• SavvyWolf@pawb.social
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    11 months ago

    You know, I do wonder how many of these statistics are influenced by Linux users tendancy to use adblockers and block tracking. Linux could be more popular than it looks.

    Also, they should tell us how much of that increase is due to the Steam Deck. :P

    • KISSmyOS@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Only a very tiny number of Linux users spoof their browser’s user agent, which these statistics are based on.

        • dan@upvote.au
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          11 months ago

          Large sites usually have their own first-party analytics. Often they don’t want third parties to be in possession of detailed analytics data.

            • dan@upvote.au
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              11 months ago

              That’s interesting… It means their demographic data is coming from users’ Google accounts.

              They likely have a contract with Google to control how their data can be used.

              • subtext@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                I believe it’s possible for Google to collect demographic data without a Google account. From the below, they collect data from their doubleclick cookies (they own the data, might be Google accounts), Android device IDs (there’s a decent chance it’s a Google account still), or from an Apple ID (I don’t think this is linked to the Google Account).

                They can probably make assumptions on demographics based on browsing history and interests that are pretty darn accurate with enough data (e.g. someone searching for all three of birth control medicine, a nail salon, and Victoria’s Secret has a pretty darn high chance of being a woman).

                So no, don’t think it necessarily comes from Google accounts, but I’m sure they have a big contract to ensure Pornhub gets all the appropriate advertising revenue.

                https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2799357

                • dan@upvote.au
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                  11 months ago

                  They can probably make assumptions on demographics based on browsing history and interests that are pretty darn accurate with enough data (e.g. someone searching for all three of birth control medicine, a nail salon, and Victoria’s Secret has a pretty darn high chance of being a woman).

                  That’s true, but I think they’d store all that data as part of someone’s Google account. Either that or they have a separate type of user just for tracking/targeting.

    • Nix@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Unfortunately, due to the constant willful or untested shenanigans of various website I have set up all my system’s Firefox profiles to spoof by default its user agent (and other JavaScript properties) as Windows 11, x86_64, Firefox LTS (even if I use latest, Aurora or beta). Some blantant recent example: YouTube uses lower quality options on browsers running on Arm-based systems — misreporting as an x86 CPU appears to be a widespread browser fix

      Doing so has helped me and many friends/family I switched to a flavor of Linux (mostly Mint, but sometimes LMDE or Ubuntu or specific requirements/demands) avoid numerous dumb problems.

      Even on mobile sometimes UX breaking issues creep up.

  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Is it that Linux is getting popular, or that most people don’t buy new computers anymore now that their phone does everything they used it for, so it’s only the enthusiasts still buying?

    • themoken@startrek.website
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      11 months ago

      That’s an interesting thought. I’ve wondered this about Chrome’s market share in browsers too. How much of it is just that so much traffic is now from phones where, even if you have another browser installed, apps open links in embedded Chrome web views.

  • ramble81@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    I hate when people say “oh we had 100% growth!” Ignoring the fact they went from 4 to 8 clients. Meanwhile the one that only shows 0.5% growth considers 8 people a rounding error.

    There’s liars, damn liars and statisticians.

    • vortic@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Okay, so here’s some more easily interpreted numbers. In addition to having the largest change in traffic share relative to its previous share, Linux actually had the largest change in actual traffic share. It was just BARELY above Mac OS. If more significant digits were allowed here, Linux rose 0.0085 while Mac OS rose 0.0082.

      OS 2023 Share 2022 Share Share Change
      Windows 0.632 0.647 -0.015
      Mac OS 0.292 0.284 0.008
      Linux 0.036 0.027 0.009
      Chrome Book 0.029 0.026 0.003
      Other 0.011 Unknown* 0.005*

      2022 percentages computed as:

      share_2022 = share_2023 / ( 1 + relative_percent_change )
      

      and percent change computed as:

      absolute_percent_change = share_2023 - share_2022
      

      * The relative percent change for “other” is not reported in the graphic. There is a remainder of 0.005 in the Share Change which is, presumably, attributable to change in the “other” category.

      Last year’s results

      I just found last year’s results. It looks like my math bears out, though it appears that they rounded differently.

      Notably, last year’s changes were very different.

      OS 2022 Share 2021 Share Share Change
      Windows 0.647 0.646 0.001
      Mac OS 0.284 0.273 0.011
      Linux 0.028 0.028 0.000**
      Chrome Book 0.025 0.025 0.000**
      Other 0.011 Unknown*** 0.015***

      ** Linux and Chrome Book’s absolute change was less than 0.0005.

      *** As with 2023, the percentage change for “other” is not reported in the graphic. There is a remainder of 0.012 in the Share Change which is, presumably, attributable to change in the “other” category. This seems large, though, given that the total traffic share for “other” is only 0.016. That would imply a change from 0.001 to 0.012. Looking at the 2021 numbers this doesn’t appear to be correct.

    • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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      11 months ago

      I hate when people respond to a post with a little anecdote that is completely irrelevant to the original post.

      • ramble81@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        I’ll feed the troll… it’s very relevant with the bottom part of the graphic. It’s touting that it’s got the biggest increase of traffic change at ~32%, however overall it still only has a 3.2% share. That ties in exactly what what I’m stating and the xkcd that was posted too. There was nothing anecdotal or that was irrelevant in my post.

        • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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          11 months ago

          Ignoring the fact they went from 4 to 8 clients.

          You think the 3.2% is on the order of single digits of machines? You think 3.2% market share is 8 people?

          Obviously you don’t. It’s 10s of thousands of machines and you exaggerated the actual situation so far it no longer made any sense.

  • Camelbeard@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Do we really want to be bigger anyway? I kind of like where Linux as a desktop isn’t really big enough for all the scammers and malware makers to care.

    (And I know it’s huge for servers and malware also targets that, but they are usually maintained by professionals, not your parents that would probably run every shell script they are offered as help)

    If Linux would become the biggest desktop os you are going to find so much more bad advice whenever searching for help online. I wonder if the nice people we have now are really ready for when the terrible people invade the community.

    • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Do we really want to be bigger anyway?

      YES. It needs more market share to influence companies financially to make products for it.

      It’s truly starting to make inroads recently, but it still has a ways to go.

      I kind of like where Linux as a desktop isn’t really big enough for all the scammers and malware makers to care.

      It’s also not big enough for gaming companies to truly care, unfortunately.

      • Darorad@lemmy.worldOP
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        11 months ago

        Thankfully valve does, linux gaming’s gotten to a really great state in the last few years.

    • Murdoc@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Perhaps a little lesd nice for those of us already using linux, but definitely better for the majority of people for getting less scammed by big corps. But one plus for us would be better support for apps and games that are still mostly or exclusively on other OSes.

    • cannache@slrpnk.net
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      11 months ago

      Yeah kind of partially agree but not entirely sure what to say man. I’ve had my windows machine and my Linux box hacked in the past, didn’t do much besides ruin my ability to do my homework and general productivity, so I can’t say much.

      I would prefer there to be more actual meaningful stuff out there for there to be hacked and or made different but a lot of the time almost all complex systems compound into or towards static failure, just look at the USA with being a military hegemony like Sparta or China slowly running out of people to sell junk to, the big oil companies slowly trying to micromanage the shift to renewables, people that believe in conformity, confucianism and “the myth of stability” ironically usually slow down all of societies progress rather than supporting an actual stable diffusion of change

    • Howdy@lemmy.zip
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      11 months ago

      So many distros, getting bigger overall with maybe one popular linux distro doesnt have the issue when there are so alternatives.

  • SanndyTheManndy@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Unless the number of GNU/Linux maintainers also matches the growing userbase, we’re heading towards a world of pain.

    Devs overrun by unhelpful bug reports, scammers and malware abound, forums stretched beyond capacity by the exact same queries.

    If PC Linux can be monetized, it will be.