14 DAY TRIAL // The Windows versus Linux battle continues with a new round in June 2014, which seems to confirm that the open-source platform is becoming a more popular choice among desktop computers users worldwide.
Today we’re again looking at statistics provided by the two most popular analytics firms in the world to see how both Windows and Linux performed last month and to determine whether the latter could challenge the domination of Microsoft’s operating system.
StatCounter says that last month Windows obviously ruled the charts, with a market share that’s clearly beating the one achieved by Linux – 88.96 percent. This means that almost 9 in 10 PCs were running Windows last month, according to these figures.
Linux, on the other hand, reached a market share of only 1.37 percent, but it’s clearly increasing its results every single month.
Version-wise, Windows 7 is the number one in almost every country across the globe, holding a 55.02 percent global market share, and is followed by Windows XP – 16.29 percent, Windows 8 – 7.57 percent, and Windows 8.1 – 6.7 percent.
Net Applications says that Windows has a market share of 91.53 percent, which is obviously bigger than StatCounter’s estimates, and enough to confirm its domination on the desktop. Linux comes third with 1.74 percent.
When it comes to versions, Windows 7 is again the number one with 50.55 percent, followed by Windows XP with 25.31 percent, Windows 8.1 with 6.61 percent, and Windows 8 with 5.93 percent.
As compared to the previous month, Linux grew from 1.62 percent to 1.74 percent and is expected to continue its ascension in the coming months as well.
As you can see, Windows is pretty much the main option for desktop computers worldwide, but there’s no doubt that more and more users discover the open-source world and decide to give Linux a try.
Windows XP users, for example, are still looking for a newer operating system that runs smoothly on old hardware, and since an upgrade to another Windows version pretty much involves hardware investments as well, Linux is obviously at least worth a shot.
It’s no secret that many XP users have actually decided to see what Linux is up to and open-source developers, on the other hand, tried to capitalize on this by releasing distros that are based on the familiar look of Windows XP.
Of course, it remains to be seen if Linux can break down Windows’ domination in the desktop market, as more users are finally willing to try a non-Windows platform.