Windows by the numbers: Real gains or just an illusion?

[Karlston]

Windows by the numbers: Real gains or just an illusion?

A sudden spike of Windows' overall share led to increased user numbers for both Windows 10 and Windows 7.

NiroDesign / Getty Images

 

Increases in Windows 7's share, Windows 10's, too, were more mirage than material last month.

 

According to California-based analytics company Net Applications, Windows 7 grew by half a percentage point to finish September with 22.8% of the global personal computer operating system share. However, when calculated as a portion of only Windows, that share climbed just one-tenth of a point, to 25.8%. This second number was the more important of the two, as it was a truer representation of Windows 7's path.

 

(Windows 7's percentage of only Windows PCs (the 25.8%) was larger than the percentage of all personal computers (the 22.8%), because Windows does not power every system. In September, Windows was the OS of 88.3% of the world's personal computers, up an amazing 1.3 percentage points from August. Of the remaining 11% and change, all but a tiny slice ran macOS, Linux or Chrome OS.)

 

The sudden spike of Windows' overall share meant that individual editions of Microsoft's OS had to also climb just to remain in place when calculated as a portion of Windows. What appeared as a significant gain in, say, Windows 7's share of all personal computer OSes was, in effect, nothing more than a minor advance in Windows 7's share of Windows because of the latter's upsurge.

 

Under normal conditions, if Windows 7 share goes up, Windows 10's share would almost certainly go down. Not in September. Windows 10's portion of all personal computers jumped seven-tenths of a percentage point to end September at 61.3%, a record for the five-year-old OS.

 

But to make it even more confusing, Windows 10 did slump, at least in the metric that counts. As a part of Windows only, Windows 10 fell two-tenths of a point, recording 69.4% for the month.

Forecasting Windows

Forecasts for both Windows 7 and Windows 10 have been nudged by September's results, but not significantly disturbed.

 

Windows 7 still looks like it will slide under the 20% mark (of all Windows) in April 2021. And by August, the OS should be below 17%. (At the end of January — around the one-year anniversary of its retirement — Windows 7 will account for about 22% of all Windows.)

 

Computerworld's latest Windows 10 prognostication differs slightly from the one issued last month. By April, Windows 10 may account for more than 76% of all Windows, up over a point from the previous prediction. Come July 2021, however, Windows 10 should own 79% of Windows editions, a point less than the last forecast.

 

Elsewhere in Net Applications' numbers, Linux retreated for a second straight month, losing 1.2 points to fall to 1.5%. The latter was slightly more than Linux's March number, before its very uncharacteristic growth spurt started. The decline of the category, which lumps together all distributions, was the biggest factor in Windows' overall growth last month. (Share is a zero-sum game. Because the numbers must always total 100%, a decline in one OS must be accompanied by an increase in another.)

 

Meanwhile, macOS added another two-tenths of a point in September, pushing Apple's operating system to 9.7%, just a shade under the year's peak in April.

 

Net Applications calculates operating system share by detecting the agent strings of the browsers used to reach the websites of Net Applications' clients. The firm tallies visitor sessions of those browsers to measure global operating system activity.

 

 

Windows by the numbers: Real gains or just an illusion?

 

[steven36]

This not a accurate  report  for Linux

Quote

Joey Sneddon

Does it lend credence to the idea that “when people were working from from home they used Linux more” explanation? Perhaps.

when we dial in closer the rise and fall is (seemingly) attributable to Ubuntu specifically

Linux is way bigger  than just  Ubuntu  it's strange it  ever seen such a growth  in the market  since  it not changed hardly none   just a small  gain at  statcounter    in a whole year 1.73% this seems  to be more accurate because the desktop has never had  a high market  like Netmarket  claim . You have to take what they say about  Mac OS  with a grain  of salt too.

 

The only Desktop OS  that showed real big gains  in the past year is Mac OS  they went  from  13.22% to 17.57% in 1 year  at statcounter  .

 

Windows as  a whole lost  a little over another 1% in the last year  at statcounter  .  As long as windows is fragmanted  across 4 OS  Windows 10  dont reflect  on how windows is really doing  once its only Windows 10 in a few years you will see lots more drops . Its been happening for years . Windows have went from  87.7% Pre Windows 10 to 77.12% post Windows 10  at statcounter. Only thing  Windows 10 has  done for Microsoft is cause it to lose a great deal of it's market  mostly consumers  to other mobile  and desktop OS.  Even with  the EOL  of Windows 7 (Push to Windows 10) and the temporary increase  of PC units sold  Windows still lost ground. Because these were just Windows users changing OS   . They been pushing Windows 10 on Windows users every since 2015  and instead of gaining users  it caused a big decrease in Windows users .Windows 10 has been a failure.

 

Meanwhile Most Linux machines can't even be tracked  by marketshare  because there used as servers and cloud  and don't have a Web Browser because it's a security  risk. also the Linux kernel  still has a giant market in mobile something Microsoft  lost billions on and wish they could of ever accomplished  it  . windows is in just Desktop a dying dinosaur Linux is in everything  even Windows  if you want to count Linux its  in Windows Subsystem for Linux in windows 10 too .  Linux  will still be around  when the next tech in computing  takes over  in the cloud and  in OSes .   

 

Netmarket stacked the numbers  that IE  was ahead Google  Chrome for  a very long time after statcounter reported Google  had passed  IE .  So that right there proved  they is something off with Netmarket  favoritism for M$ because its a M$ funded site.   They use to compare different  Market Share sites and add it up tell  statcounter changed there  site after Android passed Windows  and stop  playing  Windows journalist  stupid   games because times  has changed.

 

  internet users are not bound down  to just a desktop  any more its not the 1990s and early 2000s.  The internet space has become very fragmented so what they post is  stuff to try and pet fanboys egos because  that's what  there paid to do and with the downfall  of windows the average consumer could care 2 shits less about Windows . 

 

None of the  bad things Bill Gates predicted  would happen to Apple  came to past.  In fact M$ lost most of there consumers  to there competitors.   You have a number  of users who left Windows for other  waters .Then you have numbers of Windows users that are cross platform users who use other OS more than Windows . There not very many full time desktop users left . So what the Windows journalist post is mostly business reflected news  because that the only thing they have left and there job is at stake, hanging on by a thread  by Big Enterprise that been suckered into contracts with M$ since the 90s,  one day they will wake up like the consumer did  when they start  running out money to give M$ .

 

I seen it coming  way back in 2011 so i retired  from posting software  . I posted freeware /opensource  and cracked software for windows.  what happen the windows community stop making many new apps for just Windows  with that came a big decrease in  the pirated software being fixed  . Most Windows  only apps  being fixed  have been around since the 90s when Windows still had DOS  the reason  they still exist they don't mess with the System 32 part of windows  very much and that is a risk when the source code  of older dinosaurs  leak.  Most all apps made nowadays are cross platform you can use them across different OS  the ones that can't there software to run most of them too.

 

Nothing  of any value  has even been  cracked in UWP  I think one thing got cracked once a few years back. So UWP  is pretty much is a money pit  and spells  disaster for sites that exist to post  system 32 apps . Cross platform and UWP  has just about killed  it except  apps that been around for ages  anything  M$  makes there  turning into a service and pimping it out to other OS . Even it's effecting this site to the point there  talk of closing the front page down. Meanwhile new apps that are opensource come out everyday. Nothing close source that is new  ever takes off other than games  if its not free.