Summary

  • Linux momentum is rising — record Steam users and 1M Windows users grabbed a distro in three months.
  • Companies are shipping Linux apps, but announcements can provoke strong community reactions.
  • Opera GX's Linux reveal drew ire — AI features and trust/privacy fears led many to call it spyware.

Will 2026 be the ever-elusive "Year of Linux?" While fans of the open-source operating system have hoped that previous years would be The One, things are actually looking pretty rosy for 2026's odds. After all, we're seeing record-breaking user counts on Steam and over one million Windows users downloading a specific distro in three months.

As such, we're seeing companies begin to publish official Linux apps, some of which are more welcome than others. Unfortunately, Opera GX has seemingly been given quite the cold reception, as its announcement of a Linux version in the works has drawn ire from Linux users.

Opera GX is coming to Linux, much to the chagrin of Linux

Some people were happy, though

The story starts over on X, with the good folk over at Windows Latest making a post about Windows 11. The post detailed that Microsoft was planning to add Copilot to File Explorer in its operating system, which people weren't too stoked about.

In a quote repost, Opera GX shared the news, adding, "Is this a good time to announce that we are working on the Linux version of Opera GX?" Clearly, Opera GX wanted to capitalise on the "Microslop" hate that has been circling the internet for the past few months.

While Opera GX did get a smattering of support (and even one person volunteering to beta-test it), the majority of the responses are pretty negative. People pointed out that Opera GX also has AI tools baked into it, and some people brought up their trust issues with giving their data to the company.

People over on the Linux subreddit weren't much kinder. While some pointed out that it was good that companies were producing Linux-native versions of their apps, they also echoed the same feelings as the replies on X, with claims of Opera GX being spyware being brought up a lot. Some even went so far as to claim that Opera GX uses as much "slop" as Windows does.

At the very least, the Opera GX team can take solace that some of us here at XDA love it. One of our writers listed out all the reasons they use Opera GX, and another writer, who's a big advocate for AI browsers, has lots of nice things to say about Opera's own LLM-powered product, Neon.