Report: Over 33 Million Desktop Linux users, worldwide

A detailed analysis of all available Desktop Linux market share metrics.

Measuring the market share of Linux has been an elusive goal since the beginning of Linux itself — with most attempts at understanding the total number of Linux users based on nothing more than “Star maths and wishy thinking.”

There are three core questions which we seek to answer:

1. What is the actual market share of Desktop Linux, when compared to other Operating Systems?

2. How many active Desktop Linux users are there (not as a percentage… but real numbers)?

3. How many active users are there for each Linux Distribution?

Let’s set out to solve each of those as accurately as possible.

Spoiler: We answer the first two questions with some authority, but the third question remains… murky.

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