflash: desktops are dead. We are absolute dinosaurs. Most people dont have one. They only use a phone.

Source: mostly every normie I know.

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Sucks for them if they have to limit their Internet perspective to a shitty little phone screen. I'd still rather be the cool dinosaur with my gaming desktops with big screens and mechanical keyboards.

My kids love gaming on the desktop computers too - that's the Trojan horse (games) that gave me motivation to learn how to use computers in the first place. Gotta learn how to work the computer to get the games to work.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yep I feel the same.

However, you can plug that little crappy phone into a DEX hub with a KB/mouse/monitor and play witcher 3 which is cool.

Not my jam though. I like to actually own my hardware, and be able to repair it. Something phones will never do.

A lot of it was due to how awful windows is, folks gave up trying to work around all the bullshit and said a phone is easier.

I totally feel you. Something to be said for our era where it took work to make games work and that gave me a baseline of computing knowledge. Kids today play on browser or hit download on steam and it works. Which is fine. But they get 0 learning from it. Hence why Young's are idiots at computers unless parents teach it outright.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Because desktops are expensive. You people just can't afford them. You need to put at least 1k into the PC then another 200 into the screen, then mouse, keyboard, headset, webcam... They are cheaper off buying a phone.

Young people barely own stuff anymore. Their wealth is historically low as the tech barons, land barons, and so on own everything they want: homes, tech, uni debt, subscriptions, everything. And meanwhile the young are expected to work longer hours for less pay. In certain countries their pay is taxed up to 50%, but a wealthy person doesn't get a salary so they aren't taxed.

Their parents didn't do much better either, but they didn't have it as bad. But it was bad enough that daycare and childcare is fucking expensive, so they shove a phone into the child's face: now the children know phones from a very young age and are also conditioned to buy one asap because it's all they know.

So yeah, I don't blame young people for not owning PCs. Our society has fumbled, is fumbling, and will continue to fumble making it affordable. If we want young people to be more interested in computing beyond telling Claude to write shit for them, we should be worrying about the wealth gap and affordability crisis.

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[–] macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Those people are peasants.

[–] morto@piefed.social 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Both cloudflare stats and statcounter show desktops with roughly 46% of the marketshare. This is definitely not dead, definitely not an "absolute dinosaurs" thing.

I wonder why people are like that every time a post like this appears. Too much insecurity, perhaps?

Also, somehow, these days, people tend to act like everything below 50% is absolute zero when it comes to tech

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[–] Philippe23@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

What is the "macOS" that apparently launched in 2025? 🤔

It's been called "macOS" since 2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS#Timeline_of_releases

[–] grue@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago

And more importantly, it's the same thing as OS X. They shouldn't be separate lines.

[–] Limonene@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

It's been called MacOS since 1997

[–] PlaidBaron@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I choose to believe that one of those 'others' datapoints is my copy of Freedos.

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

People who think 60% is too low haven't met a young person in a while, I think... virtually everyone in every class I teach uses Apple computers or tablets; I'm absolutely not surprised that's where most of the change has gone, at least for personal use. (And in the US specifically)

That said, I'd have thought the 30% mac share was earlier than 2010, this suggests that it's more recent? Apple might as well been running a psyop to get young people to use their products since the 90s. I remember when I was in middle school, they "generously" donated a lab full of those colorful iMacs to my school. Seems it might have been the first computer many of my peers had even touched, too.

[–] sunbeam60@feddit.uk 2 points 2 days ago

People who think 60% is too high haven’t been to any mid-sized business in a while, I think.

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[–] Soleos@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

Market share =/= people

[–] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 7 points 2 days ago

I wonder how China ditching ms is gonna look like on this graph.

[–] stickyprimer@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Never get excited or scared about the final data point in a time series. Especially when it’s a ratio metric that will conceal it when the data begins that final data point is still only partial.

It’s right there with never start a land war in Asia and never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

This is due to some changes made that statcounter doesn't apply to their data properly. So statcounter is very unreliable atm.

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