To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
Yesterday Notebookcheck joined many sites which spoke of statCounter data. It said "2025 could finally be the year of the Linux desktop as the OS attains 5% US desktop market share for the first time" (that's the headline).
Many would respond by saying that either they don't know what "year of the Linux desktop" means or that it already happened years ago. Some would say decades ago.
Nevertheless, GNU/Linux has been around since the early 1990s. It started in the building where I studied and also worked for several years 8 years before I started University. GNU/Linux or GNU+Linux (as an operating system that can boot on a PC) was "released publicly in early 1992", i.e. over 33 years ago. In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago (even if it booted on a server at first). By 2000 (when I enrolled and started studying in the Kilburn Building) GNU/Linux was already very stable, mature, had many desktop environments/window managers, even lots of high-quality applications. So 25 years ago could also be labeled "year of the Linux desktop" based on some definition of "the year". █