I am from india. These numbers are inflated due to our population and government office pc using linux (ubuntu). These office pcs just require a chrome browser and all the work is done on the browser Nobody here cares what os they use in their office pc. I don’t see anyone here switching to linux on their personal pc other than the IT students who are forced to install kali linux. And most of them are running linux on virtualbox on windows.
Steam deck is not even officially sold here and imported ones that are sold cost 950$ for the 512 gb variant. So it is a ultra niche item here.
People here buy desktops only for gaming/content creation, which means most households here doesn’t need/require a desktop. And these people always prefer mac or windows.
Also gaming scene here is dominated by mobile games (because gaming pcs and consoles are too expensive and we have the cheapest internet and phone prices) As for pc games it is dominated by valorant, Minecraft and gtav (fivem rp).
I think it’s a win. For most people the computer is a tool to look up information and communicate, etc. If they can do that with free software, we all benefit, even if they don’t fall down the rabbit hole and spend endless nights configuring tiling window managers and arguing about vi vs emacs.
Lately I’ve felt an itch to put together a manual for these people, a sort of “Linux for people who don’t really care about Linux”-manual. The problem I guess is that they are not likely to seek out a manual to begin with.
I already made something like this. A complete lucid guide for Linux/Windows computing. It covers everything and I barely have things to update in it.
https://lemmy.ml/post/511377
As a physiotherapist, I liked this part especially: “Take computer breaks every hour, and rotate your eyes and shoulders.” :)
This is me since childhood/teenage years, without ever being told these things. I had to tell people what is feasible and essential.
And the amount of support requests I used to get when my family was on Windows (and it was mostly but not all cracked copies, before Microsoft stopped doing anything about it) was much higher too.
Obscure hardware issues that require savviness and extensive googling is always the biggest concern with Linux, but even there, the gap is much smaller these days.
Meanwhile, the retirees who’ve used Windows all their working life, never complained even once. I guess if they were so busy with work even a day’s confusion with how the “Windows” layout for KDE Plasma differs from the actual one they were used to might be frustrating or too disruptive; not anymore though! And that was before all the Copilot mess!
Most people don’t care about Linux. They don’t need to. It’s not just fine, but probably a good thing!