Linux breaks through one percent web share

By Stephen Withers
Monday, 04 May 2009 05:50

Home IT

Windows' continuing loss of web share is primarily to the benefit of Mac OS X, though Linux and mobile platforms are also picking up share.

While Windows still accounts for almost 88 percent of web use as measured by Net Applications, it is still on a steady downward trend.

In April 2008, Windows' share was 91.58 percent. By April 2009, that had fallen to 87.80 percent.

Most of that loss has been Mac OS X's gain - its share has risen from 7.38 to 9.73 percent over the same period, even though there was a drop of 0.04 percentage points from March to April.

Linux has done proportionately well off a small base, rising from 0.63 to 1.02 percent. This is the first time that Net Applications has recorded a share of more than one percent for Linux.

Changes in platform share are also reflected in the browser share figures.

Internet Explorer's progressive slide continues: Microsoft's browser is down to 66.10 percent from 73.01 percent a year ago. Half of that loss has been taken up by Firefox (up from 19.03 to 22.48 percent), with Safari also benefiting (up from 6.31 to 8.21 percent).

However, Apple's browser has yet to return to the peak share of 8.29 percent recorded in January this year.

There are also changes among the also-rans as well as mobile browsing - please read on.