I still don’t place a lot of faith in stats around Linux desktop OS market share from web browser visits (because mine, for example, are “Other” and on a VPN that exits outside of SA, and our Linux computers in the home are behind one public IP address that can’t be counting them separately, etc).
But be that as it may, it was still interesting to see a quite noticeable uptick in the Linux share in the South African market. It has been around 1.6% for quite a long while, but over just these few months in 2023 it has shot up to 4.5% showing quite consistent growth. That is also much higher than the current global average of 3.2%.
There is no real reason that I know of for this change. It may just be that Linux users in SA are browsing the Internet more. It may be that the high inflation rate and cost of living is driving more computer users in SA to use Linux. Or it may be that some saw the light and realised they can buy bare-bones computers cheaper, and just the latest up-to-date Linux on it for free.
I’d like to have thought it was because of a roll-out across schools, or government departments, to spark better innovation and cost-savings, but I know that won’t be happening any time soon, even if there is a budget deficit right now. We” raise taxes before we cut costs…
See https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/south-africa/#monthly-202209-202308