--- title: Linus called Linux 'just a hobby.' 35 years later, it... description: Thirty-five years ago Linus Torvalds posted his famously self-deprecating announcement of a hobby OS project that wouldn't be 'big and professional like GNU.'... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/linus-called-linux-just-a-hobby-35-years-later-it-runs-the-world--hzbcfqspe twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Linus called Linux 'just a hobby.' 35 years later, it runs the world. | daily.dev og:description: Thirty-five years ago Linus Torvalds posted his famously self-deprecating announcement of a hobby OS project that wouldn't be 'big and professional like GNU.'... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/linus-called-linux-just-a-hobby-35-years-later-it-runs-the-world--hzbcfqspe og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/hZBCFqSpe.png og:image:alt: Linus called Linux 'just a hobby.' 35 years later, it runs the world. og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Linus called Linux 'just a hobby.' 35 years later, it runs the world. **[Trends](https://daily.dev/sources/trends)** · 2 min read · 5 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary Thirty-five years ago Linus Torvalds posted his famously self-deprecating announcement of a hobby OS project that wouldn't be 'big and professional like GNU.' Linux now runs 63.7% of servers and the majority of smartphones via Android. Desktop share remains a debated 4-7.5%, boosted by Valve's Steam Deck and Proton, though anti-cheat support still blocks competitive gaming adoption. The Wayland transition is largely complete, and Flatpak/Snap have improved software distribution despite fragmenting standards. ## Content In August 1991, Linus Torvalds posted to comp.os.minix that he was building a free OS for 386/486 clones. "Just a hobby," he wrote, "won't be big and professional like gnu." Thirty-five years later, that hobby runs 96% of the world's top million servers, every major cloud, every Kubernetes cluster, and — depending on how generous you're feeling about Android — the majority of smartphones on earth. The anniversary is generating the usual mix of genuine awe and career-advice hustle. The awe is warranted. The career-advice angle ("mass-learn Linux and have recruiters apply to you") is a bit much, but the underlying point isn't wrong: Linux fluency is table stakes for backend and infrastructure work in a way it simply wasn't a decade ago. On the desktop, the story is more complicated. Linux sits somewhere between 4% and 7.5% depending on whose numbers you trust — up from 0.7% sixteen years ago, which sounds like progress until you remember Windows still owns the other 93%. Wayland is now the default on most major desktops, GPU drivers have gotten genuinely good, and Flatpak/Snap have made software installation less of a scavenger hunt. Real improvements, slow momentum. Gaming is the more interesting subplot. Valve's Steam Deck and Proton compatibility layer pushed Linux to a March high of 5.33% on Steam's hardware survey. August pulled it back to 3.9%, with SteamOS leading distros at 21% and CachyOS climbing fast at 15.4%. Anti-cheat support is still the main wall — most competitive multiplayer titles won't run, and that's not changing soon. The honest read on 35 years: Linux won everywhere developers and infrastructure teams make the decisions, and stalled everywhere consumers do. That's not a failure — it's just what the project actually is. A hobby that became the backbone of the internet is a pretty good outcome for something that was never supposed to be big or professional. ## Questions this post answers ### What percentage of the world's top servers run Linux? Linux runs on 96% of the world's top million servers. It also powers every major cloud provider and every Kubernetes cluster, making it the dominant operating system for backend infrastructure roughly thirty-five years after Linus Torvalds first released it as a hobby project in 1991. _Developers building backend infrastructure follow Linux ecosystem shifts like this on daily.dev._ ### What is Linux's market share on the desktop compared to Windows? Linux holds somewhere between 4% and 7.5% of the desktop market, depending on the data source, up from just 0.7% sixteen years earlier. Windows still holds roughly 93% of the desktop market. Improvements like Wayland as default, better GPU drivers, and Flatpak/Snap packaging have made the experience better without shifting the overall balance much. _Anyone weighing desktop OS choices for a team can track adoption trends like these on daily.dev._ ### What is blocking wider Linux adoption for PC gaming? Anti-cheat support is the main barrier, since most competitive multiplayer titles refuse to run on Linux and that isn't expected to change soon. Despite this, Valve's Steam Deck and Proton compatibility layer pushed Linux to a March high of 5.33% on Steam's hardware survey, falling to 3.9% by August, with SteamOS at 21% and CachyOS at 15.4% among Linux distros used for gaming. _Gamers and developers evaluating Proton and SteamOS compatibility can follow these trends on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@baz14** · 1 upvotes > Linux isn't just a free alternative. It's the kernel of the entire ecosystem, free and open source software. Even before Linux, RMS was already involved in free and open source software. Later, he even published his vision for making money from free products. The community realized how much easier development is when all products are open source. It became clear that proprietary software, driven by profit, was holding back the development of IT technologies. It simply rewrote what had already been written. Open source is a different perspective on development. The Linux kernel made the entire... ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Linux is finally ready for gamers, but gamers are still not ready for Linux](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-is-finally-ready-for-gamers-but-gamers-are-still-not-ready-for-linux-udyvnyzhz) · XDA Developers · 64 upvotes · 5 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#android](https://daily.dev/tags/android) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/linus-called-linux-just-a-hobby-35-years-later-it-runs-the-world--hzbcfqspe) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Linus called Linux 'just a hobby.' 35 years later, it runs the world.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/linus-called-linux-just-a-hobby-35-years-later-it-runs-the-world--hzbcfqspe","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/linus-called-linux-just-a-hobby-35-years-later-it-runs-the-world--hzbcfqspe"},"datePublished":"2026-08-27T08:25:31.325Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:30:53.466Z","description":"Thirty-five years ago Linus Torvalds posted his famously self-deprecating announcement of a hobby OS project that wouldn't be 'big and professional like GNU.'...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dGiiDyrGl7Q/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dGiiDyrGl7Q/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Trends","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Trends","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZfSp3asX--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996004/logos/trends?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},"commentCount":1,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/linus-called-linux-just-a-hobby-35-years-later-it-runs-the-world--hzbcfqspe","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}],"keywords":"open-source,linux,android","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trends","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Linus called Linux 'just a hobby.' 35 years later, it runs the world."}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/linus-called-linux-just-a-hobby-35-years-later-it-runs-the-world--hzbcfqspe","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Linux isn’t just a free alternative. It’s the kernel of the entire ecosystem, free and open source software. Even before Linux, RMS was already involved in free and open source software. Later, he even published his vision for making money from free products. The community realized how much easier development is when all products are open source. It became clear that proprietary software, driven by profit, was holding back the development of IT technologies. It simply rewrote what had already been written. Open source is a different perspective on development. The Linux kernel made the entire ecosystem coherent.\nThanks, GNU/Linux. You guys are awesome.","datePublished":"2026-08-28T06:34:21.369Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hZBCFqSpe#c-WRLRGwRHt","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Baz","url":"https://daily.dev/baz14","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKd2iFU8YS4sV-rBJptuYSF8EHeQnm23N_dcXE1uON7_GMIlZg=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/linus-called-linux-just-a-hobby-35-years-later-it-runs-the-world--hzbcfqspe#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What percentage of the world's top servers run Linux?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Linux runs on 96% of the world's top million servers. 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