If you rely on NetApplications numbers you should not you should not be writing about computers.
Just as a very rough estimate: Ubuntu has 12M users, Debian- twice that. Then there is OpenSuse, XANDROS, Android and bunch of smaller in terms of share. Where does that put NetApp numbers?
I think the dent in Windows has been made. It is only matter of time from here...
Quite possibly it is going to be Google who is going to bury Windows- your OS does not matter when you use mostly your browser.
Oh, did Microsoft just miss analysts expectations on revenue?

I love reading what the people here have written. Just a bunch of anti-Microsoft nerds talking about the uber greatness of Mac's and Linux. Too bad the market isn't about you so quit your whining and moaning. The market is about ease of use, affordability, tco and efficiency for the end user. Study after study shows that Windows has a lower tco than Linux. I don't care to see some blog that somebody has written for your evidence.

Linux Distributions aren't invincible. There are pros and cons with every OS. I've been using Windows 7 since launch along with MSE, and I haven't encountered any issues. I plan to learn RedHat at some point in the future for professional reasons, but I plan on sticking with Windows for gaming and general computing at home.

First of all, GNU/Linux is not something you can measure with "market share", since not many people actually need to purchase it. This means that there is no real indicators of actual number of end-users of GNU/Linux.

Second of all, Apple is in all the current TV shows and movies. Flip on a TV show or watch a movie and lo' and behold everybody and their significant other has a Apple Mac laptop. Of course life isn't like it is in TV shows or movies, but the point is that they are doing their best to SEEM ubiquitous. Apple's Mac & the many distributions of GNU/Linux are great products, and in my opinion beats Windows 7 hands down.

This whole article is completely bogus. (Whew! I cannot believed that I said all that without resorting to cussing.)

More of the same mindless drivel here...

You cannot simply look at the purchase numbers. If you look at these statistics only you have terribly skewed data since you are never accounting for the following:

1, How many laptops/pcs/netbooks/servers are purchased with windows because that is all they are sold with, with the only goal being to have the OS removed in favor of Linux?
2. How many Linux installations happen after a friend shows them how handy the OS really is?
3. How many dual boot systems (Windows/Linux) are running out there?

I can tell you in my experience that we have hundreds of servers and work stations and every server or desktop we buy has windows on it. Every one gets wiped for Linux as soon as it gets in our shop!

I have ready from others that do the same in their shops and I know again from real experience that many CDN's do the same and they have typically thousands of servers and hundreds of work stations.

Take a look at the noc in any data center for that matter. Most are displaying server monitoring tools that are clearly deployed on linux work stations!


Please, stop grabbing the easy answer and do some real digging before you show "real world numbers".

I agree that the Windows is a favorite for the majority of people that do not know better. However it is not nearly as bad as the "first glance" numbers you speak of here!

Windows security is a joke. Many more will be turning to Ubuntu such as ZDNET's Jason Perlow recently did.

I'm happy being a minority using linux. Means hackers and malware creators will focus on Microsoft users. We 1%'s meanwhile will be happily using a completely functional OS without the threat of malware or total system failure (which is what Windows users face every time they log on).

Ubuntu 10.04 in 2 days :D

Windows 7 is suficient for everything. That's why people buy it.

I do agree that stats should not be referred while looking at the success and footprint of platforms like Linux and Mac OSX. But truth be told "'Windows 7 has won the race from all directions :

>> Sales numbers
>> Market Share
>> User acceptability and satisfaction
>> Feature P.O.V.
>> Better productivity
>> Better support of H/W and minimal crashes & bugs


Linux and Max OSX are great but Windows 7 is just inevitable.


Thanks and Regards,
Hardik Shah

Forced to vista, then w7 looks like salvation. Still not being as solid as unix based systems and stuck with "oh-almighty-backwards-compatibility" it won't be able to fully takeoff and take true advantage of latest tech. Windows is poor with NTFS and still using DLLs and oversized registries along with useless Services.

LOL..Every time there is anarticle about Microsoft, there will be Linux/Apple fan boys all over it.

It has been how many years, that you guys talk about Linux will conquer the world? If you guys take less time to bad-mouth windows or microsoft, your beloved OS might have more market share. Just saying..

To all that are saying you can't just include sales because Linux is free, you should understand that Net Applications does not count sales but Internet visits to specific sites that they change monthly and do not make public. The numbers are fairly accurate and the author is correct. Only MAC has made some small gains and Linux remains idle. The only thing eating Windows market share at Net Applications is they removed Windows Mobile from the Windows catagory (0.6 percent) and the increased use of smartphones. The PC market is still growing however and it is outpacing Mac growth (34 percent compared to Mac 29 percent last quarter). Windows 7 has sold more copies in 6 months than OSX sales in a little over 18 years. You may not like it but Windwos is still king. I do agree that Apple has their incredible small device market and you see Macs on just about every TV show. However, like most things on TV, it is not reality and that is ok with Apple and Microsoft. Mac makes an average OS and puts it on superior hardware. Microsoft makes a much more complex OS that suits many harware configs and allows it to grab a large part of the low end and middle market and of course almost all of the enterprise market. Both companies are raking in the $$ and that is all they really care about. They really don't care what all the fanboys say on these blogs.

There is a reason Windows has the market share. Mac OS X is designed with the hardware in mind. As such, the OS and the hardware work hand-in-hand. So very rarely do you get errors. Windows is designed without the hardware in mind. The hardware manufacturers write drivers for the OS. Microsoft licenses it's OS to manufacturers of hardware. Mac OS X is closed to only Mac computers. So in the end, it's hardware. There are MANY companies that produce windows computers. There is only one company that produce mac computers. I'm sure if Mac licensed it's OS to other manufacturers, the story would change. The CEO of Dell has already said he would put out OS X computers if Apple would let him.

Very rarely i get erros?

Sorry, but i bought a MAC-OSX a month ago, and it FREQUENTLY get errors.

i received several updates, and wiht MAC-OSX 10.6.4, 30% of my videos causes quicktime to crash, and i don´t like it. this doesn´t happen with WMP., neither RealPlayer do (Oh, wait... this HAPPEN with MAC-OSX version of RealPlayer... Maybe a bogus driver?)

If other companies, system, pcs start using MAC and the number increase, apple will have worse errors than windows because they wont be able to focus on hardware!!! stop bragging guys...just use whatever you like to...peace out...many people here say don't look at the sales and unit sold to call it success?? well, then how about ipods and iphone, aren't you going to call it successful?? I guess not...cuz they aren't any good esp. ipod sux...

What an unbiased...oh...wait...

If we want to this author to be considereded he must say Linux is the best OS in ther world and is growing more than the others, aslo you can measure how many people are using linux with sells... and not even with web data collected fromt he internet, you knows those sitest who collect your OS and Browser information they are not valid.

The true is that linux and mac have the 97% of the market and windows the 3%... ... they would call unbiased right?

Get real guys, wake up to the truth and stop crying out loud, that won't change the reality that Windows OS are targeted more not because they make crappy sofware(which is possible). they are targeted because they are the most used OS, even illegaly.

Your market share numbers account for 87%, can I assume the other 13% are running Nova Epsilon, the imaginary OS that in no way is related to *nix?

It's interesting how Microsoft is making all this money on a product that MANY, MANY people are having difficulties installing. I just bought Windows 7 to do a clean install on a new hard drive, and the installation freezes because it doesn't recognize the device driver. It's all over the internet how people can't install Windows 7. Must be nice to corner the market. (Sorry, feeling a bit snarky at the moment. Out over $200 on a product I can't install, so my desktop is STILL out of commission. I'll take Vista any day -- at least maybe I can get that one to install.)

Mary sorry that you couldn't install Windows 7 on your computer with the new hard drive you just bought. This is not an issue specific to Windows 7 or any version of Windows but to all OSs. A system running older hardware may have trouble installing any newer operating system Linux, MAC or Windows because that OS no longer or does not have drivers to support your hardware. You simple need to get an updated driver from the hardware vendor or in some cases use the previous OS driver during installation of the operating system. e.g. You mentioned Vista - I Vista had a supported driver for you hardware you may be able to use this driver in Windows 7 during your installation. There are plenty of 'HELP!' available on Microsoft website in particular Technet.microsoft.com for deploying windows and resolving issues and well as other websites on the internet.

As for the other people on here bashing Windows. Come on people really Linux, MAC and Windows all have their strong and weak points. A test was done putting a recent version of Linux, MAC and Windows (not Vista) in front of a group 6yr olds to play with to see which one they would use the most. Can you guess which one they use the most and which the least? The most certainly wasn't MAC or Linux and the least wasn't Windows or MAC. Point made no further comment...