Yes but it means nothing if consumers are not buying the hardware with Linux. The average consumer is not going to put Linux on their computer if it’s not as simple as downloading a browser or upgrading an operating system.
"Average consumers" are becoming increasingly technically sophisticated as demographics shift, and of course the two leading mobile OSs are already Unix-based. While they're not marketed as "*nix" to end users, they absolutely were marketed as such to developers.
Probably no so related but your comment remembered me some friends sentence, something like: "end-users don't mind about the technical aspects they just want something that works".
This is an ad-hoc claim and not necessarily true, I know. But turns out that this sentence is trivial nowadays with this such of big impact of technology in people's lives. So users are not foolish, they are every day more aware about software in general. They know what they want and can give you the value that your software deserves so just let's start to tell them more about Linux.
Yes you have to jump through hoops and not everyone in IT is extremely happy always but even some of them prefer it.
To me it feels kind of like when Mac broke through in developer circles.
First it was weird and IT department laughed. Then more and more people including bosses demanded it and here we are: if a job demands all devs use Windows many devs will go somewhere else.
I would say that it does. If your boss is not aware of this system, they will not allow to use it or consider secure. At work, I am typically not allowed to freely choose my OS.
Linux is already so mainstream at work that I've seen a sales guy(!) using Ubuntu.
And I see people sharing screen on Teams and it is Linux!