According to the latest stats on NetMarketShare, Linux now accounts for 3.37% of the operating system market. It has more than doubled its share since December 2015 and has seen a drastic rise over the last couple of summer months. Since 2015, Windows has largely stayed around the 90% mark while macOS has dropped from a high of 8% in October 2015 down to 5.94% in August.

NetMarketShare’s stats include data on Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD and OpenBSD; it’s presumed that Chrome OS factors into the Linux statistics because it runs the Linux kernel. Suppose that Chrome OS is included, this would explain why there has been such a bump for Linux in the month of August: It’s probably due to students or schools buying Chromebooks in time for the school year.

With regards to Windows, NetMarketShare says that Windows 7 has lost market share since last month, going from 48.91% to 48.43%, and Windows 10 gaining slightly, going from 27.63% to 27.99%.

We’ll have to wait and see until next month to find out what’s going on with the Linux market share stats. Was this month's 0.84% rise due to a blip or was it due to students going back to school with new Chromebooks?

Leave a comment, what do you think caused the spike?

Source: NetMarketShare