14 DAY TRIAL // If you're the kind of user who keeps an eye on Microsoft-related news, you sure heard some people, be they analysts or experts working for various companies across the world, criticizing the Redmond-based firm for the new direction of Windows and claiming that the world's number one desktop operating system is very likely to collapse in the coming years.
Market share statistics provided in the last six months or so more or less supported their statements, indicating that more users are moving from Windows to alternative platforms such as Mac OS X and Linux.
And still, it appears that Windows is winning back some of the users it lost in the last couple of years, as Microsoft's flagship operating system is again increasing its market share to a level that's close to the one reached before the launch of Windows 8.
Heavily criticized after the October 2012 launch, Windows 8 was often considered the main responsible for the dramatic drop of Windows' market share, but the recovery that the platform is experiencing these days might be living proof that users are finally embracing Microsoft's new platform.
Net Applications data for the month of May 2014 shows that Windows was running on 90.99 percent of the desktop computers worldwide, while Mac OS X comes second with 7.39 percent. Linux is third with 1.62 percent.
As compared to the month before, Windows scored an increase from 90.80 percent to 90.99 percent, while Mac dropped from 7.62 percent to 7.39 percent. Linux also managed to boost its number of users from 1.58 percent to 1.62 percent.
Although a 0.19 percent rise might seem a little bit insignificant at first, it's worth mentioning that Windows is said to be installed right now on 1.5 billion computers, which means that more than 2.8 million new computers installed Windows last month.
As for the reasons behind this growth, the recent improvements that Microsoft made to its platform mixed with the rapidly approaching launch of Windows 9 are most likely responsible for users regaining the lost trust in Microsoft.
The Windows 8 hate still exists out there and some people are still criticizing Microsoft for making so many changes in the operating system, but the company has more or less fixed all the previous errors and is now planning to restore full desktop functionality in the modern OS version by bringing back the Start menu.
Windows 9 is expected to be the OS version making Windows the OS flavor that everyone wanted from the very beginning and according to people familiar with the development plans, its launch could take place as soon as April 2015.