The decision of Microsoft to withdraw from Russia has had a significant impact as well, particularly due to the emergence of government-supported Linux distributions that are gaining popularity among various organizations and companies in the former USSR and BRICS nations.

That never stopped pirates there so I doubt it's much of an incentive.

The biggest driver of adoption is simply more computers sold with Linux pre-installed. Very small fraction of users ever installs an OS.

I've been buying machines with Linux preinstalled for 7-8 years now, both for myself, my wife and my kid.

It is possible, and that's great, but boy Dell et al do obfuscate the choice on their sites. You have to know the machine exists, need to know the generation, the year, etc.

It's almost as if they don't want people to buy these machines.

I'm interested in this and other than System76 and the scant Dell options I'd be hard pressed to name more options. What do you know of?