The way it works is that an LTS will release with the version that was tested for that release. The interim six-monthly releases will get some testing, and then be released. After a little while of that testing by all the users of the interim releases, that version will then be rolled out to users of LTS releases. It's a fairly conservative means of getting everyone onto stuff that makes their hardware work while making sure it's well-tested and not too disruptive (nor too much work for the Ubuntu devs, since they're maintaining a half dozen different versions at any one time).

Obviously users can manually choose to use mainline kernels [External Link] and new Mesa from a PPA [External Link] if they want stuff faster than it comes through the Hardware Enablement process, but they'll get them in time, regardless.

It would obviously be easier if AMD could get their support lined up ready before they release their hardware, like Intel (and Nvidia) do. I understand they're not quite as bad at this as they used to be, but still not as good as their competitors.

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Quoting: kaktuspalmeYes, but a user has to enable it. That's too much for a regular computer user to ask for.

No they don't. Installs that come with a desktop environment are on HWE by default. Headless server installs are not on HWE by default.

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Quoting: kaktuspalmeIf Ubuntu did Mesa and Kernel updates, I would put it on top. But without it I wouldn't recommend it, at least to AMD GPU users.

They do.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack [External Link]

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Quoting: pleasereadthemanualIn the end, most manufacturers of the ill-fated netbook switched over to Windows. Predominantly because Microsoft offered Windows licenses for less than they do on more powerful devices.

Microsoft made Windows free for those OEMs (while forcing an insipid specs list that would ensure netbooks lost out to tablets), and had a concerted FUD campaign about customer hostility to Linux.

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Quoting: utxWhat is the current Linux marketshare? 2.5 i think?

At the end of November, Linux hit 1.44% on Steam against 2.45% on macOS and 96.11% on Windows.

Although it's 3.5% of the English-speaking Steam user base.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyAn interesting figure in itself. So like, Linux is at 1.44%. And Steam Decks, almost entirely running Linux, are 0.37% (and climbing). So that means Linux without Steam Deck is 1.07%, and the Steam Deck represents just over a quarter of total Linux use on Steam.

(Note that this is a bounce-back month - the figures last month showed teeny tiny growth despite China's Windows usage being heavily weighted in the stats. The trends are indicative, but the specific numbers for growth this month are probably a little high)

SteamOS grew 0.05 percentage points this month, but Linux as a whole grew 0.16 percentage points. That's 0.11 percentage points of growth of Linux, excluding the direct contribution of people being shipped Steam Decks. Obviously a big part of that is having the enhanced visibility and attention that comes with having the Deck as a popular halo device, but it's obviously much healthier for us to not have our growth only directly from a single device. Hopefully the growth of Linux will continue to outpace the shipments of the Deck as more and more people get the opportunity to say, "wow, I had no idea Linux was this good."

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Quoting: Deleted_UserCan anyone explain to me how they manage to be #1 on distrowatch.com? (which is how i became aware of them)

Distrowatch only measures the number of times that people look at the distro information on Distrowatch. Distros that people actually use don't need to be looked up on Distrowatch.

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It's also interesting to see that SteamOS and the Steam Deck GPU percentages match in the Linux data, making Windows on Steam Deck a tiny minority.

We can compare them directly now that the Deck GPU shows up in the global stats. The Decks represent 0.37% of the machines sampled for the survey (from the GPU list), and SteamOS is the OS for 0.371% of the machines sampled (it's weird that Valve don't list SteamOS directly on the front page). The number of people sampled running Windows on the Deck must be narrowly edged out (to the tune of 0.001%) by people running SteamOS on something that isn't the Deck, with both being essentially nil because of the number of people running SteamOS on something other than the Deck not being big enough to show up in the Linux stats, as you point out in the article.

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I'm not going to argue for a different distro - the reasons for recommending Ubuntu (sensible release cadence, well-supported, lots of users so lots of available information) are exactly right - but I will suggest a different flavour of Ubuntu [External Link] since the Ubuntu website does a terrible job of letting people know that that's a thing that exists. The KDE flavour (Kubuntu [External Link]) is going to seem more familiar to a new user coming from Windows than vanilla Ubuntu's Gnome. It's all the same software and updates, but using the KDE Plasma desktop environment (like the Deck does) rather than the Gnome desktop environment.

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Release early, release often.

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