I am from india. These numbers are inflated due to our population and government and health sector office pc using linux (ubuntu). These office pcs just require a chrome browser and all the work is done on the browser Nobody here cares what os they use in their office pc. I don’t see anyone here switching to linux on their personal pc other than the IT students who are forced to install kali linux. And most of them are running linux on virtualbox on windows.
Steam deck is not even officially sold here and imported ones that are sold cost 950$ for the 512 gb variant. So it is a ultra niche item here. .
People here buy desktops only for gaming/content creation, which means most households here doesn’t need/require a desktop. And these people always prefer mac or windows.
Also gaming scene here is dominated by mobile games (because gaming pcs and consoles are too expensive and we have the cheapest internet and phone prices) As for pc games it is dominated by valorant, Minecraft and gtav (fivem rp).
Edit - Many consider this a huge win. But getting market share in the office space for basic browsing and word processing inflates the numbers for actual game/app developers who wants to support linux and they will disappointed seeing the actual usage and they will abandon the linux support. Also the indian market isn’t buying laptop/desktops for browsing, they just use their phone because pc hardware is expensive and phones prices are cheap. And anyone who is buying desktops for serious tasks stick to windows and mac.
That’s not a bad thing at all. Maybe gamers aren’t on Linux yet, but that’s hell of a lot of average non tech people exposed to Linux, are forced to be familiar with it, and if offered, would probably go Ubuntu at home too if all they need is Chrome. That’s how they know how to go to their email and whatever.
People that don’t care about computers don’t care what the operating system is, they go with what is familiar. That often comes from school/work, or even friend groups. If all your friends have a Mac, you’ll probably get one too just so they can help you and share tips.
That’s also a whole bunch of computers that when they’ll be sold later, will also be wiped with Ubuntu on them, and sold to people that are likely to have worked with them at work. They can either keep Ubuntu, for free, or choose to pay extra for a Windows license and install it.
Defaults are powerful.
Gamer here i switched to linux because windows somehow stopped reading my storage drive while linux here works fine but aside from a few games not running its quite decent
Default here is chrome not linux. These people aren’t exposed to linux file system or the linux way of doing things. They just click on the chrome icon. They all still use windows om their personal laptop and desktops. They dont switch just because their office runs chrome.
So Chromebooks aren’t popular there?
No.