Windows 7 has managed to breathe new life into Microsoft’s share on the operating system market. For the first time in the last six months, Windows’ market share got a small bump, and an unusual break from an otherwise constant and downward trajectory. According to statistics made available by net Applications, the overall usage share of Windows jumped from 92.00% in January 2010 to 92.12% in February. Although the increase in market share is of just 0.12%, it does come as a natural consequence to Windows 7 having been deemed the fastest selling operating system in history.

Also between January and February 2010, Apple saw the usage share of Mac OS X trip, and go down from 5.16% to 5.02%. The Cupertino-based hardware company has seen a steady increase of Mac OS X’s market share over the past years, much to the detriment of Windows. Of course, there have been various exceptions to the rule, such as October 2009.

The month that brought with it the General Availability of Windows 7 was equivalent to an OS X drop from 5.27% to 5.12%. Since then, OS X never managed to get up to the 5.27% high, while, much to the contrary, it is now on the verge of going back under the 5% mark.

Linux too lost a bit of usage share, from 1.02% to 0.98%. But, of course, Linux has been stagnating around the 1%-market-share milestone for years now, and it appears that the open source operating system has hit a dead end.

Meanwhile, Windows 7 is less than a month away from breaking the 10%-market-share mark. The OS climbed from 7.57% in January to 8.92% in the past month. But, of course, any growth for Windows 7 translates into lost share for Vista (down from 17.47% to 16.51% in the past two months) and for Windows XP, now at just 65.49% of the market.