cross-posted from: https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/technology/p/461117/windows-marketshare-since-2010
Windows Marketshare since 2010
for your enjoyment
source https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/#monthly-200910-202511
What is “unknown”? And why is it higher then linux?
I really don’t know. Neither the stats collector. That’s the point.
If you’re not using “unknown” os, what are you even doing with your life.
My guess is its a catch-all for any OS they couldn’t identify… So some of that could be Windows or Linux with agents or scripts disable. I also didn’t see Android broken out as a separate category while iOS is, so that could be in there too.
Based on the fact that it rises while Linux tails off, I’m guessing that it’s something in Linux land breaking StatCounter’s collection method. Maybe something like flatpacks and snaps not allowing the underlying OS to be detected properly.
StatCounter determines OS with a tracker installed on many popular websites.
Could be flatpaks, could be ublock.
Misconfigured systems/browsers or misconfigured web crawlers.
This is taken from trackers, so blocking trackers renders your os as Unknown.
I would think the real growing user base are mobile/phone users (aka Google/Android and Apple/IOS). Windows is dropping because for many people a computer is overkill and all they need is their phone… and Microsoft failed to enter that market.
What I would consider good news is if we were to notice a third mobile OS to get a significant share of users.
This graph is about desktop OSs only. So Windows is dropping in proportion to other desktop systems.
So then what desktop is iOS on?
Based on the original discussion, it was probably on some novelty device that was close to desktop but died soon after. I personally am not familiar with Apple environment, so I really don’t know better.
Oh you know what, I bet it’s the iPad. But I think that’s still before the apple “what’s a computer” ad
