I don’t personally think we should count things like Steam decks. People who are neither in the tech industry nor hobbyists will use whatever it comes with just like most people use whatever firmware/software is in their car or phone.
For me it only counts if someone has sought out Linux for whatever reason. Windows got big because of shrewd business deals making it the defacto for “normies” to use, not because people wanted to use it.
Not yet mythical but definitely popular&mainstream @ more than 6% as seen by Pornhub ! https://lunduke.substack.com/p/linux-marketshare-at-63-according
Probably a correlation between Linux users and VPNs in there somewhere….
Sorry, dude, I’m very sympathetic to your personal hopes, but your desktop’s fingerprint goes well beyond your VPN! 
It’s not that pal, it’s the age verification in the UK. They haven’t gone as far as browser fingerprinting yet but I’m sure they will one day. I use Mullvad vpn and browser anyway so 
I’m suggesting that it’s not surprising that mainstream OS use is down on such websites btw, not that there are more people using Linux.
I’ve been hearing about that proverbial year every one-two years since about 1999-2000. Got a feeling that Linux will win the desktop at least a couple of years after the whole concept of desktop disappears, probably later.
Desktop Linux Just Keeps Winning: https://youtu.be/ETI5g-dTB7Y
Apparently I watched this last night, I have no memory of it though lol. Time for a recap.
As far as I’m concerned. . . every year I use my computers with Linux will be the year for the Linux’ desktop. There isn’t much I can’t really not do with my desktops that ‘Windows’ can take advantage of over me . I’ve got video, graphics, cad, office , some science applications, programming, weights and measures, photography, panorama stitching, music, what can’t I do that Windows does better? Maybe games. . . . ? Big deal. . . . other than that what’s there to extrapolate? The point is moot. If you’ve got money to piss away have at it. If not feel fortunate you are one of the few that think outside of the box.
Rich 
The year of Linux desktop formula is:
n = n + 1
where: n – current year 
Seriously though, Windows 10 EoL made a huge opportunity for new users influx. It seems there was one distro which benefited from it a lot – I mean Zorin OS, which exceeded 1 million downloads for its version 18 release.
Only heavens know if that actually means people are going to stay with the system or not. There seems to be a huge discontent with what Microsoft is doing with Windows.
