Linux
Linux Kernel Organization, San Francisco, California, United StatesLinux is a family of open-source, Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, originally created by Linus Torvalds and now maintained by a global community of contributors.
It is widely used as a server operating system for web and application hosting, supporting web servers such as Apache and 
Nginx, databases such as MySQL and 
PostgreSQL, container runtimes such as 
Docker and LXC, and virtualization with KVM.
According to our data, Linux is the most popular operating system on the web.
It has 66.2% of the operating system market share and is detected on 8.8% of all websites.
- 🏠 Website
- 🔗 Links
- </> Source code
- 👨👩👦👦 Community
Wikipedia
Reddit
Stack Overflow💸 Pricing
Linux is available for free.
📊 Rankings and Market Share
- Operating Systems
- Rank: 1
- Market share: 66.2%
🏆 Linux Awards
- 🥇 Most popular in the United States in the Operating Systems category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Germany in the Operating Systems category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Spain in the Operating Systems category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Italy in the Operating Systems category.
- 🥇 Most popular in the Netherlands in the Operating Systems category.
- 🥇 Most popular in France in the Operating Systems category.
- 🥇 Most popular in the United Kingdom in the Operating Systems category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Japan in the Operating Systems category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Russia in the Operating Systems category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Canada in the Operating Systems category.
⚡ Sites Using Linux
We have data on 308,748 websites that use the Linux operating system. Here is a list of some of the top ranked ones.
The highest rated site using Linux is espn.com.
| # | Website | Rank | Country | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #141 | English | ||
| 2 | #199 | English | ||
| 3 | #385 | Italy | Italian | |
| 4 | #623 | United States | English | |
| 5 | #824 | Russia | Spanish | |
| 6 | #826 | Sweden | English | |
| 7 | #845 | English | ||
| 8 | #865 | American English | ||
| 9 | #897 | American English | ||
| 10 | #901 | France | Persian | |
| 11 | #929 | France | Persian | |
| 12 | #933 | American English | ||
| 13 | #969 | Pakistan | English | |
| 14 | #971 | American English | ||
| 15 | #974 | United Kingdom | British English | |
| 16 | #980 | Lithuania | Malayalam | |
| 17 | #982 | American English | ||
| 18 | #983 | American English | ||
| 19 | #1,056 | Belgium | Dutch | |
| 20 | #1,178 | Israel |
📈 Usage Statistics
Most of the sites that use Linux:
- are located in the United States
- have content in English
- use the .com domain extension
- fall into the Business category.
Most of the sites using Linux are from the United States, Germany, and Spain.
- United States 13%
- Germany 10%
- Spain 6.7%
- Italy 6%
- Netherlands 5.7%
- France 5.3%
- United Kingdom 5.2%
- Japan 4.7%
- Russia 2.9%
- Other 40.5%
Most Linux users speak English, German, or Spanish.
- English 45%
- German 8.7%
- Spanish 7.6%
- French 4.8%
- Italian 4.8%
- Japanese 4.2%
- Dutch 3.8%
- Russian 3.7%
- Portuguese 1.9%
- Other 15.5%
The Linux operating system is especially popular on .com, .de, and .org top-level domains.
- .com 35.8%
- .de 6.1%
- .org 5.6%
- .it 3.7%
- .nl 3.6%
- .net 3.4%
- .ru 2.1%
- .co.uk 2%
- .es 2%
- Other 35.7%
The primary market segments for websites utilizing Linux include business, marketing and merchandising, and education and reference.
- Business 16.7%
- Marketing/Merchandising 9.8%
- Education/Reference 8%
- Online Shopping 7.6%
- Internet Services 5.9%
- Blogs/Wiki 5%
- Travel 4.3%
- Entertainment 4.3%
- General News 3%
- Other 35.4%
🕵️ Similar Technologies
These are some of the best Linux alternatives.
Windows
Ubuntu
Debian
FreeBSD🆚 Compare Alternatives
Compare Linux to…
- 🕵️ Similar systems
- 💡 More alternatives
- 🔎 All options
CentOS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux💬 Frequently Asked Questions
What is the company behind Linux?
Linux is owned by Linux Kernel Organization, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.
Is Linux free?
Yes, it is a free operating system.
It is also an open-source solution, and you can find its source code on 
GitHub.
Which country uses Linux the most?
The majority of Linux users are from the United States.
Who uses Linux?
According to our data, Linux is used on thousands of sites, including such established ones as espn.com,
go.com, and
giallozafferano.it.
Is Linux used on government websites?
Overall, we found Linux on 113 government sites in the United States.
Do academic institutions use Linux?
Yes, quite a few! In total, we know of 553 academic websites in the United States that use Linux.
How does Linux stack up against the competition?
Linux is the most popular operating system on the market, surpassing all others.
👉 See Also
Apache🗃️ About This Data
- We evaluate the popularity of technologies based on the number of websites where we detect their usage.
- Technologies without a detectable web footprint, and those we do not track, are not reflected in the calculated market share.
- This report is based on the analysis of 3,525,542 websites.
- Statistics were last calculated on .
- For more details, see our methodology and disclaimer.