Earlier within the week, we reported on the barnstorming success Linux distro Zorin OS has had for the reason that official finish of assist for Windows 10 date handed, notching 780,000 installs from Windows 10 customers in a mere 5 weeks. Now it seems that different Linux distros are additionally making hay whereas Microsoft Windows 10’s solar units: The builders of Bazzite have taken to social media to trumpet that it has “delivered over 1 petabyte of Bazzite ISOs in just the last 30 days.”
From October 29 to November 28, staff Bazzite is blissful to share that the location had 730,000 distinctive guests, and it served 1PB of knowledge throughout a month, for the primary time. How many Bazzite OS downloads does this indicate? We seemed on the numerous ISO installers on provide and famous that an Nvidia GPU pleasant ISO was 7.5GB, and an AMD GPU-ready ISO 6.6GB. So, if we assume a mean of seven.0GB per ISO, that might be about 143,000 Bazzite downloads – getting near 150,000 new customers, as a best-case state of affairs.
Why Bazzite?
For those unfamiliar with Bazzite, it first blipped on our radar back in 2023, when it made waves as a gaming-centric SteamOS clone for those without a Steam Deck, but who were looking for a similar experience.
Bazzite progress has continued, but one has to admit its future looks less certain now that SteamOS is officially available for desktops. Nevertheless, Bazzite has been developed long and lovingly enough to make a fight of it. It currently offers broader system support, with the latest Linux drivers for broad compatibility with lots of desktops, laptops, and handhelds. You get a choice of downloading an ISO with Nvidia drivers already in place, and a choice of multiple desktop environments, too. Another important thing for gamers is the ready support for non-Steam launchers (for your Epic, GOG, Ubisoft and other PC games libraries).
The newest figures counsel that just about 90% of Windows video games run on Linux. The enchancment of video games compatibility has decreased the potential friction of migrating away from Microsoft’s OS. Moreover, issues solely appear to be getting higher for Linux switchers (verify that hyperlink for some hands-on Bazzite motion).
Why Zorin?
Coincidentally, the much more profitable (if the shared figures are correct) Zorin OS has the important thing ‘selling point’ that it’s going to usurp your Windows OS with out breaking a sweat. This distro comes with a familiar-looking ‘Start menu’ UI, and the WINE compatibility layer setup is box-fresh, so you’ll be able to root out your Windows utility installer archives, DVDs, ISO, or no matter and set up them and entry your tried and trusted apps on this non-Windows OS.
I’ve tried Zorin, and it really works nicely with previous, deserted software program I like to make use of, although it may well fit points on Windows 11. That was an unexpected bonus.
Are Bazzite and Zorin small potatoes?
So, Zorin OS reportedly achieved 1 million downloads in 5 weeks. And now we hear Bazzite served almost 150,000 Linux ISOs in a single calendar month. That’s great, but these OSes are quite small players in the Linux world.
There aren’t definitive comparison figures, but searching around indicates that the most popular distros are Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, Debian, and Arch Linux. The top two mentioned might dish out multiple times the volume of ISOs served by small/new challengers like Zorin or Bazzite. However, with both those highlighted distros having special appeal to ex-Windows productivity and gaming users, perhaps the sands have shifted in their favor, to some degree.