“We noticed an interesting thing the other day that we’d like to share with you. However, if you’re a Linux enthusiast, you may want to stop reading now,” Pingdom reports.
These are the operating system stats for April for the United States:
• 32.03% – Windows 7
• 31.22% – Windows XP
• 19.03% – Windows Vista
• 14.91% – Mac OS X
• 01.18% – iOS (iPad only)
• 00.71% – Linux
“These market share numbers are from Statcounter and are based on visitor statistics averaged from 3+ million websites. In other words, they represent computers used to access the Web. Mobile phones and other small-screen devices are not included,” Pingdom reports. “In other words, the iOS market share you see in the chart is only for iPad. It does not include the iPhone or iPod touch. We’ve verified this with Statcounter, just to be entirely sure.”
Pingdom reports, “Not only is iPad now so widely used that it shows up in this list, iOS for iPad has managed to pass Linux as a ‘desktop OS’ (we use quotes, because tablets will probably soon make up their own category). In fact, it passed Linux sometime around December. Not bad for a device that was launched just back in April of 2010.”
Full article, including breakdowns for other countries and more, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Gartner: Growth of Mac desktops in enterprise to hinder Linux more than Windows – January 02, 2007
Gartner: Apple Mac OS X more appealing to enterprise than desktop Linux – December 08, 2006
Linux creator Linus Torvalds switches to Apple Power Mac G5 – March 09, 2005
Microsoft’s Longhorn mess opens window of opportunity; time for Linux users switch to Mac OS X – September 02, 2004
Mercury News columnist: ‘best way for average person to run Unix is Mac OS X’ not Linux – April 04, 2004
Linux Magazine: ‘Linux interfaces pale besides the glory that is Mac OS X’s Aqua’ – March 08, 2004
Mac poses as much of challenge to Linux as to Windows – September 29, 2002
Unix/Linux guru Simon Cozen defects to Mac OS X – September 21, 2002
All those XP and Vista users should just get the real thing and switch to Mac. 🙂
M$ should be even more embarrassed by the fact that an OS released 11 years ago and last (fully?) updated 3 years ago is used as much as their all new OS. I’d be quite embarrassed if I were monkey boy… I might even throw some chairs !
Look at growth if just half of Vista switches ….
Interesting. Not surprising. Linux is great for running servers and such, but it’s not really a viable desktop OS. I know Linux guys use it as such, but not the average web-surfing Joe.
I’m sure no one will write a story either about how Mac OS X is almost 15% of computer users (and climbing). Kinda blows away the old 4-5% stats that keep getting recycled.
I can’t say that I am surprised.
I know one guy who uses a linux distro as his daily desktop OS. Strangely enough he spends most of his time in VMWare running an XP virtual machine because the majority of his apps he needs for work are not available for Linux.
On the embedded and server side of things it is totally different. Linux is used everywhere and quite heavily.
When I made the first initial major investment in Apple in 2006, after the shift to Intel Microprocessors, this is exactly the trajectory that I thought Apple would be on. I’m not saying I saw iPhone or iPad, (hell no or I would have doubled down), but I did think that they would be able to double their market share I estimated about every 5 years.
Well Apple has more than done that, and the rate of share is increase is quickening. A really good time to be an Apple Shareholder.
Not bad at all…Apple is in a much stronger position than it was just a few years ago. Compared to the depths that Apple reached in the mid-1990s…well, there is no comparison. The rebirth of Apple in the 2000s may never be duplicated. It’s like the old UCLA basketball championship streak.
Don’t worry, some IT Weenie will tell you that 38.732% of all Windows PCs are behind an impervious firewall and are not allowed to surf the real internet. So, they weren’t counted in this survey.
(I used analyst math so it should be right.)
Indeed!
Also do not forget that most linux users are “advanced” user’s who are accustomed to changing the useragent of their browser thus masking what OS they are running.
There could literally be millions of LInux desktop users flying under the radar man!
My own prediction is that these statistics are at least 0.1334% from the truth one way or the other.
Besides everyone knows that the new Windows 8 tablets that will be released somewhere between 2012 and 2020 will bury the iPad so really why even keep count? 😉
Yep, any day now Linux will beat out all other desktop OSes.
ANY day now…
Linux? Yeah, It’ll run everything! Just download and compile…
Yep, ANY day now…
Poor Linux dweebs! I LOVE it!
Linux in the datacentre is definitely a major player. Its share of server space varies between 25% and 75%, depending on who you ask. Among publicly accessible web servers, the number is well above 60%; among mainframe computing, IBM’s flavour of Linux (linux on System Z) has almost 30%, and among supercomputers, it is practically a monopoly (over 90%). I’m sure Linux geeks don’t fret over desktop numbers. While many were enthusiastic about the possibility of growth there, it was clear a long ago that such expectation was unrealistic. Server, mainframe and especially supercomputer market share numbers are enough of a validation for their favourite platform, I’m sure.
Slower Traffic Should Stay To The Right.
That means YOU Ballmy!
A moment of silence for our Linux friends, please….
OK, you can laugh now.
whats surprising is that XP… still has more installed use than Vista…
What does that tell ya MS?
I’m printing this story to show to my “linux geek” co-worker. he always tells me how superior linux is, and how our office should switch to Linux to save money.
I say switch to Mac and all problems would be solved.
My XP machine i am forced to use at work… crashes/locks up daily.
Skewed stats… Seminole County Library Bookstore sells over 400 Linux HP computers per year, for $40 (HP P4 CMTs), to $100 (hyper threading 3.0 GHZ Small Form Factor) with Linux Mint 10 and a full warranty! I am their technician who certifies all computer products they sell. Monthly seminars and Install Fests at http://leap-cf.org
But, intelligent Linux using folks simply don’t “surf” the troll sites which are the basis of those skewed stats! Just read some of the troll comments on here! Stats are always skewed when the demographics are ignored!
This makes Linux in America seem quite exclusive, as so wonderful, fast, and competent like the Lamborghini or Ferrari!
I run Linux on all my desktops, and I have many! But, being a sane person, I do NOT have any iPads, iPods… but, I do convert
and run several G4’s on Linux! I predict that few Linux aficionados actually see any reason to switch iPads/iPods from Mac’s BSD of Unix, over to GNU/Linux! BOTH are clones of Unix! So, Unix grows among the smart folks on this planet, too bad there are so few!
Over 400 Linux computers per year!? Wow, that’s… Nothing.
Seriously, do you have no perspective on how large the market is in North America for computers? You aren’t contradicting Statcounter’s numbers at all. Rather, you’re actually backing them up.
If you had said 40,000, then maybe…
And also, desktop Linux is a smouldering trainwreck. I was originally attracted to it because it was supposed to be lightweight and blazing fast, but what Linux enthusiasts DON’T tell people is that only applies for bare minimum installs without silly little things like GRAPHICS. Yeah, that minimum.
Once all the libraries and packages to make it anything even resembling a usable desktop operating system have been bolted on to it, Linux is a bloated mess.
And as for the user experience? Let me put it this way. The only advantage Linux has over Windows is that it’s secure. The ONLY advantage. In every other single area, Windows kicks its ass. How can ANYTHING be worse than Windows in ANY area!?
Linux, that’s how.
So now I’ve got nothing but contempt for it. Especially for the way its advocates insist it’s the solution for everything when it very much isn’t. That’s why its adoption rate on the desktop has always been so insanely low. It plain sucks. And it’ll always suck, because its community of supporters only cares that it’s free. They aren’t interested in making it quit sucking.
Just as long as Linux is free, it’s “perfect” in their eyes.
Well, not so in everybody else’s.
One thing people seem to forget is that Mac OS X, iOS, and Linux are all derived from Unix.
I don’t think anyone has forgotten that. It just isn’t relevant to OS market share in ANY way.