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Different categories of computers use a wide variety of operating systems, and the usage share varies enormously from one category to another. For instance, desktop and laptop computers used for web browsing are dominated by Microsoft Windows, which has a usage share estimated to be around 90%, while Linux is quoted to have a share around 1%. In contrast, the complete reverse is true for the fastest supercomputers. Information about operating systems share is difficult to obtain. In most of the categories below, there is no reliable primary source or methodology for its collection. Desktop and laptop computersThere is little published information on the usage share of desktop and laptop computers. Web client information (see below) is often used as a proxy for this, but many such computers are not used for web surfing. Web client stats suggest that Microsoft Windows has about a 92% share, Apple Mac OS 6% and Linux 1%. Steve Ballmer of Microsoft estimates Linux's share of desktop users to be higher than the web stats suggest. In a speech to investors in February 2009, Ballmer presented a slide based on Microsoft's research: it shows Linux's share of business and home PCs about the same as Apple's. A Forrester Research study of corporate desktop operating systems in 2009 found that: “ Windows XP, while still king, is finally beginning its long-anticipated decline in the corporate PC market. Picking up ground are both Windows Vista, which now powers approximately 12% of Windows PCs, and Mac OS X, which has ramped up to an impressive 3.6%. ”From Wikipedia under the
GNU Free Documentation License  gigapple.files.wordpress.com 355px x 400px | 16.00kB [source page] by this time next year Even if that number isn t realized in less than two years the iPhone OS has become the leader among mobile operating systems at least according to Net Applications It should be noted that the above accounts for only 0 88 percent of all OS usage according to Net Applications Again that s a lot of users perhaps more than 100 million and Apple is  freeculturenews.com 160px x 240px | 22.10kB [source page] Gnus in Ngorongoro Credit appenz on Flickr cc by according to Market Share GNU Linux has reached 1 usage share The April data is out for the Net Applications market share survey of  mobilemarketer.com 185px x 180px | 62.80kB [source page] target their ads to just the iPhone just the iPod touch or to both and have taken advantage of all three targeting options Ms Leverich said Other highlights from the December 2008 report Survival of the hittest Smartphone share increased from 22 percent of total requests worldwide in May to 33 percent in December From Yahoo Image Search: "Usage share of operating systems" |
