Windows Drops Below 90% Market Share

ozmanjusri writes "Online market share of the dominant Windows operating system has taken its biggest monthly fall in years to drop below 90%, according to Net Applications Inc. Computerworld reports that Microsoft's flagship product has been steadily losing ground to Mac OS X and Linux, and is at its lowest ebb in the market since 1995. 'Mac OS X... [ended] the month at 8.9%. November was the third month running that Apple's operating system remained above 8%.' The stats show that while some customers are 'upgrading' from XP to Vista, many are jumping ship to Apple, while Linux is also steadily gaining ground. A Net Applications executive suggests the slide may be caused by many of the same factors that caused the fall in Internet Explorer use. 'The more home users who are online, using Macs and Firefox and Safari, the more those shares go up,' he said. November has more weekend days, as well Thanksgiving in the US, a result that emphasizes the importance of corporate sales to Microsoft."

Good news

[Kratisto]

This is good news. It surely means the year of the Linux Desktop is impending.

Federal bailout?

[cashman73]

OMG! Micro$oft is about ready to go under!!!! There's going to be huge consequences for our economy!!!! Send Steve Ballmer to DC in his private jet to throw some chairs around and get us $25 billion immediately!!!!

amazing revelations from computerworld

[Aurisor]

"The more home users who are online, using Macs and Firefox and Safari, the more those shares go up,"

Let me get this straight...if more people use a browser, then there are more people using that browser? Brilliant!

Re:sounds like...

[gEvil (beta)]

the year of... windows not on the desktop!

You're right. Windows should stay where it belongs--on servers and in embedded systems.

Re:Monopoloy

[elrous0]

Maybe at some point MS will become the underdog and /. will feature Apple stories with a pic of Steve Jobs as a borg. And a million Apple fans will cry out, as if suddenly stripped of their exclusive status symbol as the hip outsiders.

Re:Ha!

[tripdizzle]

Vista isn't exactly setting the world on fire.

When my aunt wasn't able to install her MS Money on Vista, she thought her world was on fire

Re:Ha!

[elrous0]

*You* try writing a comment about either MS or Apple without using sarcasm. The temptation is just too strong for this mortal.

Re:BSD is dead

[Oooskar]

Yet, the cited study places a FreeBSD based OS at 10 times the Linux market share.

Re:Ha!

[pitchpipe]

Microsoft is the best software company out there. Also, they are not a monopoly.

Apple is not a cult.

See, no sarcasm.

Oh, I see...

Re:Eventually it will happen.

[Anonymous Coward]

Eventually the sun will grow into a red giant and possibly engulf the Earth before burning out too.

Re:Ha!

[truthsearch]

Good thing they're spending $300 million more on marketing, then! Maybe that Mojave thing we keep hearing about will turn things around for them.

Yeah, I can't avoid the sarcasm either.

Re:Pulling stats out of thin air

[H0p313ss]

There is no such thing as a bogus fact.

[citation needed]

Re:Good news

[LingNoi]

1) Read title
2) Click "read more" knowing someone has already written YoLD meme
3) ....
4) Profit!!!

Re:Federal bailout?

[Narishma]

$25 billion? Is that for replacing the broken chairs?

Re:Ha!

[shutdown -p now]

• Microsoft is less evil than Apple.

Erm. Alright, let's try it another way:

• Apple is less evil than Microsoft.

Argh. I give up!

Re:Will someone please think of the XP users?

[Mister Whirly]

Yes the downfall of all those companies is Microsoft. What else? Oh wait - Fannie and Freddie - guess which OS was installed on most of their computers? Windows? There you go, MS causing another downfall. All of the auto makers were running Windows too, and look what happened to them! Most of the people who have had their houses foreclosed on, guess which OS they were running. Windows! Again the evil MS at work trying to destroy all of us!

But seriously, Microsoft does just fine screwing up on it's own merits. It doesn't need you attributing every single evil in the world back to it.

Re:Monopoloy, then will they have union at

[Facetious]

No, no, no. It's pronounced "DO-Apple-Y."

Re:Ha!

[Techman83]

I'm still sensing sarcasm in your post ;-)

Re:Ha!

[TechForensics]

Of course, it probably doesn't help MS that Vista isn't exactly setting the world on fire.

Put it in charge of fire control systems and it may.