Windows Drops Under 60% in Global Desktop OS Share (linuxiac.com) 66
StatCounter's June 2026 data shows Windows made up 56.55% of global desktop OS usage, dropping Microsoft's share below 60% for the first time in years. Linux, meanwhile, reached 4.39%, "one of its strongest recent showings in the company's desktop OS statistics," reports Linuxiac. From the report: Apple's desktop platforms also remain a major part of the picture. StatCounter lists OS X at 11.89% and macOS at 4.48% for June 2026, meaning Apple's combined desktop presence remains comfortably ahead of Linux in the global chart. Chrome OS follows with 1.21%.
Of course, StatCounter's numbers should be read for what they are: web usage statistics, not a direct count of installed operating systems. The company calculates its Global Stats from page views across websites using its tracking code, analyzing details such as browser, operating system, and screen resolution. In other words, the figures reflect measured web activity rather than the number of machines actually installed worldwide.
Of course, StatCounter's numbers should be read for what they are: web usage statistics, not a direct count of installed operating systems. The company calculates its Global Stats from page views across websites using its tracking code, analyzing details such as browser, operating system, and screen resolution. In other words, the figures reflect measured web activity rather than the number of machines actually installed worldwide.
"Unknown" risen to 20%, did Windows really decline (Score:5, Insightful)
Meaning that browsers are getting better at obscuring their OS. I mean, User-Agent string probably doesn't give anything meaningful these days anyway.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Especially since the decline in Windows was not accompanied by a meaningful rise for the other OSes.
Re:"Unknown" risen to 20%, did Windows really decl (Score:5, Interesting)
Especially since the decline in Windows was not accompanied by a meaningful rise for the other OSes.
The stats from TFS don't add up to anywhere near 100%. Turns out, the latest numbers have an "Unknown" bucket that's 21.45%, and its rising path almost matches the declining path of Windows in their graph. So either:
A) More and more Windows users are changing their user agent string to something unknown.
B) More and more Windows users are moving to another OS and using a browser with a user agent string that is unknown.
C) New user agent strings have shipped but the statcounter site hasn't updated its user agent detection
D) Combo of the above
My bet is "C" with some growth of Mac* and Linux usage. When the OS stat counter can't identify over 1/5th of browsers, I don't know if I'd put a whole lot of weight into it. That "Unknown" bucket should definitely be broken out more.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably some of
E) Users are purposefully using privacy blockers that don't leak details of their computer
as well. Why should a website know my OS? It's serving HTML, it shouldn't make a difference to it.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably some of
E) Users are purposefully using privacy blockers that don't leak details of their computer
FWIW, that's covered by "A":
A) More and more Windows users are changing their user agent string to something unknown.
A privacy blocker is but one way of doing so.
Re: (Score:2)
Eh. That's likely a small fraction of a fraction of a percent.
Look around you. People are not generally concerned with privacy, nevermind security.
Re: (Score:2)
A mixture of D, but I reckon VPN providers bundle an extension that obscures the UA. They probably clicked 'yes' to all installer questions whilst trying to get to the hub due to region locks.
Stat counter is largely worthless (Score:2)
The stats on statcounters can be used for little more than long term trending and rough indications. Unless anyone really thinks that in March 6 million people switched from Windows to OSX only for in April 4million of them switched back to Windows.
If you believe those statistics, you should say goodbye to your loved ones because you're probably about to die by heart failure due to the COVID vaccine.
Re: (Score:1)
According to stats I've read about and my non-scientific observations ... maybe, just maybe folks are going over to Linux. Whodathunk.
Re: "Unknown" risen to 20%, did Windows really dec (Score:1)
Re:"Unknown" risen to 20%, did Windows really decl (Score:5, Funny)
Where can I download this Unknown OS
Re: (Score:1)
Where can I download this Unknown OS
https://reactos.org/ [reactos.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody knows... :-(
Re:"Unknown" risen to 20%, did Windows really decl (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
That's the truth of it, and this is arguably the real news here. I've got agents that do more web browsing today on my computers than I do.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
User Agent Switcher (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone running non-Windows is most likely running an agent switcher because the number of bumfuck dumbass web sites still doing OS checks to see if a browser is compatible or not with their basic HTML bullshit. This is one of the absolute largest annoyances of the internet.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: User Agent Switcher (Score:2)
You default to a windows user agent as of earlier this year?
I've had to tweak it on a rare occasion, bit I haven't left the default as lie and be windows for a long long long time.
I imagine the stats website is more likely to capture my default than the random site I've tweaked.
Re: (Score:1)
Nicely said.
For a fair comparison with past data, the "unknown" entries should be excluded (likely non-human) and the user agent strings scanned for stale references (somebody that switches the agent to Firefox 120/Windows 11 will rarely update it to Firefox 153 on release date).
Re: (Score:2)
more than likely its the fact linux people more likely to use ublock, noscript, pi-hole or other equivalent methods that end up preventing from being reported to 3rd party tracking systems.
Re: (Score:2)
more than likely its the fact linux people more likely to use ublock, noscript, pi-hole or other equivalent methods that end up preventing from being reported to 3rd party tracking systems.
It seems somewhat implausible that Linux is on 24% of desktops, so probably not.
If they're looking at overall platform usage (Score:3)
then why are they separating "OS X" (about ten years since that name has been dropped) and "macOS", while only mentioning "Windows" and not any of its derivatives (Server, NT, XP, etc.)?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
stats manipulation.
"stats trumpulation"
Re: (Score:2)
What's scary is - if those stats are accurate, there are a LOT of Macs out there running an operating system which hasn't seen a security update in almost a decade.
Re: (Score:2)
Or at least are using a user agent of one.
Re: If they're looking at overall platform usage (Score:2)
The 2013 rMBP can run OS XI, aka macOS 11 Big Sur. There are either a lot of people who didnâ(TM)t update their OS or a large number of very old devices out there, or both. Well, Mac hardware of good and it lasts along time. Yes, I have a Core 2 Duo-based 2007 MBP I still use.
"OS X" is just what browser reported (Score:2)
then why are they separating "OS X" (about ten years since that name has been dropped) and "macOS", while only mentioning "Windows" and not any of its derivatives (Server, NT, XP, etc.)?
They report what the browser reports, some browsers may still use OS X despite Apple's renaming to macOS
Re: (Score:2)
OS X has been macOS for a while, and Apple, alas, makes its hardware obsolete after about 5 years (say one thing for Microsoft, they usually - recent TPM/Win 11 stuff aside - allow much older hardware run its latest OSes), so I'm wondering what's going on there. Are there really a lot of users of Macs from 5 years before whenever the rebranding started in 2016? That means a lot of people using Macs from before 2011. A huge number. Which genuinely surprises me. I have a Mac mini from 2014 and it crawls to th
I'm considering switching more (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Ubuntu, however, is awful.
There are literally hundreds of Linux distros out there.
Aren't they the same thing? (Score:2)
OS X and MacOS are the same thing if memory serves.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I guess maybe there's a lot of grannies or tech illiterate people out there who are still using their 10 year old iMac or macbook for email and youtube or something like that. I think you can still run Firefox on macOS Catalina, maybe that's enough for a lot of people.
Well, mac was doing the "you aren't allowed to upgrade the OS on this hardware. Please buy new hardware. thx" thing WAY before Microsoft. And since apple hardware tends to be... not cheap, there's probably more than a few tech literates under the age of 65 that simply told apple to fuck themselves thrown in. I personally know a few (hell, I'd probably be one if the power supply in my last mac didn't die)
Re: (Score:2)
Very surprising if there's still way more OS 10 users than current macOS users
It's probably just what browsers are reporting, not what OS is really running on the hardware.
Re: (Score:2)
Now they are, but MacOS 9 was not OS X, MacOS started at 7.6 when they changed it from System (System 6, System 7, etc)
I really doubt anyone is using anything before OS X on the internet though. I can still get on the internet with MacOS X 10.4 though.
The internet used to be really quick on a 1 GHz Quicksilver Mac. Oh, the good old days.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple Hardware before 2012 cannot run operating systems other than those branded OS X or Mac OS X. While, technically, anyone who bought hardware before 2016 or so could be sticking with the OS that came with their machine, anyone with such a machine will get nagged and will not be getting updates to Safari.
The more likely explanation is this is bot traffic using older UA strings and SC's figures are BS.
Re: (Score:1)
While it is true that Apple support of modern MacOS on pre-2012 Macs does not exist, de facto support does.
The OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP) project natively supports roughly over 50 distinct Apple computer models released between 2006 and 2011. By injecting necessary data into memory at boot time, OCLP allows these vintage units to bypass Apple's blocks and natively run modern versions of macOS—specifically macOS 11 Big Sur, 12 Monterey, 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia. Apple dropped Intel sup
ORLY (Score:1)
User agents are pointless (Score:2)
It's Chromium all the way down now, with Safari and Firefox mostly just implementing what Chro
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, Linux has players, but nothing that works "out of the box" like OSX.
Wrong, but also there is always VLC. For every OS.
Linux distro of the week? If you feel like playing tweak the OS for hours till it's right only to have an update blow it out of the water.
Clearly, you're using the wrong distros.
Still no real filesystem as good as ZFS
ZFS isn't *that* great of a filesystem and is overkill for most users. It's great in enterprise setups managing large-scale storage and needing good data integrity - so, you know, servers. On a regular home PC? Ridiculous. If the computer only has one physical drive ZFS provides no benefit. If you don't have a lot of RAM, ZFS performance drops like a brick. In all of these situations, btrfs is way superior.
Re: (Score:2)
> It can handle Multimedia as well as OSX
Found the Slackware user. The 32-bit Slackware user. The 32-bit Slackware 3.x user.
Have you used GNU/Linux since, say, 9/11?
I love *NIX, but ;) (Score:1, Flamebait)
Is that you billg
-------
phocutus [slashdot.org]: “Linux Desktop is doomed till . . . It can handle Multimedia as well as OSX. Till I can seamlessly move my mp3s and photos between devices (laptop, tablets, car stereo) and play/view seamlessly, Linux for a desktop is a pipe dream. Sure, Linux has players, but nothing that works "out of the box" like OSX.”
“I can have a functional music player and photo viewing app with all my
Re: (Score:3)
Is that as much of a weird rambling disjointed rant in the original as it is when posted by you here? Did you leave out the parts that would have made it make sense?
I knew it! (Score:3)
> Linux, meanwhile, reached 4.39%,
This really must be the Year of Linux on the Desktop!
Re: (Score:2)
Upvote parent.
How old were you in 2003? (Score:2)
Why 2003? Let's see if you can figure this one out.
Hint: SCO
Also, are you familiar with events like:
- Steve Balmer taking a trip to Munich (back in 2003)
- Ken Brown's report: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
- Names like Darl McBride, Laura DiDio, Maureen O'Gara?
If you were, then you would be able to understand why today Linux is allowed to be used in corporate settings, but only via the text console, never on the desktop.
Yes ! Our time has finally come !! (Score:2)
2026 - The year of the Linux Desktop
Linux multimedia demos (Score:2)
LinuxMCE - Why LinuxMCE? Moving media from room to room. [youtube.com]
But windows 11 adoption is up! (Score:2)
Most people don't even know what an OS is (Score:3)
They just see computer number 1 and computer number 2 at the store.
And computer number 2 is getting comparatively much, MUCH better than computer number 1, even if can't run as many games.
Statcounter is based on ad servers (Score:3)
So essentially if you are using ad-blockers or Javscript-blockers you are not counted. Since those tools are not evenly distributed, it is very likely that Linux is severely undercounted. That's why the absolute numbers are so bonkers compared to everyday reality.
what's unknown (Score:2)
In my experience, the two most big factors of "Unknown" are.
1- Non browser traffic. Bots, search engines, malware attacks, etc etc.
There are LOTS of non-browser traffic. The less visited is a web, the more non-browser traffic it has.
2- Android/Android derived OS
Android derived has too many versions, and lots of browsers and apps with web traffic. A lot of these traffic uses weird/unrecognisable User-Agents so in classifications like this they end as "Unknown".
3- Apps in general. Obscure browsers. Privacy ad
Keeping tradition alive (Score:2)