14 DAY TRIAL // 40 millions of Windows Vista sold licenses later, Mac OS X and Linux bite the dust, and the latest Microsoft operating system is directly responsible. At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2007 in Los Angeles in mid May 2007, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates revealed that in the first 100 days of availability the company had shipped approximately 40 million Vista licenses.
With an impressive rate of adoption Windows Vista is right on track to "become the standard version of Windows" as Gates put it. Microsoft's Chairman and Co-founder also took a swing at rivals by claiming that just in the first five weeks on the market Windows Vista has surpassed the installed base of all other alternative operating systems.
Recent data made available by Market Share by Net Applications comes to confirm Gates' claims for Vista. According to the Market Share statistics, Vista now controls no less than 3.74% of the operating system market. In this context, Linux was the first road-kill produced by Vista in the very first month on the shelves. However, in May, Linux's market share dropped to 0.70% from 0.80% in April 2007.
Market Share by Net Applications separated in its statistics Apple's market share according to platform. In this regard, both MacIntel and MacOS have experienced minuscule growth from April to May. MacOS jumped from 3.89% to 3.95%, just 0.06%, and MacIntel managed an un-spectacular growth from 2.32% to 2.51%.
The superb market performance delivered by Windows Vista has already led to an adoption rate superior to both Mac OS X and Linux put together. Before Vista was launched to consumers at the end of January, there had been voices forecasting the fact that Microsoft was alienating users with the operating system and that Apple and Linux would rip the benefits. Nothing could be further from the truth judging by what Vista has showed so far.
