Ubuntu on Windows outgrowing native installs? Not according to Canonical's Jon Seager

Ubuntu on Windows outgrowing native installs? Not according to Canonical's Jon Seager">

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There have been reports that Ubuntu on Windows may one day outgrow native Ubuntu installs. Nope, sorry, that's not true. I interviewed Jon Seager, Ubuntu Linux parent company Canonical's VP of engineering, and he told me, "No, not really, only that the growth rate is faster!" And growth, and the speed of that growth, are two very different things.

Wait, Ubuntu on Windows? Yes, thanks to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) , it's long been possible to run Linux distros , including Ubuntu, on Windows.

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The confusion about Ubuntu on Windows' growth arose from comments Seager made out of context in an earlier interview. There, he said, "The growth in our WSL numbers is significantly higher than the growth in Desktop usage numbers ."

The confusion came with his follow-up comment: "I expect to see more Ubuntu WSL users than 'native' Ubuntu users over the coming months."

Seager's assertion might suggest he expected more Ubuntu Desktops to run on WSL than on PCs, but that's not the case. Once again, he was referring to WSL Ubuntu's higher growth rate, not the absolute number of Ubuntu Desktops. There are, and almost certainly always will be, more Ubuntu Linux Desktops on PCs than on PCs running WSL.

Seager's clarification reinforces a narrower interpretation of a recent claim that Ubuntu was growing more quickly on WSL than on bare metal. The comparison is between Ubuntu Desktop usage within WSL and native Ubuntu Desktop installations, rather than between Windows-hosted Linux environments and all Linux deployments.

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The distinction matters. Ubuntu is used across desktops, servers, cloud instances, containers, appliances, and embedded systems. Seager's comments were only about the desktop. Nor do they establish whether WSL users will ultimately become a larger population than all forms of native Ubuntu deployment. Personally, I can't see it. Windows usage is finally declining as MacOS and Linux gain at its expense .

Asked what might be driving faster WSL growth, and whether AI developers were a major factor, Seager told me, "I suspect it's just enterprise developers rather than specifically 'AI developers', but the rise of AI development tools may well have also accelerated things, of course."