Linux's Share Has Doubled From Just Over 5% in 2025. Including Chrome OS, Which Holds 2.07%, Linux's Combined Share Reaches 12.72%.

Desktop Linux has reached an all-time high of 10.65% market share in North America, according to StatCounter, a web analytics firm tracking end-user operating systems since 1999. The figure, derived from over a million websites, excludes traffic from major sites like Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia. Linux's share has doubled from just over 5% in 2025. Including Chrome OS, which holds 2.07%, Linux's combined share reaches 12.72%. The US federal government's Digital Analytics Program (DAP), which tracks 1.6 billion monthly sessions across government websites, shows Linux desktop share at 6.3%, up from 5.8%.

Adding Android (12.1%) and Chrome OS (0.6%), Linux-based systems account for 19% of end-user usage. Windows is declining as users switch due to Microsoft's shift to cloud services, improved gaming via Steam and Proton, easier-to-use distros, broader hardware support, and privacy concerns. Additional drivers include Windows 10 machines unable to upgrade to Windows 11—about 25% of consumer and business PCs, per ControlUp—and reluctance to move, with a UK survey by Which? in September 2025 finding 26% of respondents planned to keep Windows 10 after updates stopped.

ZDNET's Ed Bott noted, Windows has become increasingly annoying, not by accident but by design, with monetization as the end goal, citing Windows 11's push of AI features like Copilot. Linux's ease of use is now widely recognized, making it a significant end-user operating system.