On the eternal fight between Linux and Windows

In April 2026, French Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM), announced that it would be withdrawing from proprietary operating systems to turn to the GNU/Linux operating system as part of the broader push for Europe Tech Sovereignty. The first thing we will see is the economic impact. While we still do not have a precise number of Windows workstation that will be replaced, in 2009 the Germanderie estimated a saving of 50 milions of euro. So, we can conservatively estimate a similar amount.

But France will not be alone, in German, Schleswig-Holstein has already become one of the most advanced public administrations in Europe when it comes to open source adoption, and it won't be the last, look at Denmark as another example. This is something we can see on the numbers: on June 2026, linux has reached the 4.39% of the market share, while windows has dropped to to 56.55%.

One factor behind these numbers is also the old rhetoric: "You can't play on Linux". This has been proved to be wrong thanks to Valve and it's Proton compatibility tool, which also enabled the development of SteamOS, a linux-based os for the Steam Deck.

Another point against Microsoft has been scored by... Microsoft itself. Windows 11 is bad. So bad, in fact, that over half a milion users migrated to Zorin, a Linux distribution.

But what about Apple and macOS? Everyday Apple users will probably keep using their systems. However, part of the developer community has started questioning Apple’s ecosystem more openly since 2024.

One of the most visible voices in this shift is without a doubt David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), who has repeatedly criticized how Apple treats developers. This eventually led into the broader Omacom idea and projects such as Omarchy.

But did this shift actually happen? At least inside 37signals, yes. DHH himself offers some feedback in All-in on Omarchy at 37signals, where he explains that the company is moving its Ops and Ruby programming teams to Omarchy over the next three years, replacing MacBooks with Framework laptops as the new machines.

Outside 37signals, the interest is clearly there: at the moment, the Omarchy Github repository has around 23.9k stars, which is a strong signal of attention from the community.

So is 2026 the year of Linux? Not yet. But it has never felt this close.

Typo?