According to Statcounter, Windows 11 held a 55.18% market share in October 2025. That share dropped to 53.7% in November and dropped again in December. Now, Windows 11 holds a 50.73% market share.
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide
Many are rollback to Windows 10, but Linux is increasing as well.
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide
Switched to CachyOS in December, so I guess I’m part of that statistic.
I was also part of the December Steam Hardware Survey statistic, but that was before I switched. So the December survey has an artificially inflated Windows statistic by at least 1 user.
I am done with Windows at home. I spent a whole weekend convincing my computer that it was allowed to install windows 11, going into my BIOS and changing settings, having to make a live USB drive with some windows setup tool, navigating numerous outright wrong guides on Windows’ on website, and at the end of it, I was greeted with the worst OS I have ever used in my life. I had thought complaints about Win11 were exaggerated like complaints about Vista back in the day- Vista was bad, but usable. Windows 11 is legitimately awful. Everything runs like shit on it. That day I resolved to switch to Linux for everything I could and started dual booting. Was the Linux install process difficult and complicated? Yes, but compared to what I had to do to get my computer to run Win11 it was a piece of cake.
What’s worse? Thanks to advancements in Wine and Proton, Windows software runs better on Linux now than it did on Windows 11. I have games that ran fine on Windows 10 that run like shit on Win11, and run fine on Linux. Sure, I am a technical person and I am very comfortable with the command line, but legitimately nothing I’ve had to do with Linux has been as frustrating as what I have to do to try to get Windows 11 to do anything right. I thought I’d be dual booting into Windows at least some to run some programs but I legitimately haven’t found anything that doesn’t run fine on Linux. Plus Linux doesn’t spy on my and sell my data, and Linux isn’t owned by a pedophile who hung out with the Epstein gang.
I imagine this is why MS is finally backtracking a bit on the aggressive pushing of AI in every app. They’re doing Clippy all over again, but OS-wide this time.
Just impressive how hard they managed to screw the pooch here. Have they forgotten that every other Windows release is universally hated? They had a good thing going until they discontinued Windows 10 before Windows 12 was out. Now they’ll probably need to rush out another version, because the name Windows 11 is forever tainted.
The thing that’s driving me away from windows is how pushy it’s gotten. Forced updates, ads, AI, OneDrive, and subscriptions. I just want to be able to turn on MY computer and do what I want or need without having my guard up that I can’t trust my home PC with my privacy.
Windows 11 is ok, but is frustrating to use and I can’t trust it not to screw with settings and there seems to be something annoying added instead of something useful with every update. I also hate the Settings menu, it’s like an unhelpful layer between you and Control Panel the eventually will take you to the same place but took 5 more clicks and searching through drop downs for a link to what you needed.
Win10 LTSC IOT has support until like 2032, and doesn’t have any of that pushy bullshit. It’s free to pirate btw.
This is the way
Eh, if you’re not able to make the jump to linux ig.
Derrr
Lemmy tells me it’s more user friendly than ever.
I finally kicked Windows after 30 years because I have to use windows 11 for work, and it fails at almost everything an operating system should be. Search doesn’t work right. Applications don’t work right. Basic UI is buggy and inconsistent. It’s the most expensive piece of software I use. Using 2 cores and 7GB of RAM at idle is unacceptable for an operating system. It’s the equivalent of running Skyrim all the time in the background. It actively tries to undermine my privacy, and instead of using that data to enhance my UX, it spams targeted ads at me in my fucking taskbar. Windows 11 is basically a SmartTV in terms of privacy and functionality at this point. It actively gets in the way of you using the hardware, and to no tangible benefit. Worse, it’s become clear that Microsoft recognizes this, and is actively pursuing and expanding the capabilities, with no intent to make a good OS in the future.
I’m out.
That sounds frustrating. What have you switched to?
I’ve only worked one place with Linux desktops, I miss it.
My personal desktop is on mint. I just got an old 56 core, 256GB RAM, 18TB server from work. I’m running proxmox on that so I can spin up VMs with different distros on it to try them out.
Every forced update is 5 minutes of hassle for each login. If you work from multiple PCs, it’s a nightmare.
I liked Clippy. I hate AI
It’s not just AI, W11 is slow and unfriendly in general
Yeah, for a while I was looking for any benefits to moving from win 10 to 11. 7 to 10 had kernel and scheduler improvements, for example.
Only ones I could find were the virtual desktop support (though I had an alternative desktop back in the XP or Vista days that supported that, so not really groundbreaking), and WSL, which I didn’t have any use cases for.
Other than that, it was just shit I didn’t want. Copilot, recall, more UI changes that don’t really add anything (on my work laptop where I didn’t have a choice, first thing I did was go into the UI options and undo as much as I could). One of the things I used to like about windows was that it wasn’t a mac, but the UI changes look like that’s their inspiration. The inspired folks porbably all left already.
Only ones I could find were the virtual desktop support (though I had an alternative desktop back in the XP or Vista days that supported that, so not really groundbreaking), and WSL, which I didn’t have any use cases for.
Wait, what do you mean? 10 had virtual desktops and WSL (LSW!) too
So yeah, they built a new product and tried to force everyone to use it, when it had no improvements for the users whatsoever. And surprise, no one is excited to use it.
Do you have a source for that backtracking about AI? I think they did not mention that explicitly. Instead they were talking about unrelated improvements. The CEO is still in denial about AI bloat. He seems unable to comprehend that people don’t like to be force fed AI everywhere across the OS.
https://pureinfotech.com/microsoft-windows-11-ai-brakes-copilot-recall/
Note that this article completely buries the lede. This is the last paragraph:
#Enterprise pushback is also influencing decisions#
Separately, enterprise users have pushed back against Copilot in managed environments, prompting the software giant to test options that would allow IT admins to uninstall Copilot more easily on business devices. This indicates that the rethink isn’t just about consumer sentiment but also addresses corporate deployment challenges.
The reason they’re having second thoughts is due to enterprise customers, who are the only customers they really care about the opinion of. If it was just home users complaining, they would not be adjusting course.
The first time I heard the “every other” theory I was sceptical but it has held true for a very long time now.
They might do an 8.1 and mess with some features (remember when they had to bring back the tool bar)? But another release is likely needed to fix some of the Win 11 performance and bloat issues now.
They’ve cut too deep, for some good reasons, but at the cost of making everything slow.
^ Note I haven’t even talked about AI here.
It isn’t even just the performance and bloat issues or the AI.
As you hinted, Windows 11 made a lot of changes to the UI. I can’t think of a single change made which I liked as someone who has had to deal with Windows since before 95. Windows 11 felt like a downgrade from Windows 10.
You’ve got a lot of managers with purchasing authority who developed a ton of muscle memory on old Windows. The new UI changes have made Windows feel alien enough that you can’t use retraining costs as an excuse to keep with Windows.
Windows 11 UI is a downgrade from XP.
Windows 11 is also deeply unstable. I haven’t had this many program crashes, errors, and other bullshit since Vista and ME. Windows 10 had it’s annoying quirks but it was at least relatively stable.
I have saved myself the headaches with UI changes since the Win8 clusterfuck when installed a 3rd party taskbar/menu.
They thought they were too ingrained in everything for people to leave so they could start enshitfying and everyone would just have to deal with it. They knew they would lose some market share by doing so but are gambling on the increased profits from targeted ads and AI training data would make up for it.
It’s also likely that for a single glorious quarter stockholder value was slightly increased, therefore it was a complete success.
I think it’s more that they’re not really making money on Windows anymore. The money is in cloud services like Office 365. So Windows is just being used to push people towards what actually makes Microsoft money, disregarding whether they actually want those services.
Windows 11.1 anyone? lol
Windows 11.1.1 for desktops?
Why write this article in January when it’s main source shows an increase of 12% again in that month?? If anything this article should be about how statscounter is a very unreliable metric. Honest journalism really is dead huh.
That’s why I liked the “misleading?” tag mods can add to Reddit posts, it’s a good anti clickbait tool.
Because a ton of people got new devices for Christmas with Win 11 pre-loaded. Prior to that, Win 11 adoption rates were declining. It’s highly likely that future results will show Win 11 adoption continues to slide.
I highly doubt 12% of the pc market got a new laptop for Christmas. But maybe a lot of corporations got new pc’s for the 2026 budget to phase out windows 10? I still I find a 12% jump huge, especially in the current RAM shortage climate.
Doesn’t seem that crazy. I usually got about 4-8 years out of my laptops. So a little over 10% turn over makes sense to me statistically.
That’s how adoption happens. People overwhelmingly don’t change the OS that comes with the device.
People upgrading to Windows 11 be like:
This was me. Hit the update to 11 button because I have always liked new things. About a week later went back to 10, then about a year ago saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship to Mint. Shoulda done it earlier!
I been switching everyone to Linux, specifically Mint. It’s good enough now for whatever.
I switched my parents to Linux more than 10 years ago. They are very happy with it.
What generation are they?
Mint? Based on Ubuntu 22.04? Seems a hint dated.
No offense, I swear. But I have a buddy who has to support Mint installs for work and it honestly sounds horrible.
Then again, the ease of use is probably worth the time saved setting up Arch.
Edit: It is Pop!_OS that is based on Ubuntu 22.04 not Mint. Ubuntu spinoffs spun me through a loop.
There are many stops between mint and arch. I’d personally point a new user towards fedora or maybe another Debian distro
Honestly, I’m with you on that one. Debian is reliable, so it send like the safest option. Personally, I use it for my seed box, and I’ve helped others set their own up to. Fedora, on the other hand, introduces package updates a little more frequently and in the long run, I think it’s more enjoyable to work on in a desktop environment.
It depends on what you’re doing. I’ve got Mint on my laptop and main PC, and the experience is different on both. On the laptop I tend to play Minecraft and do some basic tasks like taking notes and browsing the web. There’s nothing in Mint that really affects that, so it doesn’t hold me back at all.
On the PC though, I’ve got all of my important software, and some of it has had to be installed manually because the Mint repos are outdated. It’s nothing that’s particularly difficult to fix, but I know my way around computers. For your average user, it would be too much.
Mint is based on 24.04, and will rebase on the next LTS when it’s released.
Alternatively, Linux Mint Debian Edition is based on Debian 13, which is currently newer than 24.04. Good option for non-nvidia users.
Straight up, I got it confused with Pop!_OS. Although I’m too lazy to look it up, my buddy who has been using it for years mentioned looking at other options because of that reason.
buddy who has to support Mint installs for work
The “work” part is probably why you have such a bad view of Mint. It could be any OS, but at work there would be a horror story every day (because theres a lot of people, most cant use computers, etc).
The ease of use and not having it break randomly is why you don’t use Arch for normal people who just need to get stuff done.
Actually I want to delete my comment… 22.04 is actually Pop!_OS not Mint. So I’m really dumb there, admittedly, Ubuntu spinoffs get me a little mixed up.
And the work bit, in truth, I think he could fix it by using a btrfs partition, snapper, and grub-btrfs. Build the machine to automatically take snapshots so if someone breaks it, you can fix it faster.
And yeah, ease of use is important, that was not meant as a criticism instead I pointed out a logical reason why Mint made sense.
Long story short, comment stupid, my bad.
Mint has snapshots available out of the box even with ext4, the welcome screen prompts you to create a snapshot to fallback to if anything goes wrong.
Interesting, I would love to understand the tooling behind that.
Here’s the github to Timeshift, their in-house snapshot tool.
Just switched to Linux. Convinced sis in law to try linux as she was having driver issues. Wife is about to try it on our laptop. Linux has reached a point of, it just works. It can play windows games better than windows, so no reason not to.
How hard is it for laymen people to install and use it? Are there step by step instruction available?
I’ve had a techy mate have issues installing mint, but I had no issues and have dailied it as an OS only reverting to windows in extreme cases.
If you’re not dual booting it’s simple as. My friend has had issues dual booting on the same drive, whereas I went one drive per OS and butter smooth. Nice to be able to recover one drive from another without external tools.
Ironically, I think it is harder for tech savy people. I have three hard drives and Mint struggled to put ext4 on my m.2, solution was use bftrs as a file system. Other than that googling and copy pasting the solution into terminal.
This is the official Linux Mint installation guide: https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/
Pretty straightforward actually, plenty of distros even ship their own USB flasher tool so that you don’t have to use rufus.
Definitely step by step instructions available and even official videos now.
Which distro would you recommend for gaming? I usually hear people like Mint for that.
Bazzite or CachyOS (Bazzite for ease, CachyOS for performance).
I play old games and interestingly had better FPS with default Mint than default Bazzite. Old like the last golden age 90s 2000s.
Mint is good for gaming and simple for most people but there are other distros which run newer versions of software or/and has more access to software. I generally use distros based on arch, such as EndeavourOS with the caveat that they sometimes break.
Bazzite has been excellent on my older AM4 desktop with mid range AMD card. Steam came ready to roll and performance was so close to Win 10 LTSC, that I have yet to try a different distro.
I can’t recommend Bazzite. You can’t install new drivers if something doesn’t work right out of the box and that is just a complete no go for many people.
I hear ya. Its definitely not for everyone. If you are into tweaking your system, Bazzite isn’t for you. But I took the plunge, installed the apps and games I need, and its been running great the last few months. Just my 2 cents. YMMV.
Right but it literally doesn’t work on my system and I literally can’t make it work by design. It’s not a matter of liking “tweaking my system” it literally doesn’t work at all.
glad I switched to Linux, Microslop’s current state is a disaster. yes it randomly implodes sometimes, mainly by my fault, but at least I can rollback! no more headache of forced updates.
I switched to linux at the end of last year too! I am part of that increase and i like it.
I switched to Linux when Windows 7 became EoL.
Anyone paying attention to what they were doing with 10, knew what would be coming with 11… and somehow its even worse than expected… thanks to the sudden appearance of the greatest environmental disaster of our time… AI.
I was too scared to move to linux at the time. It was always something i had many misconceptions about, that only people with specialist knowledge could use and that if i wanted anything to work i would need to know how to code at an advanced level.
I cant speak for then but now at least i have found that the communities are incredible, loads of work is being done to get everything to work and easy to set up. Github is amazing and i am learning slowly to use and love linux.
So far i have only worked with raspberry pis so raspiOS and linux Mint cinnamon. But i am going to be getting a small PC to test different linux distros on until i find the best one for me. Although Mint has been great so far.
Swapped to Linux Mint over the weekend. No major issues. Steam works, LLMs work, web browser stuff all transferred over…it wasn’t perfect but pretty easy to figure it out with a few online searches. The best part - it actually runs better. No more f*cked up bluetooth and audio as well.
A lot of customization can be done on it, but I think for most people, Linux is fine for the vast majority of users already out of the box. Some criticism is that I think the UX can be improved and a more layman-friendly streamlined partition mounting + file security management.
Same for my partner’s old gaming PC: she used Windows 10 until recently, and Bluetooth as well as the steam overlay didn’t work properly.
Now on Bazzite they do.
It sounds like Bazzite is the most “plug and play” version at the moment, is that right?
Honestly, I don’t know which distro is not plug and play with steam nowadays. I’ve tried Garuda, Manjaro and Linux Mint so far, no notable issue.
I need to try mint
Ehh, I’ve had a few problems with it, from the installation wizard crashing, to my wifi drivers disabling on system resume, to it completely freezing when I switch language input, to sometimes crashing when I load a web page. I’d try a different distro than risk the instability.
E: And before someone chimes in saying it’s my laptop, I will say I had none of these problems using Windows, other than it was very slow.
It’s your laptop.
Hah, but no seriously. It’s just always kind of a shot in the dark which distro is the best for your computer. Mint has been best for my laptop, but really did not get it even installing on the desktop. Manjaro or Tumbleweed worked on it.
Please Stop using statcounter as a reliable source. Their numbers are absolutely wack.
Look at the recent surge in win7 pcs, that no economical data can back up, if you look at win7 stats of some countries you will find some weird spikes that died out this last month. why go from an os that has lost security updates to an older os that today’s software can’t run on anymore
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/argentina
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/tunisia
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/ethiopia
Windows 11 market share went from 55% on October 2025 to 62% on January 2026. That’s an increase of 7 percentage units, not a drop of 5 percentage units.
Love to see it
I’m sure it has nothing to do with forcefeeding AI or copying the user’s screen content.
copying the user’s screen content
Can’t imagine why anyone would be upset about that!
Statcounter data has a lot of shortterm noise. Longterm trends are meaningful, but do not get too excited about short term fluctuations.
At the same time Windows has been slowly losing market share over the years.
