14 DAY TRIAL // Despite Microsoft’s Windows 10 push, the desktop operating system has actually recorded the biggest drop in a long time last month, while rival Linux managed to post the most substantial market share increase in the last 12 months.
NetMarketShare reveals that in August 2017, Microsoft’s Windows declined to 90.70 percent market share, down from 91.45 percent the month before. The 0.75 percent drop is the biggest Windows had recorded since April 2016 when its market share collapsed from 90.45 percent to 88.77 percent (-1.68 percent).
This performance is particularly surprising because it comes at a time when Microsoft completes the rollout of the Windows 10 Creators Update and, at the same time, it’s also finalizing development of another version of its operating system scheduled to go live on October 17.
Linux adoption on the rise, macOS still declining
What’s a bit more worrying is that Linux, which has long been considered a rival to Windows, has experienced the biggest growth in the last 12 months in August. Linux improved its share from 2.53 percent to 3.37 percent last month.
Linux appears to be the preferred choice for users who are stepping away from Windows, as Apple’s macOS declined in August from 6.02 percent to 5.94 percent.
The growth experienced by Linux, however, was impressive, as in just four months, the open-source platform has managed to jump from less than 2 percent to 3.37 percent. Back in May this year, Linux was running on just 1.99 percent of the world’s desktop systems.
The only good news for Microsoft is that Windows hasn’t dropped below the 90 percent market share, so it’s still powering more than 9 in 10 PCs out there. The last time when Windows declined to less than 90 percent share was in July 2016 when it was running on 89.79 percent of the PCs worldwide, growing to 90.52 percent the next month.