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Kernel Sanders
May 23rd, 2008, 03:55 PM
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

Latest figures:

Windows XP..................73.3% (on average it's been pretty static - minor hit by Vista)
Windows Vista...............8.8% (Climbs by 0.5% a month)
Mac................................4.6% (pretty static, but climbs by 0.1% some months)
Linux..............................3.7% (rises by about 0.2% a year)
Windows 2000................3.3% (dropping sharply by 1% or so a year)
Windows Server 2003.....1.9% (Pretty static)
Windows 98...................0.5% (falling sharply)

So from those figures we can pretty much conclude that XP is here to stay for a while yet. Although in a few months it will be hard to buy a machine with XP, so it will be interesting to see if Vista hits 15% by the end of the year, with XP starting to fall sharply?

Mac is showing steady growth, although it's good to see Linux being so high up the list now!

Thoughts? :popcorn:

melrom
May 23rd, 2008, 03:57 PM
Don't think so. I thought Microsoft declared Vista a flop??

zmjjmz
May 23rd, 2008, 04:00 PM
Bill Gates somewhat implied it.
Vista usage will go up, but Win7 will beat it.

melrom
May 23rd, 2008, 04:02 PM
also, microsoft extended support for XP through 2014. haha. oh, winblowz. what ever shall we do with you?!

zmjjmz
May 23rd, 2008, 04:03 PM
I'm going to say that Mac usage is far higher than that.
At least where I am.

chinchilla2392
May 23rd, 2008, 04:05 PM
yeah...
it is.
where are you?

gameryoshi600
May 23rd, 2008, 04:06 PM
yeah mac usage is higher

melrom
May 23rd, 2008, 04:07 PM
yeah, i go to tufts university and most everyone i know uses a mac.

chinchilla2392
May 23rd, 2008, 04:08 PM
im right near cupertino, CA,
a.k.a. birthplace of apple. so you can guess the usage


ive been looking around google and im seeing stuff like
mac usage 7.something% since may 2004
and i can only assume its climbing further.

Kernel Sanders
May 23rd, 2008, 04:24 PM
Bear in mind that this is WORLDWIDE OS usage. Considering the sheer numbers of people using computers in places like India, pakistan, asia etc... Mac isn't really higer than 4.6% worldwide, but it is mush higher in the US and UK obviously.

melrom
May 23rd, 2008, 04:29 PM
true. i wish they'd do an area-specific breakdown.

geoken
May 23rd, 2008, 04:38 PM
ive been looking around google and im seeing stuff like
mac usage 7.something% since may 2004
and i can only assume its climbing further.

The 7.x figures you're reffering to are probably sales for a given period and not overall usage.

oldsoundguy
May 23rd, 2008, 04:41 PM
Just remember those increase figures for Vista are total. Meaning it reflects the fact that Vista is being stuffed down the throats of new computer buyers.
Considering how many computers are being sold world wide, that is actually a decrease!! Add to that the fact that a lot of people and COMPANIES REMOVE Vista after purchase and put XP back on the computer. Those figures get altered even more.
And the new SP for both Vista AND XP is totally unstable on a lot of computers. Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot!

Then there is the issue of free software .. being instigated by both China and India. THAT will be LINUX, not MS!! The graph is going to change rapidly over the next few years .. and there is the "laptops for kids" thing. Those laptops will be equipped with crash proof Linux for obvious reasons.

Those that believe that MS will continue to control the software market should join the flat earth society.

teet
May 23rd, 2008, 04:42 PM
Some interesting apple stats:
http://blogs.eweek.com/applewatch/content/channel/macs_defy_windows-gravity.html

Also, remember that many linux users use a useragent-switcher of some kind so they can log into their bank website, etc. It's probably not a huge percentage, but you could shave a few more tenths off of windows and add them to linux.

-teet

Samueltehg33k
May 23rd, 2008, 05:00 PM
well... its the first time in along time that non windows OSes have tied with the latest version of windows

markp1989
May 23rd, 2008, 05:03 PM
yeah, i go to tufts university and most everyone i know uses a mac.

I dont know any one who owns a mac, I think that in the uk they are to expensive

TheS0urce
May 23rd, 2008, 05:09 PM
Some people buy a new machine with Vista and actually downgrade to xp so I can't see that number being accurate it could be lower, how much lower who knows.
I think once the xp support ends in a few years people will move to linux, mac or bsd. Vista is a flop and I see windows 7 a flop if you continue to have DRM in their operating system. That is the one of the main reasons I refuse to use Vista.

Swarms
May 23rd, 2008, 05:14 PM
Yeah don't think that automatically applies to the rest of the world. :)

zmjjmz
May 23rd, 2008, 05:34 PM
Some people buy a new machine with Vista and actually downgrade to xp so I can't see that number being accurate it could be lower, how much lower who knows.
I think once the xp support ends in a few years people will move to linux, mac or bsd. Vista is a flop and I see windows 7 a flop if you continue to have DRM in their operating system. That is the one of the main reasons I refuse to use Vista.

They take the number from website visitors, which is somewhat accurate.
Also, if any site has the W3counter, I believe they aren't IE only. The problem with the statistic is that not everyone has a W3counter on their site.
If Google released the statistics, it'd be a truer reflection of OS usage.

oldsoundguy
May 23rd, 2008, 08:19 PM
Some interesting apple stats:
http://blogs.eweek.com/applewatch/content/channel/macs_defy_windows-gravity.html

Also, remember that many linux users use a useragent-switcher of some kind so they can log into their bank website, etc. It's probably not a huge percentage, but you could shave a few more tenths off of windows and add them to linux.

-teet

Not necessarily so. Most institutions will accept Fire Fox or Opera .. Konquror not so many.
I have two XP boxes .. one in my guest room for my guests and another in the main media room as a media machine, photo processor (Adobe CS), and the sync for my Windows Mobile PDA's (GPS) units (even those use Opera!). But I have three 7.10 machines and do almost all of my on line activities on them including on line purchases and my banking and investments!

Paqman
May 23rd, 2008, 09:43 PM
W3Schools isn't likely to be representative of the average computer user. People visiting the site are likely to be IT or design people, hence the strangely high Linux figures and low Vista ones.

Here's the figures from Statcounter on my website:
69.95% Windows XP
15.00% Windows Vista
6.95% Unknown
2.80% Mac OS X
2.40% Windows 2000
1.80% Linux
0.40% Windows
0.15% Windows 2003
0.15% Windows 98
0.10% Windows uEv6
0.10% DEC
0.05% Windows NT4.0
0.05% Windows ME

From what i've seen from other general-traffic websites I think these are probably closer to the average.

LaRoza
May 23rd, 2008, 09:47 PM
Those numbers are misleading. If we counted servers and other computers, Linux and BSD would be up much more.

These stats seem to just do desktop computers. If the numbers were for super computers or servers, it would be very different.

Paqman
May 23rd, 2008, 09:58 PM
Those numbers are misleading.

Not at all. They're clearly stated to only reflect website visits. There's no attempt to mislead anyone.

Kinst
May 23rd, 2008, 10:28 PM
I think watching firefox rise is more interesting.

madjr
May 23rd, 2008, 11:26 PM
these figures are more accurate:

http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php

2 Windows Vista 7.34%
3 Mac OS X 4.89%
4 Windows 2000 3.14%
5 Linux 1.89%
6 Windows 98 0.99%
7 Windows 2003 0.73%
8 Windows ME 0.36%

Twitch6000
May 24th, 2008, 01:13 AM
also, microsoft extended support for XP through 2014.

IF this is true then Microsoft knows vista is a big flunk lol.

kef_kf
May 24th, 2008, 01:22 AM
IF this is true then Microsoft knows vista is a big flunk lol.

they have to extend it if they want to exist in subnotebook market.

uraldinho
May 24th, 2008, 03:19 AM
I think those stats must be pretty accurate. Mac usage about 4-5% and Linux around 2-4%.

Mac is only popular in the US, and a bit in Europe. I should add, I know some people that use OSX on normal PCs, and that would register as Mac in the visitor stats. So Mac usage may not be even 4%.

Linux usage is still limited to scientists and engineers. I don't know many normal people that use Linux.

The recent estimates show that there are almost a billion PCs world wide. 2% of 1,000,000,000 is 20 million. So 20 million linux installations is not a bad number.

oldsoundguy
May 24th, 2008, 04:08 AM
Sorry to disagree, but I have 3 Linux machines I use every day for every day on line activities including listing on eBay and buying there. My bank, my eMail, general surfing, research on subjects that interest me, reading the news, buying on line .. and on and on.

I do NOT game on line nor use any live chat or such .. but I did not do that with Windows either.

I am not a scientist but I AM a retired AUDIO engineer. Have had computers since PC Dos and an 8088, Used Apple in the studio and on the road, but not at home.

uraldinho
May 24th, 2008, 04:32 AM
Sorry to disagree, but I have 3 Linux machines I use every day for every day on line activities including listing on eBay and buying there. My bank, my eMail, general surfing, research on subjects that interest me, reading the news, buying on line .. and on and on.

I do NOT game on line nor use any live chat or such .. but I did not do that with Windows either.

I am not a scientist but I AM a retired AUDIO engineer. Have had computers since PC Dos and an 8088, Used Apple in the studio and on the road, but not at home.

Sorry Sound Guy, I didn't make my statement to oppose others' opinions. But the fact of the matter is Average Joe doesn't use Linux.

Various website stats show Linux usage to be anywhere between 2 and 4%. To be honest, 4% is not bad. I still think most of them are scientists/engineers/engineering students, or at least computer enthusiast like yourself. Linux is not a player in the consumer market yet.

If you think about it, Mac has been in the consumer market since day one, and their market share is almost the same as Linux. Given the recent improvements, and increased awareness, Ubuntu like systems might finally break into the consumer market.

I personally use GNU/Linux for pretty much everything, with the occasional boot into XP to use MS Office, and I am an engineer and a computer enthusiast.

LaRoza
May 24th, 2008, 06:14 AM
Linux is not a player in the consumer market yet.


I think it is. Imagine Linux preinstalled and ready to go (all codecs and drivers ready). It would be easier than Windows.

madjr
May 24th, 2008, 09:39 PM
I think it is. Imagine Linux preinstalled and ready to go (all codecs and drivers ready). It would be easier than Windows.

ubuntu should not only do this on-demand, but actually ask you to "during" or after installation (at initial bootup).

That would be the closest we can get to "all codecs and drivers ready" without it actually being pre-installed.

on the other hand i find linuxmint so complete that i don't tweak anything after install (thus saving the noobs hours of searching, reading, downloading and tweaking).

linuxmint has 2 versions: one with and one without these codecs and restricted stuff (where ilegal)

why not do the same with Ubuntu and host it in some server off-shore or something.

the important is the experience "out of the box"

diablo75
May 24th, 2008, 09:55 PM
Someone should add stats like this to the Gap Minder project so we can see trends from country to country:

http://www.gapminder.org/