Windows 11 is losing users really quickly - Linux Weekly News

This week's Linux and open-source news is packed with significant developments, including a major German state's commitment to open-source software, a notable decline in Windows 11 market share, and a concerning incident of distro sabotage. **Germany's Open Source Push Continues** The German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is making a significant move towards open-source software, specifically adopting Nextcloud to replace Microsoft solutions for its public administration. This decision aligns with Germany's broader commitment to digital sovereignty and the use of open, shared standards, as evidenced by their mandate for OpenDocument Format (ODF) in governmental contexts. This move is part of a larger trend in Germany, with other states already transitioning to Linux and LibreOffice. Initially, 5,000 employees are using Nextcloud, with plans to expand its deployment to an additional 50,000 employees. This expansion will encompass chat, video conferencing, and groupware functionalities, directly supplanting existing Microsoft offerings. The transition has reportedly been smooth, with no reported friction or data loss. The state plans a step-by-step platform expansion and also utilizes OpenProject internally, alongside a local AI agent. Furthermore, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has formed an alliance with Schleswig-Holstein, another German state making substantial strides in adopting Linux and open-source software. This collaboration aims to establish a strong technological alliance in northern Germany. These initiatives are drawing parallels to other large-scale open-source adoptions, such as France's move to deploy open-source software on 550,000 educational machines in the Île-de-France region, and similar efforts in Austrian ministries. The increasing adoption by German states signifies a growing momentum for open-source solutions, particularly in governmental sectors. A common concern raised regarding government adoption of open-source software is the potential for hidden backdoors or limitations. However, the inherent nature of open-source software offers a safeguard. If any governmental implementation introduces undesirable elements, users can fork the project, remove the problematic parts, and continue with a clean version. This transparency and adaptability are key strengths of open-source, providing a level of recourse not available with proprietary solutions. **Windows 11 Market Share Plummets, Benefitting Linux** According to StatCounter, Windows has fallen below the 60% mark for global desktop market share, reaching its lowest point ever at 56.5% in June 2026. While StatCounter's figures are not absolute, they provide a consistent metric for tracking market trends. Linux, meanwhile, has reached 4.69%, one of its highest points according to StatCounter's data, though still significantly smaller than Windows. macOS holds around 16%, with Chrome OS at 1.21%. The crucial takeaway is the trend: Windows is steadily losing users. A year ago, its market share was above 70%. This decline is attributed to a combination of factors, including user dissatisfaction with Windows and a growing interest in alternative operating systems. It's important to note that over 20% of operating systems remain unaccounted for in StatCounter's data. These "unknown" systems could represent additional Windows, Linux, or macOS users, potentially those employing tracker blockers that prevent user agent and OS data collection. Given that Linux users are often more tech-savvy and privacy-conscious, it's plausible that a higher proportion of these unknown users are Linux adopters, suggesting Linux's actual market share could be higher than reported. Even if current proportions were applied to the unknown segment, Linux's share would rise to an estimated 5.5%. The consistent decline of Windows, coupled with the increasing adoption of alternatives like Linux and macOS, highlights a broader shift in user preference. Microsoft's own product decisions are often cited as a primary driver for this trend, creating opportunities for Linux to gain market share, albeit gradually. **Distro Sabotage Incident: OpenMandriva Targeted** OpenMandriva, a Linux distribution with roots in Mandrake Linux, experienced a significant act of sabotage. A developer who had offered to host a mirror of the distro's repositories on their own instance, a move some team members were hesitant about due to concerns about a fully public platform, deleted critical parts of the distro's GitHub repository. This incident followed a dispute where one of the developer's associates was removed from the distro's Matrix instance due to abusive messaging. In retaliation, the developer, upon being de-linked from the distro, used their access to delete GNOME and Cosmic desktop environments from the OpenMandriva repositories, replacing them with empty packages. This effectively removed these desktop environments from users' systems. Fortunately, the OpenMandriva project was able to recover by restoring the deleted repositories and replacing the malicious empty packages, preventing widespread system loss. An audit confirmed the extent of the sabotage, and the project opted not to pursue legal action. The developer involved claimed they were merely removing what they believed was agreed-upon by the community as not part of the distro's focus on KDE, a claim widely seen as disingenuous. They later admitted to acting out of spite after their repository link was severed. This incident highlights the potential risks of trusting external infrastructure and the severe consequences of malicious actions within open-source projects. **GNOME 51 Alpha and Other Developments** The first alpha release of GNOME 51 is out, featuring several notable improvements rather than a single groundbreaking feature. Key updates include a fallback session setting in the login manager for cases where the primary session fails, allowing users to revert to an X11 session or another desktop environment. GNOME Calendar has seen performance and rendering enhancements, and the Settings app now offers more display options, including disabling the touchpad when a mouse is connected. GNOME Maps now supports offline map downloads, and the built-in remote desktop features gain AMD hardware acceleration. Support for the latest iteration of the text input protocol V3 is included. The reduced motion setting, introduced in GNOME 50, is now implemented in GTK, leading to fewer animations throughout the desktop. Mutter, the compositor, receives various fixes, and Nautilus reloads views faster. The file preview app, Sushi, has been ported to GTK 4, offering a macOS-like Quick Look functionality. The desktop portal now allows sessions to remain alive, simplifying repeated screen sharing configurations, potentially benefiting applications like OBS. The X background effect protocol is also supported, enabling applications to consistently use blur effects. These updates indicate a continued focus on refining the user experience and adding practical functionalities, with GNOME gradually incorporating more user agency in its desktop environment. **Librem Phone Project and ARM Support** The Free Software Foundation's Librem Phone project is showing signs of progress. The initiative aims to reverse-engineer proprietary software on smartphone System-on-Chips (SoCs) to enable a truly open phone capable of running Linux. A developer has extracted firmware from 200 LineageOS installation packages and compiled this data into a database for comparison. This effort is intended to identify commonalities between devices, simplifying the reverse-engineering process for proprietary blobs. The discovery that many proprietary blobs are shared across devices suggests that reverse-engineering one model could benefit others with similar hardware. While a fully functional open Linux phone remains distant, this progress is a positive step. Ubuntu is significantly investing in ARM64 platform support. Their efforts, which began in 2012 with Linaro focusing on ARM servers, have expanded to desktop-oriented solutions. Ubuntu has moved ARM packages to its main repositories, introduced a Steam snap for ARM with x86 emulation via FEX, and added support for Snapdragon X Elite laptops with secure boot. Further work is underway for the Snapdragon Elite X2. Chrome's development of Widevine DRM support on ARM will enable streaming services like Netflix and Disney Plus on ARM Linux devices, benefiting various applications and snaps. The platform also supports arm64 in snaps, with applications like freeCAD and Teams available. A key challenge for ARM is the absence of standardized hardware discovery; device trees are required for each device to identify its components and load appropriate drivers, necessitating their inclusion in ISOs or manual loading. **AMD GPU Performance Boost and Distro Changes** A prolific developer at Valve has made significant contributions to the RADV driver (Mesa 26.2), doubling performance for variable rate shading on AMD GPUs. This feature, known from the Steam Deck's half-rate shading, allows for reduced shading on less visible parts of a frame, conserving power and potentially boosting overall performance. This enhancement is expected to benefit VKD3D and further solidifies AMD's position as the preferred choice for Linux gaming due to consistent driver updates and better overall compatibility compared to Nvidia. Tuxedo OS, a Linux distribution, is transitioning from an Ubuntu LTS base to Debian testing. The primary reason cited is the difficulty of maintaining a semi-rolling release with updated components like KDE Plasma on a fixed Ubuntu LTS base. Updating core libraries like Qt for newer Plasma versions can break applications dependent on older Qt versions from the LTS repositories, creating a cascade of dependency issues. This challenge is also observed in KDE Neon. The move to Debian testing, a rolling release model, is expected to resolve these issues. Tuxedo OS also plans to adopt Btrfs as its default file system with Snapper for system backups and rollbacks, and will update its KDE theme. This transition will necessitate a fresh installation. The decision is driven by Debian's community-led nature, which may allow Tuxedo OS to become more involved in its development, and the inherent stability of Debian testing as a rolling release. Linux Mint has confirmed that its upcoming version, Mint 23, will feature a full, stable Wayland session alongside continued X11 support. This ensures future-proofing for Mint, allowing it to remain independent of potential future decisions by Ubuntu to deprecate X11. Mint's Debian Edition offers an alternative if needed. **Valve's Steam Machine and Proton Updates** Valve has released Windows drivers for the Steam Machine, though running Windows 11 on this hardware is strongly discouraged due to potential performance degradation compared to Steam