Windows and Linux communities used to virtually battle each other regarding the superiority of one platform or the other, but that is no longer happening, at least not at the same scale. One of the reasons for that might be that Linux is actually gaining ground.

We need to get some things straight right from the start. The Linux desktop market share has increased only slightly in the last couple of years. It's on the rise, but the trend is not breaking any records. The number is somewhere around 1.5% - 2%. It might be a little higher or a little lower, but it’s still a very small number.

The server market share is the other way around, with Linux and BSD leading the charge. An optimistic percentage places Windows server at about 30%. On the other hand, servers are not really a concern for users, so we'll ignore them for now.

The desktop is the public face of an operating system, or in the case of Linux, a huge number of Linux-based operating systems. When people talk about the Linux and Windows features, options, pros and cons, they usually refer to the desktop versions.

Up until a few years ago, the battle between the two platforms was fierce, usually followed by various jokes and puns, but that has stopped for the most part. There could be a number of reasons for it, but the main one is that Windows is actually losing and Linux is gaining ground.

The thing is that a lot of people don't actually delete their Windows OS and install a Linux one. They are running both systems at the same time and they know what the strengths of each platform are. The communities have started to blend and less users are willing to make fun of an OS that they actually use at home.

Linux' rise in popularity has many catalysts. One of them is definitely Valve with its Steam distribution platform. The advent of gaming on Linux is helping people understand that entertainment is possible on completely free operating systems.

The other major catalysts for the adoption of Linux are the system installers and the software center. It used to be hard to install a Linux distro, but that has changed dramatically. Developers have been working to streamline the installation of Linux systems and the procedure has become so simple that anyone who can install a Windows OS can also install a Linux distro.

The usability of Linux operating systems is also getting a lot better, as users can easily install their favorite applications, and to top it all off, more and more devs bring their apps and games to the open source environment. Soon, most of the major companies will start making their software for both platforms and they won't be able to ignore Linux any longer.

Linux is winning a fight and it's not even trying to. There is no PR department for Linux and the people involved in open source projects are only trying to do one thing, improve the software. If Linux is helped in the process, all the better.