Twice as Many Linux Users Hitting the Web

By Greg McNevin

October 9, 2007: According to new data from Net Applications, between December 2006 and September 2007 Linux has more than doubled its market share.

This has not, however, put it in any real position to knock the Microsoft juggernaut of its pedestal as a doubling of its share puts it at 0.81 percent of the market in September 07, as opposed to 0.37 percent in December 2006.

Windows XP still commands a 79.32 percent share of the market, a drop of 5.98 percent in the December 2006 to September 2007 timeframe. In the same period, Windows Vista’s share evolved from 0.16 percent to 7.38 percent showing that many users are sticking with the devil they know when upgrading, even if they may not be upgrading at such a great speed.

Net Applications gleaned the results from more then 40,000 websites where visitor operating system data was stored.

While the results put Linux’s share of the market in quite a low bracket, the fact that it’s share has once again begun to grow after holding steady at 0.4 percent for much of 2006 is indeed a positive sign for the open source community, and with major PC vendors such as Dell and Lenovo now offering Linux pre-installations this number is only going to grow over the coming years.

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