14 DAY TRIAL // The open source Linux operating system managed in a single month to equal Microsoft's proprietary Windows platform in terms of market share. However, the various distributions of Linux from providers only grew to equal the share of Windows 98 and not of more recent versions of Windows such as XP or Vista. According to statistics made available by W3Counter the combined usage share of the Linux distributions available on the market is the same as that of Windows 98. W3Counter revealed that it took into consideration 33,640,022 unique visits to no less than 5,570 websites. In this context, both Linux and Windows 98 scored a usage share of 1.34%.
This is by no means a victory for the open source platform. Windows 98 dates back to 1998 and was designed to replace Windows 95. In this regard Windows 98's market share began declining with the successive releases Microsoft made available in the Windows line of operating systems. However, Windows 98 proved a stubborn operating system which, also helped by compatibility issues with legacy drivers, applications and hardware managed to survive after the release of Windows Vista.
Microsoft pulled the switch on Windows 98 in July 2006. Although the Redmond company had intended for the final shut down of Windows 98 to be back in 2003, it only killed all forms of support last year, as the release of Windows Vista was beginning to take contour. With Microsoft cutting free and then extended support for Windows 98, customers began increasingly abandoning the operating system. The market share of Windows 98 has been on a continuing descendant trajectory since the introduction of Windows Me.
Market Share by Net Applications credited Windows 98 back in October, 2004 with just 10.99% of the market. But the data from August 2007 presented by Market Share indicates that Windows 98 is still on top of all the cumulated results of the Linux platforms with no less than 0.98%, while the open source operating system is just at 0.77%. Additionally, Internet metrics company OneStat gives Linux a global usage share of 0.36% while Windows receives the lion's share with 96.72%. And while the market share for Windows 98 may be slipping into nothing, as it is eroding constantly, Windows XP and Windows Vista will take Microsoft to an install base of one billion by mid 2008.