I just don't get this MS bashing. Not the story...those are just facts (assuming they are objective and the reference sites are reasonable). No, I am referring to the incessant MS whining in some of these comments and elsewhere.

I was a former MacOS zealot. I developed software professionally for that OS (day job) for years. I also like Linux and have a range of distributions installed on machines and in VMs. It's on my primary personal laptop and is installed on my 78 year-old mother's PC...and she finds it easier to use than Windows for what she does...and it is certainly less vulnerable to viruses and spyware. Thus, I am wide open to different solutions.

That said, Windows XP rocks as a consumer OS. Seriously folks. Get over it. I have been using Win XP Home SP2 for years at home and XP professional at work for as long...and it is the most rock solid consumer-oriented OS that I have ever used.

I built my last three home PCs and installed XP using the installer that has SP2 built-in. The result - not one of those PC has crashed even once in four years of use - NOT ONCE. Not one crash, BSOD, or lockup...in four years. I'm sure that is a testament to the fact that I built the systems with decent mainstream components and then made sure that I had decent hardware drivers...but it is also an amazing testament to the OS. Installation of printers, scanners, wireless cards, etc is always a breeze. Have you folks ever tried to get a wireless card to work on a Linux-based laptop?

I still have two of those PCs and keep them running 24 hours a day. They get heavy daily usage do not get rebooted for months on end...and they just keep on working. Rock solid and able to run on pretty much anything that I build...including machines that would would cost 2-3 times as much for similar performance if they were sold by Apple. Yeah, okay. MS bad, Apple good. Okay, whatever. Linux? As a consumer-oriented OS for non-technical users? Yeah, okay...as long as you have a family member that can support it.

I just don't get the bashing. It's easy to do I suppose...and more fun to criticize MS instead of:

a) admitting that the MacOS is tailored to run on an extremely small set of well-known hardware architectures...so the darn thing better be stable.

b) admitting that the MacOS (and its stupid menu bar that does not travel with the application window, but sticks on top of your primary monitor...no matter how large your monitor is, how small the application window is, or how many monitors you have) just may not by the paradigm of usability any longer.

c) admitting that doing simple things in Linux is a huge pain in the ass at times and in no way consumer-friendly when it comes to doing something as simple as adding a printer, add a wireless card, or trying in get a DVD to play.

BTW, I could regale you with countless stories of friends and family who have had any number of serious issues with the MacOS, but I'll spare you.

Soapbox.moveOff();

I guess none of the linux game complainers ever heard of Cedega, or wine.
Plus any of the games that have linux ports like ut2004 or QW:ET.

Sure, barbie horse adventures ain't gonna run, but you know what? Who cares.
Most of the games that can't run in Linux aren't worth playing anyway.
There are far better reasons for not running linux.

I won't be fully downgrading to Vista until I get a dx10 card, but when I do, I'll definitely be dual booting with some flavor of Linux.

Why are people moving away from Windows, is because Vista sucks and Microsoft doesn't support XP anymore. Vista especially sucks if you own the X64 version. Vista x64 can't do half the things that Vista X86 can, and that's truly sad.

There's just so much stupid shit with Vista X64 that even the not so user friendly Linux is starting to look good.

#1 Vista X64 like XP limits users to 10 half open connections. Wasn't a problem in XP since anyone could unlock nearly an unlimited amount of connections. Yes I use Bit Torrent, it's here to stay.

#2 All drivers must be signed in Vista X64. If you got a fairly old piece of hardware you wanna use then this is a problem. Too many hardware companies that never made a Vista driver, let alone a Vista X64 driver.

#3 Vista has too much anti piracy crap. You know how great it is to not needing to find the stupid CD key for Linux or even Mac OS X? Let alone that Windows needs to phone home when ever you do major changes to your PC.

I've actually ran Mac OS X on my AMD machine with a lot of effort. I would be using it right now if it wasn't for WoW not being able to run on AMD CPU's in Mac OS X.

My friend put together a Intel machine and the installation was painless. Plus WoW does work for him. You can imagine how jealous I am that he's finally freed himself from the Windows shackles.

I just noticed that the report is actually including the OSX version on the iPhone. Is Windows counting Windows Mobile? Are we counting Symbian? Or any other Mobile OSes that I am unaware of?

Seems to me this should be included in the report, but I do not see them. I hope someone could point out where these OSes are, or if there is a flaw in my logic that they should even be there.

I wonder if Hackitoshes are included in the percentage count.

XP was sluggish on my laptop, I recently replaced it with Ubuntu.

Apart from games I see no reason to use Windows, no reason at all.

XP + Vista have gone UP from 87.13% in August 2007 to 87.34% in June 2008.

Win2K and WinNT and Win98 and Win95 have declined.

Who cares let them have their "10%" market sides it took them forever to get to 10. One thing for sure is Microsoft better start being creative and trim down the excess fat lol. As for viruses its not really ms fault it just happens ms owns 90% market and any company that large will get attacked. Just curious to see if Macs will have their first virus lol.

Familiarity with Windows is why most people will never switch. Linux might be free, but ask people on the street if they ever heard of it. As for Mac, most people can't afford them.

People who were experimental with their OS and tried Vista may have disliked it and figured they would try Ubuntu or a mac.

I'm certainly not insane enough to imply that people who disliked Vista would buy a mac - people who claim that are delusional, however I can imagine someone a little more technically advanced and bored who disliked Vista may at least sample other options.

I for one will stick with XP or anything but Vista

One thing i noticed about these threads in TR is repeat. whats up with the repeats??

OMG NO! WINDOWS WILL GO BELOW 90% (maby)

Yeah... big deal, Microsoft controles 90% of the market and people start thinking it's slowly decaying? please...

Linux has a hell of a long way to go before it's ready for the main market. Give Joe Sixpack a linux computer and they are lost. Linux is not nearly as user friendly as Windows and from the looks of things, it never will be.

Microsoft will never die or lose it's vast amrket share in my life time.

Familiarity with Windows is why most people will never switch.

Um, there's also that whole Windows ecosystem to contend with...you know; peripherals, applications and support for Windows-related products. It's simply massive.

Familiarity is one thing, but market support is another entirely.

#37, Yeah, cause MS doesn't get out the absurd$ per hour stick out when you bother them for support.

Keep smoking that good stuff.

Who said M$ support was free? The point was that Linux isn't free. Ever had to pay RedHat for support? In a clustered environment?

There's some pricey chronic for you.

I can see a company changing over to Linux, taking the one time training charge to get out of the Cycle of Windows Taxes.

This, in addition to the Macs-Just-Work fantasy, is the lie about Linux that just won't die. Linux is only free if your time has no value--and that extends not just to your on-site staff but to the support from your particular distro vendor.

No OS is free of charge when it comes to support, and the cost of a Windows environment has been greatly exaggerated vis a vis Linux and OS X.

The only way I can see Windows XP being defeated is through a modified version ... modified shell, file browser, security, accessibility, a function and variable database sharing system that programs can 'plug' into, and a good scripting system that can make use of that database.

So basically, take everything XP does well, and replace everything it doesn't. The only problem is that you wouldn't be able to sell it. Can't even provide support for it for money. It would have to be free and downloaded illegally from a torrent site or something ... and thats probably what 80% of Windows users do anyway lol.

Wow...I expected to be flamed within an inch of my life here. Nice surprise. :-)

Actually, when I read the article, I also thought that non-traditional HTTP clients could be skewing the numbers for the reference sites - e.g., mobile phones, search engine crawlers, scrapers, ipod Touches, etc...and they must certainly contribute to the overall dilution, but it's probably not significant. Frankly there is no denying that Apple is starting to pickup a much larger percentage of the overall laptop market than they have in the past...and Linux is ruling the roost in many areas outside of the US.

BTW, while they most likely don't hit those reference sites, I have an ever-increasing number of Linux-based devices in my home that are POSTing/GETting HTTP content on the internet...including my TiVo, my Chumby, and my PopcornHour A-100 NMT. The fact that they don't have "windows" in their user agent string should not imply that MS is starting to lose the war. It's just a reflection of the reality that Linux is an excellent OS option for such devices. The war goes on...which only benefits all of us.

Is it me or what? When I saw this headline I just thought "well duh, lots of people will be surfing on mobile devices with mostly non-Windows OS, so this is of course happening". Am I just way off or what?

This has little to do with desktop OS marketshare, doesn't it?

Microsoft saw the future and tried to stop it by buying Netscape. They had the vision of the connected future, but merely assumed that they would be driving the experience.

In essence, they lost -- people are more familiar with browsers than the nuances of Windows. Not to say Windows is terrible, but MANY people can get by without Windows -- they simply need a web browser.

From the looks of things, the ashes of Netscape and the current 800lb Google pretty much is looking to make a massive dent on numerous forms of MS' financial streams. Not to say I hate MS, they simply pissed away their position at the top and deserve the loss of market share to better products.

Didn't MS peak over 95% right around the time XP SP2 came out?

Here comes the slow, decay of MS. It cannot retain its sheer dominance forever. I doubt it will completely collapse though.

*nix crowd will eventually eat away at the desktop front. It would happen a lot quicker if they just need to put their act together (have a single authority figure of sorts) and a small number of its users stop acting like a bunch of elitist, kiddies. *gasp* That defies their entire mindset of being "cool and different". ;)

Apple crowd will retain its image and mind-share as usual.

I'm sure the folks in Redmond are in a panic...or not.