Covid was a time when many people had their eyes opened to big tech not having good intentions. I wouldn't be surprised if covid did make a difference. It was a free option and people often had extra time on their hands to tinker. Lots of people changed jobs after as well. None of those mean there would have been a spike necessarily, but may contribute to an increase in adoption rate.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I don't rule out the possibility that COVID made some people think further on how they interact with software, and that indirectly promoted some Linux usage. However, I don't think that it would create continuous pressure encouraging adoption, that keeps going on four years later.

Another reason why I don't think that COVID is the cause is the timing: the "bulk" of the social impact happened in early 2020, but the slope seems to start near the end of 2020, almost early 2021.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

I had extra time during the pandemic and used some of it to permanently migrate to Linux.

[–] taaz@biglemmowski.win 7 points 2 weeks ago

Maybe that LTT linux challenge?

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 13 points 2 weeks ago

I think it's a combination of factors:

Long term trend of services moving from native desktop to more web apps which incidentally improves Linux support
Valve pushing Linux Gaming to new heights
Flatpak reaches critical mass and shipping on multiple distros by default
Unpopularity of the latest Windows development trends
Average PC user becoming more technically inclined -- "normal" people more likely to skip the PC and go mobile-only

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 8 points 2 weeks ago

Windows 10 and 11 happened

Edit: Also around 2017 DXVK happened bringing high end gaming to Linux