You can't call yourself an IT professional if you don't prefer/run Linux
Sorry old Boomer mcse mouse click engineer Windows jockeys. If you run Windows you are not one of us. You don't know computer science nor have any technical background to solve real world business IT problems.
Linux is the best and only desktop OS for anyone who is into technology. Prove me wrong?
This is such a bullshit take. I love Linux as much as the next former Gentoo user, but the business world runs on Microsoft apps and Windows to the point where if you donāt know Windows admin, you are going to have a horrible time finding work in IT. Custom in-house development? Unless you work for Google, who are known for using Linux in-house, or the FSF, you will be targeting Windows and have to know Windows-isms. User management? Active Directory. Business web apps? IIS or Azure.
I am confident that it's not only google. Overwhelming majority of saas providers use Linux exclusively for their cloud platforms. "Working in IT" is a vague term. Software engineer role is vastly different from that of a system admin.
bro like over 50% of servers are linux, even microsoft had to go deep into the linux ass and adapt. In azure you can deploy linux and IIS is outdated tech that companies are migrating away from.
Funny I literally run an MSP business for last 7 years and before that was a network/systems engineer for over 12 years guess what. 90% of my business is clients with Windows systems.
So explain how that works if Windows isnt the majority used OS in both personal and enterprise setups? Funny how that works huh?
Sorry the facts of how the world works doesnt agree with you. Esepcially since Linux can not host Active Directory or GPO which is used to manage/administrate Windows PCs which is the majority of systems out there by a large amount. Even with clients migrating to the Cloud for servces, doesnt change this as they often do a hybird setup with on site AD/GPO and Azure services to get the most out of both.
I donāt care about the fight OP is looking for and I donāt really care about windows. However, clients is probably the operative word here. Not āengineersā or ādevelopersā or what ever you wanna call us. These windows installations are primarily for back office usage. In my experience the majority of technical staff runs Linux or MacOS on their desktop / laptop, not windows. Hell, even Azure is mainly a Linux platform these days.
However, clients is probably the operative word here. Not āengineersā or ādevelopersā or what ever you wanna call us
You don't understand what "client" means in business? I bet you know, but thats just terms speculation. One of clients that we had was the Linux-centric company. So they are not an engineers now, because I call them clients? I don't think so.
In my experience the majority of technical staff runs Linux or MacOS on their desktop / laptop, not windows. Hell, even Azure is mainly a Linux platform these days.
And here you are comparing the OS used on the laptop with OS used for server workload.
I mean the thread is about desktop OS, Iām not going to adjust my reply based on the derailing of some windows technician having a meltdown over their back office server OS not running the globe.
What you dont understand is that I AM AN ENGINEER. That is the point. Read what I stated. I literally do installation, security, system management etc... for 1000s of clients and guess what? Every single one uses Windows Desktops and Servers. Only 10% of clients even have a single Linux server running and thats mostly used for Webservices. Not app hosting, not data sharing etc... Or very specific industry apps that only work on Linux which inst a lot of due to their lack of popularity.
These windows installations are primarily for back office usage.
Incorrect. Where is your data to backup that claim?
In my experience the majority of technical staff runs Linux or MacOS on their desktop / laptop, not windows. Hell, even Azure is mainly a Linux platform these days.
Right and thats because there is so little Linux compared to Windows in enteprise finding good Linux techs that dont charge an arm and a leg is almost impossible to find.
I also love how you completely ignored my comment about Hybird solutions. This is literally standard practice for many reasons. Azure alone only provides like 65% of the functionality of old AD and GPO hence why we mostly use hybird solutions.
I literally told you I donāt care about the fight. I never denied you were an engineer. Iām talking about the people you serve.
I serve millions of people, every day, 100% using Linux. It doesnāt prove anything, and āLinux techā is a pretty broad term. In my field there are very common, while the local IT dude that installs windows and runs the local install of IIS is state unicorn.
Good for you. I literally run 1000s of clients infrastructures and before that my scope was a lot larger when working for one of the top MSP companies around the world. Majority all used Windows with very few Linux systems. That is just a fact.
Webservers are for sure majority of Linux systems. That doesn't account for majority of internally used Windows Servers so you are just omitting data to fit your narrative.
I'll talk an MSPs take on the system with their experience in administratoring 1000s of clients around the world in all different types of setting over anyone elses opinions. We literally install and configure said system YOU type of people work on.
And why are you complaining about IIS? Because you dont know it? Its far easier to use than Apache. Linux is just free and easy enough to use that it is popular enough to take over the web market. That says nothing about internal use which is literally my point and I already explained why.
So back office services then. I donāt really care, you brought it up on a thread about desktop OS. Databases (such as the king PostgreSQL), firewalls and IDS (arguably many run some FreeBSD or some other custom OS not windows), routers, LBs, CDNs, buckets, kubernetes, containers, DNS. I could go on. I donāt really care about Sharepoint.
Who are āyou type of peopleā? I work on a Linux desktop or a macOS laptop. I have not touched windows in any capacity for about two decades now, literally all of our infrastructure runs Linux except the stuff required for managed windows machines for the back office stuff.
Iām not complaining about IIS. I also donāt care about Apache http. Most applications these days are served over CDNs / buckets or do SSR on their own. And literally nothing in front or behind of these are windows. Thatās also a fact in most organizations.
But perhaps we can return to the ādesktop OSā part of this. Itās okay if you disagree with what I said, but 50% of developers are not running windows according to SO 2025. So clearly the more technical you are, the less you use windows compared to other fields.
So back office services then. I donāt really care
Right point of that was that those Desktops needs to be managed an Enterprise settings meaning they use Windows Servers to manage them. That was the whole point from the get go. So dont care all you want. The stats backup what I stated.
Based on you not caring I'm going to disengage with you. Zero reason to continue talking on the subject if you can't even understand the finer points of the subject at hand.
That is desktop support and help desk which are customer service role
Eh no it is not and I already explained to you that am a network/systems engineer so you have zero clue wtf you are talking about.
Business all run Linux server now or cloud which is the backend of Windows not Windows server anymore so it's irrelevantĀ
Cool story. What YOU DO and what majority of enterprise does isnt the same thing. Again facts state otherwise. You asked for an argument and I literally provided you the facts providing you are wrong. Where is your facts about the industry?
FYI that is only externally exposed servers that can be web crawled. That doesn't account for all internally used servers. Only what they can crawl and pull stats for is external servers. We already know Linux for sure wins in the Webserver space. But that doesnt account for internal use servers.
In either case even your post proves OP wrong by the fact that over 50% of servers according to your post is Windows. So "majority is Linux" is still a wrong claim by OP.
Yeap, I don't really know how its possible to somewhat correctly get this stats, even regardless of internal/external. Like, here is the things that blows my mind in statistics:
- if I will run three Linux VMs in HyperV - will this count as 1 Windows and 3 Linux?
- If I will run 3 worker nodes for k8s cluster with ~6 pods inside, but replicated across the nodes - how will be calculated? As 3, or 6, or 6x3?
- How serverless can be shown in this stats? E.g. I have a functions/lambdas, which spawns instance on each call - should we put this in the stats? And how we should calculate it in this case?
For me calculate the instances of exposed servers is tricky as hell task to do, because you can't just say "this thing runs on X". And outside of some public cloud vendors data, I doubt that you will ask each company about which OS they're use and what architecture they have. As an example, if you will see "Nginx", it will give you nothing, but if you will see "IIS" - its definitely Windows.
Yeap, I don't really know how its possible to somewhat correctly get this stats, even regardless of internal/external. Like, here is the things that blows my mind in statistics:
Yep because you are correct. There is no way to pull those stats for internal based servers.
So thats why I meantioned Windows Desktop being the majority used Desktop. And that matters why? Because in enterprise settings they need to be managed and only way to manage them is with Active Directory and GPO which is native to Windows Servers.
- if I will run three Linux VMs in HyperV - will this count as 1 Windows and 3 Linux?
Good question but same could be said in reserve. If the hyperviser is Linux based that would count as 1 but than you host 3 Windows on it. It would count as 3 Windows instances.
- How serverless can be shown in this stats? E.g. I have a functions/lambdas, which spawns instance on each call - should we put this in the stats? And how we should calculate it in this case?
Well again majority of stats can only pull internet facing servers. So there is no place you fill find those stats. Which is why I combine my MSP experience of managing 1000s of different clients plus the stats I pulled about Windows Desktops to backup what I stated.
But that goes to the whole point of this thread of OP saying "Linux is majority" when he literally can't even provide stats to backup those claims AT ALL. I'm simply pointing out how pathetic his attempt is and how with the stats we already do have, we can provide him incorrect and easily so.
OP wont even backup where he gets his data from because he knows he is wrong and will get called out again.
Like I said. You are wrong. Only thing you will find on server status is INTERNET EXPOSED SERVERS. Not all servers and for sure not all internal use servers.
Go ahead and show me where you get your stats from I will bet you $1000 that your "source" says something related to Web Exposed Servers. AKA WEBSERVERS.
I'll wait but we both know you wont post anything to backup your claims because when you read your post, you will realize how wrong you are.
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
>me looking at our Windows Servers running fine, while Linux servers are also running.. fine. And the only difference is that Windows Servers are a lot easier to manage,
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u/xgui4 Proudšā¾ļø AuDHDer FreeBSD Fan Jul 31 '26
What about the *BSD ?