r/linux • u/Zodiak1011 • 2d ago

Alternative OS Why does it feel like Linux is suddenly exploding in 2026?

I’ve been seeing more and more people switching to Linux this year, especially gamers. Bazzite, CachyOS, Linux Mint, etc. seem to be getting mentioned everywhere.

Why didn’t we see a massive shift like this earlier? What changed, or what finally pushed people to make the switch?

I know the Steam Deck was probably a big factor in showing people that Linux gaming is actually viable and that Linux isn’t as painful as it used to be.

But what else changed over the last few years that made Linux suddenly feel like a realistic alternative to Windows for so many people?

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u/Ocelot-79 2d ago

I have windows 11 on my work PC. It's quite clear that MS is slowly moving towards making the OS cloud-based and it makes the computer not be a Personal Computer anymore, whereas Linux is still for PCs.

Save a file? Option to save it to OneDrive. email attachment? Option to save it to OneDrive. Log in? use an online account. Read email? It goes through the cloud first. Use Excel? Option to do it on the cloud, through office 365. Search on the web? Option use copilot instead.

Windows 11 is not quite there, but it's obvious where the whole thing is going. Today it's hybrid management, a few iterations down the road it could be cloud-first.

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u/smile_e_face 2d ago

I had to help some of our new people install Office on their Macs a while back. Had to do it manually because something messed up with the provisioning and I couldn't be assed to reach out to the team and get it fixed. Haven't dealt with Office in a while because I'm mostly on Linux or maybe a Mac and just use Google for document work. But they do, occasionally, need Excel, so...

Ended up having to trawl through the Godforsaken website for about three times longer than necessary, because the link to download normal, offline, desktop application Office was hidden behind no fewer than four links, starting at portal.office.com. Every single page before that was trying to shove the Copilot version down our throats. It's like they want people to hate using their products.

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u/Commercial_Gap_1582 1d ago

Agreed, I feel that also.

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u/ekmanch 1d ago

Not to mention that the new outlook is basically a PWA rather than an actual application.

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u/virtualstaticvoid 2d ago

And the cloud runs on... Linux