Linux is about to get a lot more popular, here is why.
Linux is a Free Opensource Operating System. This OS has been loved by many tech hobbyist and IT professionals, which is why it is 63% of Global Server Operating systems according to Fortune Business Insight. I believe that Linux is about to get a lot more attention in the coming years.
International Opinion on big tech
It seems like you’ve probably noticed a lot of tension with Big Tech companies in Europe lately, especially with the EU passing new digital rights laws, Big tech love for data collection, along with trade discussions between the U.S. Other nations, have really been a “painful wake-up call” for Europe, highlighting how reliant they are on these major tech players and the importance of addressing the risks involved.
- American owned Operating Systems take up over 70% of market-share in Europe but its debatably more.
- American Cloud Services make up 72% of Europe
So with this on their minds they must imagine the headache if America Software is no longer beneficial for European countries because of that some countries decided to make the effort to switch to Linux FOSS.
- Denmark will drop office for LibreOffice and considering dropping Windows in the future.
- German State Schleswig-Holstein plans to move 30,000 PCs from Windows to Linux and adopt open-source software
- France’s Gendarmerie Swapped to a custom ubuntu based OS a decade ago
With more countries moving to Linux means more state sponsored contributors hopefully making Linux more adaptable.
Companies contributes
SteamOS, ChromeOS, and Android are all built on top of Linux. Meaning that these companies are regularly contributing to Linux or Linux software.
Especially Valve with their new SteamOS. Here are some of the things they have built.
- Valve developed Proton, a compatibility layer that enables Windows games to run on Linux systems.
- Contributions to Graphic drivers for AMD GPUs.
- Collaborations with developers to bring advanced color management and HDR to Linux systems.
- Funded improvements to the KDE Plasma desktop environment, because of the importance of a cohesive user experience.
As a owner of Valves Steam Deck, I never would have thought that they would invest so much into the linux enviroment.
AI means better Hardware Support
AI is hardware intensive, like extremely hardware intensive. So what happens when AI is growing but the largest OS for servers doesn’t have good Hardware support? Companies contribute.
- NVIDIA has made notable strides in enhancing Linux support for its hardware by releasing open-source GPU kernel modules.
- AMD has continued to improve its open-source drivers for Linux
- Intel’s released OneAPI initiative aims to provide a unified programming model for various compute architectures, including CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators.
Don’t go running to install Linux just yet
If you want to give it a shot, great, but I should mention some of the drawbacks. Even with all those people who love Linux it only is about 2.5% of desktop environments, this is because frankly Linux can be pretty inconvenient.
- Some of the most used Software / Games cannot be run on Linux (Microsoft Office, Adobe Suite, Anti-Cheat Video Games)
- Its unfamiliar, people have been with Windows or Mac for a decade, its hard to part with something that you’ve put some much time in.
- The desktop can be pretty nonintuitive meaning that you’ll people will have use command lines, and that can be difficult to someone who doesn’t know what their doing.
Even with all of those issues, the growth of the Linux kernel has been crazy the past couple years and I can only see it getting better. Let me know if you would ever give it a shot!