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Comment by MilnerRoute | Hacker News Reader

I Googled "what is Windows market share" -- and got entirely different statistics.

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share

It does depend a lot on whether you include mobile devices (where iOS and Android dominate). Here's their stats just for desktop systems (where Windows' share is 76.31%). Not sure what that was 10 years ago...

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide

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The article was published in April 2022: "90.96% in 2013 to the current 73.72%"

Statcounter desktop OS share has 91.28% in April 2013 and 74.79% in April 2022. That's very close. So clearly the article is talking about desktop share.

And of course the article talks about macOS as the alternative to Windows, not iOS. The obvious presumption is that the article is about desktop, not mobile.

Thanks for the stats. (Not sure what URL has those April 2013 figures.) What I'm wondering is: who grabbed the other 16.49% over those 10 years? Does Apple's increasingly popularity explain most of that (and was Apple really so unpopular in 2013)? Or has there just been a big rise in "unknown"?

> Not sure what URL has those April 2013 figures.

You can use the Edit Chart Data button to change the date range.

The "Unknown" is the weirdest part of the chart, with inexplicable rises and drops. I expect that's just a data gathering glitch and may actually be some Windows.

Anyway, about 3/4 of the change was Mac. The 2nd biggest gainer was Chrome OS. And then a tiny bit of Linux and Unknown, but mostly Mac and Chrome.

It is very interesting to me that Linux desktop is beating ChromeOS. Not sure what the stats were 10 years ago, but I do not think MacOS or Linux were that high.

Steam Machines/SteamOS, and especially Steam Deck has gained a big following from gamers which is arguably a bigger "home market" than Apple's creative professional home turf. Also I suspect ChromeOS might be losing steam as apple pushes back in education and windows 2-in-1s take back the low end market.

I blame Microsoft (as the root cause) for Linux's rise. Without the danger of games only being available through the Windows store, Valve would never have needed a safety - meaning we'd have no proton, no contributions from Valve, and no Steam Machines or the Steam Deck. I'll be the first to admit the former didn't sell well and the latter is too early to really count, but it's undeniable Valve's had a large, positive impact on Linux adoption.

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