this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's little technical reason, at least no security features were ever tested on the scale Windows is every day.

The real reason is nobody bothers to target Linux desktop users because there's dozens of us (dozens!) while there's billions of Windows users. It's about efficiently spending your money and time while investing into crime.

[–] raspberriesareyummy 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

between smartphones replacing desktop PCs and mac computers, I doubt that there's "billions" of windows users left in reality.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

don't forget all the office drones, who are also the main target of scammers

[–] raspberriesareyummy 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I didn't, but I considering the world's workforce is around 3 1/2 billion people, and that in the developed world, the percentage of office jobs is around or below 50%, however the majority of the world's work force live in underdeveloped parts of the world, I would estimate the total number of worldwide office workspaces to be significantly below a billion. And - even the number Microsoft themselves claim, appears to be only 1.5 billion total per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems - with this particular quote in the article (emphasis by me):

On 27 January 2016, Paul Thurrott summarized the operating system market, the day after Apple announced "one billion devices":

Apple's "active installed base" is now one billion devices. [..] Granted, some of those Apple devices were probably sold into the market place years ago. But that 1 billion figure can and should be compared to the numbers Microsoft touts for Windows 10 (200 million, most recently) or Windows more generally (1.5 billion active users, a number that hasn’t moved, magically, in years), and that Google touts for Android (over 1.4 billion, as of September). My understanding of iOS is that the user base was previously thought to be around 800 million strong, and when you factor out Macs and other non-iOS Apple devices, that's probably about right. But as you can see, there are three big personal computing platforms.

I think it's fair to say that "billionS" is a bit of an exaggeration - that's all I meant to point out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

240 million PCs were shipped last year, with about 10% being Apple. A negligible number run Linux. If we assume 5 years average life, that's still easily a billion active Windows devices.

That said, devices may not be the best metric. You mentioned users, which may use many devices. For instance, I use a Windows laptop at work, Windows desktop at home, Android on my phone.

I would use web server metrics, which are an approximate indicator of time spent on each OS.

[–] psycho_driver 2 points 10 months ago

I believe the yearly tally from some company aggregating website traffic came out a few months back and linux had climbed over 4% of desktop usage. Linux gamers have outnumbered mac users on steam for close to a year now.

[–] raspberriesareyummy 1 points 10 months ago

As I said, I took issue with the plural in billionS :) that typically implies "more than two" when it's likely to be closer to 1.

For instance, I use a Windows laptop at work, Windows desktop at home

poor you :)