October 2009 OS stats: Windows 7 passes Snow Leopard, Linux

*static.arstechnica.com/assets/2009/11/os_share_1009-thumb-640xauto-9636.png

Windows 7 arrived two weeks ago and so far it's selling quite sell. With Mac OS X 10.6 becoming available less than three months ago, and Ubuntu 9.10 arriving last week, we feel it's a good time to start watching the market share for operating systems, in addition to our monthly posts on browser market share. At this point in time, Windows continues to dominate with more than 90 percent of the market, Mac OS is above the five percent mark, and Linux is just under one percent. In October, Windows was the only operating system not to show positive growth.

Between October and September, Windows dropped 0.25 percentage points (from 92.77 percent to 92.52 percent), Mac OS climbed up a sizeable 0.15 percentage points (from 5.12 percent to 5.27 percent), and Linux edged forward 0.01 percentage points (from 0.95 percent to 0.96 percent). Windows' drop is worth noting given that it occurred in the month that Windows 7 was released, but November may show something different given that it will be a full month of sales of the operating system. Still, Windows 7 did quite well; it managed to pass Linux, Snow Leopard, and even both of their shares combined (2.13 percent versus Windows 7's 2.15 percent):

More @ ars technica

Good to hear

T

Boo linux

My message is too short
Man I hate indian forums.

Actually the usage share of the Linux is around 12-15%.. much higher.. many high profile people have accepted it.. Even Microsoft's ultimate fanboy Steve Ballmer himself said so..

G

M$ BRIBED...LOL..this market share doesn account all users

^^what would be the market share if MS accounts all those millions of pirated editions of windows that are being used? would it make windows market share at 99%???

^lol. MS tops.

hellknight said:
Actually the usage share of the Linux is around 12-15%.. much higher.. many high profile people have accepted it.. Even Microsoft's ultimate fanboy Steve Ballmer himself said so..

not actually.

G

desiibond said:
^^what would be the market share if MS accounts all those millions of pirated editions of windows that are being used? would it make windows market share at 99%???

then account linux non commercial users...its baseless to add pirated users ...how does it contribute market share...sowmya is a m$ bot why will she tell m$ has less users

different site give different market shares, here are % share from two websites

Code:

website		Win7	Vista	Win2003	WinXP	W2000	Linux	Mac
w3schools	4.4	18.6	1.5	63.3	0.7	4.2	6.8
w3counter	2.8	22.2	0.9	59.1	0.6	2.1	7.4

*www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp
*www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php

these figures are always biased

Even if "worldwide" is strictly restricted to desktop computers, and not say CAD software, or servers, dedicated digital edting machines, automation computers, government and educational computers, and equipment used for scientific purposes, and netbooks, Linux still has a much greater share.

What a useless thread! M$ has the max market share, but even if it starts blackmailing people openly, it won't have 100% share ever. M$ will say that it has 95% market share, Apple will say that M$ has 60% market share, Mr. Linus will say that M$ has 80% market share, what difference does it make?

R

Lol......macs......lol. I don't feel nearly half as bad for Linux as I feel for Macs!
(I have a lot of respect for Linux and *nix systems in general).

How does it matter how much market share each has? Was there ever a doubt about Windows being on top? At least, I never had any!

A/V: Mac OS X
Academia & Enthusiasts: Linux
Everyone else (+ many in the above 2 categories): Windows

The distinction is clear

RChandan said:
(I have a lot of respect for Linux and *nix systems in general).

FYI, Mac OS X is a certified UNIX OS...

^ Yeah and built by the most wicked company in the world, Apple...

take a lot of stuff from OSS community+don't give back anything+bash MS+when they kick your butt with laptop ads threaten to sue them = Apple Inc

desiibond said:
^^what would be the market share if MS accounts all those millions of pirated editions of windows that are being used? would it make windows market share at 99%???

Sir, how do you reckon they came up with these figures ? What gives you the idea that pirated installations are not counted in this ?

R

infra_red_dude said:
How does it matter how much market share each has? Was there ever a doubt about Windows being on top? At least, I never had any!

A/V: Mac OS X
Academia & Enthusiasts: Linux
Everyone else (+ many in the above 2 categories): Windows

The distinction is clear

FYI, Mac OS X is a certified UNIX OS...

You said it yourself. It's not anywhere close to being a *nix in general. It's too gay and gray!

hellknight said:
^ Yeah and built by the most wicked company in the world, Apple...

take a lot of stuff from OSS community+don't give back anything+bash MS+when they kick your butt with laptop ads threaten to sue them = Apple Inc

Never disagreed on the fact that Apple is 'closed-behind-the-doors' and no wonder the first thing enthusiasts do after getting an iPhone is jailbreak it to break-free from Apple's shackles.

RChandan said:
You said it yourself. It's not anywhere close to being a *nix in general. It's too gay and gray!

Its not anywhere close to being a *nix in general? That statement doesn't make any sense! Care to elaborate???

lmao @ RChandan. You should stick to 2 minute noodles onlee.

Pat said:
Sir, how do you reckon they came up with these figures ? What gives you the idea that pirated installations are not counted in this ?

for windows and OS X, they take the sales numbers into account and not the number of downloads that happened on torrent sites

These numbers are released by respective companies

^ then how linux would release their sale figures , as it is free to download and distribute? and further most of the windows users use pirated windows.

these figures are calculated from number of hits at certain websites. they record the users OS data. these include hits from pirated operating systems.
from w3counter:

This report was generated 10/31/2009 based on the last 15,000 page views to each website tracked by W3Counter. W3Counter's sample currently includes 29,594 websites. The generation method was updated in July 2009 to ensure only visits during the month of the report are counted, resulting in a report that is more responsive to change

G

lol m$ gets huge advertising from piracy itself..

desiibond said:
for windows and OS X, they take the sales numbers into account and not the number of downloads that happened on torrent sites

These numbers are released by respective companies

6x6 said:
^ then how linux would release their sale figures , as it is free to download and distribute? and further most of the windows users use pirated windows.

these figures are calculated from number of hits at certain websites. they record the users OS data. these include hits from pirated operating systems.
from w3counter:

Exactly my point. How would the sales numbers help in calculating the market share ?

Do all these graphs even matter? Does this "market share" change the fact that:

1) Mac OS X is still closed and not 'tinkerable' to the extent of Windows and Linux?
2) Windows is still prone to malware and crashes?
3) GNU/Linux still has issues out-of-the box on a third of world's hardware?

Ye to hona hi tha! More of a fact than a News!

i wonder why the war is again for.... who cares what share OS have....just use the one you like ... cause none of the OS is made by you anyway to get profit out of it or something...